The next night, it was five thirty and Elphaba was looking at herself in the mirror, suddenly feeling pathetic. What was she doing, anyway? He didn't like her; he couldn't. There must be some ulterior motive in his asking her out.

"What are you doing, Elphie?"

"Glinda! I… oh, nothing."

"You look nice tonight. Are you doing something special?"

"No."

"You're not fooling me, Elphie. Tell me, where are you going?"

"Dinner, that's all."

"Don't you normally eat in the cafeteria with Nanny and Nessa on Saturday nights?"

"Yes, but my plans changed this week."

"Who are you going to dinner with? And where?"

"I don't know where."

"Who's the boy, Elphie?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know how girls are about boys. Tell me, who is it?"

"No one special."

"Then why are you so concerned with how you look?" Glinda smiled. "You've never cared before."

"Well, I just don't want to look like I don't care."

"So it is someone special."

"It's no one."

"Right. Just tell me, Elphie!"

"Fine. If you must know, Fiyero asked me to have dinner with him tonight."

"Like a date?"

"I guess so," Elphaba shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal.

Glinda, obviously pretending astonishment, said, "I told you so! I knew he liked you!"

"He has to have some other reason for asking me." Elphaba said, still looking in the mirror, feeling vain and foolish. "I just can't figure out what it is."

"Oh, Elphie, you're going to spoil a wonderful night if you have that attitude about it." Glinda scolded. "Now, you go and have a good time and stop suspecting him of having other reasons."

Giving Glinda one last glance, she headed out the door, "I'll try."

"I'll be awake when you get back, so you better have details for me!" She called after her.

Elphaba exited the building hurriedly, worried that Glinda might get it in her head to follow her. She had no sooner opened the door than she saw Fiyero standing near a tree in the courtyard. "Hi," she said, smiling.

"Hey."

"Look, I've already eaten, sorry. Maybe we could do something else?"

"Actually, I was thinking we'd go see a show or something and then get ice cream at the Wizardly Creamery over in the Ozma Plaza."

"All right."

Glinda watched from her window, smiling. Neither one of them was too shy and it looked like they'd have a good time. Lazily, she started a bath and relaxed in the tub, setting the alarm to wake her at ten in case she should fall asleep. "Good luck, Elphie."

"You know, you really didn't have to pay for my ticket, Fiyero. I have my own money." Elphaba said as they sat down.

"I know that. But I asked you here and therefore I pay. That's all there is to it."

Elphaba wasn't one to let anyone do anything for her. "I don't think you - "

"No. Don't argue." He cut her off. "Would you just calm down and enjoy the show, Elphie?"

She rolled her eyes. "If I have to."

He laughed. "Good."

She had no idea what the show was about and it didn't get any clearer for her during the first act. Maybe that was because she was staring at Fiyero out of the corner of her eye. It got to the point where she wanted to see how the diamonds continued down his chest – if they did. His skin was beautiful, even in the darkness of the theatre. The diamonds almost glowed.

Somewhere in the middle of the first act, her hand on her armrest, his on his armrest, she thought she felt his hand twitch just a little. When she looked at him, he was still watching the play. Well, this is awkward enough. She thought to herself.

When it reached the short break between the two acts, she decided on staying in her seat; she felt no need to get up. Fiyero looked at her and smiled lightly. She swore she could feel her heart melt.

"What do you think so far?"

"Interesting," she said. Yeah, right. The only thing I'm finding interesting is tracing that pattern of diamonds with my eyes…

"Look, I wanted to tell you that…" The lights began dimming again and he cut himself off and they went back to watching the show.

Again, she was sure his hand moved towards hers just a little, but she was too disbelieving of herself and she didn't acknowledge it. However, the next time he moved, he brushed her finger and it sent shivers down her spine, just that simple touch. She focused on their hands instead of the show, realizing how, slowly, his hand shifted so it was partially over hers. By then she was tingling with some sort of emotion, though she wasn't sure what it was.

In the last ten minutes of the play, he slid his hand over hers completely and she tried not to flinch or pull away in panic as she normally would. She turned her hand over beneath his and he intertwined her fingers with his. Though he still wasn't looking at her, a smile had crept into his face, as it had into hers.

They left the theatre holding hands and headed towards the creamery. He insisted again on paying for both of their ice cream and she shook her head, but to no avail. She licked her ice cream, barely able to look at him, her cheeks dark. When he offered to walk her back to her building, she agreed.

"We should do this again sometime," he suggested.

"I'd like that."

"How about next week?"

"Sounds good to me." She smiled at him.

