Guess who's back?

Anyways - here's another chapter. R&R, please... as always.

"Tell me, something, Elphie..." Galinda said, rolling over on her stomach, propping her head up on her hands.

The green girl glanced up from her lunch tray with a smirk. "Tell you what?"

Galinda shrugged. "Just something. Anything, really. I don't really know much about you, though we seem to have a habit going here."

"Habit?"

"Well, yes!" she nodded, pulling herself up to sit with her legs folded beneath her. "We eat lunch together almost everyday, then we talk into all hours of the night about whatever comes to our minds, but never ourselves. So tell me something - anything, just about you." The blonde grinned.

Elphaba laughed, looking up for a moment to think of something - anything. "I like books." she laughed, shrugging.

"Oh, please - anyone knows that." Galinda swatted the other girls leg. "Tell me something about you. The girl behind the green and the books and the brain."

Shaking her head, the green girl looked up again, leaving Galinda to roll onto her back, looking at her roommate up-side-down.

"Tick-tock, tick... the clock goes click.." Galinda sing-songed.

"Hush, you... let me think!"

"No."

"Why?"

"Just say whatever comes to your mind!"

"Nothing's coming, though!"

Galinda clumsily grabbed an apple from Elphaba's lunch tray and threw it across the room.

The green girl let her mouth fall open. "What in the world?!"

The smaller girl just giggled. "What do you think about that?"

"I think I was going to eat that!"

They both just laughed for a few seconds, not knowing what else to do.

Galinda, sat up, scooting forward on the lackluster bedspread, closer to the taller girl. Looking right at her, she did nothing but take her hands. Immediately the other girl stiffened at the touch, but didn't pull away. She kept staring at their hands, not able to make eye contact.

"Tell me this." Galinda wiggled their connected hands.

Elphaba shook her head shorter and faster this time, taking a shaky breath. "I don't know what you mean."

"Why does this bother you so much?"

"I already told you, I-"

"No." Galinda leaned in, making eye contact and offering her friend an understanding smile. "There's more."

Not another moment went by before Elphaba snatched her hands away and took her tray over to the garbage can and dumped it.

Galinda just looked at her, the strange girl staring at a garbage can like it held some sort of prophesy inside. Part of her wanted to go over and look in as well to see if it told of events yet to come, or maybe just to offer some sort of support to her friend. Another part of her just wanted to watch to see what the mysterious girl would do nest.

But too many moments passed that were filled with silence for Galinda to feel comfortable anymore.

"You don't have to tell me... Not if it you don't want to." she said, not moving from her spot on the bed.

Elphaba just shook her head.

"I've never talked about it. I wouldn't know where to start."

Immediately, Galinda thought the worst. There was a feeling that manifested itself in the pit of her stomach that she wasn't able to define, somewhere between disgust and hatred, and at the same time sorrow for anyone who'd endured what the green girl had been through.

"My father used to put me on display, and let people touch and poke and prod me all they wanted."

Oh.. that's not what she was thinking. Still not good, but it wasn't what she was thinking at all.

"Why would he do that?" Galinda asked, still harboring that feeling, only not as strongly.

Elphaba shrugged, still staring into the trash can. "Who knows? He's a preacher of the Unnamed God, and took me with him sometimes when he traveled on his pointless mission trips." She started playing with her own fingernails. "He told people I was green with the sin of my mother, and I was punishment for her infidelity."

"That's-"

"That's my life." She glanced back at her friend.

Galinda, felt as though she wanted to do nothing more than hold the green girl. Make her feel safe. Make her forget all of that. "Didn't your mother do anything?"

Elphaba shook her head. "No. She died when I was young."

"Oh, Elphaba... I'm so sorry.."

She just waved the sympathy away, sitting at the vanity, looking toward the wall. "It's not anything to be sorry for." she shrugged. "I don't feel any sort of way toward it, often. I was young. I don't remember much of her or much of anything in my childhood. Aside from helping raise my sister."

Galinda popped up. "You have a sister?"

She just nodded.

"Well tell me about her!" Galinda beamed, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.

Elphaba smiled sadly, taking a breath. "Her name is Nessarose, and she is much less exciting than I am. Although she is the prettier of the two of us." She laughed, looking down at her hands again.

The blonde girl felt a pain in her stomach. Her brow furrowed, though she knew the answer to the question she hadn't even asked yet.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it's true."

"Why?"

"Well for starters, her skin isn't green." Elphaba laughed, somehow without sounding as though there was much humor in her voice. "Secondly, she has nice wavy brown hair, and blue eyes, and is - for the most part - normal. I suppose I just got the short end of the stick as far as the gene pool goes."

Without another word, Galinda got up and sat on the vanity next to her roommate, looking her in the eye and holding her gaze. If anything she would instill some confidence in this girl, if it was the last thing she did. She didn't understand at all how she could look in the mirror and not see someone worth while. "Answer me this, Miss Elphaba; Why don't you think you're beautiful."

She knew the answer before she heard it, but still scowled as it passed the green, smiling lips.

"Because I'm not." She said plainly.

Galinda shook her head. "You're wrong."

"Oh, is that what you think?"

The blonde just nodded soundly.

"You must be delusional. Seriously." Elphaba pressed her the bridge of her nose under her glasses. "I'm not even interesting looking aside from my coloring. I am far from beautiful."

