a/n: Woop! So this is my first fic after coming back to ! Wish me luck, haha. Soooo, a note or two about the story: I got the idea after watching the trailer for the new Fame movie, and thought 'oooooh, Shizz!' Yes, I'm serious, that is exactly how this story came about.
Also, I'm going to try and have it follow the storyline of the musical (Wicked, not Fame) and I have that prepared up to the end of Act 1 (where Elphie runs off, after singing Defying Gravity, but I'm sure you knew that =D), so if anyone has any ideas about how I could interpret the second act into performing arts and shizz (no pun intended, I genuinely use that word a lot haha!) please message or comment or something, cause I could really use the help :D
Oh, and this might be a little of order; I've seen Wicked once and so I can't really rely on my memory to get it all correct – but all the key parts will be in it.
Enjoooooooy!
Disclaimer: If you think I own Wicked, then you are sadly wrong, but thank you for thinking I'm good enough to have written it =D
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Galinda Upland, of the Upper Uplands, was not someone you ignored unless you had a pink and fluffy death wish. This was really quite convenient considering she was enrolled in the Shiz Academy of Performing Arts, Oz's most esteemed and only Theatre School, where she was sure to get heaps of attention. Everything about her screamed look at me, from her blonde, bouncing curls to her shrill voice, which somehow became a beautiful low-pitched sound when she sang. So, of course, she was destined to be Popular. Not just 'popular' but Popular.
Elphaba Thropp, on the other hand, did not want attention, but she got it. She did not want to be stared at, but she was. She didn't want to have bright green skin, but she did. And she really, really, really did not want to be at Shiz. So of course, following the pattern of her life she was. It wasn't that she didn't love to sing and dance and play piano as well as she did, it was just she didn't want to do it in front of other people.
The two girls were polar opposites; the exact definition of chalk and cheese. So how did they become best friends? Well...
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Nessarose had a scholarship to Shiz Academy of Performing Arts.
It was a very big deal, and Frex was making an awful lot of fuss about it, but for some reason, Elphaba just couldn't be happy for her. She smiled, of course, albeit a little painfully, and nodded her head politely when her sister gabbled on about how excited and honoured she was, but inside her stomach turned, unconvinced by the messages of happiness her brain was sending out.
"I'm just so relieved that you're coming to Shiz with me, Elphaba," Nessa gushed, grasping her sister's hand as she knelt next to her chair. "It wouldn't be right if you weren't there. After all, you have a scholarship too..."
But I don't want it, Elphaba thought wretchedly, while her features remained the perfect vision of calmness.
She'd got the scholarship a year ago, but had decided against going to Shiz. When Nessa, shocked that she had declined her place, asked why in Oz she hadn't gone, Elphaba made two valid points, which she pretty much lived her life by: stage fright was the first, and she'd been plagued by it since the tender age of four, when in her school's Lurlinemas production, she'd been asked to sing a little song, representing the nursery class. Elphaba had been fine... till she got on stage. They never talked about the incident again. Ever.
The second was that she was green. Elphaba thought that one to be rather obvious.
But now Nessa had a chance to go, but she couldn't go without someone to look after her. And Elphaba wasn't going to let herself stand in the way of her sister's dreams.
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Elphaba felt like laughing; in the thirty-two seconds she had been inside the buildings of Shizz, she had already been screamed, gasped and shrieked at, as well as one girl unfortunately fainting at her feet. Thirty-two seconds and her predictions had come true.
Everyone was staring at her.
Ummm...
Oh for Oz's sake! Frustrated she whirled to face her audience, ignoring the familiar feeling of fear in her gut; "What?" she snapped. "What are you all looking at?" She raised a single eyebrow icily, then mocked realisation. "Oh, do I have something in my teeth?" She asked sarcastically to the terrified group of students, all clutching different shaped musical instruments to their chests as though they were their only protection.
Elphaba slammed her suitcase down. "Let's just get this over with!" She snarled, pushing herself into a student's face. "No, I'm not seasick, yes, I've always been green, no, I did not eat grass as a child..." with each answer to the unasked questions she faced a different student, her voice growing with her confidence and anger.
"Elphaba!" Frex's voice rang through the silent hall. Elphaba knew she was in trouble, but she had a final point to make.
She turned to see her father pushing Nessarose into the hall and stormed over to them. "And this is my sister, Nessarose," she announced. "And as you can see she is a perfectly normal colour!"
"Elphaba!" Frex growled loudly, and she shrunk back slightly, falling silent. After making his goodbyes to his darling Nessa and presenting her with a pair of jewelled shoes (at which she squealed in delight), he turned to Elphaba and scowled.
