1Title Salt & Vinegar
Author clocktick
Summary Bookverse / Musicalverse. A study on Elphaba's summer with the good Doctor and the development of her relationships with Galinda and Fiyero- the nitty gritty details and trials of life gone unsaid. The scenes that cut to black and the summarized paragraphs. Plot diversion and creative liberty taken.
Author's Note Well! Here you go! Chapter 2, coming out faster than I thought it would. I had actually a bit more planned to end this chapter with, but as I was typing it up from my notebook I realized that where I ended it was a good place to end it. Something to get the ball rolling. I hope you all enjoy it and, hopefully, Chapter 3 won't be far behind.
Love,
Wait Just a Clocktick
"Miss Elphaba."
The tone was nearly scolding, though more annoyed than anything, and the girl in question glanced up from what she was going to face her blond roommate, who wore a very serious expression. Galinda stood at the foot of her bed with her hands pressed to her hips and her thin, delicate wrists looking ready to snap at the slightest pressure. Confused, Elphaba raised one severely arched eyebrow.
"What?" she snapped sharply.
Galinda raised her hands and tapped her wrist theatrically with two fingers, indicating the time. Elphaba glanced at the wall clock. It ticked near midnight.
"Some of us need rest and sleep, Miss Elphaba. We can't all be nocturnal. I need my beauty sleep, regardless if you need yours. Turn off your lamp." The blonde scowled prettily. The green girl felt momentarily floored and a little taken aback at how cruel her companion could really be.
"We have our life science's exam in the morning. I don't care if you fail, but I'm getting my last minute studying in. I would think you would be doing the same. Your books haven't left your bag all week." Elphaba turned her face away, hoping to disappear behind the thick cover of her Life Sciences text and hoping that she had won this argument, but she didn't hope too much. Galinda sighed heavily, throwing her hands into the air in exaggerated exasperation. Out of nowhere, two pale hands shot down and pulled the book right out of an unsuspecting green lap. She snapped it closed and dropped it on the floor by the bed.
"Lights out, Miss Elphie!" demanded Galinda.
"How very mature," the green girl sniffed, reaching off the bed to retrieve her book. Galinda dove at the same time to place her hands on top of it so she could yank it away. The roommates knocked heads. Elphaba hissed and recoiled, her glasses askew and her hands clamped to her forehead. The blonde took the more theatrical root.
"Oh, oh! Look what you've done, you stupidly clumsy fool!" She wailed, rubbing her forehead, kneading the small knot that was forming on her pale skin. "Why couldn't you have just let it be?"
"Why couldn't you just let me be? Stop your fretting. It's only a bump."
"Oh, you're so hardheaded!" Galinda whimpered quietly, retreating to sit on her own bed. Elphaba couldn't quite tell if that comment was directed in a literal sense or not, but the sting was there. She shoved her notebook off the bed in defeat. Galinda wrinkled her nose and eyed her roommate carefully. However, she said nothing and instead flopped back onto her mattress and pulled the covers up to her chin, turning her back on the whole ordeal.
Elphie sighed, scooting back and leaning against her headboard before reaching one lanky arm over to click off the lamp on the bedside table. In the silence, with the darkness and the breeze of the cool summer nighttime air, Elphaba was able to let her mind wander. The blond had never been overly cordial. In fact, some nights she had been down right nasty. However, she had never gotten so close to actually making skin to skin contact. Elphie wondered if the novelty of her absurd color was wearing off- or if perhaps Galinda was just used to her by now. Did that mean the sweet-faced blond was capable of depth? Capable of edging past her shallow waters to see something past the skin? Some personality trait that irked her?
Elphaba settled under her blankets, nestling her cheek against the cool fabric of her pillow. Her roommate wasn't worth the speculation, nor the missed sleep. Deep or shallow, she was certainly bothersome.
The sound of the shower running and the gurgle of water through the pipes awoke the green girl from her dreamless slumber. She blinked the sleep away from her eyes and sat up, stretching and yawning like a cat. She uncoiled from her blanket cocoon, pulling her hair out of its braid. A shiver coursed along her spine at the sound of the water that battered relentlessly against the shower walls.
Elphaba dressed quickly as to avoid the sneering, sighing and huffing that would surely ensue should her roommate emerge from the bathroom. Galinda didn't approve of her simple, plain, sensible dresses and would make sure her opinion was known. Clothes were clothes. Elphie didn't see the problem. The one time she had voided this the blonde nearly had a fit.
"Oh, Miss Elphie!" Galinda had sighed, her voice higher than usual. "When people see you, you already make the wrongest first impression. When you open your mouth to speak you only make it worse. People see you first. It's the way you're viewed! And all those simple ugly frocks you wear! Really, Miss Elphaba. No wonder you're always on your own."
