"Let's say I were to go. What then?"

Galinda shrugged. "You dance."

"And if I don't have a partner?"

"I'll be your partner."

"Really?"

Galinda placed her hand over her heart. "Through sickness and through health; through humiliation and popularation, I vow to dance with you if you should cross the dance floor." That is, if she didn't die of embarrassment first. "But you have to promise me something."

"What's that?" Elphaba asked suspiciously, curling closer into herself beneath the quilts.

"You'll wear the hat I loan you."

Elphaba searched Galinda with her eyes and then nodded hesitantly.


"You look especially handsome tonight," Galinda complimented Fiyero, while straightening out his collar outside the main hall of the OzDust.

He grabbed her hands gently at the wrist and pulled them away from his personal space bubble. "Not so bad yourself, Miss Upland."

"Where's my compliment?" Avaric complained, winking at himself in the window's reflection and tugging on the edges of his blazer. "Hey there, Handsome," he murmured.

"I couldn't compliment you with Fiyero being right here," Galinda muttered.

"Nah, go ahead, compliment him," Fiyero said absently.

"Where is your brain tonight?" Galinda demanded.

"I was wondering, Galinda, what exactly did you have planned for Elphaba?"

Galinda swatted the concern away. "She's getting what's coming to her, that's all."

"Oh, really?" Avaric said curiously. "I wonder what kind of scandal the devious Upland has created."

Fiyero flinched. "Just not anything too extreme, okay?"

Avaric looked at Fiyero accusingly, his orange eyebrows shooting up his forehead. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Oh, I get it," Galinda said slightly hysterically. "You're being the hero here, aren't you?"

"No- uh- no! Of course not!" Fiyero stuttered. "I just don't think she's done you wrong. That's all."

"Fiyero! You don't live with her! You don't know what a pain she is."

"And you don't understand that Galinda won't stop until she's the most popular person in all of Oz," Avaric added condescendingly.

"Exactl- HEY!" Galinda exclaimed.

"Alright, fine," Fiyero relented, "but whatever mess this is, you'll have to clean it up," he warned.

"Look, who's playing philosopher again," Avaric mocked and headed into the party, so Fiyero and Galinda could make their entrance together and leave everyone in awe of the power couple they were and would be.


Galinda felt like the worst person in all of Oz. Her roommate was in the middle of the dancefloor ruining her reputation in a ridiculous hat, believing that she was doing herself good. Where could this alien girl have possibly been raised? She saw everyone watching her and heard the muttering, but she continued. Galinda wanted that kind of confidence. How is it that Elphaba had this charisma all along and she had never seen it? Still, Elphaba would be a laughing stock for the rest of her student life.

Beside her, Fiyero was gritting his teeth. "This is bad even for you, Galinda," he muttered.

That tone sent shivers down the guilty girl's spine. It was rare for Fiyero to be so disappointed. This was the person who had told the university as a whole to let everything slide.

"Go, fix it, Galinda," he hissed. Every time Elphaba moved a new wave of gossip floated around.

"I can't!" Galinda retorted rather loudly. "I'm not an idiot!"

"Until you prove to me that you're better than this, I'll think what I think." And Fiyero could see that he had struck home. If Galinda was going to be loved by the population, then she sure as hell had to be loved by the one she adored most.

So Galinda kept her promise to Elphaba from the night before. Something she'd never thought would happen.

From then on, Galinda and Elphaba found that the other wasn't so unbearable; that in fact, she had the promise of being a decent friend. Well, more than decent. The two were almost inseparable. The key word being almost, as Galinda was determined on spending a lengthy portion of the day with Fiyero. She adored him. He was compassionate and charming and she didn't hold anything he had said at the OzDust against him because it was his words that gifted her with a new best friend.

He was handsome. He knew the places to be and the people to be with. He wanted to be around her. He was so easygoing, but when he wanted something the determination was undeniable. He was so perfect and he had to be all hers. She was positive that it would happen. If not now, then later.

But he always managed to shirk her off. He was going somewhere with Avaric. Being tutored by Boq. He couldn't sit with her in class because Dr. Dillamond told him she was a bad influence. And when they did get time to themselves it was always around Avaric or Pfannee or Elphaba.

"Aren't you coming to history, Galinda?"

Galinda rolled over in bed and felt her forehead. "Tell the teacher I'm ill," she groaned.

"Well, alright," Elphaba said uneasily. "Get better."

"Elphie, hold on! Can you get me some water before I die of thirst?"

Elphaba rolled her eyes and muttered something about being overdramatic while she filled a glass of tap water and set it by Galinda's bedside. "Anything else?"

"Fluff my pillow?"

Chuckling to herself, Elphaba left without another word, sure that Princess Galinda would be able to fluff her own pillow. On the way down, she met up with Boq, who she had become recently acquainted with. It seemed that just as Galinda befriended her, the friends started rolling in on their own accord. Boq was the only other person on campus who visited the library as often as Elphaba did.

"Elphie, have you heard anything about the new prof?" Boq asked.

Elphaba shook her head solemnly. "I can't imagine him being comparable."

Boq squeezed Elphie's shoulder. "That's alright. We'll write a petition or something. Get the Goat out of jail."

"You're not improving the situation very much," Elphaba replied irritably, "only reminding me that somewhere in the distance the most dignified professor of this whole damn school, is being abused and tortured."

"Elphie, it's not that bad. The Wizard takes good care of everything."

