For all of her five and a half years, Elphaba Thropp of the Third Thropp Descending could not remember EVER leaving the house without her father reminding her to "Make sure you look after Nessarose".
He'd said it again this morning, standing by the hat stand in the hall, just before they'd left the house for the first day of kindergarten, and now she was torn between being pleased that she was considerd grown-up enough to look after anyone, and annoyed she had to put up with four year old Nessarose following her around.
"Fabala, look!"
Nessa's voice broke into her thoughts. "Look at that boy!"
Elpaba looked to where her sister was pointing.
The door opening onto the enclosed playground was open, and through it, she could see a small golden-haired girl perched like a queen on one of the swings. She was surrounded by a small cluster of other children...and the boy Nessa had pointed out, who was hanging, unhappily, around on the fringes of the group.
"Look, Fabala!"
"I AM looking. What's so special about him?"
Secretly, Elphaba thought he looked slightly pathetic. Although he seemed to be about her own age, the Munchkin boy (he was unmistakably munchkin) was at least a head shorter than everyone else in the class. He was starring adoringly at the blonde girl... but so far, she hadn't even glanced at him.
"I think he's nice. I want him to play with me!"
Elphaba groaned silently at the whine in her sisters voice. It was a tone she recognized and it meant that Nessarose was not going to give up without a fight.
If Nessa wanted to play with the munchkin boy, she'd have to go with her, and the last thing she wanted to do was join a big group of other children who had already laughed at her skin once.
"What if he doesn't want to play with you?"
"He WILL! I KNOW he will!"
The sound of laughter rose from outside. Somebody had a bottle of bubble mixture, and large rainbow bubbles were drifting slowly across the playground.
"I don't want to play with him-"
"Then i'll go by myself!"
"Nessa, WAIT!" Elphaba grabbed her sister. "You can't go by yourself; Father said i have to take care of you!"
"He won't find out-"
Nessa pulled herself free and began to wheel her chair towards the door, and Elphaba gave up.
Probably nothing would happen, and now she could have some rare and precious time without her sister, for a change.
In one corner of the room, a row of small easels and pots of bright paint were grouped together.
Just one boy was there, alone, haphazardly daubing red and yellow paint onto a large sheet of paper, and he didn't look up when Elphaba approached.
She was relieved that he didn't. Being ignored was a novelty for her, and the alternative usually meant being laughed at or called names.
She began to paint. The kindergarten paints were much better than her paints at home, espeacially since Nessa had already mixed up most of the colours.
"Whats that?"
A voice behind her made her jump, and she spun around to see the boy now right next to her.
She turned back to her picture.
"A monkey..."
"Why does it have wings?"
"Because its better with wings"
"Oh" The boy considerd the painting again. "I know your name already. Its Fabala"
"Only my father calls me that. My real name is Elphaba. Whats your name?"
"Fiyero. Can i call you Fabala?"
"Maybe. If you want to" She paused. "Not all the time, though"
"Okay." He stepped closer. "Does the green wash off?"
She shook her head.
"Ever?"
"No"
He dipped his brush into the paint again. "You could not be green..."
"How?"
"Like this" He flicked his paintbrush against the tip of her nose, and Elphaba stepped back.
"Thats mean!"
"I thought you didn't want to be green any more..." He did it again, and she pushed him away.
"Stop it!"
"But its pretty!"
His reply was unexpected.
"Really?"
"Yes! Pink and green go good together"
Elphaba felt her anger slip away as he said that, and she giggled instead.
"I wish i was an interesting colour..." Fiyero was complaining.
She dipped her paintbrush into her paints and held it out to him.
"Stand still-"
And he stood still while a blue diamond was very carefully painted on his cheek.
Do you want another chapter, or is it as bad as i think it is? My brothers having a sleepover and theyre so loud i cant sleep. So i wrote this instead...
All reviewers are allowed to play with my bubble mixture :)
