Chapter 4: The nanny and the Frog

Elphaba

"Nor, there's a difference between true and truth. You must not always be able to prove something." She turned around picking the frog from her pocket. "Like I can't prove that you put the frog in my pocket, but I'm almost sure you did it. What do I do about that? Punish you or let doubt take over? I don't want to start in disrespect towards you…"
"How do you know?" She paused. "How do you think you know you I put the frog in your pocket?"
"Because you just confessed." Elphaba smiled.
"Did not….."
"Did too," Elphaba repeated as she took a book. "Plus I see no reason for punishing you. I don't think it is what I want to do right now. I'm here to teach you."
"I put a frog in your pocket." Nor opened her eyes wider. "A frog in your pocket? Don't you see how serious that is? I…"

"The frog found it funny too…." Elphaba put her hand in front of her mouth. "I was kind of funny, so can we move on. You pulled a funny prank, and now we can go back to being, teacher and pupil."
"A prank?" Nor stood up. "You're green; it was an attack on your personality. How can you let that be? How can I get away with that?"
"It wasn't that bad," Irji said. "I mean you must have had worst done to you before."
"I've had a frog dissected in my pocket before." Elphaba opened her eyes wider. "Since it was alive, I can't seem to care about the color. You're a child, not a 25-year-old woman named Glinda."
"You know aunt Glinda?" Nor smiled. "She's the best. How do you know her?"
"I don't." Elphaba rolled her eyes. "I know her reputation."
"How can a reputation perceive you?" Manek opened his eyes wider. "Well, Aunt Glinda isn't a colorless person. She's like you, but with pink."
"She likes to dress in pink." Nor corrected. "Why do you like to dress in black?"
"Because I'm not pretty," Elphaba replied. "Pink is for pretty girls, like you Nor."

"I think you're pretty," Irji replied. "I think green is a pretty color and it suits you. Plus, you would be better for daddy than Nessarose."
"Don't say that." Manek gave him a playful push. "She could hear you. They say she hears everything."
"Hears everything?" Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "How can one hear everything?"
"Big Ears…" Nor laughed. "You must know that I mean you are smart. What do we call you?"
"Elphaba." She laughed. "You can call me Auntie, that way you won't have to call me with that difficult name, El-Fa-Ba."
"I like the name." Nor smiled. "But I like Auntie better."

"Let's teach you, kids, something…"

Fiyero

Fiyero turned around; he was heading to Munckinland in a week and getting fabrics for Elphaba was more difficult. He didn't want to get her black; he wanted to get her color. He didn't want his kids to look at the black; he wanted green, red. He wanted everything. Maybe not tones that would get him attracted to her.
"Mister…." That was her voice, and it seemed that it did something to him. It didn't mean that he could fall for her. It was so strange. "Your daughter is a brilliant girl."
"I know that, Miss Elphaba." He turned away.
"I would like to talk about the lesson plan." Elphaba stared at him. "You can't want your kids to study all diaries of the Tiggulars. One the diary of Marijik Tiggigular is very doubted to be true. He was not an animal lover."
"We are not Marjiik lovers either," Fiyero admitted. "You don't have to teach from those diaries. In fact, you can throw them out."
"But you can't simply throw out your history." Elphaba pulled her arms closer. "You should simply push them to a high shelve and know they're not true. He was a man; people make mistakes."

"Do you say that to the people who refer to you as steam broccoli." He stared at her. "Or the ones that say green light, go!"
"I didn't hear that one just yet." She smiled. "Do you mind if I add that one to my biography?"
"Are you writing one?"
"Isn't everyone?" She stared at him. Why did she like his face that much? Why did she like watching him? Did she feel something in the pit of his stomach? "I mean things like 'So you're always a greenie?' Aren't fun things to hear. They're degrading. Do people look at you differently because of the diamonds?"
"They do." He admitted. "They prove I'm royalty."
"That's positive." She turned away. "I guess…"
"Not if you can't be a normal guy…" He turned away. " A normal father, a normal husband. You're always a prince; people always regard you like a prince. Get it?"
"I do."

That moment he almost looked too deep into her eyes. And if he were to look too deep into her eyes, he would fall for her. And that was something that could not happen; he needed to fall for Nessarose, the princess of Munckinland or whatever she was. So he couldn't look at her, he couldn't let the one woman he wanted to understand and the one woman that he needed to understand. He just couldn't fall for her.
"Any special request for fabric?"

"Black." She turned away.

Elphaba

"Here is some fabric for clothes." The housekeeper gave her all different kind of colored fabrics. From pink to black, she didn't understand she said to Fiyero she only wanted black and now she received multi-colored fabrics. She stared at them; she couldn't pull red off. She couldn't maroon blue off either, the only color she wanted to wear was one that made her invisible.
"Do you like them?"

"Yes, very much." She lied. "They're so magnificent. Do you think I could get more fabric?"
"How much clothes does a governess need?"

"Not for me, for the children. "She turned around in the room. Putting the fabric on her bed. "I want to make them some play clothes. "
"The Tiggular children don't play. They march. " The woman looked at Elphaba. "I don't approve of it. But what can you do, ever since the captain lost his poor wife, he runs this house as if on one of his ships. Whistles, orders. No more music, no more laughing. Nothing that reminds him of her. Even the children. Not even Nor."
"But that's so wrong." She said. "When I talked to him, he seemed sensitive. He seemed like a man that cared for his children."
"He does care for them." The housekeeper replied. "He cares so much about their education. He just doesn't know how to care for them. Sarema used to do that. That was her job, they didn't have a marriage filled with love, but they knew their jobs, and the kids knew their place."
"And now?"
"Well, he's leaving in the morning. " The housekeeper stared at her. " The last time he visited Nessarose, he stayed for a month. I shouldn't be saying this to you. I don't know you that well. But if you ask me, the captain's thinking seriously of marrying her before summer's over."
"Wonderful! The children will have a mother again. " Elphaba smiled. "Nor must be happy, yet she doesn't seem to like Nessarose."
"No one likes Nessarose."