Rifiuto: Non Miriena

A/N: Vinkun is the Ozian equivelant of Latin, and Gillikin is the equivelant of Folk dance.

Question: when is the honeymoon gonna end, or are they really meant to be?

Answer: you'll have to read and see

Thanks to jnjluvsbooks32 for reviewing 7.

August, Day Four

The next afternoon, when Elphaba returned from her dance classes, she found something that nearly gave her a heart attack.

Her roommate's side of the dorm was clean.

Clean.

Actually, truly clean.

Her mouth dropped, and she stared at the spotless floor, the made bed, and the neat desk. Slowly, she went to her roommate's closet, pushing the door open, checking to make sure she wasn't hiding in wait to scare her, and when she poked her head in, she found the clothes hung in order of length, much like her own clothes in her closet. The shoes were lined up along the floor, in order of height- heel to flats- and her hats, scarves, and gloves were folded and placed neatly in a basket on the top shelf.

When a search of the closet brought back no results, Elphaba went to her bed, tossed her dance bag on spread, and made her way to her own closet. Quickly pushing the door open, she turned the light on and stuck her head in, but again, turned up no blonde creampuff. Her own clothes were pristine, spotless, and in the exact places she'd left them in that morning after getting dressed. Not a shoe or blouse were out of place.

Feeling uneasy, she returned to her bed and opened her dance bag, pulling out her Pointe shoes. Slipping out of her flats, she pulled her slippers on and quickly tied the pale, tattered ribbons around her ankles, before getting up and going to the middle of the hardwood floor. She ran through a series of exercises, before finally, slowly, raising onto her toes. She focused on her balance, before doing several pirouettes, keeping her focus on the fireplace mantel. She got through ten pirouettes, before the door opened, causing her head to snap to the side and lose her spot. She did one final spin, before landing on the floor with a squeak, and that was how Galinda found her, in a heap of black warmups and pale pink toe shoes on the floor.

"Hi. Oh, are you okay?"

Elphaba looked up, to see the blonde standing over her, and her mouth dropped for the second time in an hour and a half. And with good reason, too.

Standing in front of her, was Galinda, but not the blonde she'd shared a room with for the last two years. While it was the same girl, she'd died her hair a light chestnut brown. But now that she looked at it, it wasn't even chestnut like Nessa's but a light caramel, almost beige color. At first, Elphaba didn't know what to make of it, and just sat there stunned. When she was finally able to get over her shock, she stood, never taking her eyes off the blonde she so despised.

"Yeah... I' m fine. Are... Are you?" She asked. Galinda nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

Elphaba bit her lip. "Well... you know what? Never mind."

Galinda watched as her roommate went to her bed, and untied the ribbons around her ankles before putting them back in her bag. The girl seemed wrapped up in her own thoughts, and after a few tense moments, Galinda went to her.

"You dance?" Slowly, Elphaba looked up from her usual ritual, and stared at Galinda as though she had just noticed her. After a moment, Elphaba nodded. "What kind?" The question caught the girl off guard, and she had to think before she spoke.

"Um... Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Modern, Hip-Hop, Lyrical, and Pointe." She said, showing her the toe shoes to indicate the last one. "I... also do Ballroom, Vinkun, Swing, Belly and Gillikin. Why?" Elphaba asked, having finished listing off the different dances she was skilled in.

She gave Galinda a weary once over, before returning to her ritual. Once everything was put away, she pulled out a tube, pushed her dance bag aside, pulled her put up onto the bed, and opened the tube, putting a bit of the cream into her hand. At first, Galinda thought it was a hand lotion, but then she watched as Elphaba began rubbing the cream on her feet, and realized that it was a foot cream.

As her long, slender fingers ran over the skin of her feet, Galinda saw the cracks on her heels, the blisters on the balls of her feet, and the cuts on her toes. Her feet looked like they'd been run through a meat grinder, and Galinda couldn't help wincing whenever her hands ran over the cuts and other leisons. She'd heard about dancer's feet, about the hell they put their feet through, and when her mother had enrolled her in ballet classes as a child, she'd put up a fight.

She remembered watching the older girls in the class after her, watching as they wrapped their feet in bangages and ice, noticing the cuts and bruises on their feet from the Pointe shoes they wore. She remembered how several girls had hammer toes- toes that were so deformed from Pointe dancing, they looked like small hammers. She remembered seeing the girls nursing bloodied and bleeding feet after class; feet that looked bound, like the ancient Glikkus used to do to their daughters. She remembered seeing one girl land wrong on her toe shoes, and as a result, break her foot, and end her dancing career at the age of sixteen. Even now, she shivered in fear, and wondered why anyone- least of all her roommate- would want to put themselves through that hell.

"Um..."

Elphaba's head snapped up, and she locked eyes with Galinda. She waited, and when the girl didn't say anything else, returned to her feet. The other girl sat on her bed, staring at her roommate, unable to take her eyes away from the girl's feet.

"Do... do you like dance?"

Elphaba didn't respond for a moment, but when she did, she didn't look up, instead working cream over her other foot.

"I've danced my entire life. Mom said I was a dancer before I could walk. She said I began to sing long before I could talk. I guess it's in my blood. It always will be, I come by it naturally. Why?"

"Ju.. just curious." Galinda whispered, watching her roommmate, as Nessa's words from two days ago came rushing back.

She's danced her entire life.