(AN: Well, I hope the muse is having fun not inspiring me! I've just been really empty, in regards to my literary works, and haven't got much out other than this. I keep telling myself that I need to just sit down and do some hard-core writing, but then my computer over-heats or something happens and I can't go on.)

(Fortunately, I got this chapter all together [and had the next one erased when my computer crashed due to over-heating!]. Thanks for all the feed-back. Let me remind you that no "real musicians" will appear in my story, as per the FF rules. The names I made were for references, and though fictional musicians may appear, I'd still debating [against] having any of those I mentioned before appear)

(Enjoy the new chapter. I do not own Holzman's lines, which I've borrowed/paraphrased for this work)


The First Rehearsal

No one looked at the green girl as she pushed her sister's wheel-chair into History Class.

Or, as Elphaba referred to it when Dr. Nikadik was not around, Indoctrination 101.

She placed Nessarose at the far end of the bench, closest to the door, and then made her way to her seat.

Nasty whispers rose up from those about as she tried to make her way inconspicuously to the front row seat at the far end of the left-hand front bench. A wadded-up piece of paper was tossed her way, and she shot a knife-sharp glare at Pfannee and Shenshen.

In between them sat a Munchkinlander girl, who was obviously rather shorter than others of that 'type'. She was a full head shorter than the two taller (or larger, in the case of Pfannee) girls and had brownish-red hair, similar in shade to that of Nessarose, but long, curly and wavy, flowing down her head like a waterfall of blood.

She must have been the one who threw the missile, for she and the other girls were clutching their sides in their fits of giggling.

"Everyone, take your seats." Nikadik ordered as he entered the class room.

Elphaba did as she was instructed.

There was once again no sign of Fiyero.

He had been here last time, when they rescued the Lion Cub.

She couldn't stop thinking about that day.

More specifically, about Fiyero.

He was a silly rich-boy, Munchkinlander high-society was full of them. She had met her fair share before ever passing through the hallowed halls of Shiz. They were all the same: vain, shallow and fake.

Fake in that all their bravado and pretentiousness was just a cover.

A cover to hide how miserable they were inside.

Fiyero was no different.

No, she told herself. He was different.

None of them would have helped her save the poor Lion cub.

Fiyero did.

That very brief moment, when their hands collided with each other, made Elphaba's vision blurry as she thought of it. Something had awoken within her, born that very moment when their hands parted, that was forever gnawing inside her every time she saw Fiyero.

It increased her desire to be close to him, to touch his hand just yet again.

Elphaba hated the feeling, for it made concentrating on her studies extremely difficult.

And yet, she did not hate it so much that she wished it to go away.

It was troublesome, but she entertained it nonetheless.

Even though it was horribly wrong for her to think such things, she told herself.

He was Galinda's boyfriend.

She would not be doing that.

"Ah, yes." Dr. Nikadik's low, orator's voice noted the latest addition to the class, who was just walked in the door.

"Miss Galinda Upland, I presume?" he asked.

"Yes, thank you." the little blond said, smiling as she curtsied. "The last professor couldn't say my name right, it was so horrendible."

"Yes, I see." Nikadik continued. "As I recall, you were not present the last time this class met. Do you have an excuse?"

"Yes, Doctor." she stated. "You see, I was at a big party the night before and stayed up all night giving my girlf...uh, I mean, my room-mate a make-over."

"You stayed up too late, I take it." Nikadik finished, nodding in recognition.

"But I needed my sleep!" Galinda said, placing a hand over her heart. "You wouldn't want me to be sleeping in your class, would you?"

"No, Miss Upland, I would prefer you show up to my class on time every time it meets!" he snapped. "But if you choose rather to waste your time and my own by not showing up to class, that is your fault, not mine, and I suggest you drop the course. Now take your seat."

Galinda made a frown and walked over to where she usually sat.

One quick glance revealed that her 'friends' had already replaced her.

Befriending the green pariah, apparently, was too much for these vapid little biddies.

Galinda walked down the row of benches, her head hung down in defeat.

A green hand reached out and tugged on her sleeve, showing up sharply on the white material.

"Psst!" whispered Elphaba. "Sit here."

Another hand pointed to the space next to Elphaba.

The space that the other students wouldn't dare take, because it was too close to the 'green-freak.'

