Okay, guys, here's chapter ten. I was going to put it up last night, but I fell asleep while writing it and woke up a little late this morning, so…here you go!
Elphaba led Galinda down the sidewalk, occasionally stopping at a vendor's cart to talk with the owner or point something out to Galinda. The blonde had a smile permanently plastered to her face, which just made Elphaba even happier to have thought of bringing her downtown. Slowly making their way down the street, they arrived in front of a large theater where men and women were streaming in.
"What's playing?" Galinda asked interestedly. "It looks like this one is pretty popular."
"Here, I'll ask," Elphaba said, letting go of her hand to talk with an attendant who was holding one of the theater doors open. She came back a few minutes later, taking Galinda's hand once again.
"It's a musical called Forbidden Love," she said, pointing at the sign just inside the doors. "The attendant said that it was about a girl and a boy who fall in love, but the girl is shipped off to some distant country, the Vinkus, I think, as a present to the king there. She's supposed to be Gillikinese. It sounds pretty good. Do you want to see it?"
"But, Elphie, we don't have tickets," Galinda said. "You would have had to get them weeks in advance. And, no offense, but you don't seem like the kind of girl who would go to see a musical by herself."
"Do you want to see it?" Elphaba repeated, looking down at Galinda. "I can get us in, if you really want to see the musical."
"Well…I don't want you to spend too much money on me," Galinda said.
"That means you want to see it," Elphaba said, pulling her towards the theater, nodding politely to the attendant as they passed through the doors.
When they passed into the main hall, Elphaba led Galinda off to the left and to a small door, engaging the attendant there in a hurried conversation before he unlocked the door and opened it for them. Another attendant on the inside led them up a flight of stairs before opening another door into a hall and another into a small space containing four seats that was closed off from the rest of the seats around them. The attendant nodded to them politely and closed the door behind them.
"Elphie, where are we?" Galinda asked, sitting down in one of the chairs, Elphaba sitting next to her soon after.
"This is my family's private theater box," Elphaba said, standing up once again and taking off her coat, setting it on the empty seat to her left. She took Galinda's coat and set it on top of her own. "It is at our disposal at any time we wish. Most of the attendants can identify me, since I'm green, and my sister, since she's in a wheelchair, so we usually don't need any identification to get in. And we can bring up to three people with us, sometimes more, if we warn them ahead of time."
Galinda looked down at the first floor seats and hurriedly pushed herself back in her own seat. "Too high," she whispered when Elphaba looked at her questioningly. "I don't like heights."
"I'm sorry," Elphaba whispered, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. "Here, the orchestra is tuning up, that means its about to begin. If you need anything, just tell me and I'll have the attendant get it, okay?"
The blonde nodded into Elphaba's shoulder, and then the lights dimmed and the curtains began to open slowly. Both girls diverted their attention to the stage where figures were beginning to move. A few seconds later, the whole stage was lit and the characters started to twirl across the stage in colorful costumes, singing the opening song.
The intermission came and the curtains closed, the main lights of the theater turning on so everyone could see their way out of the room to take a short break. Elphaba turned to Galinda who was looking at her excitedly. "This is so exciting!" she exclaimed. "I've never been to see a musical before! What's going to happen?"
"Honestly, I have no idea," Elphaba said, smiling back at her. "And even if I did know, I wouldn't tell and ruin it for you. Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you want anything? I can go have the attendant get something for you if you want."
Galinda shook her head. "No, I'm fine," she whispers, leaning her head on Elphaba's shoulder. "So, is this how you live when you're back in Munchkinland? Do you have private theater boxes and restaurant owners at your disposal?"
Elphaba's smile faded. "My life in Munchkinland is…different. I live a life of royalty and have people at my beck and call," she said, shaking her head. "People show up in front of our property, begging for money, for food, for a doctor so their daughter can be healed. In Munchkinland, I'm more like a celebrity, not a real person. No one knows me for who I am there; they all think I'm just the Heir-Apparent and that my life goal is to rule Munchkinland."
"What is your goal?" Galinda whispered, lacing their hands together and looking up into her eyes.
She looked down at Galinda and kissed her softly. "I want to live a normal life, or as normal as it can get when you're green," she whispered. "I want to go to school, to Shiz, and walk around the corridors as a student, not as Heir-Apparent. I want to stay up late talking with friends and get up in the morning just in time to get dressed and dash for class. I want to walk along the streets, laughing at some stupid joke. I want to grow old and live in a little cottage with someone I love, and I know loves me back."
