AN: So this is my first attempt to fanfiction on here. I have posted others in my language before, but this is the first one in English. I'm from Italy, so, yeah, if there are any mistakes in here I'll appreciate if some of you reviewers (if you're actually going to review) could point them out to me. Just... try to enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Wicked...

When all was just a game

The kids were running giggling in the park, letting the wind caress their skin and the sun kiss the top of their heads. The laughs and squeals reached the green girl's ears. She was sitting in a corner on the grass, with a small book in her lap as she tried with all herself to concentrate and shut out the childish sounds that came from the surroundings.

The park wasn't very big and there were so many kids you couldn't even try to pretend to stay alone in peace. Of course the point of the kindergarten was socializing. Kids had to play with other kids, meet other kids, become friends with other kids. The green girl just didn't like it. She wasn't much of a people person, of course she was only five, but she already knew she wasn't born to be appreciated by people. Come on, she was green! Her skin was the color of sin and her parents didn't even bother comforting her, they were the ones that made her believe she didn't deserve living and didn't deserve having a real life itself because she didn't have a soul. So how could you deserve living if you didn't have a soul to feel with and a heart to love with? Anyway she didn't give much of a fuck, maybe because she was still too young to understand how much could her childhood effect the rest of her life.

She didn't even like looking at them, they looked so stupid, running pointlessly around the park, without a care in the world. The green girl was very young, but she was already very interested in books, she had been since she was three, when she first entered her father's study, where he had a little library full of books. She always chose the less religious ones. Her father wasn't only the governor of Munchkinland, he was also a minister, but his daughter didn't like this side of him. Nor did his wife apparently and the green girl had understood it very well just by looking at her and her husband interacting. Melena was very different when she was around Frexpar, who was very often away. The green girl's mother spent much more time with a Quadling glassblower called Turtle Heart. The only very person — probably except Nanny — who genuinely liked the girl.

He was a very simple and caring man, who loved the green girl's family and of course was very close to Melena. Even too close in the little green girl's mind, but little she knew about the relationship good Turtle Heart had with both her parents. The only thing she knew about her family was that they of course had their secrets and that she herself was the one secret which had changed their lives forever. But the green girl didn't like that kind of attention, she liked being in the shadows, thinking about the life she hadn't had yet, though about which she probably knew much more than she was going to discover once grownup. Her destiny was already written, a destiny that only a child of both worlds was able to read. But then again, everything was going to be given to her in her time and in her turn, probably the worst time and turn ever, but still the timing too was going to be important in her life, until that very moment it was going to come to an end. And also that very end was going to be the worst possible, but it never would have been her own choice, planned was the end long before the very beginning started.

The green girl was now letting the sun and the wind gently pose on her perfect features, her eyes staring at a faraway point, the very last horizon, where there were no screaming children. She licked her thin lips, then pulled out of her small brown satchel, where once the book in her lap had been, a small disc made of glass. The good Quadling glassblower had made it for her, as her very first toy and her very first present, when he had first met Melena. Though her mind was still a small child's one and she wasn't able to remember things happened in a far past, her brain could wrap around a little first feeling of recognition when coming to the special object. At the eyes of the others it was just a disc made of glass, but the green girl could see inside of it, inside and behind the magic mirror that could let her live in another world, her own world that later on she would discover wasn't hers at all, it was everyone's except hers. But being both worlds' in a certain way meant also being none's. And she started understanding that at the tender age of five, sitting on that very kindergarten grass. The green girl stared inside the little disc for awhile, staring at the shadows, the usual shadows that would form inside of it, those shadows that she felt hers.

"Horrors."

She breathed in an inaudible whisper. That very first word that meant so much to her. She licked her lips again, feeling the coldness of the wind, while her raven hair was capturing the last rays of red light, as red as blood and as red as poppies, which formed a beautiful and even unreal contrast with her fresh tree leaf green skin. Her chubby but bony baby hand still held the disc. She stared into the glass one last time, as she was staring into water. But of course she would never stare into water, would she? It wasn't like she would not, it was more like she could not. And she never could. Until that very first and both last inevitable time.

