Chapter One: The New Girl in Town

A/N: If the title does not already imply, this is a loose crossover of POTO and Wicked. I haven't figured out if this should be classified as book-verse, musical-verse, or booksical; looks more towards musical-verse. Please R&R if i should continue!

Two years of being a Head Figure was tiring.

No, tiring wasn't the word. It was agonizing.

Hearing lie after lie about your best friend wasn't exactly something you can bear easily. Glinda was surprised she hadn't snapped yet. She'd been balancing on the edge of insanity for the first few months, weeping in her bed for her friend, one she'd never see again. Luckily, Glinda gradually learnt to put up her defenses, build walls around her mentality, and plaster that fake, bubbly smile on her face every time someone mentioned how wicked the Witch had been.

The twisted truth was rotten; all about her melting and how it was a miracle that wretched little farm brat Dorothy was alive. It stung Glinda's heart to see that girl be hailed as a heroine, as a savior of Oz, when she had just killed the one thing that mattered to the Good Witch.

She needed a break.

"I need a holiday," she declared to the council. "A really long one, one from which I don't think I shall return."

The next few months passed as arrangements for her 'vacation' were made, the elections for a new political leader coming and going, the packing of her office beginning and finishing.

Soon she was snuggled in a carriage, nothing like those of the Emerald Palace, but a simple humble, horse drawn carriage that took her away from the Emerald City.

"So, Ma'am, where does your journey lie?" asked the driver curiously, "Am I still to address you as Lady Glinda, now that you've been released from that political hell?"

"Glinda is fine," she replied wearily. She needed a break from thinking, and just to relax, but she was still too young to retire, and she needed something to keep herself occupied. Then it hit her.

"Where would be the best place to start a musical career?" she questioned suddenly.

"A musical career?" repeated the driver, as the carriage bumped down the Yellow Brick Road, through the meadow of poppies. "Why, Miss Glinda, I never knew you to – "

Glinda cleared her throat loudly, hoping the driver will see her annoyance of being judged – reputation was important to her, but now she just didn't have the patience. Fortunately for her, the driver got the message.

"Well, the Gillikin Opera is quite popular, but those are for the big names. The Quadling Theatre is crashing into bankruptcy. Colwen Concert Hall is for the munchkinlanders and their shortness, so i wouldn't suggest a tall - " here the driver coughed slightly "- Gilikinese to try there. Then, I suppose for amateur performers, I'd suggest the Opéra Kiamo Ko."

Kiamo Ko. The castle where Elphaba died…

"From what I've heard," continued the driver, "the Wicked Witch of the West used to live there, after hijacking the place and killing all inhabitants within – " Glinda winced at every word said of her friend, like a torn sinking into her flesh " – and they say her ghost still lingers in that new opera they built off the ruins of the castle."

Glinda slumped back into her seat. Did she have the guts to go back there? Did she have the guts to visit her haunting past?

Perhaps she should. Maybe she could go there, and for once feel closer to her Elphie. It was the most she could do.

She sighed.

"Driver," she called. "Take me to Opéra Kiamo Ko."

Today was the arrival of the new girl in the Opera. While many girls crowded at the front steps, with the ballet mistress hobbling after them, begging for them to re-enter the building, Pfannee stayed up in her dressing room, uncaring of the identity of the new girl.

Why did she need bother? She was the star of the Opera, her vocal range was heavenly, and her looks were perfection, excluding her munchkin shortness. No one stood competition for her. Since the Opera had opened recently, everyone loved and adored her, letting her have the limelight she deserved. Why should it be any different now that this new girl was here? Sure, she'd heard that the new girl had looks and a soprano range, but surely no match for her, the great powerhouse Madame Pfannee?

Much to her annoyance, there was an incessant knock on her door, and only when she yelled out "Come in! For the love of the Unnamed God!" did the knocking stop and a small boy's head poked round the quoxwood door.

"Madame Pfannee, Madame Nani requests your presence down at the front hall to welcome the new girl."

"Tell her I'm busy," said Pfannee, irked, and returned to curling her urban red hair. The boy would not leave her alone.

"But Madame Nani said that if you did not come down, she would send Lurline to come get you. I don't know who Lurline is, but Nani said she wasn't a nice person."

Pfannee sighed in exasperation. "Now, lil' one, Lurline does not exist. She's a fairy, a myth."

"But Madame Nani said she was real!" the boy insisted. "And that if you do not come down she will do something horrible to you, Madame Pfannee, and I don't want anything to happen to you!" then the floodgates opened and the boy began to tear.

"Fine! Whatever!" Pfannee finally said, throwing her hands up in defeat. The boy's face immediately lit up with youthful innocence, and the head darted out of sight.

Pfannee sighed as she stood from her chair. Madame Nani was a cranky old woman, never stopping till she got what she wanted, and though in her late seventies, the woman was still working as the ballet mistress and still able to hobble around on her old walking stick and give a thwack to whichever student didn't obey her rules. Pfannee was not keen to get a whack from that sturdy old thing.

She made her way down to the foyer, letting her gown brush against the new marble tiles as she swept her way across the floor. Her head held high, she sashayed to where the staff was waiting. Madame Nani spotted her and immediately stormed over, her face black as thunder. Thwack! went the cane on Pfannee's poor rear end, and the lead singer let out a small shriek of fright for her dress.

"Madame Pfannee!" ranted Nani. "You rascal! You have no mind to at least come down to greet the new one? Where has your courtesy run to?"

"Far from your cane, that's for sure," she muttered, but Nani was already positioning her out in the yard in line with the rest of the staff members, where an ill tended, weed-infested garden stood. A driveway was shoveled out in front of the doors, where upon a horse-drawn carriage was now pulling up.

The carriage came to a stop.

The door was opened, and out came a petite foot, followed by a simple frock and a blond head adorning a giant white sunhat.

And then the new girl looked up.