Galinda quietly slipped into a seat in the back of the large room, and took to just watching the girls milling around. She felt plain in her simple yellow dress, but decided it was for the better- there was something horribly gaudy to all of the girls in their fancy dresses and pearls. All seemed to want only one thing: to make a spectacle of themselves, and it was horribly off puting.
Yet she couldn't quite shake the feeling of longing to be a part of it all. She felt like she was a spectator in it. And her humble beginings didn't help much. Well, I wouldn't be so 'humble' if not for father. Her mother came from a prominant enough family- but her father... Her country origins didn't help much- Galinda was a horribly rural name.
Just then, the beautiful blonde girl got an idea. Madame Morrible, the headmistress of Shiz, where Galinda was studying, was reading off names. She knew her father had not paid for a suit and she would be put in a common room with other less-wealthy girls. She could re-invent herself though. She didn't have to be Galinda Thropp, minister's daughter... well she would still be that, but she could seem a little more urban. She approached Morrible, ready to ask her to read her off as Glinda- in an homage to a distant late aunt from the Emerald City- when a young man came in, escorting another girl wearing a fashionable veil over her face, whose Ama trailed behind.
"Hello Master Avaric," she said, stopping mid-sentance.
"Hello Madame. Forgive me- my fiancee's train was late at the station, and I thought it best to escort her here myself." He smiled charmingly- it was obvious the head was lapping it up.
"Of course, " she purred, reminding Galinda of a cat fish. "Miss, we thought you weren't coming. We reassigned the girl your father chose as you're roommate- but nothing to fear we will find a place for you." Morrible turned just then, and saw Galinda. "Yes, miss? Would you like to room with Miss Arduena?"
"Um, yes madame." Surely sleeping in a room with a roommate was better than the common dormitories.
"And you are..."
"Ga-Glinda Thropp."
The other girl turned her head, pulling the veil up. She smiled with a green face. "Elphaba Arduena."
The two girl's dorm room might as well have had a stripe dividing it down the middle. Glinda's bed, closer to the window- Elphaba had refused to sleep near it, where rain might hit her- was covered with a quilt her younger sister had made, pink and yellow. Her drawers were quickly filled with beauty remedies, sugested by the old biddies at home.
Elphaba had a set of sleek blue and purple sheets. Despite the girl's obvious wealth, she seemed rather simple, focused on her education. Glinda wondered if, because of her green skin, she had given up on her appearence.
Glinda quickly learned Elphaba had a no-nonsense attitude, and would much rather she be left alone. Glinda on the other hand quickly befriended a group of girls- her immediate family was by no means wealthy, but her great-grandfather was. That was enough to suffice.
One evening, Glinda came home early, complaining of a headache. She was shocked to see Elphaba standing in front of the girl's mirror, brushing her long black hair out. She wore a plain midnight blue dress but the very fact that Elphaba was primping floored the blonde.
"Why Miss Elphaba, what are you dolled up for?"
"Avaric's brother's birthday. I'm susposed to make an appearence." Elphaba frowned at her reflection. "Well, I'm off."
"Have fun," Glinda tried to say genuinely.
"Something like that." Elphaba scoffed, pulling her bag off of a rack.
Glinda flopped back onto her bed eager to do nothing. She wondered why Elphaba had grown so negative. There were no social remarks between the girls, unless one considered, "Could you close the window," social.
Glinda wondered what was to come. Her whole life she had known, once her great-grandfather saw fit to die, she would be Eminent Thropp. The title meant little, though she would have considerable influence over at least part of Munchkinland.
She also knew she was expected to marry- no one had told her, but she knew. She knew her mother had not wanted the position, but susposed there was no avoiding it. So she let herself day-dream about the comparative wealth and the parties she would attend one day in the future...
She was awakened by a key scraping the lock. Elphaba was home. Glinda nearly rised to greet her, but then she heard:
"I just don't understand why you can't be normal. Your skin-"
"Maybe I just don't see anything normal about watching my fiance talk with other girls."
"Elphaba, don't start."
"And even still, you treat the brinless puffs of cream like dirt!"
"Why do you care?"
"Why do I care when I know after I graduate I have to spend my life with you?"
"You could have said no."
"You didn't have to ask. Sweet Oz, I was thirteen years old, and didn't know any better."
"I think you've faired rather well- remember I'm the whole reason you're even here."
"So you choose to make it hell."
"I should've let your parents put you in the goddamned convent."
"But then how would you get my father's money?"
Glinda heard Elphaba's voice catch as the door swung open. Glinda pretended to be asleep. Her roommate slammed the door shut and Glinda thought she heard crying from the other side of the room.