AN:

Hellloooooooooo! :)

Happy weekend everyone!

I've got a new chapter for you and not much else to say, so... Happy reading my lovelies!

xoxo

MLE (=^_^=)

Chapter Three

Elphaba peered down at the shorter girl on the other side of the door, her expression a picture of absolute stoicism. Only she herself knew what a significant amount of effort it had taken her to drag her sorry ass to uni this morning. Around the time she'd gone to bed the previous night, this hadn't even been the plan at all. That ditzy Galinda-girl was to blame—not only for accosting her on her way to work, but also for haunting her dreams later on. Elphaba had been nearly content in her cosy bubble of denial and isolation, until she'd come and popped it with her little, pointy heels and squeaky voice. What a nuisance. Being back in the biology lab with Doctor Dillamond and, especially, beholding the look on the blonde's face, however, she figured that it might all be worth it in the end. Truth be told, she could hardly hold back the grin that tried to tug at the corners of her mouth.

"What—what are you doing here?" cried the girl opposite her in indignation.

Seemingly impassive, Elphaba merely quirked an eyebrow.

"Why, last time I checked, I was the lab assistant, and you literally begged me to come back."

Oz almighty, watching all that bottled up and carefully contained frustration so obviously coursing through Galinda's tiny body was glorious. She couldn't have asked for a more effective pick-me-up.

"Ah, Miss Glinda."

Elphaba took a step away from the doorway, affording her professor a better look at his other student and Galinda an opening to come inside the room if she so wished.

"I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience. As it turns out, Miss Elphaba seems to feel better now and has decided to attend class today. That being said, there is much to prepare for our experiment today, and if you could lend her a helping hand, I'm sure Miss Elphaba would be more than grateful."

Giving each girl a brief nod, the professor pushed past them in order to return to his office. Elphaba and Galinda stayed behind, first watching him leave, then simultaneously turning back to stare at each other.

Elphaba cocked her head and folded her arms.

"It's okay, I can handle this. You go have a little beauty nap in the corner, my pretty."

Galinda's eyes narrowed briefly, but her features soon evened out, and a serene smile appeared on her glossy lips.

"Well, I'm here now. Might as well make myself useful. I think I kinda know my way around the storage room now. What do we need?"

The taller girl's glee over the success of her prank nearly dissipated. She hadn't really anticipated ending up being stuck with little miss perfect for the rest of lab prep. Grudgingly, she picked up the sheet on the teacher's desk and skimmed through the required materials.

"We're going to extract DNA from strawberries. For each student we'll need three beakers—what are you doing?"

Slightly confused, she watched Galinda, who'd circled to the other side of the desk and opened one of the drawers. She noisily pushed around its contents until she located a purple marker.

"I'm making a list, silly," was her offhand reply as she uncapped the pen and began to write.

"Uh, alright." Elphaba cleared her voice. "Well, so it's three beakers, one measuring spoon, one sieve, one spatula, one scalpel, and one ziplock bag. You just get those and I'll gather and distribute the ingredients."

After pursing her lips and casting one more glance at her list, the blonde disappeared into the storage room. Elphaba followed her with her eyes until she was out of sight, then let her gaze wander back to where her neat, swirly handwriting decorated the outermost panel of the whiteboard. Her letters were flawlessly balanced and even, and just as tiny as the hand which had produced them. No one would strive for such casual perfection unless they had something to hide.

Galinda re-emerged with a shopping basket full of beakers and carefully placed them one by one onto the desk. Elphaba suddenly realised that she hadn't even started her task yet and quickly spurred into action.

"Um, the rest of the stuff can go straight to the students' desks," she shouted in Galinda's direction as she crossed the room to get to the big cupboards in the back where most of the chemicals were stored.

She grabbed a big bottle of isopropyl alcohol and a tray of small jars labelled 'sodium chloride.' Galinda had just started dispensing spatulas, scalpels, and measuring spoons, when Elphaba turned around and almost bumped into her. The jars jittered and rattled precariously at her abrupt evasion manoeuvre.

"Hey, careful!" protested Galinda.

Elphaba scowled at her in what she considered an act of pure self-preservation.

"Apologies, but you're just so damn easy to overlook."

"Then you should get your eyes checked," the shorter girl shot back, returning her glare with almost the same intensity.

