"We are vastly different Miss Galinda," Elphaba whispered, tears on the very edge of her voice. "You wear your emotions on your sleeve while I have only ever known how to lock mine away."

--

Chapter Twenty-One: Of Frex, Of Family, Of Disappointment

"Sir, I must protest this!"

Doctor Dillamond paused in his speech and cocked his head slightly at the voice of Madame Morrible outside his classroom. The professor was just about to order a student to go discover what the disruption was all about when the door slammed open. Every student in the room whirled in their seats to see who dared to interrupt the Goat's lecture.

"Sir, this would be best dealt with in private!" Morrible all but screeched as she followed behind the man who had slammed the door open. However, the intruder made no sign that he had even heard the Headmistress as he paused and quickly scanned the classroom.

Finding the person he came to talk to he stormed through the rows of desks and cruelly grabbed hold of a green wrist; yanking the young woman out of the desk.

"What are you doing?" Elphaba quietly hissed.

"Removing you from this school!" The intruder shouted, his face red with anger.

"Sir, the other children don't know what happen," Morrible tried to explain. "Please don't make a scene, for Miss Elphaba's sake."

"For Elphaba's sake?" he screamed. "She is a twisted human being! A disgrace! She gets no say in her life anymore!"

"Father, let go of me!" Elphaba hissed as Frex dragged her through the aisle.

"I'm taking you home and ridding you of that devil inside of you!"

Elphaba tore her wrist out of her father's grip. "I don't have a devil inside of me!" she screamed, losing her control. "And I'm not going anywhere!"

Frex whirled around to face his first-born daughter. "I let you come here to take care of Nessa and you repay me by running around having sex, getting pregnant, and then having a… an abortion!"

Galinda suddenly stood up, knocking her desk slightly, and screamed; "She was raped! As her father you should have some sympathy for her!"

Frex laughed. "Raped? Who in their right mind would want to have sex with you, you're green! A freak! Obviously you witched them somehow."

"Father… please…"

"Abortion is murder," he said. "Abortion is sin. You're a devil's child through and through. I should've killed you from the moment you were born."

"I am not a devil's child! And it was a miscarriage!"

"A miscarriage?" Frex laughed. "A self-induced miscarriage maybe… nothing more than an abortion!"

"You were pregnant?" One of the students whispered, her eyes wide in horror.

"You killed your own child?" Another student, one who didn't quite understand the concept of miscarriages or abortions, asked.

"It's not what you think!" Elphaba exclaimed; turning her attention away from her father and towards the students as she uselessly tried to do damage control on her already pitiful reputation.

"You're… you're a murderer." A third student muttered. "A freak and… and a murderer!"

"Indeed she is," Frex agreed and Elphaba whirled around to face her father.

"I'm not a freak! And I'm not a murderer!"

The backhand sent Elphaba sprawling to her hands and knees and a collective gasp escaped from the classroom. None of the students had ever been, or seen someone been, struck so forcefully by their own parent. For the first time some of students managed to get it through their thick sculls how hated Elphaba was by her own father.

"Elphie!" Galinda made to move towards her friend's side but Fiyero quickly grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Stay out of family issues!" he hissed into her ear. "Especially there's!"

Galinda frowned and had no intentions of listening to Fiyero but his grip on her arm was too strong and she found herself unable to break free to help her friend. She was forced, against her will, to stand back and watch her green roommate being humiliated by her own father in front of her peers.

The blonde felt sick.

Elphaba blinked back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. Never had her father struck her in public before. She bit her bottom lip; trying to ignore the stinging in her cheek. She could feel the blood trickle down her cheek from a long, but shallow, cut that one of Frex's rings must have made. Blood also dribbled from her bottom lip where a second ring, or possibly the same one, must've caught and ripped skin.

A hand grabbed Elphaba's arm and hauled the shaken green girl to her feet. Elphaba tried to pull away from her father's grasp but found herself far too weak from the ordeal she had forced her body to endure not more than a few days ago. Frex, blinded by his anger and his shame, dragged his daughter to the nearest wall and pinned her by the neck with his arm; her feet dangling a foot from the floor.

"You listen to me child," Frex said, his voice low and angry. "I have half-a-mind to beat the devil out of you right now, right here. And one more word from your mouth and I just might!"

Elphaba's eyes were wide as she desperately tried to claw at her father's arm so that she could escape and breathe again. Strangled gasps came from her mouth as her green skin began to take on a strange blue hue from the lack of oxygen. "Fa… father…" she gasped out. "I… ca… can't breathe!"

"Maybe I'll just strangle the devil out of you!"

"Sir." Madame Morrible's voice was quiet as she cautiously approached the angry father. "Please… let Miss Elphaba down."

Frex, finally snapping out of his rage, quickly dropped his arm to his side and Elphaba fell into a crumpled heap on the ground. The green girl laid there for a few moments, gasping for breath, until she managed to gather enough oxygen into her lungs to calm her racing heart and bring her back from the edge of unconsciousness. Slowly she stood up; swaying slightly as her body still tried to recover from the severe lack of oxygen.

Cold, brown eyes stared into her father's blue eyes and she could feel her cheeks getting hotter, becoming a slightly darker shade, with embarrassment as she realized that everyone in the class had seen what had just occurred.

"Come on, Elphaba," Frex angrily whispered as he made to grab his daughter's wrist.

"Don't touch me!" Elphaba hissed, stepping backwards and away from her father. She quickly regained her composure and strode from the classroom; slamming the door behind her.

Frex stood still in shock for a few moments before he too strode from the room and slammed the door behind him. The occupants of the classroom could hear muffled screams of anger and demanding obedience coming from Frex towards his green daughter for a few more moments before the pair fell out of hearing range.

Madame Morrible, Doctor Dillamond, and the students all stayed frozen in shock until the Goat finally managed to find his voice and dismiss class. Galinda Upland was the first to regain her true composure as she bolted from the classroom in search of her friend.