"Take care of your sister," he snapped, thrusting the now empty shoebox into her hands. "And try not to talk so much!" he pushed past her with a fond look at his youngest daughter.
"Elphaba..." Nessa's tone was apologetic, but Elphaba waved it off.
"What could he get me?" She shrugged. "I clash with everything."
Their attention was suddenly grabbed as a large woman, dressed in red and gold with an over-powdered face and hair that if was discovered to be a wig no one would be surprised, bustled in, with a grand sweep of her arms and a loud, gracious "Welcome, students! I am Madam Morrible, Headshiztress here at Shizz Academy." She paused, before noticing Nessarose. "Ah, you must be Nessarose, the Munchkinland Governor's daughter... what a tragically beautiful face..." She let out a sigh, which turned to a shriek as Elphaba tapped her on her wide shoulder.
"I'm the other daughter," Elphaba informed her, not in the slightest effected by the scream – what was one shout to the hundreds of others she heard in her lifetime? "I'm beautifully tragic."
"Ah, um, yes." Madam Morrible looked rather uncomfortable, squirming slightly under her huge hair. She glanced down, remembered something and began talking to the whole room again, pleased to have an excuse to get away from the Elphaba's stare. "Now, regarding room assignments-"
"Ohhhhhhh, Madam Morribleeeeeee!" A sing-song voice rang throughout the hall as a small, petite blonde in staggering high heels and poofy skirt danced forward, fluttering her hand in the air.
"Is this to do with room assignments?" Morrible raised an eyebrow, disapproving of the girl's choice of, well, everything
"Well, I've already been assigned a private suite," The girl tossed her hair, as moans rose from the crowd. Yes, because who wouldn't want to room with a pink puffball? Elphaba thought to herself, snidely.
"Oh, but you are all welcome to visit whenever you want!" The girl added, and beamed at the chorus of approval. She turned back to Morrible. "My name is Galinda Upland, of the, uh, Upper Uplands," she tossed her hair over her should as she announced her title. "I just wanted to say how much I look forward to your private tutorials this term; I've enrolled early in them, of course-"
"My dear," Madam Morrible said, although she was aware of her mind telling her she didn't want this small, squeaky thing to be her dear at all. "I'm afraid I only give my tutorials if someone special comes along. Someone with pure talent."
"Well, exactly!" Galinda squealed, practically bouncing with excitement.
"Madam Morrible?" Elphaba cut in swiftly, wheeling Nessa forward to be on the opposite side of the teacher to Galinda. "We haven't received our room assignments yet."
"Ah, yes," Morrible told her that Nessa would be staying in her apartments, so she was always going to be watched after.
"But... but what about me?" Elphaba stammered, quite unsure of what to do with herself.
"Oh, we'll find someone for you to share with..." Morrible waved her off as she turned to the assembled students. "It is a tradition, in Shiz, that on the first day, all new students perform in front of each other, so we can fully approve you as a theatrical artiste." She swept around the hall, tall, elegant and proud, completely in her moment. "We want to fully assess your talents, so we can determine just what they are... for example: my talent is acting – I can act like you are the best singer in the world, when you are, in reality, most definitely not. But please, trust me when I say that, with all your performances, I will be brutally honest." She gazed around the students, who all seemed terrified. "So, who will be first?"
One hand steadily rose above the others. "We must accept this challenge, my dear, fellow classmates. If we cannot perform for one another, then do we have a hope to-"
"Miss Galinda, would you please be quiet?" Morrible snapped, and Galinda's arm and jaw dropped suddenly. "I will decide who participates first." She whirled around. "The elder Miss Thropp, please enlighten us with your talents."
"Bu... but... I'm here.... Nessa, not me, I'm not here for performing-" Elphaba stuttered and stammered through various excuses.
"Miss Elphaba, if you are at Shiz, you are performing, here for your sister, or not." Morrible said sharply. "I believe you can play piano, yes?"
"I, uh... yes," Elphaba murmured resignedly.
Madame Morrible gestured to the piano in the corner of the room. "You may begin."
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a/n Okaaay, so if you read this far, thank you! That was longer than I intended it to be, but oh well. So, if you enjoyed it please review! If you didn't please tell me why and I'll try fix it in the next chapter. Either way, please review! Thank you vair much if you do!
(btw, if you review, I ALWAYS go and check your stories, and try and review some of your stuff. Because I'm soooooo good like that *giggles with a little Galinda kick*)
Love DefyingPopular/Esme xxx