Awkwardly, they moved past each other, then continued on their predetermined paths. Barely a clock-tick later, however, Elphaba almost jumped when she felt the tray of salt lift off her palm.

"Here, let me take those," Galinda said and gave a little grunt under the weight. "You'll be busy enough with the measuring of the alcohol and the washing liquid. I'll do the salt and the strawberries. How many is everyone getting? Two? Three?"

"Two, I think," answered Elphaba, swallowing a strange lump in her throat.

Galinda nodded and continued her preparations. Elphaba shook her head as she resolved to do the same. She divided the beakers up into three groups and began by pouring the alcohol, making sure everyone would receive the exact same amount. They both worked efficiently and in near complete silence. Focusing on nothing but her own task, Elphaba almost forgot that she wasn't the only person in the room.

Eventually, Galinda came around to collect the first set of beakers, using the now empty salt tray. Suddenly distracted, Elphaba couldn't help but look up. What was it with the petite blonde? Was she trying to kill her with an abundance of pretended kindness? She vividly remembered her precious little tirades of exasperation over Doctor Dillamond's failure to correctly pronounce her name in the beginning of term one. What a pathetic display. And her friends weren't any better; walking past them, Elphaba had often heard them complaining about their professor, solely on the grounds of him being an Animal. And of course she knew that they were whispering about her as well, only she generally did not stick around to hear it.

So… was everything good Galinda did a form of mockery? Or was she just currying favours with her lecturers in hope of better grades? Elphaba had no idea what kind of marks she usually achieved, but on the public posting announcing the results of their final exams her name had been right beneath Elphaba's, and the score she'd more or less accidentally noticed while searching for her own had somewhat astounded her. Perhaps she'd cheated, but that was an accusation Elphaba was too careful to make, even given such mysterious circumstances.

"Shit."

Elphaba had spilt some of the alcohol. She bit her lip as she watched the clear liquid drip off her hand. It stung a tad, but much to her astonishment, that was all. The sight of it was unsettling none the less and sent her heart racing, despite the absence of the usual side effects she experienced whenever she came into contact with water.

Just as she started to carefully move the remaining beakers out of the way, Galinda came to her aid, carrying a wet cloth. Elphaba spotted the dreadful, soaked thing and scurried to the other side of the table.

"What are you doing with that gross rag?" she snarled, not once taking her eyes off it.

Galinda scoffed in disbelief and placed one hand on her hip while waving the cloth around as she gestured wildly with the other.

"Cleaning up your mess, that's what I'm doing. We're running out of time, you know?"

Elphaba cast a fleeting look at the large clock on the wall. Galinda wasn't wrong.

"Galinda," she began in her best donnish tone of voice, "this is one hundred percent pure alcohol. It's a million times more hygienic than that sorry, grimy thing you're holding. Get a towel or some tissues instead if you must. That being said, I don't need your help."

Mercifully, Galinda only tutted and walked off, soggy cloth and all.

They almost finished on time.

The first students to arrive happened to be two of Galinda's friends—one a standard uppity Gillikinese kid, the other a similarly haughty Munchkin, probably busy overcompensating for her not quite as acceptable heritage. Both girls stared at her when they first arrived, visibly blanching. A small sense of wicked euphoria returned to Elphaba when she responded to their shocked expressions with a taut smile and a small wave of her hand.

Galinda paid her no mind and was quick to rope them in for the final phase of their preparations.

"Pfannee, please be a dear and put one of these on each desk," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice as she thrust a stack of ziplock bags into the Munchkin's hands. "Shen," she addressed the other blonde in the room, "can you help me fill these jugs with water? Just about half-full would be good."

By the time the next group of their classmates arrived, everything was set up correctly, and Elphaba wordlessly withdrew into a quiet corner where she'd earlier placed a single desk and a chair. A stack of Doctor Dillamond's notes were waiting for her to copy them while she was waiting for the second stream of the class to start.

After a short introduction and explanation, the class began their experiments. Every now and then, Elphaba's eyes lifted up from her page to watch the shenanigans some of the students were engaging in. One boy tested his scalpel on the back of his own hand, then recognised the magnitude of his stupidity and rather covered the resulting injury with a number of tissues than asking his lecturer for the first aid kit. A pair of girls chattered and giggled all the way through their assignment, copying each other's steps. While there was nothing inherently wrong with that, the noise was severely grating on her nerves.