Galinda nodded and took her seat.

"Now, class," Nikadik began. "Let us begin today's lecture with a little history on the Animal problem..."

"Psst!" Galinda whispered.

Elphaba turned to her room-mate.

She was not surprised to see Galinda writing a note on her pink stationery.

That was not the paper Galinda Upland used for taking notes in class.

Not like she ever took notes in class.

Elphaba couldn't comment either.

She had stopped taking notes when she realized that all Dr. Nikadik was teaching was why Animals belonged in the fields rather than in society.

It was morally wrong, what this teacher was doing. Animals were just as capable as any of Oz's human population, and to degrade them based solely because they looked different was a horrible deed.

It was hypocrisy, for no one questioned the skin color of another Ozian human, whether male or female.

But it was more of a class-thing, she noticed. The poorer, rural Munchkins were considered beneath the upper-class Munchkinlanders, from whence she herself was raised.

The little blond had finished her note, folded it up and handed it to her room-mate.

Green fingers took the paper from her and unfolded the note.

"Lakely and Oakes, after class today" was all that it said.


Class was over for the day, and Madam Morrible took Nessarose to her office.

Elphaba was free, more or less, to do as she pleased.

Normally, today would be filled with studying and re-reading.

Now, she was walking down the streets of the town of Shiz, towards the place listed on the note.

Galinda did not bounce after her, she was lagging at her side, her heels clip-clopping on the pavement as they walked.

"I can't believe you're so quiet today." Elphaba stated.

"What do you mean?" the blond asked, looking away from what she had been staring at the past few hours.

"You're not your usual self." Elphaba commented. "What's wrong?"

Galinda shook her head, dismissing her room-mate's offer.

"Fine, then." Elphaba answered, turning back to look at the signs on the shops.

Hoping they didn't pass it already.

Those who passed them by were shocked at the very odd sight.

Whether it was because of the young woman with green skin, or her beautiful blond companion at her side, or the fact that two such unlikely characters walked together as friends, none of them dared voice anything regarding why they stared.

They just did.

A few work-men, who were repairing a road to their right sent out wolf-whistles at Galinda as she passed by.

The blond bit her lower lip, lowering her head.

Elphaba, meanwhile, took the apple she had been munching upon and tossed it towards the workers. It hit the fat one directly in the face.

"What a waste of a perfectly good apple." Elphaba muttered to herself.

But she could throw things very well, if agitated.

As she walked on her way, she saw Galinda's face was still down-cast.

"Don't listen to those jerks," she said to the little blond. "Okay? They're just perverted slobs."

"It's not them." Galinda replied.

Elphaba could have sworn she heard her room-mate's voice breaking in sadness.

"Then what's wrong?" she asked.

Galinda sighed, then swallowed the lump of sadness in her throat down.

"It's Fiyero." she admitted.

Elphaba noticed she did not use her pet-name for Fiyero.

"He's oh so distant!" Galinda began. "Whenever we're together, I have this naggafying feeling that he doesn't want to be with me."

"Has he told you that?" Elphaba asked. Her own throat constricted at the thought. If Fiyero hurt Galinda, rearranging his cute face wasn't beneath what she would do to him.

"No," Galinda admitted, shaking her curly, blond head. "But I can tell. Whenever we're together, he tries to act like he's interested in what I have to say, but I can tell he's not."

"Oh," Elphaba stated. "Is that what's bothering you?"

"Mhm," Galinda nodded. "And more. Ever since he told us that he was thinking, I've been really worried about him!"

"Galinda, that was two days ago." Elphaba pragmatically stated.

"It feels like four days ago!" Galinda pouted, though not in jest as she was wont to do in times before. "And he's acting moodified and everything, and nothing I can say will cheer him up! It's like I don't even know who he is anymore!"

"Galinda, you're over-reacting." Elphaba said, coming to a halt before her sorrowful friend, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You and Fiyero are perfect for each other."

Galinda sniffed back a tear.

"You think so?" she returned.

"Yes." she answered.

No, screamed a thought inside her head.

"He's probably just preoccupied with this whole band thing," Elphaba continued. "You'll see, everything will work out just fine."

"Promise?" Galinda asked.

Elphaba nodded, the thought inside her head forcing her from saying the words 'I promise.'

"Pinky promise?" Galinda held up the pinky of her right hand.

