Chapter 3: Crazy

It was such a rush when they'd hit that ending position. They'd run the choreography from beginning to end with music once he'd showed them all they needed to know. Fiyero lifted the green girl up from her arched back and gave her a small smile.

She was amazing.

She smiled back at him and he walked to the back of the room, trying to calm down the weird feeling in his stomach.

"Alright, time to show us what you've got," he said. He sat down on a chair and Agnes handed him a clipboard along with a pen.

"Alright people listen up," Agnes clapped her hands, "we will do six couples at a time. Feel free to travel as much or as little as you'd like during the dance, just be wary of the other couples. Gentlemen, some of you may have to go twice so that all the ladies can dance with a partner. First group, please,"

Looking at the papers in his clipboard, he saw that the paper was organized with small but fairly sized photographs of the dancers on the left with a box for comments on the right. It seemed like they had taken them before auditions, what he saw on paper was exactly what they looked like.

As he watched the first couple of groups, Fiyero saw that for the most part, everyone had technique down; so he turned his attention towards the emotion, interactions, musicality, and posture. Some dancers messed up and he gave them some credit for continuing to dance; others, it was obvious, had no idea what they were doing.

The green girl had finally stood up to dance. He smiled slightly, he'd been looking forward to watching her. However, she stood by herself for a couple seconds, no one seemed to be joining her sooner any time soon.

Ridiculous. Fiyero fought the urge to roll his eyes at just how utterly ridiculous it was. "One of you, come up and dance with her," he said to the guys and wrote down the last couple of notes he had from the previous group.

When he looked up agan, a guy had stood and made his way towards the green girl. Good, he thought, but he would have gladly gone up and danced with her again if he had to.

He wanted to, he realized.

The music played.

He tried to pay attention to the other dancers, but she kept drawing his eyes towards her, demanding his attention.

No, it wasn't because she was green, although it was something he hadn't seen before.

She was a beautiful, elegant dancer with such gorgeous lines. Her movements were sharp and smooth where they needed to be, her posture was perfect, her emotions on point. Dancing like that, there was no way he could ever tear his eyes off of her.

She was a delight to have as a partner and a delight to watch. The fact that she was a beautiful girl also helped. He blinked, snapping back to reality once they had finished the dance. He clapped and then wrote down his notes.

"Wonderful," Agnes voiced, "great job. Dancers take a 10 minute break; use the bathroom, drink water, change if you want to; be ready to move on to hip hop."

Everyone scattered; some laid down on the floor, some took a drink, others left to use the bathroom.

Fiyero scanned the room, trying to be discreet and not make it obvious that he was searching for the green girl.

He saw her sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, whispering with a blonde girl, "Pinky", he'd called her in his notes due to her attire since he wasn't given the names of the dancers and their photographs were in black and white. He saw the green girl blush and smile. Was it crazy that he hoped she was talking about him?

He shook his head, yes it was crazy. He'd just met her. Yet, he couldn't wait to see her dance again. Maybe be her partner some more too.

She was all the way in the back, he could barely see her, and it was distracting the hell out of him as he taught the hip hop choreography. It was easy to spot her in the mirror, but she always seemed to be behind someone. When he did see her fully, she was helping the blonde friend he had seen her with earlier with a body roll; his mouth went dry. Thanks to her wearing a leotard, the curves in her upper body were accentuated even more when she did that move. Somehow, he managed to tear his eyes off of her and keep teaching the next part of the dance.

Once again, she went with the final group when he and Agnes watched everyone execute the choreography. He couldn't help but smile, she looked like she was enjoying herself. The thing about hip hop was that even while executing the same movements, everyone had their own style; hers was playful with just a hint of seductiveness; and she took his breath away.

Modern wasn't one of his favorite genres, but it was a good way to test the core strength and fluidity of a dancer's body, in his opinion. Most of the choreography for this portion was on the floor with minimal traveling. He wondered if her legs were as soft as they were graceful.

He was dancing with her again. Elphaba felt butterflies in her stomach, she'd hoped she would get the chance to dance with him again at some point, and he was actually ok with that. She blushed slightly at that thought.

