Right, so I'm skipping around. What you need to know: I know where I am now, so finals are over, Doctor Dillamond's dead, and Nessarose has just come down to Shiz. That's all. Read on…

At home, Elphaba had learned to be a light sleeper for the simple reason that her sister was, and Nanny was not. Though she'd lost the habit in her year and a half at Shiz, she'd found that it was returning with Nessarose's arrival. So it came as no great surprise to Elphaba when she heard her sister calling her name, and it was no trouble for her to wake fully and slip softly across the quiet room to the smaller one Nessarose and Nanny had been installed in.

Nanny snored in the opposite corner. With the exchange of a wry smile and the ease on both parts of having done this many times before, Elphaba helped her sister sit up, then steadied her as she drew her legs in to make room for the green girl to sit down. "What's up?" she asked quietly.

Nessarose shook her head, unable quite to say. "Nothing. It's just- I don't know."

Elphaba nodded. "I know. It's strange until you've settled in properly-"

"No, Elphie," Nessarose cut in, "not Shiz. You."

Elphaba was taken aback. She looked at her sister curiously. "Me? What about me?"

"It's- you've changed, Elphaba. You just- I don't know. You're-" Nessa tilted her head, trying to find words. "More outspoken. Less shy, I guess." She shrugged, an action that looked odd on a girl without arms. "Different."

Elphaba raised her eyebrows at her little sister, masking a mute recognition that what she had said was true. She knew she was different, though she was mildly surprised that Nessarose had noticed, as Nessarose generally didn't notice things unrelated to herself or the Unnamed God. And yet, Elphaba was unwilling to admit her alteration to her sister.

"Don't give me that look," Nessa scolded softly.

Elphaba sighed. "You, Nessa," she said, resigned, "were always too perceptive for your own good. I surrender. Yes. That's college for you."

"It's not college." Nessarose surveyed her sister. "And you're not going to talk about it."

"Correct."

"Elphie…"

"No."

Nessarose wrinkled her nose, exasperated. "Fine. Then tell me about Glinda."

"What about her?"

"Anything," said Nessarose, then inhaled quickly.

"What is it?"

"It's her," said Nessa softly. "I see now. You two are friends…"

"Yes!" Elphaba was becoming slightly annoyed. "Yes, we are friends, she's my friend, is it such a shock that I have friends?"

In the silence that followed, Nessarose shut her eyes. "Oh, Elphie," she said tiredly. "You know I didn't mean it that way."

"I know, Nessa," said Elphaba quietly, thickly, after a moment. "I know you didn't."

"But what is it about her?" Nessa asked curiously, recovering quickly from the gaffe. "What is it about her that-"

Though she didn't finish the question, a thousand million answers sprang unbidden into Elphaba's mind. Her naiveté. The way she truly did struggle to think. How true she could be. Her persistence. The way she'd changed, as she surely had. Even, yes, that rainy afternoon. And even, yes, the way her spun-gold hair framed her face when she slept. The way, sometimes, a wisp of hair would escape her ribbon and settle across her cheek, tempting Elphaba to get up and smooth it back. It always made the blonde girl look so vulnerable, as if the façade she used in public had slipped away, as if she could only truly let down her guard once the waking world had let her go.

She smiled when she slept, too, most nights. As if the world and all its troubles couldn't possibly get to her while she drifted through her dreams.

"Elphaba." Her sister's voice jerked her back. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Nessa," she replied, absently. "Just thinking."

"It's that hard to come up with an answer?"

Elphaba snorted. "Our Miss Glinda has a multifaceted personality."

"Pick one."

"Socialite."

"Elphaba!"

"It's true," the green girl defended herself. "Socialite butterfly. Not so much anymore, though."

"Why not?"

"Who knows?" Elphaba smiled fondly. "She's got quite a mind, when she chooses to use it."

"And does she?"

"She tries," Elphaba told her sister. "Without realizing it, but she does."

"Society," said Nessarose in reluctant agreement, and Elphaba shrugged.

"She was. But she's learning."

Nessa looked up at her sister, bit her lip. "I'm not going to get you to talk, am I?"

"Not tonight," Elphaba told her, biting back a smile and standing. As her sister slid down, Elphaba tucked the covers firmly back around her. "Fresh dreams, Nessa."

"Goodnight, Elphie."

On her way back, Elphaba noticed that once again, a stray bit of hair had fallen to lie across Glinda's cheek. She stood between their beds for a moment, indecisive, then quickly went to Glinda's and brushed the blonde girl's hair back out of her face. For a moment, she stood looking down at her roomie. For a moment, she contemplated kissing her on the forehead.

No, that was too dangerous. What would Glinda say if she woke? Instead, Elphaba returned to her bed, but lay awake, unwillingly willing herself to forget the feel of the blonde girl's cheek under her careful fingers.

Wow, guys. That wasn't cliché at all. Ew. I promise you something better next time, something that's not a filler. This isn't quite what it oculd be, and it isn't quite right, but I can't for the life of me figure out why.

My timing's all off. Well, too bad for it. Yes, I know it should have been Galinda in the first three chapters.

Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! And thanks to everyone who read and didn't. I know you're out there. -points around- Yes, you. Come on. I know you're reading, now tell me why.