Disclaimer in first chapter.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed, favorited, and alerted this story on the first chapter. I hope you enjoy this one just as much, or maybe more.

Also, this is musicalverse as stated before, so Elphaba is not allergic to water. But there are several minor details from the book mixed in.

The trek to Center Munch, the cultural and economic center of Munchkinland, took far longer than Frex had supposed it would. A tempest roared and several times threatened to pull the wheelchair from Elphaba's grasp. Through the entire journey Nessarose clung to the arms of her chair for dear life. When they arrived, her knuckles were as white as her pinafore. A red headband was the only thing that kept her hair presentable. The wind whipped Elphaba's long braid about in a serpentine fashion, temporarily blinding her when it was thrust across her eyes once. As the Governor and his family walked through the town square, nearly everyone they passed gawked openly at the sight of the green girl. Some women fainted, others held tightly to their children. Unknown to the younger of the two girls, her headband bounced off of her head and settled nicely into a divot in the dirt street. Once inside the clothing shop, Frex immediately began browsing for things his precious little girl would like.

"What do you think of this, my rose?" he held up a lavender dress with tiny sprigs of cream flowers in the pattern.

"It's lovely, Father, but you promised you would get new clothes for Fabala too." She reminded him.

"Go to the baskets in that corner over there and pick out a few things." He waved the green child away.

The baskets he had directed her towards were filled with all the clothes that had some sort of defect or other. Most of the items were torn. It wouldn't be hard for her to patch them. Despite his self-justified good intentions, he quite by accident sent her to a treasure trove.

"Yes, Father." Elphaba turned on the heel of her boot.

There was no evidence that the clothes at one point had been sorted in any way whatsoever. Skirts and pants and miss-matched socks were dispersed between dresses, hats, and coats. She dug around for the darkest, blandest items she could find. Her decisions were practical and none of what she chose was attractive or even nice looking. Then again, she had no innate fashion sense that told her what looked good or not. Unsure of what to do with the small folded pile of clothes, the green picked it up and went back to where her sister and father were. Nessa looked different—there was a loud whooping holler outside the store—where was her headband? That was it! Nessa's headband must have fallen off outside.

"Elphaba, where do you think you're going?!" Frex called to her small retreating back, knocking the pile of clothes next to him over.

"To get Nessa's headband," she threw the reply over her shoulder.

A group of boys were playing with the headband, tossing it back and forth amongst themselves. They laughed raucously. The sound made her cringe. There was an opening. She ran into the middle of them in hopes of intercepting the ribbon-covered thin metal object. The dirt street was moist from recent rain, and several large, deep puddles had formed.

"Hey! Let's play frog in the middle!" The boy in front of her yelled to the one holding the headband.

It sailed over her head repeatedly. Each time it whizzed past her she became more infuriated.

"Quit it! Give it back!" she shouted while still trying to catch the headband.

"Why should we? We found it. Finders keepers; losers weepers." Another boy taunted her with the ridiculous childhood rhyme.

"Give it to me or I'll--" The green girl was face down in a puddle before she knew what had happened.

"You'll what? Stay in your pond frog girl, and don't come out again!" The boy who had suggested they play 'frog in the middle' kicked mud in her face as she lifted herself up.

She rose. Mud clung to her dress and hair. She was soaking wet. Her expression clearly stated: 'if you know what's good for you, you'll high tail it out of here'. But none of them took the warning. A surge coursed through her small being. It had never happened before and the feeling scared her, but she was far too enraged to worry about that at the time. Sparks leapt between her finger tips. The surge—was it magic?—overcame her. An invisible force shot from her hand as she stated:

"IT'S MY SISTER'S!"

The headband wrenched itself from the grasp of whatever boy had caught it last and settled itself on a small, green palm. They just stood there, too shocked by what had happened to move. She turned and fled into the shop with her prize held tightly. Frex was appalled by her soaked and mud be-splattered appearance. The packages in Nessarose's lap told that he had already made his purchase. Solemnly the green girl fixed the headband on her little sister's head.

"You told me you were going to get your sister's headband. Not to play in the mud like a pig." He said sternly and roughly grabbed her thin shoulder.

