Rifiuto: Non Miriena

Question: An arranged married?

Answer: yes

Question: EXCITED ABOUT MARRYING MANEK?!?!?

Answer: different people remember things differently

Thanks to ShortieJMW, lizziemagic, and Hedwig466 for reviewing the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth chapters, and Wicked'elphaba-fiyero, and Issa(dot)wicked17for reviewing the thirteenth chapter.

When everyone returned from winter break, they stayed clear of the girls; all had heard about the spectacle concerning the old maple, and most thought the girls had done it for attention. No one knew the real reason for the girls' outburst- Mrs. Thropp's death. In class, they treated Elphaba like a pariah, avoiding her at all costs, afraid they'd catch whatever she had.

The three spent their time sitting together in the green, or at a table in the back of the cafeteria. And it was one afternoon, as we were passing classes, that we saw the girls sitting under the cherry tree. A light rain storm had broken, drenching everyone in its wake, and the girls sat on the grass, getting soaked to the skin. At one point, we saw Elphaba lift a cup to her lips, and realized that the girls were sharing a cup of coffee, oblivious to the world around them.

We tried to talk to the girls, passing them notes and shooting them glances. They ignored us, focusing on their studies or each other. Most agreed that Elphaba had something that could easily spread: depression, sadness, and even though she wore fake smiles, she was only going further off the deep end. Everyone was waiting- not for the wedding bells that were in Elphaba's future, but for something else.

Her death.

Speculation began: if Elphaba went off the deep end, she'd take Glinda and Milla with her. Little did anyone know that the girls would do just that.

Until then, the girls kept to themselves, sitting together during lunch, or wandering around campus, arms linked. We tried our hardest to get the girls' attention, even going so far as to standing outside their dorm window and throwing pebbles. Only Fiyero seemed to have any luck. Ignoring the rumors swirling around Elphaba, he had silent conversations with her during class, and met her more than once in the bushes outside Crage Hall.

More than once, Elphaba snuck into Fiyero's dorm, spent a good hour or two with him, and always left with a kiss and a whispered, "If Horrible Morrible catches me, I'll never be allowed to leave the dorm." Then, Fiyero would watch her disappear into the mist. In that time after winter break, Milla and Glinda also developed secret trysts, with Crope and Boq- nowhere near the sexual relationship Elphaba and Fiyero had, but relationships all the same.

Yes, Milla's virginity had been taken, but she adamently denied it happening in the first place, and wouldn't let Crope get anywhere near her bed. As for Glinda, kissing wasn't allowed, just holding hands, and the young girl spent much of her time blushing and trying to hard. She wasn't experienced, like Elphaba, or confident like Milla.

"She was a child. In every sense of the word." Madame Morrible explained when we asked about Glinda. "What she was doing at Shiz, we'll never know. She certainly didn't belong here; none of those girls did. They belonged at home, with their parents. If they had stayed home, these accidents wouldn't have happened."

Once again, we brought up Mrs. Thropp's apparent suicide, and the role it played in her daughters' deaths, Morrible scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"That woman was emotionally and mentally unstable. Why she was allowed to have and raise children, we'll never know. Those children should have been taken from her the moment they were born. Her death was bound to happen, she was a lunatic."

We asked about Elphaba and the knapsack that had been with her when she died, and again, Morrible scoffed.

"That child was brilliant. Brilliant and confused. She didn't understand that her mother did her a service, by taking her own life. She herself was a ticking time bomb. Both those sisters were. With a mother like that, they were bound to be. I'm amazed she didn't shoot up the school."

The idea that Elphaba would have unleashed rampage was absurd, she was introverted, not extroverted. Kept to herself, and left everyone else alone. But the notion that she was mentally unstable, was an idea the whole school played with up to and after her death. Milla, Glinda, and Nessa were seen as copycats, although all four went at once. For years, a pact had been suspected, but no note or signed agreement was ever found. We've searched everything, examined all of our evidence, and found nothing that suggests a suicide pact.

One piece of evidence we have in our possession, is a note Milla had written to Tibbett in Life Sciences. Having slipped it to him during class one afternoon, he was surprised by its contents:

Wouldn't happen to have a razor on you, would you?

I need to slit my wrists now, Nikidik is boring me to death.

The mere fact that Milla mentions suicide- even sarcastically- is startling, as is the choice of "suicide." Perhaps the note, although meant as a way to relieve boredom during class, prophesized what was to come, not just for Milla, but for the other girls as well. We've weighed this note against one Elphaba slipped into Fiyero's bag after Ozian Lit, and the similarities are startling. Although longer than Milla's the content is, for the most part, the same:

Did Oxur intend to bore you to death? Was that what he had in mind when he wrote The Geliva? I've never been so bored in my entire life.

I was just about ready to hang myself with my own scarf. Worst book we've read so far. Can't wait until the semester's over.

Meet me in the bushes tonight? Eight p.m.?