Her attention was drawn once again to her infuriatingly flawless deputy. Apparently in deep concentration, Galinda poured the contents of her freezer bag into the sieve on top of the beaker. Putting the empty bag aside, she picked up her pink pen instead so she could take notes. Elphaba's eyes narrowed. She released a small breath she hadn't realised she was holding and let her gaze meander across the lab. Not a single soul was paying the blonde any attention. Why did she still feel the need to move the way she did, with so much grace and poise that one might mistake her for royalty?

The experiment was followed up by a round of questions and discussions. Participation was as sparse as ever and keeping her hand firmly on her desk was a tremendous challenge for Elphaba. Almost anxious, she peered sideways at Galinda. Surely someone who'd executed the assignment so meticulously had a number of insights to offer? But the girl's eyes were mostly trained on her notes. Only once, towards the very end of the lesson, did she speak up, giving a rather lackadaisical answer to Doctor Dillamond's question. Elphaba would have been less annoyed if she'd said something blatantly wrong, as long as it was born out of an actual lack of knowledge.

She'd never been more pleased when the participants of the first stream—including Galinda—finally walked out of the door. She distributed the materials they had prepared earlier among the cleared desks and found herself a seat in the front of the room where she didn't have to watch her incapable peers' fiddle-faddle.

Upon exiting the biology building about one hour later, she crossed paths with a familiar Munchkin chap. It was an encounter she would have gladly avoided, if only she'd been the one to spot him first, and not vice-versa.

"Elphie!" he exclaimed, just as she'd started to rush off into the opposite direction, pretending not to see him.

She tensed, her grip around the handle of her scarred and beaten leather satchel tightening. But there was no escaping now. Mildly exasperated, she stopped and turned around.

"Boq."

He caught up with her as swiftly as his short legs allowed.

"Goodness, girl! I haven't seen you around in ages! Thought you'd dropped off the face of the world or something."

"So overdramatic," dismissed Elphaba, rolling her eyes. "I mean, what do you expect? We are no longer in the same class, I hardly spend any time around campus; it's only natural we don't constantly run into each other."

Nodding along thoughtfully, Boq still didn't lose that certain look on his face.

"Fine. But seriously, Elphaba… You would tell me if something wasn't okay. Right?"

Elphaba noisily exhaled through her nostrils.

"I'm all around peachy, thanks for asking."

"Well, if you say so," he replied, still sceptical. "Anyway, listen, I'm running late for my lecture, but how about we catch up later?"

"I'll be at work," Elphaba was quick to reply.

The Munchkin remained determined.

"It doesn't have to be today. Maybe this weekend? I'll text you, okay?"

"If you must, I guess," allowed the green girl with barely any enthusiasm at all. "Now run, or we'll both be late!"

He did as he was told. After a few paces, he turned around and gave a big wave. Chuckling to herself, Elphaba responded with a small flutter of her fingers.

Boq did message her—at least a hundred times—and after three days of staunch refusals and half-true excuses, Elphaba finally agreed to meet him at the Boar and Fennel after work on Saturday. The boy was nothing if not persistent, and occasionally, she was at least low-key grateful for that. At the moment, though, she wasn't quite so certain.

She was late for their appointment, despite the fact that she usually made a point of being the one to arrive at least five minutes early. She'd already done her best to make sure Boq understood that she wasn't in the mood for any of his other chums to tag along, but she preferred to be rather safe than sorry this time. Approaching the pub from the opposite side she normally would, she confirmed that the coast was indeed clear before sneaking up on him and startling with a sudden "Boo!"

The Munchkin jumped and yelped before reeling around, his hand still placed over his heart. Elphaba cackled, but Boq was not in the least amused.

"Elphie! Not cool. If I die of a stroke, it will be your fault. You know I'm genetically predisposed."

Clearing her throat, the tall girl fought back her laughter while he crossed his arms in affected anger rather badly.

"Apologies, Master Boq. I swear, I have no intentions on murdering you with my little, harmless pranks. Neither did I plan on letting you freeze to death, so my sincerest apologies for being tardy as well. Now, how about we go inside and warm up?

Nodding grumpily, he approved her suggestion.