Elphaba scoffed. "Galinda, please..."

"You've got to pinky promise, Elphie!" the little blond insisted.

Elphaba rolled her eyes, then wrapped her green little finger around the little pink one from Galinda's hand.

The little blond pulled Elphaba's green pinky into a tight squeeze and made a noise that sounded like a squeal, but muffled, and shook her head about happily.

"What was that?" Elphaba asked, at Galinda's strange display.

"That was an outside squeal!" Galinda replied, waving her fingers about majestically.

"Excuse me?" Elphaba asked as they continued on their way.

"An outside squeal!" Galinda returned. "When I was a little girl, Momsy and Popsicle always told me to use my inside voice around company and my outside voice when I was in my room. I didn't really care, because I love having fun, and outside voice is the bestest voice to use when having fun!"

"So I see." Elphaba replied, shaking her head.

"So, obviously," Galinda replied knowingly. "An outside squeal is one that is appropriate for public places."

"Could have just told me that and spared me the history lesson." Elphaba stated dryly.

"I thought you loved history class!" Galinda stated.

"Not since Dr. Nikadik started teaching," Elphaba retorted. "It should be called Indoctrination 101 now. Didn't you hear what..."

"Oh, wait!" Galinda squealed, coming to a stop. Seeing that Elphaba continued on, she reached back and pulled her green roomie over to her, punctuating each step Elphaba made backwards with a 'puh' sound, as per her usual idiom.

"What?" Elphaba asked.

"Here it is!" she waved her hands before the building in front of which they now stood.

Lakely and Oakes.

It looked like no one had used it in a century or more.

If there were any weeds in the city, they would surely be choking the life out of this poor building.

A window was broken, the paint was falling off the walls, the sign looked rusty and forsaken.

"Oh, tell me this isn't the place." Galinda whined, her mood changing at the realization of the exterior.

"Nope, this is it." Elphaba returned plainly, taking one last look at the sign to make sure it was the right place.

Galinda held out her hand, as if afraid of what they were going to find inside this run-down place.

Elphaba gave the blond her own hand, which Galinda squeezed tightly.

They walked up the creaky stairs onto the landing, then Elphaba seized the tarnished brass door-knob, gave it a turn, and opened the door. Hand in hand, they walked into the darkness inside.


It wasn't all that dark, really. It just seemed dark from the streets.

Some of the cluttered rubbish that lay inside the building had been pushed aside, revealing what had probably once been a store of some kind. It was long-since abandoned, and anything of value had been either sold off or looted.

It was very empty, and very spacious.

At the back of the empty store, the rear-exit was open. Set up near the exit was a drum-kit and a few shoe-box amplifiers.

And one person sat there by himself, upon one of the largest amps, cradling a long-necked bass guitar in his hands.

"Fifi!" Galinda squealed in excitement, letting go of Elphaba's hand and running towards her boyfriend.

Fiyero put the huge instrument on its amp, lying flat upon the top, rose up and lifted the little Galinda into a very large hug.

Elphaba could tell, however, that his eyes weren't looking at the object of his affection.

It almost seemed artificial, the hug.

"Whoa, steady on!" Fiyero commented, breaking the embrace. "I only told you we were meeting here this morning."

"But I had to wait all day just to see you again!" Galinda returned.

Fiyero sighed.

"What exactly have you been doing, besides skipping class?" Elphaba asked from where she stood.

"Oh, it's not the first time I've done it." Fiyero dismissed.

"And if you keep it up, it will be the last at this school." Elphaba stated. "You know, Shiz is one of the finer schools in Gilikin, so they say."

"Well, I went around town, pulled a few strings and got us this place." Fiyero responded. "It's an abandoned department store. I guess they went out of business during the reign of one of the Ozmas, or something, but nobody's used it since."

"It's a dump, Fifi!" Galinda commented, looking around, her mouth agape as usual.

"Yeah, but it didn't cost much." Fiyero returned. "Not that money's an issue with me, but I did have to spend the rest of this month's allowance to get us some equipment."

"You have an allowance?" Elphaba queried in disbelief.

"When I'm a good-boy, I do." returned Fiyero.

"Gee, I wonder how long its been since that was truth." Elphaba commented.