She put the glass disc back into her satchel, without thoughts her free child mind was. She then looked at the open book she kept in her lap. She didn't know the most of the words written on the pages, but she would pretend to read them and understand their simple meanings, that in her mind turned deep. When she didn't understand, everything was poetry and sounded like a rime. And what was better than good poetry and mysterious rime? The green girl didn't have an answer, so young and pure she was. But she wouldn't stay pure for long, if she ever was in the first place, because pureness goes away along with ignorance when you first open your eyes to see the real word, which itself contains no pureness but too much ignorance.

She interrupted her own train of thoughts to stare at the sun, as it slowly went down to sleep nowhere to be seen. She sighed. It wasn't a sound the green girl was very used to make, but the sunset wasn't something she was used to, either. Well, she used to watch it from her house in Nest Hardings but it was different in the kindergarten. It was nearly magic the sun itself, not only when it went down, but also when it was high in the sky. The kids were still playing around her, ignoring her and running like there was no tomorrow, as all the children did. All the children, except little lonely green girl.

But suddenly, something changed. Her child thoughts were interrupted, her staring and her, well, living along with her considerations were suddenly stopped by the sound of footsteps. The green girl of course could hear the footsteps of the running children, but those footsteps seemed different. A person behind her was walking, slowly but firmly, heading in her direction. There weren't any trees in sight where she could hide and she was so scared. Nobody ever wanted to stay with her or play with her, except a cute little thing called Boq, who sometimes joined her in looking inside the small glass disc. But he would stay with her for a few minutes, then get bored, yelling that he couldn't see anything and that she was a freak. Though the green girl didn't know the meaning of the word, she understood from the tune of his voice that it never was a compliment. After all, she never received compliments.

So Boq would get mad at her sometimes, but the green girl soon started to think he was just envious because she had a beautiful toy only she could play with. Little she knew about the game, that wasn't a game at all. Boq anyway wouldn't stay mad at her for much longer than a daytime, the next day he would smile at her and sometimes take her hand and help her reaching apples on the trees by lifting her in his arms. He couldn't help her grabbing the apples himself because he was even shorter than she was, though he was an year older than her. Many of the kids that used to play in the kindergarten's park, just like Boq, were already attending elementary school, but they liked playing so much that they came back to the garden every afternoon. The green girl herself would start school in a few months, but she knew she wouldn't come back to the kindergarten, she never would.

Boq was a kind boy and the green girl didn't hate him. He was the only one person she didn't hate in her life. Besides maybe her family, which she didn't hate, but she didn't exactly love the way children should love their family, either. But still, she didn't know that yet. She would understand it in the very last years of her life, after denying it all her youth long. Anyway Boq was playing with some other kids in the garden, so the footsteps couldn't be his. The green girl froze. Just behind her back was a person who was walking, trying to get to her. She didn't know what they wanted, why they really bothered to piss her off. They knew she wanted to stay alone, she was a freak, even Boq thought so sometimes, didn't he? So why did they still try to make her life more difficult than it already was? Other people would always be a mystery to her, as much as she would always be a mystery to them.

Even after growing up, stayed few the ones she could trust. Some would then loose that trust forever, like poor cute Boq, who always stayed little and incapable of any harm in the green girl's mind. But he lost her trust as soon as she understood the world itself deserved no trust. And the others, the sweet dear others who were going to gain her trust and her rare love, even, would painfully leave her, probably for her own fault, probably not, leaving a painful hole in the green girl's heart, who would never give her love again to anyone. Except maybe that one thing that had been the result of her only one love itself. And she would do anything to find forgiveness, but she never would be able to. Her undying love would burn her inside out until the very end. That very end that maybe wouldn't be the end at all. It would just be the beginning of another life, where she would dare herself to dream at least, to dream of happiness and love, because anything would be possible in the afterlife.