The Boar and Fennel was an establishment almost as old as Shiz itself and, since time immemorial, had always been one of the most popular stomping grounds of the town's ever-growing student population. Elphaba appreciated the rustic charm and the affordable prices the place had to offer; the risk of being spotted by one of her peers was less appealing. Luckily, the interior was made up of various different rooms, as well as the many extensions that had been added across the centuries of the pub's existence, providing them with plenty of small nooks and crannies to hide in. Once they managed to slip in more or less unnoticed, getting comfortable and relaxing usually wasn't too much of a big deal.

They ordered their food and a bottle of wine to share. The waitress serving them was new and unfamiliar with the pair. For at least five minutes, she'd stared at them from a safe distance, until her boss had given her a nudge in their direction. She'd been obviously nervous while taking their orders, and when she returned with two plates of extra-large pizzas, rather than one, and two glasses, but no wine, Elphaba stared at the food yet said nothing. It wasn't worth the fuss.

"I guess that's dinner for the next two days," she muttered, then shrugged and picked up the first slice.

When Boq complained about the absence of drinks, she nodded to the nearby side table and told him to simply grab a jug of lemon water.

"You know that that's not the kind of drink I was after," he replied grouchily before getting up and following her advice.

Elphaba pulled a small tin of lip balm out of her pocket and generously spread it across her lips.

"So, Elphie," he said as he poured water in each of their wine glasses, "how's uni been treating you so far? Made any new acquaintances?"

Elphaba, who'd just had her first cautious sip, almost choked.

"Very funny," she croaked out in between coughs.

Boq furrowed his forehead and cast her a strange look.

"Well, first of all, my question was entirely serious and secondly, you're grossly overreacting."

Lightly hitting her chest with her flat hand and heaving shallow breaths, Elphaba tried to regain her bearing. He was right of course. She was acting rather foolishly. Oz, what had come over her?

"What—what about you then?" she asked, coughing one more time in an attempt to clear her airways properly.

"Ah well, it's going okay, I guess," replied Boq, shrugging and waving his hands around a bit too much for Elphaba to believe that this was all he had to say.

Grunting a faint laugh and taking another bite of her pizza, she stared him straight into the eyes.

"Alright, spit it out already," she teased after she'd swallowed her mouthful, "what's really going on?"

In spite of his best efforts, the Munchkin flushed bright red.

"Ah, you know how it is," he said vaguely.

Elphaba quirked a questioning eyebrow. She certainly did not.

"Okay, okay, if you really have to know… There's this girl in my Ozian literature class."

"Oh. Right. That's where this is going."

Shaking her head, Elphaba started a second attempt at drinking her water. Boq glanced at her, opened his mouth as if to say something, then stuffed it full with pizza instead. He seemed disappointed at her apparent disinterest, so she felt obligated to prompt him.

"So? What about this girl? Have you asked her out on a date yet?"

His eyes widened at the idea.

"No!" he exclaimed a tad too loudly, then shrunk into the corner of his seat, eyes darting around to see if any of the other patrons might have heard him. "No," he repeated a lot quieter. "It's not that I wouldn't like to. Maybe I will. I mean, of course I will!"

He nodded to himself and puffed up his chest. Elphaba grinned despite herself.

"But good things take time, and I have to get this right. You know, she's not like the other girls. She's perfect."

"Is she now?"

"Yes, she is," retorted Boq decisively. "And you can keep your sarcasm, Elphie. If only you were in the same class! You should see her with those lush, gorgeous curls, and her sparkling, blue eyes. She's Gillikinese, mind you, but not too tall. I think I might still stand a chance."

Somewhere between sparkling, blue eyes and Gillikinese Elphaba had lost her appetite. Hardly able to swallow the food in her mouth, she added some water to the mix to flush it down.

"I—I didn't realise these kinds of girls were your type," she managed to say, pushing the plate away from her.

Boq's face broke into a dreamy smile.

"Aren't they everyone's type?"

"Then in that case, you have your work cut out for you," she told him, hoping to gently yet firmly bring him back to reality. "While I don't mean to break your spirits, you have to consider the sheer number of competitors you would have to boot out. This won't be an easy feat."

He pouted in response. Apparently, her honesty was not welcome.

"Just for the record, Elphaba, I will always cheer for you, no matter how minimal your chances or how overwhelming your competition might be. Because friends should believe in each other."