"Ha ha, very funny." Fiyero returned. "Keep that up and I'll think about taking your PA system back to the Emerald Trader."

Elphaba didn't respond.

Fiyero didn't have to buy them all equipment.

"Galinda," Fiyero said to the little blond, suddenly placing one hand over her eyes and turning her around with the other. A dramatic wave and his hand was gone.

"This is for you."

Elphaba was amazed.

There was a full drum-kit, new and everything, just waiting there.

"Oh, it's so bouncy!" Galinda commented as she tapped the hi-hat, letting the two cymbals bounce upon each other. "Can I paint it pink?"

"Uh, sure." Fiyero returned, his attention towards the green-girl now. "Whatever you like."

A squeal came from the blond as she sat herself upon the drummer's seat.

"What do you think?" Fiyero asked, raising his hands out before Elphaba.

"It looks...workable," she replied. "Thanks for buying this stuff, by the way. You really didn't have to."

"Please, it was my pleasure." he returned.

"So," she said, looking at the cob-webbed ceiling. "Did you find a guitarist?"

"As a matter of fact, yeah," Fiyero returned, waving his hands about as he spoke. "He's outside practicing."

"Is he any good?" Elphaba asked.

"Let me show you," he suggested. Fiyero then walked over to the rear-exit door.

"Come on in, we're ready for you!" he called out.

Galinda turned from the drums to see who Fiyero had called out to from the outside.

Elphaba also turned her head towards the door, eager to meet the potential fourth member of their band.

None of them would have expected who they saw walking into the room.

Tall and broad-shouldered he was, wearing the blue school uniform of a Shiz University student. A black guitar with a round body and two horns at the end of the upper body hung from his shoulders via a leather strap.

They recognized the mess of blond hair, though, and the steel blue eyes that scanned the two girls as they saw him enter the room.

"Oh, it's you." Avaric said, his smile fading at the corners as he saw the green girl standing there.

He turned to Fiyero.

"Is this some kind of joke, Tiggular?" he asked.

"No, these are the other people I told you about." Fiyero returned, indicating to the two ladies.

"You said you had people who knew how to play, not your girlfriend and the green freak!" Avaric returned.

"Hey, Tenmeadows!" Elphaba returned. "I'm right here, I can hear what you're saying!"

"Do I look like I care, froggy?" Avaric shot back. He then returned to Fiyero. "I'm not gonna be in your band if the green bean is gonna be in it also."

"Well I don't care much for being in a band with you!" Elphaba stated, joining the trio in their argument.

"Butt out, cabbage!"

"Hey, just a minute!" Fiyero said, putting himself between Avaric and Elphaba, just as the green girl was about to lunge at him, her hands balled up into fists.

"Elphaba, will you calm down!" he insisted.

"Just tell Avaric to shut his mouth or I'll shut it for him!" she returned.

"Why?" Tenmeadows mocked. "Does what I say hurt your little green feelings?"

Elphaba spat in Avaric's taunting face.

He extricated himself from the guitar and was about to get crazy on the green girl, but Fiyero pushed him back against the wall.

"Just chill out, Avaric!" he shouted.

"She started it!" he retorted, pointing at Elphaba.

"How?"

"By being green!" Avaric let out a proud smile in between his smug laughter.

"I don't like your attitude!" Elphaba shot back.

"Sue me!"

"Hey!" Fiyero almost shouted.

Even Galinda perked her ears up at this.

"Elphaba, give him a chance." Fiyero vouched. "He's a little rough around the edges, but he's a great guitarist."

"The best." Avaric complemented himself.

"Of course you think so." Elphaba said to Tenmeadows.

"Oh yeah?" Avaric brushed Fiyero off him then walked over to his guitar, picking it up and throwing the strap over his shoulder. He then walked over to one of the amplifiers and plugged the guitar into the speaker.

He turned around, played a simple 'G-F-G' chord riff, then pulled off from 'B flat' to 'G' twice before returning to 'F', then going back to the top.

Fiyero smiled, rocking his head back and forth slightly to the sound of the riff.

Avaric then slid his left hand all the way up the fretboard of his guitar, then slid back and played an 'A' chord twice, strumed twice upon strings muted with his right hand, then played 'D, C sharp and C' in quick succession, and two more muted strums before finishing with a quick 'C-D'.

