Another snapshot. Unbeta'd. Musicalverse.
ii. one hundred strokes
Galinda swung her legs back and forth, bouncing in place on her bed. The wooden frame creaked ominously with every movement.
"Must you wriggle and flail so?" a voice asked. Galinda stopped her bouncing and peered to the other bed in the room.
"Miss Elphaba, must you be such a killjoy?" The other girl pushed the covers away from her head and frowned.
"I am trying to read and it is proving difficult with the incessant creaking coming from your bed frame. One of these days, that thing will collapse under you."
"Miss Elphaba, must you be so cruel?" Galinda huffed, folding her arms across her chest as if to prove a point. It was at that moment that the window swung open with the force of a strong gust of wind. Raindrops were blown through the gap and Elphaba shrank beneath her blanket to avoid being hit. Galinda struggled to throw the window closed.
"Well, thanks for helping," she pouted, throwing herself onto her bed. "I must not have closed the latch properly."
"Evidently," Elphaba muttered. Thunder rumbled in the distance and a flash of lightning split the sky in two. "I hate the rain."
"Me too," Galinda agreed, still pouting. "It ruins my hair."
"It would more than likely ruin mine, too," Elphaba agreed despondently. Elphaba's hair was one of the things that intrigued Galinda most. It always looked so long, so luscious, yet she had never once seen her roommate care for it in any way.
"What do you do to your hair?" Galinda asked suddenly, after a moment of silence. "It always seems so lovely."
"I consider it quite a nuisance, myself," Elphaba began, placing a bookmark between the pages of her book and closing it. "It does tend to get in the way."
"Oh, but it's so lovely!" Galinda bounded over to Elphaba's bed like an excitable puppy, reaching out her hands to her roommate's head. Elphaba shrank beneath her cocoon of blankets and Galinda's fists closed around air as Elphaba moved away.
"May I brush it?" Galinda asked, lowering her hands. She was halfway across the room to her vanity table by the time she had finished her question. Elphaba sighed and agreed reluctantly, knowing it would satisfy and hopefully quieten the small blonde girl. Galinda returned to Elphaba's side not a moment later, brandishing what looked like a weapon of mass destruction. She held it to Elphaba's head gingerly and pulled it through her long hair.
"It is soft!" Galinda exclaimed gleefully. "I knew it would be!"
"Are you quite finished?" Elphaba asked, reaching for her book. Galinda slapped her hand away and shook her head.
"Miss Elphaba, you should brush your hair one hundred times each night. One hundred strokes to keep it lovely and soft."
"Is that so?" Elphaba asked, making what Galinda considered a poor attempt at interest.
"One hundred strokes," Galinda repeated. "Twenty six, twenty seven…"