To avoid further outbursts like that, Elphaba refrained from dressing in front of her roommate.
She gathered her school things into her shoulder bag and dropped it on her bed before skirting over to the vanity. Grabbing her brush, she yanked it through her hair swiftly, wincing when she got the bristles caught on a knot. Her brown eyes peered back at her from the mirror as she twined three chunks of her hair into one long braid. Her glasses perched on the edge of her nose and she pushed them higher with her pinky. She suddenly felt very silly looking at herself. Just as she was knotting the end of her braid with a hair tie, the bathroom door opened and out flounced Galinda, her hair spell-dried and flawlessly curled. Elphaba couldn't get away fast enough from the vanity. Galinda spotted her and laughed dryly.
"I'd never think you one to primp, Miss Elphaba."
The green girl growled, jumping from the vanity, letting her braid swing around one shoulder. "I'm not primping, Miss Galinda. That's much better suited for you."
Galinda sighed and muttered something under her breath, something Elphie couldn't quite make out. Grabbing her things off the brown covers of her bed, she whirled around to exit the room. However, the blond stood threateningly in her way. Elphaba wrinkled her nose and shifted from foot to foot.
"You know, I think if you put on just a little make-up–"
"Oh, really now!" Elphie snapped, thoroughly annoyed. "Don't be ridiculous. Now, shoo. Don't you have exams to go to?" The green whirlwind swept past her roommate stiffly, her annoyance bubbling over into her voice. The door slammed shut behind her, shuttering against its hinges. Elphaba couldn't help feeling mildly satisfied with her gracefully offended exit.
Her initial irritation died away with each step down to the first floor of the building. Galinda had forced Elphie into a bit of a flurry and in her rush to escape the blond she had left far too early for exams. So, calmer down and with a bit clearer head, she wandered to Nessarose's single room, big enough to accommodate her chair and adjacent to Madame Morrible's own private room. She knocked swiftly at the door, listening to the sounds of drawers closer before the sweet voice of her sister floated through the door. "Come in!"
Elphaba did just that, creaking up the door and poking her head through the small opening before sleeping inside the room, quiet as she knew how. Nessarose had wheeled herself in front of the vanity and she was brushing her chin-length brown hair. The younger Thropp sister was of normal color- soft pale skin peeked exposed from where her modest dress didn't cover her slightly muscled arms. She was tragically beautiful, as many people had put it. She turned her head to beam in warmth at her sister.
"Good morning, Fabala!" Nessarose exclaimed, setting down her brush in favor of wheeling herself around to face her green-skinned sibling. "It's lovely to see you. You've been so scarce lately. I have a right mind to be upset with you. Come here and tie my hair with a ribbon." Elphie went, ignoring the old childhood nickname that Nessa had dug up.
"I've been studying hard," Elphaba answered lamely, dropping her school bag by the door. She smoothed back her baby sister's bangs and tied the silky red ribbon around her hair. Nessarose sat erectly and still, her eyes fluttering closed.
"I've still missed you around. When all your exams are finished, you'll push me around campus again, won't you?" Nessarose opened her eyes as Elphaba came back around to kneel in front of the heavy chair. She placed her green hands in Nessa's lap, watching them disappearing under her sister's palms.
"Of course. We'll have the whole summer." Elphie murmured, a little guiltily. She had yet to tell Nessa about her job over the summer season with Dillamond. In fact, she hadn't told anyone.
"Good," Nessa said lightly, pulling her hands away and wheeling herself back a few feet. "Now, walk me across campus, would you Fabala? My arms are tired from pushing me all this time without you to do it for me."
Elphaba greatly obliged. She was devoted to her. Nessa was crass, holy and crass, with no real adept for diplomacy. She looked down her nose in the name of the Unnamed God. She loved a being without a name more than she would ever love her sister. But she was helpless- unable to walk because of her own sister's hideous green skin. Her wicked affliction had caused her sister's inability to use her legs- she would never know the joy or exhilaration of running in stocking-less feet, nor the feel of hot stones on her soles. It was all her fault that her sister would be denied such simple little joys. And so, Elphie was devoted to her.
They strolled across the campus at a leisurely pace. Nessarose slung her sister's bag over one arm of her wheeled chair and held her own books in her lap. They chattered lightly about this and that, unimportant things, really. Nessarose told a story of a miracle that the Unnamed God had preformed and Elphaba scolded her for her naivety. They teased one another like they were children before Nessa became offended and wouldn't say anymore. Elphie had to apologize for several minutes before the younger girl would smile tensely. Before they parted, Nessa asked her sister to join her in prayer. To make her happy, she did.