Her hand still in his, he moved to kiss her and she backed away, uneasy and alarmed. He fumbled for an apology. "Sorry, I…"

"No, I'm sorry." She said. "I… not used to… just… never mind. I'll see you in class. Goodnight." And she dashed up the stairs and into her dorm room without another word.

He watched her go and sighed. "Goodnight."

Glinda heard Elphaba get in and was on her in an instant. "How'd it go? Tell me, I'm dying!"

"It went fine." Elphaba shrugged off her cloak, hung it up and began rummaging through her drawers for a nightgown.

"Details, Elphie."

"What do you want to know?"

"What did you do?"

"We saw some play and had ice cream."

"Did you pay for your own ticket?"

"He wouldn't let me."

"Good. Elphie, how is it that you end up getting the gentleman? No boy ever pays for me."

"Boq would."

"Oh, leave that alone. Now, tell me, how was the play?"

"Okay, I guess."

"You guess?" Glinda was bouncing up and down excitedly in her bed.

"I wasn't paying attention. It was hard to follow."

"If you weren't paying attention, what were you doing?"

"Spacing out. What else?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe something else."

Elphaba pulled on her nightgown and gave Glinda a look. "Me? Not in a million years."

"Maybe less than that, Elphie. So, did you guys talk a lot?"

"How could we? We were watching a play, Glinda."

"After? When you got ice cream?"

"I guess."

"He walked you home, right?"

"Why do I get the feeling you don't really need to be asking?"

"Because I was watching from the window, except I didn't see much because of that damn tree right there." Glinda gestured out the window, her blonde curls bouncing and swaying.

"Why are you interrogating me, then?"

"Because there's a lot I don't know! He was polite the whole time, right?"

"Of course. You know how he is."

"Was he quiet?"

"We both talked for an equal amount of time."

"Are you going to go out again?"

"I think so." Elphaba climbed into her bed.

"What do you mean?"

"He said 'we should do this again sometime' and I agreed."

"Ooh! You're going to go out again. Now, what flavor ice cream did you have?"

"Why is that relevant?"

"Because I'm hungry and I just want to know."

"Chocolate. Now can I get to sleep, Glinda?"

"I'm not done!"

Elphaba buried her head in a pillow. "Oz help us all. What do you want to know?"

"Well, did you do anything?"

"Define 'do'."

"Did you kiss him? Did he kiss you? On the lips? On the cheek?"

"No to all of those."

"He didn't even try?"

Elphaba turned over in her bed. "Well, he did, but…"

"Elphie, don't tell me you pushed him away."

"Not exactly. I just wasn't expecting it and I jumped, that's all."

"You didn't apologize?"

"I did. And then I ran up here."

"Great. I'm sure he's feeling very confident right about now. Did you do anything else?"

"Like what?"

"Like hold hands or cuddle?"

"Why do you need to know all of this?"

"I just do."

"What if I don't want to tell you?"

"I'll make you tell me. What do you think everyone will do when they see those pages from your notebook?"

"You wouldn't dare."

"I would."

"Fine. We held hands. Are you happy?"

"That's so cute!" Glinda giggled.

"Oh, dear Oz."

"Now, one more thing and then you can go to sleep. If he tries to kiss you next time, are you going to let him?"

"I don't know. Leave me alone." She glared at Glinda and then moved to fall asleep.

The next time their circle of friends went for dinner at the café, Glinda insisted on playing more ERS. It was strange how no one found it suspicious that she kept making them all play. Not that she was complaining, of course. This time, she decided, people would have to choose their own partners. It amused her how quickly Shen-Shen claimed Pfanee.

"Partners again?" Fiyero asked Elphaba, feeling self-conscious.

Looking up from the book she'd been reading, she said, "Sure."

"Great. Elphie, I've wanted to say something to you…"

"Yes?"

"I know you don't want to hear this, but I'm not going to let that stop me from saying it. Last week, when you said that you thought you were ugly and I told you that not everyone thought that, I wanted to say that I… well, I… I think you're actually quite beautiful."

"No." She said simply.

"But, Elphaba…"

"No, Fiyero." After a moment, she changed the subject. "Same code as last time?"

"Of course. I was thinking, Saturday night we could go out again?" He placed his hand over hers on the table. "If you still want to, I mean."

"I'd love to." She slid her hand out from under his, kindly, making it clear to him that she just didn't want everyone else making a big deal out of whatever was between them.

"I'm sorry about the other night when I walked you to your building. I didn't mean to frighten you."

"You didn't frighten me. I just didn't expect you to do what you did."

"Should I warn you next time?" He smirked, trying to lighten things up.

"Maybe you should." She stuck her tongue out at him. "But maybe I'd rather not know."