But she would never admit to herself that she still hoped for salvation, she would allow herself to wish only when she knew it was the last thought she would have. And she would at least disappear with a smile on her perfect green features. A smile that you could see in her chocolate eyes, same color of the skin of the shadow of that love that would never come back to her, not even scaring crows, but the new found acceptance of the afterlife existence would at least let the green girl think they might be reunited. Anyway, little she knew about that very one and only love at the age of five, when people literally scared the life out of her. Even the sound of childish footsteps.

She held her breath and slowly put the book she still had open on her lap back in her satchel, safe from sneaky little monsters. The steps then stopped, but she didn't release the breath. She felt a presence behind her back and she was ready to snap and turn around throwing fits in the air, but only came a little gracious touch of a little gracious finger on her right shoulder. But that didn't soften the green girl, she turned around furiously, scoffing. Her long, silk hair ran like a waterfall shifted from wind as her head turned. Then she saw the little figure of a baby girl.

She was literally chubby, if not even fat and she was very short, probably because she was younger than the green girl was. The child was beautiful; she had short blond hair, same color as gold and a round soft pink face, same color as peaches. The apples of her cheeks were slightly red and she had soft freckles around her baby nose. The green girl was shocked at the sudden beauty, but she was still very pissed off, mostly because she didn't know why this pinky thingy was bouncing all around her and bothering her with her perfectness. She was a little pink ball, with a meringue pink dress, which didn't seem very comfortable for running. The green girl herself knew, since she liked running. But even at the age of five she would never admit that. But she didn't know she was in fact going to spend her future life on the run yet. The green girl wrinkled her nose at the sight. The chubby ball wasn't so much taller than she was still sitting on the ground with her legs crossed.

"Hey you!"

The chubby cupcake said. Her voice was childish, much more than the green girl's one was. She in fact had a very deep voice, which would never change. It would become one of the features her lover would love the most. Oh, her lover. The only one she would do anything for. But maybe, there would also be another important person in her life. Her very first best friend. Little she knew about the bubbly blonde standing in front of her in that kindergarten.

"What."

The green girl answered. Her voice was deep, yes, but it sounded like pure honey, though she disparately wanted to sound rude. The pinky thingy didn't even leave her the time to finish a thought about how similar to a vulgar doll she looked, because she started squealing in delight.

"Oh, oh, hey, hi. I just… I don't know how to say this actually. Oh, Mama and Ama wouldn't approve my shyness, it's just I don't want to sound rude and-"

Her bubbling and rambling was interrupted by a quick scoff, as the green girl had started getting bored.

"Oh, yeah, I was just wondering…"

And with this again the green girl's thoughts were interrupted by the velocity of the human reactions. That was one of the main reasons why she didn't like talking. There was no thinking and too much noise. The thing she hated the most though, was that this baby was going nowhere with her bubbling and rambling. The green girl rolled her eyes in what was going to become her usual manner, even her trademark we could say.

"You want to know why am I green."

Her child voice was annoyed, sign that she was very used to that question. The pinky bubbly blonde swallowed, her cheeks assuming a reddish color.

"I-…"

The fluffy thing started.

"No."

The green girl cut her off.

"I don't know why. I just am. Now could you just… go away?"

That seemed to be a sensitive topic for the taller child, so the blonde just stared at the ground, where were her small, gracious, normal-colored feet. She didn't mean to make her new friend angry.

"Sorry. I… I'll go, then."

The green girl nodded, as the bubbly ball started running towards the gates of the kindergarten. Suddenly, she turned around, stopping. The green girl's eyes were back on a book.

"I'm Galinda, by the way."

She yelled so the girl could hear. When the other didn't answer, Galinda turned around again and exited the kindergarten, to meet with her parents and then start her journey back to the Gillikin. What she didn't know, though, was that her green friend, in her spot under the tree, as the sun set, whispered to nobody,

"I'm Elphaba… The name's Elphaba."

Only the shadows heard, only the shadows knew. How easy life was, when all was just a game.