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Galinda was furious, and heavily confusified. How could this have happened? She had set up to have a private room, and now she was stuck with this...this...this green...thing! She didn't really feel that terrible about the fact that her roomie was green. She was more worried about the fact that she had a roomie at all.
Elphaba watched her slamming things around as she put them away. Elphaba just assumed that Galinda hated her because she was green. Everyone else did, why should this snobby rich blonde girl be any different?
But, Elphaba was wrong. Galinda wasn't being angry over the fact that she was stuck with the green girl, she was more upset. She wasn't really angry at all, it just appeared that way. All her stomping was beginning to take it's toll on her bad knee. She sat heavily onto her bed, and started rubbing it, trying to make the pain stop. She began muttering to herself without even realizing it.
Elphaba had noticed her sit onto her bed, but she didn't really pay attention to it until she started talking to herself. All she could hear were snippets of it though. Things like, "won't stop hurting" and "trying to unpack" and "forgot to take it easy" and "hate this thing". Elphaba wondered what her roomate was talking about. None of that made any sense, that is, until she saw the blonde girl rubbing at her knee.
"Are you alright?" Elphaba bit her tongue as soon as the comment was uttered, it was a reflex. She hadn't meant to say anything at all.
Galinda's head turned in Elphaba's direction sharply. "I'm fine!" She stated bitterly, shaking her head softly a moment later.
"Sorry...that was a bit of a reflex. I'm fine." Elphaba could tell that Galinda honestly hadn't meant to sound as mean as she did, just by the sincerity in her apology.
"So...what's wrong with your knee?" Elphaba honestly wanted to know. Galinda hadn't been doing much but stomping around, how could she had hurt herself?
"I...it's an old injury." Galinda tried to say that she didn't want to talk about it without outright saying that she didn't want to talk about it. Elphaba got the message.
Elphaba straightened out her arm as much as she could, at looked at it wistfully, remembering HER old injury. Galinda noticed, but was kind enough not to ask questions, as it was obvious that she wasn't the only one concealing injuries.
Galinda's knee stopped hurting, so she stood up and resumed unpacking, only not so furiously this time. She hadn't the tiniest of thoughts, "She's rather nice. And seems like she could be friendly." But she immediately pushed it away, she didn't need that. Not now.
EGEGEGEGEGEGE
Elphaba left for dinner without a word, leaving Galinda time to think. Which is exactly what she didn't want. She knew that Elphaba was nice. And she knew that she reminded her intensely of Marcy. Not the looks of course, as Marcy wasn't green, but just, her personality. She didn't say much, but when she did, it was intelligent and caring.
"Just like a friend should be." Galinda sighed, and sank onto her bed, head in her hands.
For the first time in about two years, she found herself with tears in her eyes, thinking about the best friend that was torn from her. Every so often she would do this, sit and cry her eyes out over the two people she loved most in the world. But this time, before she had a chance to fully begin to cry, she could almost hear Marcy talking to her. It was most likely just her thoughts, but she liked to think it was Marcy looking over her.
Marcy telling her that college was a chance to get a fresh start. To lose that numb feeling, and to make new friends. To move on.
She wiped her eyes, and headed down to dinner, heaving a huge sigh before stepping into the room. She saw Elphaba sitting alone. She almost headed toward her, but someone called her name first.
"Miss Galinda! Come sit here with us!" One of the girls she had met that morning before room assignments was calling to her, and the group of snobby rich girls were all flocked at one table. She walked over to them, but did not sit down right away.
"Hello there! Miss...Pfannee was it? And Miss ShenShen?" Galinda's plastic smile was beginning to hurt her cheeks.
The rich girls nodded enthusiastically, and gestured violently toward an empty seat, that they had obviously been saving for her. She glanced quickly at Elphaba, who seemed to be deeply immersed in a book, before deciding to take the seat.
"Maybe they'll turn out to be good people," Galinda thought to herself, "Even if they aren't, five years of this hasn't hurt me, what's one more night going to do?"
But, they did not turn out to be good people. They spent most of the meal talking about Galinda's roommate, whose name they did not use. They just referred to her as many different variations of "green girl" Galinda played along, but didn't put forth any opinions of her own, just fakely giggled at all the others. When Elphaba rose from her table, and strode past theirs, all the other girls giggled harshly, but Galinda made eye contact, and was almost terrified at the lack of emotion in Elphaba's dark eyes.
She rose from the table and left, despite the pleas to stay from the other girls. When she returned to her room, she was surprised to find Elphaba scribbling furiously in a journal. She tried to enter quietly, but the second Elphaba saw her, she jumped and stashed the book under her pillow as quickly as possible. She was trying to be sly, but in the process of hiding the book, she knocked a small green bottle onto the floor. She grabbed that, and gently placed it back.
Galinda opened her mouth to say something, but shut it immediately when she saw Elphaba's glare. Instead, she walked across the room, and sat gently on her bed. She sat quietly for a few minutes, then got bored.
"Miss Elphaba? Ugh..I've always hated those formalities. Do you mind if we drop them? We are roommates after all." Galinda said.
Elphaba just glanced up at her. "Sure. I don't mind." Then returned to the book she was reading.
Galinda looked delighted. "Well! Alright then! I'm going to have a bath, then. Do you want to use the bathroom before I do?"
Galinda saw a gesture from Elphaba that most resembled a no, so she took it as such. She went into the bathroom, and was preparing to bathe, when she noticed that Elphaba had all sorts of strange oils on the counter. She was curious about them, and made a mental note to ask Elphaba about them when they were better friends.
"No! Not friends! Better...roommates."Galinda whispered harshly to herself. Then she filled the tub, adding some bubbles to help with stress, and sunk in, sighing slightly.
She didn't want to be friends with Elphaba, but maybe having a roommate wouldn't be so bad after all.