"Of that, I'm beginning to wonder..."

Boq put a finger to his lips. "You can't say those things around here, Elphie, you know better."

"Do I?" Elphaba retorted mischievously.

Boq shook his head and took a seat near the front of the classroom, while Elphaba headed off to her usual spot in the back, which she had made her habit since Galinda had told her to. She had learned that to argue with Galinda over trivial little nuisances like that was useless.

Elphaba pulled out her textbooks, her paper and a pen and aligned them perfectly along the desk, waiting patiently for the new teacher, who seemed to be running late. Finally, the teacher walked backwards into the room, pulling a cart with bars along the top and sides.

And then as usual, Fiyero walked in ten minutes late. He stopped and looked through the bars. "Aw, what a cutie!"

The teacher watched him impatiently as he took a seat beside Avaric, but before Fiyero did so, he looked at Elphaba out of the corner of his eye. Peculiar. He hadn't done so in so long, Elphaba was sure he had forgotten she existed. It must be busy being loved by everyone. Tedious too.

As the teacher, Dr. Nikidik, began preaching about the importance of biology and the glorious Wizard's roll in it, the class was instantly lost in conversation, bored of his irritating, nasal voice. Dr. Dillamond at least could command a class into order.

It wasn't until the doctor drew attention to the cage that everyone started to notice the moving form inside. Or rather, the shaking form inside. No wonder Fiyero had called the thing cute. It wasn't a thing. It was an animal. Or an Animal.

"Excuse me," Elphaba's voice rang throughout the class. "But where is its mother?"

"Its mother? Back in the wild..." the professor replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"So why isn't the lion in the wild? Or is it a Lion? How are we even to know?"

"You aren't to know. That's part of the focus of this lesson. As we know, animals are equal to Animals," the doctor continued, unaffected.

"Excuse me," Elphaba repeated, "why is it shaking?"

"It's just cold."

"It's terrified!"

"Please control yourself, young lady."

"The lion should be in the wild!"

"This particular Lion is for learning purposes," he replied calmly.

"So you admit it is a Lion!" Elphaba cried. "Release the Lion! You have no right to decide his fate!"

"Please, find your seat and control yourself!"

"NO!" Elphaba could feel all eyes on her, but she didn't care. She knew what it was like to be stuck in the thrall of someone else. However, there was one set of eyes in the room that was avoiding her, as if afraid that just by looking he would catch some of her emotion.

But it was all within reason because Elphaba was feeling enough emotion for everyone in the classroom. And it was growing and growing. Until everything froze around her in the paralysis of it. Except for the one person who had refused to take part. "Fiyero, you have to help me."

He looked around in confusion and fear. "What the hell did you do?"

"I don't know! Please."

He looked around again, as if contemplating the idea of making a break for it. "Alright, I'll...we'll free it."

"What?"

"Do you want my help or not?" he demanded.

"Yes," she said quietly and followed him away from the school.

"Promise me that you won't tell anyone about this," he begged, as they found their way to a vacant area of the school grounds. Elphaba looked at him helplessly. He wished wholeheartedly that she wouldn't do that. "I can't let this get out," he explained.

She nodded. "Yeah, I get it. You don't want anyone to know. I understand...or rather...I don't. I've never had a reputation to kill, have I?"

Fiyero set the cage down angrily. "Why do you judge me so harshly?"

"I don't! That's my honest opinion!"

"You put on this act, Elphaba. I get it. You think you're above this, but you make judgements just like the rest of us!"

"That's not true! I'm a firsthand victim of-"

"What did you first think of me?" he asked angrily. "The very first time we met, what did you assume I was like?"

Elphaba shrugged. "I don't remember."

"You thought I was a stupid, arrogant prince with nothing better to do than order others around and goof around like I owned everything," Fiyero said cruelly. "Am I really like that?"

Tilting her head to one side, Elphaba observed him. He wasn't as comfortable with himself as he usually was. "You say that, but you don't even look at me, Fiyero. You can't sit beside me. You can't even talk to me in public! Last week you practically said that if you were in my situation, you'd at least make more of an effort. What's that even supposed to mean, Fiyero? And why can't you say these things to my face?" She poked him the shoulder. "I'm tired of being the one who has to suffer so you can feel wanted!"

Fiyero shook his head and his eyes fell to the gravelly ground beneath his feet. "Why do you even bother to listen to those things?"

"I can't help it. No one can."

"You don't strive for it, Elphaba. It's amazing," he confessed, his voice dropping to a lower, more intimate tone.

Elphaba flushed and her eyes were drawn to the Lion scratching helplessly at the metal bars of its confinement. She sat down beside it and spread two fingers through the bars, stroking the soft fur behind the Lion's ears.

"It's afraid," Fiyero commented, seating himself beside her. Close enough that their knees were touching.

Laughing softly, Elphaba muttered, "Aren't we all?"

Fiyero seemed slightly shaken at the reply. He made a grab for the cage and decided it was time to run. Elphaba searching his soul was not going so well. So, he reached across her and closed his fingers around the handle attached to the top of the Lion's miniature prison, but his eyes stopped and rested on Elphaba's; their lips only inches apart. As usual, Fiyero couldn't tell what her expression was, but it was profoundly in pain; her eyes large and shining and her lips forced closed.

Something about her desperation made Fiyero want to do something, but he felt just as helpless as she looked, so he kissed her in his helplessness, communicating his confusion and then left her in the same position as quickly as he could.