Trying her best to keep her expression even, she lowered her eyes, distracting herself by counting the crumbs on her plate.

"It's not that I don't think that you're a great guy," she offered at length. "But it can be hard to make other people see this. And especially if she's as perfect as you say; I'm sure she's far too preoccupied with herself to notice a simple, grounded lad like you."

"How do you know that?" he demanded hotly. "It's not like you've met her!"

"I might have!" she countered stubbornly. "What do you know, she could be one of my classmates!"

"Unlikely," dismissed Boq.

"Yet entirely possible," maintained Elphaba.

They had arrived at a stalemate of sorts, and for the longest time neither of them spoke. Boq sullenly chewed on his food, while Elphaba thoughtfully stirred her drink with the straw. She would never admit it, but after a few moments of careful deliberation, she eventually came to the conclusion that she'd overreacted. Again.

So what if Boq's description was a near impeccable fit for Galinda? Galinda was not the only pretty, curly-haired, blue-eyed Gillikinese girl out there. In fact, most of these traits were quite common among her kind. Midst literally thousands of students, half of them female, most of them of Gillikinese stock. How likely was it that her friend shared a course with the same perfect, little blonde that she did? Well, as she'd said, it wasn't impossible. But as Boq had also rightly put it, it was fairly unlikely.

Boq, virtually always more peaceable than wayward Elphaba, was the first to offer the proverbial olive branch.

"So, to change the topic somewhat… You laughed at me when I asked you whether you met someone at uni, but you forget that you did meet someone the other night. Remember? How did that go in the end? Have you heard anything from him after?"

Unbeknownst to the poor Munchkin, the branch he had ventured on was extremely thin. Instead of an answer, he only earned a withering stare from Elphaba before she turned her face away, looking the worst kind of impassive.

"You—you're still mad at me, huh?" he inferred from her reaction. "I will admit that it wasn't one of my finest moments. But you can't deny that you plain ignored me there. I felt abundantly superfluous, and that was why I left. I'm sure you can understand that much."

Elphaba's eyes briefly darted in his direction, then found the glass of water before her. She emptied it with one big gulp and set it back down with a thud.

"I think I'm done for tonight," she said, pulling a few crumpled notes out of the pocket of her jeans as she rose to her feet. She shouldered her satchel. "Got an early shift tomorrow. You can have the pizza, too. I can't be bothered waiting for them to pack it up."

"I did say I was sorry," squeaked Boq helplessly.

"I know," she sighed, closing her eyes for a clock-tick and taking a deep breath. "But I really have to go. Good night. I'll see you when I see you."

Leaving the pub with heavy, clumsy steps, Elphaba attracted a fair deal more attention than when she'd first entered. Not that it really mattered anymore. Within seconds, she'd marched through the front door and vanished into the dark night. Leaving the toasty warmth of the indoors, the howling wind outside seemed particularly cruel and her coat tragically flimsy. She wrapped it around herself as best she could and took the shortest way home.

She felt vaguely bad for Boq. Even though she did blame him for deserting her at that stupid club—the club he had dragged her to in the first place—she mostly blamed herself for everything that had occurred in his absence. Perhaps it was time to forgive and forget. After all, she couldn't possibly hold this grudge forever, especially not against her only friend in this Oz-forsaken town.

Elphaba's Monday followed about the same pattern as the previous Friday: first history, followed by two hours in a secluded corner of the library, then biology with Doctor Dillamond. While she did notice Galinda each time she entered the auditorium—for some indeterminable reason always crossing from the left to the right-hand side, exactly in front of the lectern—nothing much had changed. They never talked. As soon as the class itself commenced, Elphaba would assume her customary seat, listening intently and answering most of the professor's questions. Galinda was a silent observer at best and her voice was rarely to be heard, unless Doctor Dillamond quizzed her directly. With the conclusion of each lesson she would disappear together with her band of snobbish friends. That was all.

On Wednesday, however, Elphaba was in for a surprise.

"Knock, knock."

The green girl looked up and nearly dropped the microscope slide in her hand when a certain blonde poked her head of golden curls through the narrow gap between the door and the frame. Her initial thought was that this must be some kind of payback for the trick she'd pulled on her the previous week. But what exactly was Galinda trying to achieve by coming in early when she really didn't have to?