"You have to stop putting yourself down like that." Galinda said softly.

"I'm not putting myself down!" Elphaba smiled, as if it didn't matter to her at all. "I'm being honest with myself. I am the farthest thing from beautiful there is.. I mean, look at me!" She turned to face the mirror. "Not only am I green, I'm awkward and unproportionate, and... and just strange looking!"

"You're unique."

"I'm strange. You're beautiful. You're unique, and pretty, and-"

"And I'm all the things people think of when they think of the standard for 'pretty.' But that's all I am. That's it." She got up, and looked through the mirror too, pulling the long dark hair from her roommates face. "You... you have something no one else has. And that, is absolutely beautiful."

"Having something no one else has doesn't make me beautiful, Galinda... It makes me a freak." She said quietly.

The blonde just smiled at her. "You're not a freak. You're smart, and funny, and you're able to think so deeply at things everyone else looks over." Galinda took a ribbon from the table, securing the dark locks back from her face. "You have such a bright and unguarded smile.. when you really smile. And your eyes... those big chocolate colored things that seem to lead right into your soul... and somehow manage to see through all of my nonsense." she smiled, tying the ribbon into a bow. "Don't tell me you don't see any of those things..."

Elphaba just stared blankly at the blonde through the mirror, her mouth hanging open just the slightest bit.

Galinda took the glasses from her face. setting them neatly on the vanity, smiling triumphantly. "There they are..."

The green girl turned her head to look at her friend without the reflection. "Why do you notice all of those things?"

The smile faded from her face as she thought about it. She didn't know why. She just saw things when she was around the other girl - things that kept pulling her in and wanting to know more and see more. Galinda kept searching her mind, but came up with only one honest thing to say. "I notice you. And when one does that, everything else just appears, because it was there all along... I like taking the time to see it."

"All I can see is green..." Elphaba whispered with tears in her eyes.

Galinda took the other girl's face in her hands and shook her own head. "No. The green is... it's a trait, Elphie, but you... the girl inside of all of this green is someone special."

"Special to who?"

"To me."

The green in Elphaba's face darkened on her face more than a little, taking on a slightly red tinge. All the blonde could do was laugh and feel Elphaba's cheeks, which warmer than usual by far. She laughed quietly. "Oh, Elphie.. is this what you blushing looks like?"

The green girl pulled away, feeling her own cheeks. "I... I suppose it is.." She said, standing up and looking all around. Galinda wondered what it was the taller girl was looking for, until she just started going around and pacing. Suddenly it didn't seem like she was looking for anything at all, it was more like she was just frantically walking around in circles.

She stood up slowly, almost fearfully, hoping nothing was seriously wrong. "Elphaba... is everything alright?"

Elphaba shook her head. "I, uhm.. I don't know." She spat. Before Galinda could do anything else Elphaba grabbed her coat and walked out the door.

Galinda was left in nothing short of a confused haze. One moment she finally felt as though they were able to take a step forward and maybe gain a little trust between the two of them, then the next the green girl was out the door without a second thought. People don't just walk out of rooms for no reason, especially when classes were already out for the day.

The room seemed empty. There were only faint, almost haunting echos of cackling laughter from other girl's rooms and the strange humming noise the building always seemed to make. All that was left was to feel utterly alone. She hadn't felt that way for the past few weeks simply because she'd finally had someone to talk about everything with. Anything that came into her head, Elphaba would always have something witty or valid to say. It was more than just an opinion, or something that she would just say to get the smaller girl out of her hair - it was always a conversation. Something about the ease in which they spoke was astounding. Galinda found herself wanting to take every spare minute in her room. They didn't even have to talk... just being around her was enough to make her forget about everything else.

She gave a big sigh, and sat on her bed. She was sure that Elphaba liked spending time together as well, otherwise, what would she be doing spending more and more time in the room too? More time just laying on each other's bed and studying for whatever class that came up, or every class, in Elphaba's case. Some days, Elphaba would even help Galinda with her work. Not do it for her, of course, but teach her. The smaller girl ended up learning more when Elphaba helped her than in all of her classes.

For a moment she thought about going after her friend, but decided against it quickly. If Elphaba left then it was probably because she needed to... wanted to... something like that. Maybe she just needed some space - they had been spending an awful lot of time together, so maybe she just needed some space for a while. That was more than understandable.

Or perhaps Elphaba was just overwhelmed. Maybe she was being too needy, pressing herself in on the other girls free time too much and Elphaba was just getting fed up.

The thought only made Galinda's head spin, and her heart feel like it was beating in her throat.

Elphaba was the one person she felt that she could really talk to - that would try and understand her, but still give her honest opinion back. She felt a level of trust there she couldn't say she really felt with anyone else. But at the same time, she felt this aching swirling feeling at the pit of her stomach whenever the green girl was near - not nausea or sickness, but something that she really couldn't explain. Just a feeling of strange new-ness that she didn't want to let go. It was wonderful and nerve racking at the same time. It was another thing that kept her hulled up in her room with the slightly awkward girl.

In a split second, Galinda decided she had to go after her. It wasn't to smother or get her way, but she had to see what was wrong.

She pulled on her jacket and B-lined for the door, and this time she knew exactly where she was headed.