The Vinkus was mostly a dry place. However when it did rain there it rained in great sloshes of never ending water. Mombi had made the unfortunate mistake of having her house built in what was usually a dry creek bed. Unfortunately, when a torrential downpour struck the Lesser Kells, it became a decidedly wet creek bed.

"Wake up you useless green bean!" Mombi shouted, shaking Elphaba awake. The viridian witch came to with a grunt.

"What?" she demanded over the pounding of rain on the roof. "What's going on?"

"The basement's flooding!" Mombi exclaimed fearfully. "You've got to get Ozma out!"

"Why don't you do it?"

"Because I'm terrified of water," the hag admitted. "Now get your lazy bones down there and help!"

Still sleepy Elphaba obediently rushed downstairs. "A sorceress afraid of water," she muttered. "That's the silliest thing I've ever heard. Why can't Oz's princess get herself out of the flooded basement?" A blast of irritated, green magic hurled open the cellar door.

"Mombi is that you?" cried a frightened voice. "Help me please!"

"I'm coming," Elphaba growled. Ozma was perched on one of her modest couches eyeing the two foot deep water as if it were acid. "Don't be a baby!" the green girl exclaimed. "It's not that deep."

"I am not wading through that water," the princess scoffed. "It's not dignified."

"Well neither is drowning," Elphaba argued. "So you can either get your royal rumpus over here or drown." Ozma drew herself up proudly.

"You will carry me."

"I will most certainly not."

"Yes you will."

"No I won't." Ozma scowled. Elphaba scowled back a hundred times fiercer. "Don't get in a stubbornness fight with me," the witch warned. "I'll win every time."

"Fine," the redhead hissed. She stepped primly into the perfectly safe, standing water and waded across.

"Now was that so bad?" Elphaba wondered calmly. She extended a hand to help pull Ozma up the slippery stairs.

"Get that green thing away from me!" The princess huffed imperiously past her green maid.

"Thank Oz you're ok!" Mombi exclaimed upon sighting her charge. "I was worried sick."

"What? Is she allergic to water?" Elphaba muttered. Her employer glared but, before she could let fly any sassy admonishments, Ozma began to whine.

"Mombi where will I sleep?" she demanded. "My bed is ruined."

"Well…"

"She can sleep with us," Glinda, who had just appeared behind Elphaba's shoulder, exclaimed. "We've got a little extra space in our bed."

"What are you doing?" the green woman whispered. "I am not sharing a bed with her."

"That's a wonderful idea," Mombi croaked. "Why don't you room with the maids?"

"With the maids?" Ozma's lips curled with disgust. "You can't be serious. I am not sharing a bed with that string bean."

"Then they'll sleep on the floor," Mombi decided. Her voice rang with unquestionable authority. "Now off to bed. If I don't sleep you'll all be sorry tomorrow morning."

Like a trio of sulky, scolded children the three girls stomped upstairs.

/

Glinda woke in the foulest mood she experienced in a long while. Her entire body throbbed with bruises from lying on the hard floor all night. Had Elphaba not wrapped an arm around the blonde's petite frame she would've shivered her way all through last night's chilly weather.

"How are we going to keep that snitch from ruining our lives?" Glinda demanded of her green companion.

"You were the one who spent time as a snobbish brat. Can't you bond over makeup or something?" Elphaba asked, half joking. She was met with the fiercest glare Galinda was capable of.

"It's been years since I acted even remotely snobbish," she exclaimed, ignoring the green witch's raised eyebrow. "I don't even remember how."

"I'd bet you do."

"Wake up girlies!" Mombi screeched as she threw open the door to the attic bedroom. Ozma moaned on the bed as Galinda and Elphaba stretched. "It looks like you'll be roommates for a month or so," the hag explained. "The basement's pretty soaked."

"What?" Ozma all but roared. "Are my dresses ok?"

"No, they're ruined. Totally destroyed."

Ozma proceeded to pout at Mombi until the hag promised her charge a trip to the Emerald City to shop for more dresses with Elphaba and Glinda as chaperones.

Ozma was delighted.

Glinda was optimistic that she could perhaps bond with the redhead over shopping.

Elphaba was sure that this trip would be similar to a stint in hell.