Disclaimer: Duh.

Note: I haven't written in a while. Just for fun.

Edit: I got a nice comment about overusing a word and I have corrected it. Thanks :)


They were like different flavors of candy. Or, perhaps different songs, or different cultures altogether, each with its own distinct drumbeat.

Elphaba perused the drafty old library's long, wooden shelves, amusing herself with these blissful musings about the books. Strolling between the aisles of books gave her a sense of calm, as though time moved slower in the library and her life was put on hold, just like each book was suspended in its own section of reality, frozen in time. She ran her long hand absently, affectionately along the spines of the dusty hardcover books, feeling the different textures of fabric and paper skim her fingertips. She wasn't sure that any of these books had been touched in years and felt a certain duty to attend to them. The air in the library was still and peaceful, if a bit musky.

Life at Shiz was far from miserable. It was even pleasant, in a dysfunctional sort of way. She had Galinda at her side, and most of the former and potential bullies stayed well out of her way. There was the occasional incident, but nothing a good venting with her roommate and a retreat to the library couldn't fix. This year, Elphaba had recently realized, was shaping up to be the best year yet of her life.

It was strange, feeling almost peaceful. Elphaba was all too used to the turbulent, guilt-ridden days of living with Frex and Nessa, getting taunted both in and out of doors, feeling so uncertain about her powers.

But now, it was all coming clear, and the lack of anxiety in Elphaba's life left a strange absent feeling. She didn't know what to put in that empty space. She tried feeding it with books, ravenous as always for stories and texts. She tried smoking Winkian weed and drinking the fancy wine Galinda smuggled from her mansion in the Uplands. She was well and truly a normal college student... minus the sex, she guessed... but still there was something missing.

Like most things that nagged at her, Elphaba shrugged the feeling away. You had to in a household such as her own, in which somebody was always blaming her for some little thing. She could never please Frex, could she? And Nessa wasn't much help... No, it was better to make yourself impenetrable, un-phase-able.

Elphaba couldn't explain why, with this philosophy, she was given to such powerful outbreaks of emotion and anger (in general, not as of late). Perhaps there was too much pent up inside. She was strong, and worse: stubborn.

Suddenly she wanted to see Galinda. She wanted her hair teasingly tossed and an indignant comment made about the state of her wardrobe. Elphaba's hand dropped off of the shelf of books, and off she trod back home.