Title: Land of What-Might-Have-Been
Author: Aerohead
Email: in my profile
Website: In my profile
Pairing: Nessarose/Boq. Yeah, you saw right. Also Fiyero/Elphaba and Fiyero/Glinda
Rating: PG – PG13
Disclaimer/Dedication: For L. Frank Baum, Gregory Maguire, Stephen Schwartz, and Winnie Holtzman who own this idea that I'm extending. Thank you for giving me the first part.
Warning: I have gone past the point of sanity. That's the only real warning.
Genre: Romance, AU, and they really need an "Insanity" section here.
Summary: Boq stays with Nessarose, and learns to love her. They live a good life together…until their daughter turns seventeen.
Author's Notes: Well, I'm doing two chapters today because I have to catch up with kire evoli, as Muse is already five chapters long. So…this chapter will take place at Shiz, which has the same staff as my other fanfics, so if you have read my other stories, you're golden. If not, then here's the staff I already have from them: Miss Greyling – Headmistress of Crage Hall and Sorcery teacher, Professor Timin – Headmaster of Briscoe Hall and teacher of both Life Sciences and History, Professor Agram – Briscoe Hall librarian, and finally Brother Endic – Theology professor. Also, I kind of have an inkling that "Maeve" is not a common name in Oz, so…well; I'll get into that in the text. At any rate, this is going to prove to be a hard chapter to write, as I now have to make up new characters. Well, this shall be fun. -- And if anyone knows who's last names Maeve is reading off, I will love you. (Alphabetical listings are annoying, just so everyone's well aware). I'm sorry this is a short chapter, but the next one will be longer.
Chapter Five: Shiz
The train's steam billowed around University Station, adding an eerie element to the already foreboding looking of the large, gray buildings. Maeve had never seen anything so…dismal, before in her life. She held her suitcase to her chest as she made her way up through the quad and into the center of the buildings.
Crage Hall she found easily, as it was the only college for girls to stay in on campus. Pushing a strand of light brown hair out of her face, she quickly skittered inside. In the main room of the building, a woman in her sixties stood. Her hair was silver and cut short – at one time it could have been blonde, Maeve decided – and she hard sparkling green eyes and what appeared to be a constant smile.
"Who are you, dear?" she asked as she saw Maeve come toward her.
"Thropp?" she said, mentally bemoaning the fact that her voice raised in pitch when she said it so that it came out as a question.
"Miss Maeve Thropp I presume?" the woman asked, going over her papers. She looked up and smiled as Maeve nodded. "You'll be in a two-person suite with a Miss…" she checked her papers over again, "ah, a Miss Farah Waneta."
"Thank you, Madame." Maeve said, starting away. The woman sent her a kind, but firm, smile.
"Oh, I'm no Madame. I'm Miss Greyling, your Headmistress." She said, handing Maeve a piece of paper.
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry, Miss!" she said, before hurrying off to her room. She wasn't exactly sure where it was, but she knew from her parents and cousin that there were nameplates on the doors.
She climbed the stairs to the second floor where the suites were, and slowly started going down the hall, reading off names. "Let's see…Abbott and Batchelder, Clark and Copleman, Cory and Enright, Hildebrant and Gringhuis, Hague and Hall, Hardy and Henderson – these are such strange names," Maeve said to herself, then she looked down the hall, realizing it was much longer than she had thought, and there were doors on both sides. She sighed, "Well, let's get back to work; Kennedy and Kerr, Kramer and Martin, McDougall and Miles, Morgan and Moser, Nuyttens and Parrish, Richardson and Rosenblum, Santore and Scott, Seymour and Spouse…ah-ha, Thropp and Waneta!" She smiled to herself before trying the door and successfully opening it.
Her roommate was already in there. The girl turned, and looked Maeve up and down. "You must be…Maeve." She said, saying Maeve's name as if it were something vulgar.
"And you must be Farah?" Maeve asked, walking past the girl to the empty bed. She sat down as she opened her bag.
"I must be." Farah said. Maeve watched the girl. She was obviously a Yunamata, by the tattoos Maeve could see on her neck. Her skin was light, like Fiyero's, but her hair and her eyes were very dark – her hair was deep chestnut and wavy, while her eyes were a deep violet – and her build was that of someone who had spent much of their youth learning to be a Yunamata warrior. She wore her hair short, and it made Maeve rather self-conscious about her own hair.
Maeve found a leather hair accessory Fiyero and Boq had given to her that was buried in her bag, and twisted her long light hair up and neatly pinned it back. She stood and started to unpack.
The umbrella clattered angrily to the floor, and Farah turned. She stared at it, her eyes wide, before her nose wrinkled. "What is that?" she asked.
"An umbrella." Said Maeve, before she kicked it under her bed decisively. Farah stared for a moment, before starting to make her bed. Maeve let out a small sigh before she started to put her things away and make her own bed.
"What classes do you have?" Farah asked after the silence between them had spanned nearly an hour. Maeve jumped, completely forgetting her roommate was still there.
"Oh…I don't know." She said, blushing. Farah rolled her eyes and held out a piece of torn paper.
"You didn't get a times-table from Miss Greyling?" she asked.
Maeve's mouth hung open for a moment, before her blush deepened. She dug the piece of paper out of the book she had put it in, and sat down on her bed, before looking at it.
"Well…um…I have History with Professor Timin, Unionist Teaching with Brother Endic, Life Sciences with Professor Timin, Agriculture with Madame Papaver, and Rhetoric with Professor Parola."
Farah nodded to herself, before cocking her head to one side as she considered Maeve lazily. "We have Rhetoric, History, and Life Sciences together." She said after a few moments. She stretched and started out the door. "On the other hand, I'm not taking Unionist Teaching or Agriculture; instead I'm taking Defensive Training and Lurlinist Thinking." She leaned against the door. "I'm going out for some air. I'll be back before curfew."
Maeve watched Farah leave, before shaking her head. She had a lunatic as a roommate.
She waited ten or fifteen minutes after Farah left before heading out herself. She walked through the corridors and down the stairs before she finally hit the dwindling sunlight that was outside.
She stared at the sunset as she wandered around. She ended up near Briscoe Hall, the college where the boys lodged. None of the boys seemed to notice a girl in their midst, as most of them were as mystified by the school as she was. She was staring at the building, as there weren't that many tall buildings in Munchkinland.
She walked right into someone, and stumbled back, but she didn't fall – thankfully. "Hey, are you okay?" someone asked.
She looked up, and paled, before turning bright red. She had just walked into a senior; a male senior.