Chapter 1—The Uncovered Room
One simple question. That was the only thought streaming through Elphaba's mind; such an easy beginning to it, yet a billion endings could be added to that one question which lacked a billion answers: WHY?
Why had she, out of all the other dorm members in Shiz University have to be room mates with the preppiest, most popular, most irritating girl in all of the school? Why had her father forced her to attend such a large college, where every person walking by could smirk in seeing her and stared at her as if she was some kind of freak? Why had her sister, Nessarose, who had always been under Elphaba's ever-watchful eyes been placed in a separate room from her? Why was it that from the very first day of school, she had the label "GEEK" slapped on her fluorescent forehead? Why in all of Oz did her father love Nessa as if she were is most valuable possession, and regard Elphaba as if she were a single book in the entirety of their library, longing to be read, and yet covered in a thousand dust specks?
In actuality, all these questions had one very simple answer: Elphaba was green. She had always been, ever since the day she was born.
As confusing as this might seem, this simple answer, was actually the true 'WHY': Why was she green? Elphaba had asked herself this question every morning since her mother had died, and Nessa, born.
She was sitting in her room, with a panicked expression on her face, with all of these confusing and surprising thoughts swirling about in her head. It had all happened so fast. What would she tell her father when he found our that she and Nessa had been placed in separate dorms?
Great Oz, she thought, I don't even want to start thinking about that. She shuddered.
After some time of contemplating, reasoning, and contemplating again, she decided that she should put all of these pressures aside for the time being, and spend the few moments she had alone in her room to explore until that incredibly unpleasant moment when her roommate, Galinda would come to unpack all of her clothes, and pricy little trinkets, which served no purpose to her whilst she was attending Shiz, and The Wizard knows what else.
She saw that there were two beds, both resting under a plain blue ragged blanket, and wondered how Galinda was going to take that. She chortled at the thought of Galinda screaming, and tearing up at the sight of it. Behind the beds were two brown bookshelves and another at the side of the room-all completely empty and bare. The third bookshelf however had some kind of brilliantly luminous glow about it-as if it had a spotlight right above it. She leaned closer to acknowledge the fine carvings about it.
Strange, she thought as she saw the detailed sculpture of a pointy hat, and a broom at the top, what would be so important about a hat and a broom-and what do they have in common?
She shrugged at the matter, and continued to examine the room. There was a second door, leading to the bathroom with two sinks, and a separate room for the shower and lavatory.
Elphaba rarely fixed her hair properly, or put on make-up—as there really is no cover-up for green skin, she supposed, and what lip gloss is there that goes with green, anyway? She merely strung all of her long wiry black hair into one thick braid, and slung it over her shoulder, and put her blue, beanie-like hat on top.
There would, however, be conflict with her new roommate at night when they would shower, and get ready for bed. Elphaba could just picture Galinda throwing a huge hissy fit because she had "used all the warm water" or "took too long brushing her teeth." At this thought, she scoffed. Oh, yes, she couldn't wait for the fun to begin.
Just as she was coming out of the bathroom, the dorm door flew open, allowing four strong Ozian college men, carrying numerous amounts of luggage, to enter, followed by Galinda, humming the theme song to "The Munchkin Bunch" in that annoying voice that Elphaba loathed so deeply.
"Hmmm Hm-Hm Hmmmmm Hmm---Oh---Don't mind the broccoli stem—hee hee," she giggled as she swept gracefully into the room, "She's just a tad 'steamed' at the moment—oh! Hee heeee!! Haa haaa!!" She giggled in a high pitch amongst the four deeper voices of the handsome young gentlemen surrounding her.
Okay, so that's the kind of thing that I'm supposed to get used to? Well, I just can't wait! Why does she have to be so perky and cheerful all the time? Just…remain…calm……
"Oh, well-well this just won't do," said Galinda carefully eyeing the blue blanket. She picked it up with index and thumb, and tossed it on the floor, where one of the handsome young men around her gladly picked it up. She pulled out a pink, shiny comforter and tossed it on the bed, where another boy started to tidy it up for her use.
"There, now that's better," she chuckled, and went about unpacking her things as the boys left the room.
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Elphaba was amazed, Galinda had a total of nine luggage bags—each snake-skinned, bright pink, and golden rods and small diamonds. Three alone were just for her shoes, each had its own little perk about it: one pair were green flats with a large shiny bow in the top; a tall red pair stood next to it, two and a half inches tall-to be exact, shimmering in the light. Sadly, Elphaba glanced quickly over her shoulder back at her single pair of plain white shoes that she had brought for her uniform, and heaved a great sigh. The next four bags, she saw as Galinda unpacked them, were full of her clothes-everything from her brilliantly beaded ball gowns to summer shorts to her school uniform-every single item of clothing of the school uniform. The last couple bags, as Elphaba had rightfully predicted contained all of the useless little pricy objects such as key chains of the "WIZARDOPOLIS" play, and a number of "Oz Girl" magazines.
As Elphaba continued to try to unpack, she kept vigilantly eyeing Galinda "ya da-da-ing" away.
"Well," popped Galinda, "since we're going to be rooming together, we might as well get all of this awkwardnability out of the way." Galinda had stopped humming so abruptly that Elphaba had jumped from surprise.
"So, I have brought all of my most goodliest thingy-ma-bobs with me, and I would magninioulisly appreciate your little green string bean fingers off of them. So. Aaaaaaaaaall of this," she pointed to practically every corner of the room, now crowded with her things," is mine!"
She giggled at how cooperative she thought she was being.
Wow, I'm such a people person she thought as she sighed what hard work to be popular!
"Oh, um, okay, wel-well what about this?" Elphaba threw herself-extra dramatically on Galinda's bed with her newly washed pink glittering bedspread.
"NOO!!" Galinda shrieked, "GET OFF!! GET OFF!! GET OOOOFFFF!!!! EEEWWWWW!! ICKYNESS ALL OVER MY—EUH! ---EUH!!"
"What about thiiiiiss?" said Elphaba with a triumphant smirk on her face as she scanned through the extra bookshelf with the strange carvings, now lavished with all of Galinda's valuable items. A small golden locket held the picture, presumably of her father, a miniature clay, black piano with elaborately painted flowers and little golden spots. Elphaba was snickering uncontrollably, not even registering the increasing volume of Galinda's screams and rants.
Suddenly, Elphaba accidentally knocked the piano to the ground…..it took ages for it to reach the floor, and each passing second increased the tension and panic in their chests.
Galinda's annoyed and angry face quickly transitioned to utter despair and panic as she leapt forward in a desperate attempt to grab the tiny object, now halfway to the floor.
All of Elphaba's amusement had drained from her eyes as they followed the small piano over her shoulder to the cold ground.
And finally—CLINK-CRASH—it hit the floor and shattered into hundreds of sharp clay shards. Simultaneously, it hit a small button on the ground that Elphaba had never noticed before. CLICK—the bookshelf slowly slid backward, and then to the right, revealing a small room behind.