Fiyero slashed his hand across his neck and Avaric muted the pick-ups of his guitar with his strumming hand, his right.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Fiyero asked, turning to the others.

"But can he solo?" Elphaba asked. "Leoma from Never Silent can play for hours."

"That monkey?" Avaric mocked. "Please! She has nothing on me."

"Show me." the green woman returned.

Avaric's left hand flew down past the twin-dotted twelfth fret and began shredding away. To those who looked on, his right hand looked like a spider, the strings of his guitar were the web and his fingers were the many legs of the spider, dancing upon the strings as if it were nothing.

With a quick motion, his hand flew up to the fifth fret and played a quick scale, then shot back down past twelfth and continued wailing away. To their amazement, his left hand kept on playing, rising up the neck and decreasing in pitch, while the right hand was no longer picking the string.

Suddenly, the middle finger of his right hand flew up onto the fret-board and began tapping the string while his left hand continued to dance away. The left hand began sweeping up the strings, with the fingers of the right hand keeping up with tapping each one briefly.

"Show-off." Elphaba muttered beneath her breath.

Fiyero waved at Avaric, and he finished with a clean slide to the twelfth fret, held the note for a second, then muted the strings with his right palm and looked up.

"Do you wanna start jamming?" Fiyero asked.

"Tsh! Hell no." Avaric replied.

"Why not?" Galinda asked. "That was really good!"

"D'you hear that?" Fiyero added. "She thinks you're good and she doesn't even like rock! Come on, let's play together."

"What, do you wanna gauge my skill?" Tenmeadows queried. "I know I'm better than all three of you put together. Just do your thing, I think I can come down to your level if you need me to."

"Avaric, get off your high horse and let's jam!" Fiyero insisted.

"I'll be out back, practicing. Just tell me when you need a guitar piece and I'll make one for you." Avaric returned. He walked over to the amplifier, unplugged the guitar, then unplugged the amp from the wall and took the amp, his guitar and himself out the back-door.

"What's his problem?" Galinda asked.

"He's a little over-confident." Fiyero returned. "He is the best guitarist at Shiz, that much is true."

"There is absolutely no way I'm being in a band with that jerk!" Elphaba said, walking over to Fiyero. "Never Silent is about cooperation and tolerance...and-and appreciating people for what they can do, not because of the color of their skin."

"Who says we have to sound like that crappy old band?" Galinda giggled aloud. Elphaba merely rolled her eyes and let Galinda return to her drum-kit.

"Fiyero, there's got to be someone else, someone more behaved," Elphaba continued her protest.

"I went to every guy in Ozma Towers, Fae." Fiyero returned. "No one's as good as him."

"Wh-What did you just call me?" Elphaba asked, taking a step back.

"Fae," he returned. "I think it sounds cute. That shoud be your stage name. Green Fae."

She gasped.

"Do you have any idea how tactless you just made yourself?" Elphaba gasped.

"What?" Fiyero asked.

"I don't want to be known by my skin color!" she snapped back.

"Okay, okay! Forget I said anything!"

"Oz, you can be so brainless at times!" Elphaba commented.

"Well, it is me, you know." Fiyero returned. "And besides, Elphaba is a little bit long for people to pronounce. They need something shorter, something that has a snap to it, for the head...girl of our band."

"What's wrong with Elphie?" Galinda asked, just as she was about to pick up the drum-sticks.

"It's too..." Fiyero's small, empty mind struggled looking for the word to describe how he felt about Galinda's pen-name for Elphaba.

"Perky, peppy, girlish," Elphaba stated.

"It pops too much," Fiyero returned. "We need something subtle, something that's not exactly like your real name but close enough."

"Fabala!" Galinda suggested.

"That sounds like a baby name." Elphaba returned. "And don't call me Faba either! That's even more child-ish."

"So what about Fae?" Fiyero asked. "It's short, subtle, and is close enough to your name to be real without being too obvious."

Elphaba threw her hands behind her back, twiddling her fingers and turned her head down to look at her boots. A moment of awkward silence followed, in which Galinda noticed that Fiyero wouldn't stop looking at everything else in the room...

Except for her.

"What about the rest of you?" Elphaba returned.

"Well, Avaric can be 'Av'," Fiyero stated. "I thought 'Yero' would work good for me."

"Wait!"