They were going over the entire ballet routine he'd just taught without music. She must've swung her leg too hard when she hit her arabesque, the next thing she knew, she slipped and was falling.

She expected to hit the ground face first; but instead, her knees had missed the floor by inches and her upper body was held upright by strong arms wrapped around her chest, her back against a chest.

Elphaba looked up to the mirror, breathing heavily from the brief scare. Fiyero was looking right back at her. And so was everyone else.

Great.

He seemed to realize they were being stared at, but he still didn't let go of her. "Shouldn't you be going over the choreography?"

Everyone immediately went back to doing their own thing.

"You ok?" He brought her to her feet and rubbed her arm, making her temperature rise.

She sighed and laughed softly, then smiled at him. He caught her.

"Yeah, I'm ok," she whispered, "I guess I just swung my leg too hard. That or I need more rosin on my shoes."

"And maybe another pair," Fiyero smiled softly and motioned to her pointe shoes, "those look a little dead."

"Hm?" Elphaba looked down. "Maybe. But the shank is still ok-ish. They'll probably hold for another class or two."

"Are you sure you're fine?"

"Yeah," she smiled, but her heart was hammering under her chest.

They kept on practicing the routine. Elphaba was certain she was losing her mind. His hands on her waist and legs would distract her tremendously and she was drowning in his eyes.

Sure, she'd had crushes before, but they'd never been this…this...ugh! They'd never had such an effect on her as Fiyero was having.

But what woman in their right mind wouldn't like him? He was attractive, kind and considerate, and that's just from being a partner. What would it be like if…

No. No.

Dream on, Elphaba.

She might as well have as much fun as she can. This was the closest she was ever going to get to a man not being disgusted or repulsed at looking and touching her.

She missed dancing with him when her turn to perform the choreography came, it wasn't the same, and not just because her partner seemed to want to be confined to a wheelchair rather than dance with her.

She felt comfortable and confident when dancing with Fiyero, something she struggled with a lot. But today, it was rather easy to feel that way. How could she not when he treated her like any other person?

Oz, she felt like she was going crazy. With the way her body shook when her and Fiyero touched, she might as well be.

Elphaba was tired and her head was aching. How long had they been at it? They had laid down mats on the floor and started to practice the tumbling passes. It seemed like it was hours ago. Then again, she didn't get a chance to eat in between breaks thanks to Glinda's constant questioning about what it was like to dance with Fiyero.

Speaking of, when would he and Madame Morrible start to evaluate them?

Part of her wanted to go home, it was dark outside already. But the other part wanted to extend today just a little bit more. She probably wouldn't get a chance to see Fiyero again and she wanted to thank him.

For being a great partner, for being kind, for being a gentleman, and for treating her normally.

Finally, Madame Morrible and Fiyero sat down and asked them to tumble in groups of four. She didn't mind that they'd had to do all of them twice, Elphaba was glad she could rest soon.

"That's a wrap! Thank you everyone for coming to audition, as I said earlier only five females and five males will be selected, you will know on Monday whether or not you've made it. Have a good weekend, everybody," everyone clapped.

Elphaba put on comfortable shoes and put all her stuff away.

"Ready, Elphie?" Glinda asked, walking towards the door.

"Hang on just clock-tick," Elphaba scanned the room, but Fiyero wasn't anywhere in sight.

She felt something deflate in her chest. She had really wanted to thank him after auditions were through. But they had to get home and who knows, he might have already left.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Elphaba followed Glinda out of the dance room and out of the studio.

"See?! Wasn't that fun?! I told you it would be a good experience," Glinda squealed.

Dancing with Fiyero? Of course it was fun. Elphaba didn't think she'd have that kind of experience ever again.

It was the most Fiyero had danced in a while. When Agnes had approached him to be her special guest for the competition season and given him the details about five months ago, he'd taken a small break in between then and now to visit his parents in Vinkun County since he'd be traveling for four months.

Shiz Dance Studio had a good reputation; always making it to nationals, 7 wins under their belt, had placed in the top ten for the last 11 years straight, and had never placed under top 20.

He'd come prepared with choreography and combinations in different genres. And he'd enjoyed watching her execute everything almost flawlessly.