Exhaling briskly through her nose, Elphaba gathered her wits and schooled her expression.

"What are you doing here?" she queried with marked indifference, then continued on her path around the desks undeterred, handing out the thin, rectangular pieces of glass as she went.

"Sorry I'm late. I wasn't exactly planning on coming, but I guess I'm so used to it now. I simply couldn't sleep any longer, so I figured I might as well help out a bit."

The cheerful, bubbly tone of Galinda's voice was like the screeching of nails on a chalkboard to her ears. Maybe it was the fakeness of it all, or maybe it was actually the unwelcome intrusion in her personal territory that vexed her so. She now thoroughly regretted ever giving Galinda any opening to worm herself into the position of deputy lab assistant (even if she insisted that she'd never wanted it). She wished she could have foreseen the consequences when she'd foolishly allowed her anguish to take over her life for those few days, causing her to stay absent from school.

Elphaba paused and risked a furtive glance in her classmate's direction as she divested herself of her designer bag and coat. She noticed the cup of takeaway coffee on the neighbouring desk and the small paper bag with the nearby bakery's logo in it.

"Woke up so early that you didn't have time for breakfast at home?" she noted with a smug huff.

Galinda looked up at her. Blindly reaching for her cup, she proceeded to take a long sip, holding her eye contact all the way.

"I prefer my coffee barista made and my pastries freshly baked," she replied pointedly. "Spoilt rich girl privilege," she added with a fleeting smirk. "

Elphaba had nothing to add to that.

"At any rate, how can I be of service? I'm glad you already got out the microscopes. Those are way too heavy to lift for a fragile flower like me."

Snorting a mirthless laugh, Elphaba returned to the front of the classroom to grab another box. Galinda obviously knew what kind of opinion she had of her. And now she was trying to get back at her by poking fun at it? Well, she wouldn't do her the favour and raise to the bait.

"I suppose you could do the cover slips?" she suggested, holding the small package out for her. "They don't weigh a thing. Unless you're worried they might cut your tender skin."

To her amazement, Galinda smiled at her in a not at all artificial way and took the box right out of her hand, not even flinching in the slightest when their fingers made contact.

"I think I can manage. Just."

Elphaba let her go about her business with the cover slips and went to the adjacent room to fetch the tray of beakers from last week which still contained the lumps of strawberry DNA. Turning back around, she caught sight of Galinda through the open door and watched her for a while before re-entering the lab. She had to admit that the blonde confused her. Most of the time she thought that she'd figured her out quite well, but sometimes… sometimes she just threw her the strangest of curveballs. What was she supposed to do about that?

"Elphaba?"

She jerked to attention, only now realising that Galinda had stopped doing whatever she'd been doing and was looking straight back at her.

"Sorry. What?"

"The dye. Is it in the chemical cabinet or the storage room?"

She blinked.

"Uh… storage room? I think."

Thankfully, Galinda didn't comment and merely walked away to check.

"Found it!" she heard her sing-song a couple of seconds later and she released a breath of relief.

Once all of the beakers and the small bottles of dye had been placed, their preparations were complete.

"You see, you needn't have come," muttered Elphaba. "We're done too early."

Galinda took out her phone.

"By ten minutes. Oh, horror. Is it that bad being stuck with me?"

"Yes," admitted Elphaba, averting her gaze. "Because I don't think you'll let me sit here in quiet while we wait."

The light sound of giggling coming from the other side of the room only served to prove her point.

"You know, I might have tried. But now that you so distinctively stated your distaste for small talk…"

Grabbing her bag of pastries and her coffee cup, Galinda migrated to the desk in front of Elphaba's and moved her chair around. Ripping open the bag, she placed it next to the microscope.

"Here. Have a mini cruller. They are delicious."

"Eating is not allowed in the lab," Elphaba pointed out.

"Oz, Elphie!" laughed Galinda, and Elphaba froze.

What was this girl doing, sharing her breakfast with her and calling her stupid nicknames? What was her agenda? Perhaps she only hoped to gain her trust for some dreadful scheme.

"So what class do you have after this? Bio lab starts so terribly early. I'm glad I finish at two on Wednesdays and not five like most days."

Galinda was talking so fast, Elphaba could barely keep up with her.