Elphaba attempted an explanation, "I was getting Nessa's headband, Father. Some boys had it and they wouldn't give it back. I tried for what seems like an eternity to get it. But they shoved me into a pud--"

"Enough of your excuses!" He slapped her.

Nessarose felt helpless as she sat and watched. The relationship between her sister and father had always been strained. Never had it come to blows though. Why was her sister treated so differently from her? She was deformed from birth too. What made them so opposite in the eyes of their father? Did it have something to do with their mother having died giving birth to her? Was it because Elphaba had such a strange skin color? One day, she resolved, one day she would find out why he loved one of them and deplored the other.

"Father, please! Fabala got my headband back and it doesn't matter that she took so long!" Her voice was strained, her tone pleading.

The owner of the store came over, "Get out now. I don't need this in my business and you're scaring away my customers."

He all but slammed the door on their heels—and, well, wheels. The winds had died down, making their journey back home an uneventful one. As the sun dried the green girl's dress, most of the mud fell off as she pushed the wheelchair along the path. Her hair that had worked its way out of the braid hung limp and stringy around her face. Once inside the gates of the Governor's Mansion, Frex instructed Elphaba to go around to the kitchen door and directly to the bathroom to wash up. Nessa pressed the package that contained the green's clothes into her hands.

The green shut and locked the door to the small room. Nonchalantly she removed her clothes and kicked them into the far corner. The water from the shower was cold at first. After a short period it began to warm up. It beat down on her head, driving the mud and sticks and leaves into the darkening water around her verdigris feet. She scrubbed herself free of all signs of the puddle. There was a hatred she held of water. She hated the way it clung to her body and slowly dripped down. She hated the fact that after taking a warm shower the house felt so cold. She hated how vulnerable water made her feel. Dry but shivering, she pulled one of her new dresses from the brown paper parcel. It was an extremely dark shade of blue that unless the light hit it correctly the material would appear black. With long fingers she did up the row of small buttons in the back. Something else caught her eye. She pulled out a scarf that was clearly black, but shone purple, blue, green, and red when the light hit it. That first scarf from her sister was where her love for them stemmed from. She tied it around her head and picked up the pile of old and new clothes. Looking at the gray dress she was struck with an idea. In their room she put her clothes, as well as what Nessarose had gotten, away in their respective places. The hunger pangs were becoming sharper now. She had to eat something. Father had only said she couldn't have breakfast.

"I'm all cleaned up, Father." She clasped her hands in front of herself.

"Good…good…Go play with your sister in the garden." He was at his desk, reading important letters regarding information about Oz and Munchkinland.

"May I have something to eat? I'll bring something out for Nessa too." She asked. This was the only time she would risk asking him anything.

"Fine. No candy." He didn't look up even once from his work.

"Thank you, Father," she called over her shoulder as she clomped to the kitchen and then out the garden.

The last remains of a loaf of bread, a smidgen of butter, two apples, a hunk of cheese, and two tin plates were neatly wrapped and set in a picnic basket.

"What's in the basket, Fabala?" Nessa wheeled over to her sister, flower petals strewn across her lap.

"Lunch." She plopped down on the bench and unpacked the basket.

The younger girl wheeled herself so she sat facing Elphaba. Careful to not let any of the petals fall to the ground, she brushed them off her lap to the edges of her seat. The green prepared her sister's plate first, then her own. There was no real difference between the two, except Nessarose didn't like the heel of the bread, so that went to the older girl.

"This is really good, Fabala," the younger smiled appreciatively.

"I'm glad you like it," she bit into her apple with a crunch.

"Why did Father hit you? And why does he always act like everything is your fault?" she asked, noticeably concerned for her sister's well-being.

"It is my fault, Nessa. If it wasn't for me, Father wouldn't have made Mother chew those milk flowers all the time. He wanted to be sure you wouldn't come out green too. But you came too early. Your little legs were all tangled. And Mother…never woke up."

"So you mean to say that all because of you I can't use my legs. And you're the reason why I never knew Mother. I still love you, Fabala, but just to think—that I could have been normal if it wasn't for you won't change anything."

"I'm sorry, Nessa. I'll make it up to you by always taking care of you."

A/N: Look into my crystal ball...you want to leave a review...you want to leave a review...you will click the green button and review this chapter...