Elphaba brushed the tangles out of her hair, washed her face, and wandered to her last class with Dr. Dillamond. It was a tragic day.
Galinda spent almost an hour covering imagined tear tracks with extra-perfect makeup—after all, her devotees would expect her to look good, even if she was in mourning—and missed her first class. It was not an unprecedented, and definitely not a tragic event. Galinda thought it was horrendible of the school to expect her to attend classes after being dumped by the most scandalicious prince in Shiz history.
Fiyero attended Dr. Dillamond's class with Elphaba—a rather disturbing habit he'd developed, ever since the three achieved crystallization. If he really thought about it, Fiyero would have realized he'd been attending his classes for awhile now, and all because of his mysterious green fiancée, but he didn't think about it. His followers were rather worried. True, Fiyero wasn't thinking about or admitting attending class—but he was attending, and that was infinitely worse. The happy-go-lucky, dancing-through-life prince who had captured their attention was actually passing every single class in which he was enrolled. He had been seen studying. He had been seen studying with the Artichoke. He didn't smile as much as he had. He had broken up with the girl of the century . . . in short: Prince Fiyero Tiggular was turning into a rather serious student, a moodified shadow of his former playboy self, and was refusing to talk about anything that used to interest him.
"Hey, Elphie," Fiyero greeted the green girl as he sat next to her.
"Hello," she answered, barely glancing up from her notes.
"So . . . I wanted to say I'm sorry about last night. I got carried away."
"By what, missing Galinda twenty minutes after you broke up with her?"
"Oh. You heard."
"Of course I heard. Fiyero, she's my roommate for Oz sakes. Did you really think I wouldn't know?"
"I guess not. Are you going to stop speaking to me now?"
Elphaba, for once, looked a little nonplussed.
"Why would I do that?"
"Well, I think the entire female population of Shiz—except you—has given me the cold shoulder this morning. Apparently breaking up with Galinda is unacceptable behavior."
"Oh, so that's why you're speaking to me where people can see. You're lonely. Poor little Fiyero, deserted by his cheering fans."
"Elphaba! That's not fair. I talk to you all the time where people can see."
"So what was that library stunt yesterday? You came where no one could possibly find you conversing with the green freak."
"I wanted to talk to you. Oz, Elphie, since when is it a sin to want to be with you?"
"Since I'm getting married," she whispered, and turned her attention to the front of the class.
Fiyero spent the class period paying attention to Elphaba rather than the instructor. He noticed the slight swelling around her eyes and the faint pinkness at their rims, less obvious against her enthralling emerald skin than on the paler faces of other girls he'd known. He sighed. She wouldn't talk to him without fighting with him, he hadn't told Galinda the whole truth, and they only had a week before they would disperse to their respective homes. A week to tell Elphaba she didn't have to worry about her wedding, a week to tell her she could come back to Shiz with him, a week to explain everything to his ex-girlfriend. It was going to be a short week.
The girls' dorm room was not a pleasant place that night.
"I heard you were speaking to someone this morning," Galinda announced flatly.
"What? Am I not allowed to talk to him?" Elphaba asked. Her hands shook with frustration. Why could no one see how nonsensical this was?
"You're my best friend, Elphie. Best friends don't associate with ex-boyfriends."
"Galinda, you can't ask me to just ignore him. He's the only other friend I have. You're wonderful and sweet and I love you . . . but I don't want to follow you like one of your devotees. They annoy even you sometimes."
"No, they don't. If you have to talk to him, could you at least do it where no one else can see you? It's having a horrificifying effect on our reputations, you know."
"Glin . . ." Elphaba sighed "fine, you know what? I'll do that. It's only for a week, and then I'll be gone."
"Oh Elphie!" Galinda sobbed and launched herself at her roommate, pulling her into a tight hug.
"Can't—breathe—Glin!" Elphaba gasped.
"I'm going to miiiiiisss youuuu," the blonde wailed, loosening her stranglehold on her roommate.
"I'll miss you, my pretty," Elphaba said, "but it's not like we'll never see each other again. I'm sure my husband will let me have guests occasionally."
"Am I invited to the wedding?" Galinda asked, wiping her tears and mascara away.
"You're in the wedding, silly."
"Really?" Galinda pirouetted around the room and finally flopped on her bed, "That's so excitifying! I've never been in a wedding before!"
"Neither have I," Elphaba answered dryly, "and I certainly hope this is my last."
"Oh come, Elphie! Don't be such a sourpuss. It can't be that bad, can it? I mean, you're getting marrieeed!"
"I don't even know who I'm marrying, Glin. He'll probably hate me."
"He'll loooove you!"
"Glin, I'm a green freak. How can he love me? He's not going to see me for who I am, the way you do, he's going to see me for what I am . . . like every other boy I've ever met. He's going to see me as an ugly artichoke."
"Fiyero doesn't see you that way."
Elphaba blushed, remembering the brief kiss she'd shared with Fiyero.
"He's different. He got to know me because of you, and suspended his judgments about my beauty, or lack thereof."
"If Fiyero can do it . . . so can your husband."
"I don't think it works that way. My husband is stuck with me, Fiyero isn't. I don't think he'll be able to see past the greenness . . . "
"Well, I doooo! Don't spoil my fuuun! We'll make you so beautiful he doesn't even notice that you're green."
"Sure . . . whatever you say, Galinda."
