Elphaba wasn't used to the stirring that accompanied her arrival at Shiz. She wasn't accustomed the simultaneous sickness and elation, and the way her stomach threatened to empty its contents.
It began with light and an aversion to physical beauty. After all, what good was a pretty exterior without an interior to match? What a waste. How terribly frustrating. And to be forced into such close proximity with such a waste, it was nauseating.
"Really," Galinda said as she shook her head ever so slightly so her hair tumbled over her shoulder. "I wish you wouldn't sulk so much. A gloomy attitude is contagious, you know, and I hardly think it's fair for you to impose that on me."
"So ignore me," the green girl said simply, never raising her eyes from the pages of her textbook.
Galinda sighed dramatically, "I'm not like you, Miss Elphaba. Pretending the things I despise don't exist doesn't make them disappear."
"You despise me?"
"There isn't any point in sugarcoating it, I suppose." Galinda said earnestly as she perched on the seat of her vanity near the window. "I don't like you."
"I don't like you, either." Elphaba said, somewhat triumphantly as vocalizing her dislike of Galinda served to quell the uneasiness Elphaba had been plagued with since arriving at Shiz.
"Could you pretend to, at least? I pretend to like you, you know. I treat you civilly. I say hello to you. You don't say a word to me."
"I'm not fond of pretending."
"Did you know that smiling when you're unhappy can make you happy?" Galinda asked as she gazed at her own reflection as she combed her hair.
"I don't believe it."
"It's true. If the muscles in your face think you're happy they'll tell your brain that you are, and then you are happy. It's the same with sulking, you know. The more you sulk the more miserable you'll be."
Elphaba's eyes narrowed as they fixated on the petite blonde, the sunlight glowing in her hair, the airiness of her voice, and the weight of her words.
It was laughable, almost, that Elphaba could possibly learn anything from her airhead of a roommate. After all, there was nothing of substance caged in that blissful blonde head of hers, just pretend smiles and forced laughter—all for show and none for real.
Yes, that Galinda thought she possessed knowledge Elphaba did not was laughable. And Elphaba would have laughed had she not been feeling so nauseous.