Turning towards the stage, her voice hardens. "But I can't have that," she said. "I can't be normal. Not only because I'm green, but because I'm the stupid Heir to the Eminent Thropp. Nessa would be suited better for this job, but I have to take it, or I would disgrace my family. It's a duty, and that's all I'm good for, living up to expectations as best as I can."
"That can't be true," Galinda whispered, turning to face her completely. "Your family loves you…"
"My family consists of me, Nessa, my father, and my little brother," Elphaba interrupted. "You saw how Nessa reacted to us being together. Multiply that by twenty thousand, and you get my father. And my brother…it doesn't matter what he personally thinks because my father will never allow me to see him again."
"You two are close?" Galinda asked. "You and your brother?"
Elphaba sighed and nodded. "Yeah," she said, grasping Galinda's hand even tighter. "It was just the two of us, though. No one liked me because I was green, and no one really paid any attention to him because he was a boy."
Galinda looked at her oddly. "Why because he was a boy?" she asked.
"It has to do with tradition in Munchkinland," Elphaba said, pulling her hand out of Galinda's and pulling her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "Instead of boys being the heirs and the 'strong one' in the house, it was always the women. I don't know why, that's just how it is. So that means that the Governorship gets passed on through the women in the family."
She was quiet for a moment, and then went on. "My mother never wanted daughters because she didn't want us to be burdened with the Heir-Apparent title," she whispered. "In a way, she was glad that I was green because she didn't think that my grandfather would name me Heir-Apparent. The same with my sister, because she couldn't walk."
"That's horrible," Galinda whispered, her face screwed up in sympathy and horror. "Who would wish something like that for their children?"
"Meet my mother," Elphaba laughed humorlessly. "She was disappointed when my grandfather came down to our cottage on my fifteenth birthday and offered me the title. My brother had been born five years before, and my mother had decided not to have any more children. Because of that, my grandfather had to settle for the least of the messed up children…which was me, because I could still function properly. I just had a 'skin problem.'"
Elphaba sat up. "I should stop talking," she said quickly. "This is way too depressing. I said I would stop talking about my dead family, and here I am, going on about my mother. Let's just…forget I ever said anything, okay? I just want you to have fun today. You deserve it."
"Elphie…" Galinda protests.
"No, we can talk…later," Elphaba whispers, bringing her hand to her lips and kissing her fingers. "The show's about to start again. Just relax and enjoy it. We'll talk later, tonight, okay?"
Galinda nods reluctantly and Elphaba puts an arm around her shoulders as the lights in the theater dim, the orchestra starts to play, the curtains open, and the figures on the stage once again begin to move. Elphaba glances at Galinda a few seconds later and chuckles when she sees that she has her eyes glued to the stage, completely mesmerized.
"So how did you like it?" Elphaba asked as they walk out of the theater, hand in hand.
Galinda's eyes are shining and she's bouncing up and down in excitement. "It was wonderful, amazing, perfect," she yelled, drawing stares from the people around them. "I can't believe I've never been to a theater before. This has been the best day in my life!"
"Really?" Elphaba asks, surprised. "You aren't just saying that?"
"No, why would I just randomly say that?" Galinda asked, stopping in her tracks and looking up at Elphaba.
Elphaba shrugged. "I don't know, to make me feel good," she said. "I want this to be the best date you've ever had. You deserve so much better than what everyone else has given you. And I want to show you that."
"Elphie, if you took me to the most disgusting bar in the most dangerous part of the city and we sat next to the most disgusting man in the world, I wouldn't care," Galinda said, turning to face Elphaba. "I love you, and I'm not going to leave you just because we go on a date that isn't the most brilliant in the world. And you don't have to worry about impressing me, either. You could leave everything here, and I would be ecstatic."
"Do you want to go back to Shiz?" Elphaba asked. "There's more I could show you, but it involves a lot of walking around, and I don't want to tire you out too fast. We can grab something to eat really quickly and we can have dinner in the cafeteria or in our room later."
"Yeah, let's go back to Shiz," Galinda said, and they walked down the sidewalk, hand in hand.
Hope you guys liked it. I'm seriously going to try to get the next chapter up today, and, knowing me, I'm probably going to fall asleep at the computer again. Please review, everything you say is appreciated!
ReallyObsessiveWriter