How could she not remember? Fiyero turned this over and over again in his head like a stuck record.
It seemed only yesterday he left Munchkin land, and now he came today, and he was deleted? What made her forget? He didn't recall two years of his childhood with her being a dream.
Galinda had now become his girlfriend, but (and he'd never say this out loud) it was partly because he needed something to distract him from Elphaba.
Doctor Dillamond's class was one of the downsides to Shiz. He seemed to drawl on and on and on about whatever. But Elphaba seemed to like the class. A lot.
Fiyero always saw her across the room, taking down notes for everything he said. He pencil moved across the paper so quickly, Fiyero swore one time the saw smoke coming off the paper.
"Who can tell me how the reaction to Animals started?" Dillamond asked.
Elphaba's hand shot up in the air, as it so often did.
"Yes, Miss Thropp?" Dillamond smiled at her.
"From what I heard it started at the Great Drought."
"Excellent, Excellent!" Dillamond beamed. "And who can tell me who was the first person to give Animals their rights?" he chuckled at the hand in the air. "Someone besides miss Elphaba?"
A pale, manicured hand came up this time.
"Miss Glinda?"
"It's GAlinda. With a Ga. And I don't see why you can't just teach us history instead of harping on the past."
The rest became a snippy argument between the green girl and the blonde.
After that, the time came for people to get ready for the Ozdust ball.
"Nessa, it's absurd!" Elphaba's raven black hair swung over her shoulder as she turned quickly to face her younger sister, who had just finished talking about the dance.
"This snobby rich boy appears and everybody's off to worship him at some cultish social gathering!"
Nessa giggled. "It's kind of cute that you don't know."
"Don't know what, might I ask?"
"Calm down. It's funny that you don't know the name for party. 'Cultish social gathering.' Ha! I'll tell Boq about that later."
"Who's Boq?" Elphaba inquired. The sisters were very different from each other, but one way that they were the same was that they were both quiet.
"Oh, my date."
"Your what!"
Nessa sighed. Sometimes Elphaba was her sister, sometimes she was her mother.
Yeesh.
"Galinda persuaded him to—"
"Galinda!" Elphaba's face went a pale green.
"—To invite me to the dance tonight!" Nessa finished, ignoring her.
Elphaba glared at the ground. "I wouldn't trust her. Ever."
Fiyero looked in the mirror, turning this way and that, checking to see if his outfit was okay. A red tailed coat, a tailor-made white shirt under it, and a flower pinned on for Galinda. He tried slicking back his hair, but he knew that Elphaba might recognize him if he didn't, so he settled for making sure every hair was in place instead.
He met his date at the stairs going down into the ballroom.
Galinda's hair was more curly and soft than ever, and her eyelids sparkled pink. She wore a pink frilly dress and she smelled nice, like roses and lilac.
She smiled at him and ran up to kiss his cheek.
He handed her the flower, and they went down into the room together.
The music was playing rather loudly, the girls looked great, even the boys were getting into the dancing. Now this is what he could stay for, her thought.
But the one question that went around in his head was the same: where was Elphaba?
Wouldn't she come too? With her sister? Fiyero saw that Nessa never left her older sister's sight. But there she was, with Boq, talking and smiling.
Then he saw her, wearing a black pointed hat and a slim black dress.
She came down into the ballroom floor, nervously smiling at all around her.
The reaction was both odd and expected. At first, the music stopped. The dancers paused. A few of the people who were getting punch dropped their glasses.
Then it all began.
The laughter. The teasing. The mocking. The snickering. Gossiping.
But...Then….
She was dancing. By herself.
Sure, it was a rather odd dance, but she was strong.
"Well, I'll say this much for her," he said quietly to Galinda. "She doesn't give a twig about what anyone else thinks."
"Of course she does!" Galinda frowned. "She just pretends not to…I fell awful."
"It's not like it's your fault." Fiyero said, surprised. But Galinda's guilty face proved something else.
"Galinda what did you—?"
Elphaba had begun to spin in circles.
"Excuse me," Galinda said.
The rest came fast, and Fiyero had been drinking, so the things he collected were that the dancing somehow came back, and Galinda and Elphaba were friends.
After the dance, Galinda went into her room, and Elphaba went into History class to get her books she'd forgotten.
Fiyero met her in the hallway.
"I hope you don't forget her like you forgot me," he said.
The green girl only rolled her eyes instead of trying to understand, which sent Fiyero's temper even higher.
"Even if we were friends, which we're not, I wouldn't be able to see how I was ever friends with someone like you."
And she flounced away.
Fiyero sighed. It was the second time she'd criticized him. He had a lot of things to change.