They all turned to Galinda, who had been ignored through all this conversation ever since she suggested 'Fabala.'

"Since we're all giving each other stage names," Galinda said. "I have one for me!"

"You do?" Fiyero asked.

"Why yes!" Galinda commented. "With the unfortunate departure of Doctor Dillamond, who has his own way of pronouncing my name, in solidarity, in solemn memory and to express my outrage, I shall go by the stage name of Glinda!"

There was a moment of silence between the three of them as Galinda waved her hands in the air dramatically, making "spirit-fingers" as she did.

Elphaba and Fiyero exchanged quizzical glances at each other.

Where did this come from?

"Uh..." Fiyero said, not really anything on his mind.

Elphaba turned to look at him with those brown eyes that he loved seeing.

But now they were bent towards him.

He turned away.

"Yeah!" he said a little abruptly. "That's...that's a very noble idea...uh, Glinda."

"Oh, Fiyero." Galinda returned, blushing slightly and lowering her head, as if accepting his thanks.

"Okay, let's start jamming." Fiyero said, walking back over to his bass guitar. "We'll need every minute of practice we can get."

"Maybe you do," Elphaba returned, following him. "But some of us have studying to do."

"Don't worry about that," Fiyero returned. "We'll figure something out." He then turned over to Galinda, who looked a little bummed out, standing all alone by herself at the drums.

"Can you give us a beat?" he asked.

She nodded, and plopped herself into the seat.

"Can we get a count-off?" Fiyero requested, not even turning to look at the drummer.

"One..." Galinda counted, clanging the drum-sticks together as she counted. "Two...One, two, three, four..."

Fiyero started off with a smooth bass-line, using his fingers rather than a stylus to pick the huge, double-wound or even quadruple-wound bass-strings. Behind them, Galinda beat a sound, in-time beat on the hi-hat, with an occasional stomp of her shoe on the bass pedal.

"Can we get some snare?" Fiyero asked, his eyes closed as he continued slapping away on the bass.

The metallic 'thwamp' of the snare kicked in every fifth beat, as Galinda's beat was eights rather than fourths.

A smile came to Fiyero's face as he kept his right hand plucking the bass-strings.

"Sing us something, Elphaba?" Fiyero asked, turning to the green girl.

"What do you want me to sing?" she said, a little loudly so it could carry over the beat and Fiyero's booming bass.

"I don't know, whatever." Fiyero returned.

Elphaba walked over to the lone microphone stand, raised and already plugged into the amplifier.

Shyly, she breathed upon the mic, hearing the low breath coming from the PA.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began to vocalize into the microphone.

Her voice slowly rose from barely a whisper to a voice-normal level, as she sang the vocalization scale over and over, rising slowly and steadily, her voice not breaking or cracking.

Elphaba did not even realize that the others had stopped playing.

She was now belting out her vocalization loudly, her hands over chest, feeling the vibration caused by her singing.

It was then that she noticed the drums and bass had stopped.

Her voice faded, and she threw a hand over her dark-green lips, turning back to the others.

Fiyero and Galinda looked on in amazement at their green singer.

Standing in the entrance of the back-door exit was another who was captivated by her singing.

"Guess the artichoke isn't a complete waste."

That was probably the closest thing Avaric Tenmeadows had come to complementing Elphaba Thropp since...ever.


(Surprise surprise! Avaric is the guitarist! Yes, I know, sparks will fly. That is the intention. He is the a-hole guitarist, like Dave Mustaine or Tony Iommi: the riffs he played are a variation of "Mob Rules" and "Sweet Leaf", and the solo is just random shredding.)

(Yes, I promised they wouldn't do hard rock/metal, and I keep to that promise...[wink wink. lol, just kidding. I don't break promises, this band will not be a hard rock/metal band, that I do promise you])

(Thanks for all the reviews once again, people. I have specifically refrained from stating what color skin Fiyero has to prevent his position as bassist be by reason of "stereotype." He plays bass because bass isn't that hard to play, and since he hasn't the discipline to learn to play guitar, that seemed like the only other option. You can imagine him with whatever skin color you like, but know that I did not make him bassist because of his skin color, but because it fit with his irresponsible behavior.)

(Just keep reading, the next chapter will have some more interesting stuff [like a keyboardist]. Hopefully the muse will return to me by then. lol)