Alright... I know that the last chapter was rushed, to say the VERY least. That's the other reason (besides awkwardness for me) that I hid in a corner. I'm going to try to make it up to you (but probably not with another 'scene'... not soon anyway)

...Does anyone else think it's pathetic that I can't use the 's' wordin my own speech without being uncomfortable, but I can with my characters' dialogue just fine? I'm so immature...lol.

...Hey, my school is named after this chapter... That's a reason not to like it right there.


012. Orange

The next morning, Elphaba's eyes fluttered open. The sun was just rising, giving everything an orange-ish cast. She lay still on her side. She knew exactly where she was and what she'd done the night before (the raw feeling between her legs reminded her). She turned her head back, seeing Fiyero still asleep with his arm wrapped gently around her waist. Her heart started beating faster as her mind filled with morning-after realizations and 'what ifs'.

I just slept with Fiyero. What if he regrets it? What if we can't be friends after this? What if he was never my friend and this was all a cruel joke? Her thoughts became more outrageous as she kept thinking about it, but she seemed to skip right over the rational concern. That would come later.

She felt Fiyero stir beside her and pretended to be asleep. He kissed her shoulder and rubbed her side until she turned to face him.

"Morning," he whispered. Elphaba just nodded, unsure of how to react to him after…well, that.

A look of concern swept over his features. "Are you mad?" he asked, "Do you regret it?"

Elphaba looked him straight in the eyes. "I… no, I'm not mad and no, I don't regret it."

"Good." He kissed her forehead. " I'd never forgive myself if I forced you to do something you didn't want to."

There was an awkward silence.

"But what happens now, Yero?"

"Well, I was hoping that, maybe, if you want to, we could… be together?" Fiyero went on nervously, not even sure what he was saying, "And that one day, if things go well, we could get married and have a family…" He stopped when he saw Elphaba's jaw drop.

"It's really early to start talking about weddings and having childr…" Elphaba trailed off and her eyes went wide.

"What?" Fiyero asked, "what is it?"

"We didn't use protection, did we?" she realized.

"No, but I promise, I don't have any weird disease or any—Oh…"

"Shit!" Elphaba began to panic. She wrapped the blanket around her and rushed around the room gathering her clothes. Fiyero found his pants and slipped them on.

"Elphaba," he tried to get her attention. "Elphaba." She kept searching for her clothes. "Elphaba!" He grabbed her arm as she breezed past him, forcing her to look at him.

"Listen to me. Even if you are… pregnant, I'm not going to leave you. I promise. I had something to do with this and I'm not going to bail out on you."

Elphaba sat herself down on the floor staring at Fiyero's feet. She looked like she might vomit. Fiyero wouldn't blame her if she did. Instead, she looked up at him, smiling in spite of herself.

"I'd never have guessed that I'd be in this mess. Especially at seventeen."

Fiyero knelt down in front of her. "Are you really only seventeen?" The 'only' wasn't really necessary. He was barely eighteen himself.

She nodded and then froze. "Please tell me you're not in your late twenties or something like that. As if we need to make the situation more awkward."

Fiyero laughed. "No. Eighteen. I just thought you were at least my age since we're in the same year. You act so much more mature and you carry yourself better than the other girls in our year."

"Let's see how I carry myself in a few months." Elphaba responded darkly, motioning to her torso. Fiyero bit his lip.

"Let's just take things as they come."


Okay... so that was a nice little filler that doesn't really matter... Next is another little filler that's... I dunno...

Anyway, I thank all of my reviewers because they basically rock and tell me if I do something not-so-wonderful... like rushing. Honesty is pretty much always appreciated.

e.r