Deep Thoughts of a Shallow Mind
A/N: Thought I would continue this. Next chapter is a further character study of Glinda, and a bit shorter than the last chapter. Let me know what you think!
Chapter 2
The classroom is cramped and stuffy and does not seem to have been dusted in a long while. The last of the autumn sunshine pours through the windows making the students yearn for the fresh air of outdoors instead of the confines of the room in which they are required to sit for the next two hours, pretending that they care about their lecture while secretly wanting the time to pass as quickly as possible.
An old Goat stands at the front, an Animal, not an animal, one of an increasingly small amount of them that even exist let alone are allowed to teach. He wears round glasses and has hooves in the place of hands, meaning his lectures are dictated orally and without the use of a blackboard. He is a controversial figure on the Shiz campus, whose presence has divided the opinions of the students on Animal rights into two very distinct sides – those who think Animals deserve the same rights as humans, and those who believe that they are no better than other animals, and thus, should be treated like them.
As Glinda sits through another one of Doctor Dillamond's long, boring lectures, her mind brews with troubled thoughts. She glances around distractedly, her eyes darting between various students in the room, the window, the lecturer and, most frequently, Miss Elphaba. She is still stinging from the morning's conversation.
Elphaba is paying attention, of course. She is one of only a handful of students who appears able to follow what the old Goat is saying. The rest, including her friends Pfannee, Milla and Shenshen, are slumped in their seats, trying to pretend to look like they're interested and not really succeeding. A few aren't even making that effort and have given up entirely. Fiyero falls into that category, and Glinda rolls her eyes marvelling that someone so seemingly brainless should even be allowed to attend Shiz University.
Concealing a small sigh she looks back to the front of the room. Doctor Dillamond seems completely oblivious to the bored status of his students and continues to ramble on about whatever it is today's lecture was supposed to be about. Glancing back towards Elphaba, she feels another small sting as she watches the green girl taking notes.
Stupid blonde indeed, she thinks grumpily. Just because the green bean can withstand this boredifying horrificusness.
Her right hand subconsciously twirls her beautiful, pink fountain pen. She suddenly finds herself feeling determined to prove the green girl wrong.
She pricks her ears and attempts to make sense of the complicated drone coming from the old goat, picking out snatches of words and phrases that seem scholarly-sounding to her, and recording them on the blank sheet of paper in front of her. Eyebrows furrowed, she scribbles furiously, not really understanding what she's writing, but copying it down nonetheless. A few minutes later the task seems tedious and she raises her pen and looks at the mess she's made of the paper. Her large, loopy handwriting covers about half of it, but when she reads it back it all looks like gibberish.
With a sigh of frustration she slams the pen down. A few students turn their head in her direction and she sits back in her chair with her arms folded across her chest, a pout forming on her full lips. Doctor Dillamond doesn't appear to notice the incident and continues to lecture.
Glinda is brewing with exasperation, this time not at the lecture, but at herself, for not being able to hold out and concentrate in the same manner that Miss Elphaba seems to do so easily. For the first time she directly acknowledges the stereotype that people, especially Elphaba, have thrown at her ever since she arrived at Shiz.
Maybe I really am just a stupid, annoying, shallow blonde, she thinks. The thought makes her want to cry. She had never believed that of herself before, passing off people's comments as impolite and misunderstanding. But now she thinks, Is this really how I come across to other people? Is it all they see of me?
She has spent a lot of her life thus far being complimented for her good looks, bubbly personality and generous demeanour towards others. She always accepted them readily, but now she wonders how deserving she really was of them.
They called me good for offering to room with Elphaba, she thinks, but that wasn't by my own choice, but a bid to remove myself from a worse situation. The gesture was not made sincerely, but in the name of good image.
How do you truly define 'good' then?
Why do I now think of these things?
She is thankful when the lecture finally comes to an end, and stalks out of the room before Pfannee, Milla and Shenshen can catch up with her. The piece of paper she'd used lies abandoned on the table, forgotten about. It is spotted by Miss Elphaba, who is the last person to leave the room after approaching Doctor Dillamond with a question about the lecture. Elphaba picks up the paper, sees Glinda's name and a few lecture notes written on it, folds it up, slips it into her pocket and leaves the room.