He'd enjoyed being her partner again for ballet; she was taller than most girls, he was pretty tall himself and she'd been exactly level with him in her pointe shoes. She had felt so delicate in his arms when they'd done the combination together. She'd seemed anything but delicate when she had nailed the tumbling combos, she was enticing.

Back to the task at hand, he told himself.

It was late in the evening and he was organizing his notes with Agnes, helping her make the final decisions for a competition team. She passed him old headshots of the dancers, these in color, along with their name printed at the bottom.

"Jakov. He's brand new to the studio. He's a talented dancer but he seemed to be nervous at the audition and it showed," she said.

Fiyero looked through his papers. Matching the photograph in front of him to the headshot, he read his notes again and remembered the dancer as best as he could.

"He's young, no doubt he'll improve," he began, then sighed, "but I don't think he's ready for a competition team yet," Agnes nodded and he put an "N" next to the photo.

Many dancers had been crossed off immediately due to large amounts of technical or memory issues, shortening their options from 47 to 32.

"Melihza," she passed him the headshot, "she was on the team last year, she's strong in modern and jazz, not the best technical dancer when it comes to ballet, but she's hardworking."

Fiyero arched a brow after looking at his clipboard. "You said she was on the team last year?"

"Yes."

"I didn't make a single note on her. I have no doubt she's talented, but there are others who worked really hard and stood out to me way more,"

''Alright, moving on then," she set her picture aside. "Elphaba," his heart raced at seeing the green girl's face.

So that was her name. Elphaba. It fit her.

He suddenly felt shy at reading out the exact notes he'd made on her. "She was amazing," he sighed, "I don't really know how else to put it."

"Indeed she was. Elphaba is one of the best dancers in the studio," she said, "this was her first year auditioning too."

That shocked him. "Really?"

"We have an age minimum for dancers to audition since we travel a lot during the season. She just turned 20 this year, this was the first time she could audition."

Wow. Most youngins didn't really make that much of an impression on him. And here was a 20 year old young woman who'd caught his attention from the moment he laid eyes on her and kept it when he'd seen her talent.

"That's it, she was the last one,"

Fiyero counted off the people he hadn't put an "N" next to. 16 remained; 7 guys, 9 girls. Agnes spread the headshots of those still being considered on the table and asked him who he would pick to be on his competition team.

He stood and looked at each picture individually, closing his eyes to remember what he'd seen the dancer do at auditions. Once he'd made his decision, he placed those he'd cut to the left and those he'd keep on the right.

After much silent thought between two male dancers, he set one final picture on the right.

"I think this is your team," Fiyero said. Some dancers weren't the best by far, but he also went based on potential and attitude.

"Hmm," Agnes looked at the final line up, "I think this is the first year where I won't make any arguments," she laughed. She wrote down their names on a sheet of paper. "I'm going to go print out the schedules. You'll need a copy of it too, I'll be right back."

After he'd heard the door shut, he reached for her headshot, and studied her features. She was absolutely beautiful, no doubt about that. He wondered if she was beautiful on the inside too. She seemed to be.

Elphaba Thropp. She was very intriguing; either she didn't give a twig what anyone else thought, or she was just good at hiding it. He had no idea why, but he was determined to find out which one it was.

He had time. After all, he would be spending four months traveling Oz with her and he had some time before that too.

Not gonna lie, not super happy with this one. No matter how much I rewrote it, it didn't seem right to me, but here it is and I hope it's ok. It was more of a filler to know what/why Elphaba and Fiyero are drawn to each other.

Fiyeraba starts to take off next!

Hip Hop: /AbkRvxju1tY

(I recommend the 1st [00:04] and 3rd [02:15] group)

Modern: /OvNRvF3A7iM

Ballet: /v9veQAgBpXc

(It's so HARD to find a simple-ish pas de deux where there's as much attention to the male as there is to the female [imo], but I think this one is pretty good. Also, in case you don't know, the shank is the very front of the pointe shoe, it helps the dancer go on relevé and supports the arch of the foot. It's usually [not always] the first thing to tell you that your pointe shoes are dying)

Tumbling: /_oKLgqVSMw0

Hope you enjoyed it! R&R :)