She had to jog across campus to make it back to her lecture hall so she wouldn't be late for her Life Sciences exam. When she stumbled, panting a little, into her class a few eyes turned to stare, but she was far less concerned than she had been at the beginning of the semester. She carefully smoothed back a few loose tuffs of stark black hair before striding confidently to her seat near the front of the room.
The students returned to their quiet murmur, as if she had never entered.
"I thought you were going to be late."
Elphie turned around in her seat. Master Boq smiled warmly, leaning forward to speak to her more easily. She wrinkled her nose slightly, but let her expression fall away to something more cordial. Boq was . . . sweet, in his way, if not a little too small for a man. But they were both Munchkinlanders, she of better blood and full height.
"Then you know little about me, Master Boq," she said, teasing him. "I haven't much of a social life to hinder me. My academics are all I have."
"What about me? I thought we were friends."
"You use me to get to your so-desperately-wish-she-was-your-own Galinda."
"We talk nicely, Miss Elphaba. I don't talk to Galinda. At least, not the way we talk. I consider us friends."
Elphaba was touched but she didn't show it. Instead she sniffed and turned around. "And I consider you Boq."
"No honorific?"
"None."
"Then that is as good."
Elphaba smiled a little bit, brushing her fingers thoughtfully against her lips to hide the motion. Boq didn't have another chance to make the green girl feel warm in her chest from his kindness. Into the room swept Doctor Dillamond, plump and furry, his hoofed feet clunking against the wood floor. He moved with a strange bumbling grace to the front of the room and Elphie sat straighter in her seat. The goat took his place at the head of the class.
He blinked his big eyes at them all, his ears flicking back and forth, probably catching every sound to the very back row. "What is life?" He asked, his voice echoing. Elphaba, eager to impress, shot up her hand.
"Yes, Miss Elphaba?"
"Life is having consciousness." She replied, her voice shuddering down to something a little less confident. "It's growing and living."
"And what is Life, Miss Thropp?"
Elphie tugged at her braid quietly. "Life," she annunciated the capital letter. "is having consciousness and a conscience. Having a. . . spirit. Things with Life have emotions. They have pain and joy and love."
Doctor Dillamond brayed quietly under his breath. "Very good. Anyone else? What is Life? Do plants ever become Plants?"
"Maybe. How would we ever know?" A student near the back spoke up.
"Exactly!" Dillamond said, stomping his hoof on the floor. "We'll never know because no one wants to know. Have any of you been reading the papers lately? Do you know what's going on outside Shiz? Anyone? Anyone?" He paused, looking across the room. "Ah. Yes, Miss Glinda?"
"Galinda." She said, but her effort to correct him was halfhearted. She seemed somber. "The Wizard's Banns on Animal Mobility. Mumsie wrote me a letter about it."
"And what is that?" Dillamond challenged. "Anyone?"
No one spoke.
"Banns on Animal Mobility," he said quietly. "Animals- Animals with Life just like you, and you, and even you Miss Galinda Upland -have had their travel, lodging, and public services restricted. Effective a few weeks ago. As well, no Animal coming of age is allowed to ending the work force. I've been a teacher here for longer than Morrible has been Head, they cannot touch me. But my rights are being stripped from me. Why do you think such a thing would happen?"
All was silent.
"Why indeed," Dillamond answered his own question. The class was tense. Everyone was enjoying the break from the stress of exams, loving the theatrics of it all. The drama. The rumors. Elphaba merely felt sick. She had known that the Animals were having their civil rights infringed upon; she knew that they were struggling to be seen as first class citizens; she knew there was tension. Her stomach churned on itself and she slouched in her seat.
The Goat finally raised his head from where he had buried his face into the flat of his hooves. "Well. You've all got an Exam to take. Someone, come help me pass out the papers."
The rest of the hour dragged on slowly, tensely. Not even the slower students passed notes to try and cheat, nor whispered quietly the right answers to their friends. Doctor Dillamond sat in the front of the class, peering indifferently out the window. The whole class could have gotten up and changed seats without him noticing. When the majority of the class had finished and the last few students were placing their papers on the front desk, the good Goat doctor waved one tired hoof and simply stated, "Class dismissed."
Completely forgetting the Goat's earlier distress, the students jollied from the classroom, all delight and laughter. Elphaba Thropp didn't move. She stayed fervently glue to her seat. Boq called her name once, but a friend- a better friend than she -called after him and he too disappeared around the corner.
Elphaba stood slowly from where she sat. Doctor Dillamond was staring out the window and his shoulders shook. The green girl placed one thin hand on his arm, but he didn't move. A few quiet moments passed before Elphie got the lump out of her throat enough to speak.
"Doctor . . . ? Are you all right? Sir, if there is anything possible that I can do, anything at all . . . "
The Goat lifted his head to look at her. A very grave expression crossed his face. "Oh, Miss Elphaba . . . Something . . . bad is happening in Oz."