"I—I only have this one class today," she answered sheepishly. After all, it would have been rather awkward to not reply at all.

"That's nice. Same for me on Tuesdays, but as a result I have five hours of lessons on Mondays and four on most other days. I guess I would have spread it out more evenly if it was really up to me."

Elphaba frowned.

"That… sounds like a lot."

"It is," sighed Galinda, somewhat theatrically. "But I'm taking five different courses each semester instead of four. That's why my schedule is so chaotic. Absolutely thrilling when exam season comes around," she added jokingly.

Elphaba couldn't say that she'd expected that. She didn't know many students who took more than the recommended number of papers, especially not on a regular basis.

"Why would you do that?" she found herself asking, unable to reign in her sudden spur of curiosity on time. In her mind, she cursed her own nosiness, telling herself that she didn't need to know, shouldn't want to know.

Her classmate smiled almost wistfully.

"My parents don't exactly like the idea of me being stuck at uni forever, but I really want to do postgrad after I finish my degree in architecture. So my best bet is to expedite my studies."

"Huh," was all Elphaba knew to say to that.

Architecture. She would have guessed Galinda to be a fashion or languages major maybe. Possibly something in the humanities. Architecture did not seem like an obvious choice for someone like her. Yet she knew better than to comment.

"So, what's your specialisation?" the shorter girl pressed. "Going by your dedication to this class, I reckon it's biology."

"Remarkable application of logic," countered Elphaba drily.

Still grinning, Galinda shook her head.

"You really are a sourpuss," she said, taking a bite out of one of the crullers before pushing the other in Elphaba's direction. "I ripped the bag already, so you simply have to eat one now. I can no longer pack it away for later, can I?

Eyeing the tiny pastry suspiciously, Elphaba internally argued with herself. She wasn't particularly inclined to comply with anything Galinda told her to do, purely out of principle. Nor was she entirely sure that this wasn't some trick. On the other hand, the bite-sized morsel looked harmless enough, and she had not yet eaten this morning. Giving a half-hearted shrug, she finally reached out to grab it, then unceremoniously shoved into her mouth in one piece.

"Atta girl," praised Galinda, seeming genuinely pleased.

Elphaba chewed and swallowed, then looked away in mild embarrassment.

"I wish I could spend more time at uni," she confessed out of nowhere.

Maybe the food had been laced with a truth serum or something. She shook her head at the silly thought and sighed.

"I'm only studying part-time. That's two papers a semester. I spend far more time at work to earn the money I need to pay for everything."

"Oh," said Galinda and bit her lower lip. "That kinda sucks. I'm sorry. It sounds really tough."

"Yeah, well, it's better than not studying at all and being stuck at a supermarket or someplace similar for my entire life."

"Supermarket?" repeated the blonde, tilting her head. "Is that what you're doing on the side?"

For a moment, Elphaba debated whether she should even share that much information.

"Yes," she nodded in the end. "I'm working at the back of the store and stock shelves at night. Not exactly a dream job, but it pays for tuition fees and rent."

"You're much more of an adult than me then," laughed Galinda. "I'm still very much Mumsie and Popsicle's little girl."

"Well, we can't all have wealthy parents," Elphaba growled under her breath.

"Yeah… sorry. So, um"—she awkwardly cleared her voice—"what supermarket do you work for?"

"I don't think that's any of your business."

"Of course not," Galinda was quick to agree. "Just curious is all."

"And you will have to remain curious, I'm afraid. Besides, it's almost time. Don't you have to, like, go back to your seat and pretend not to know me or something?"

Galinda's gaze found her phone and her shoulders slumped slightly. Or maybe they only did in Elphaba's imagination.

"Yeah, they are going to be here any moment. Fine. I'll leave you in peace. Thanks for the chat. Maybe I'll come by next week as well."

"Please don't," retorted Elphaba softly yet firmly.

Galinda stood and gave her a long, searching look. Eventually, her eyes began to wander towards Elphaba's belongings—her old coat, her battered satchel. That's where they remained for a moment or two. At first, Elphaba was confused as to what exactly had captured her interest, but when she peered down in the same direction, she immediately realised what it was.

"You're a pain," she scoffed as she snatched up her satchel and hastily stuffed the visible part of her t-shirt uniform all the way into her bag.

Merely smiling graciously, Galinda winked at her and left.