Content Advisory: Prejudice (towards fictional group— "Animals"), Animal Cruelty (Minor)


Chapter Ten: Fair Weather Friends

She knew that she was pushing boundaries, but Elphaba had never excelled at adhering to limits. That's why she kept tabs on Nessarose as much as she possibly could. Elphaba's grief over their estrangement nagged to the point of distraction. If Nessarose's resentment had come from Elphaba's lack of friends, shouldn't she be absolved by now? Elphaba was publicly friends with Galinda and, since the little closet stunt, she was now on…less hostile terms with Fiyero.

Sorcery seminar was going swimmingly, at least for Elphaba. Galinda, while not untalented, was not as natural a study. It was clear that Madame Morrible considered her a nuisance, but Elphaba liked having her around.

"Look into the glass and picture someone in your life that you care about," Morrible instructed her two pupils as they sat at a small table with two crystal balls. "Their current whereabouts should soon become visible to you."

"I only see fog," Galinda pouted into her crystal ball. "Oh! Maybe he's stuck in fog?"

"If you fail to see the present there is little hope for you to see the future," Morrible said in a sing-song voice.

Galinda sneered at Morrible while her back was turned before squinting back towards her orb in determination. Meanwhile, Elphaba traced her slender fingers along the smooth glass ball until a hazy image of Nessarose and Boq appeared. Nessarose was smiling ear to ear as Boq sat beside her. Even through the distorted image, Elphaba could tell how smitten her sister was.

"Oh, it's Fiyero! I saw him in the orb thingy!" Galinda squealed excitedly.

Elphaba looked up at Galinda, briefly distracted by her outburst, and when she returned her eyes to her own crystal ball she was shocked to see that it no longer displayed Nessarose. Elphaba instead saw a clear image of Fiyero scribbling away at some paper. Startled by the sudden vision, she scooted back in her chair and tore her hands off of the crystal ball. Fiyero dissipated into the fog.

"Oooh, what did you see?" Galinda asked, intrigued by Elphaba's reaction.

"Nothing—" Elphaba answered in a rattled tone. "Nessa. I saw Nessa."

On Monday morning, after a mishap with her curling iron, Galinda made an emergency hair appointment that conflicted with Doctor Dillamond's class. After a long lecture criticizing Galinda's decision to play hooky, Elphaba eventually left without her. It was overcast and gray as Elphaba made the trek across campus. Someone tapped her on the shoulder from behind and she whipped around defensively as if she were about to be ambushed.

"Whoa!" Fiyero exclaimed. "Take it easy."

"You startled me," Elphaba complained before continuing forward. Fiyero took a few springy steps to catch up with her long strides and began walking beside her.

"Where's Galinda?"

"She cooked her hair," Elphaba rolled her eyes.

"Ah. Why didn't she just wear a hat? She's got loads of them!" Fiyero nudged Elphaba as he referenced their private joke.

"That she does."

"Did you get any pictures of her hair?" Fiyero asked cheekily.

Elphaba forced back a guilty grin. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't."

"You walk fast," Fiyero pointed out.

"I'm tall."

"This is you," Fiyero demonstrated. He slumped his posture, clenched his fists, and began charging in long strides with a dramatic frown.

"I do not look like that," Elphaba swatted him, trying in vain not to appear too entertained over his antics.

With a jaunty, dance-like step Fiyero sped up his step and spun to stand in front of Elphaba so she had to stop.

"Do you ever stop to enjoy the world around you?"

"I can enjoy the world after Dillamond's class. We can't all take the time to confer with the flowers—some of us have important places to be," Elphaba teased smartly.

Fiyero placed a hand over his chest as if wounded by her words. "I'll have you know I have very important places to be. I am a prince you know!"

"You are? You've never mentioned it! Now may I go to class?" Elphaba performed a mocking curtsy. "Your majesty?"

"Sure thing. In fact, I'll race you there," Fiyero challenged. Elphaba's eyebrows shot up.

"Alright then. Challenge accepted," she decided, pushing up the sleeves to her turtleneck and securing her bag around her shoulder.

"Wait—I—" Fiyero stammered, clearly shocked that Elphaba had taken his joke seriously.

"On your mark…"

"I was kidding!"

"Get set…"

Fiyero scrambled to secure his own bag and frantically poised himself to race.

"GO!"

Elphaba and Fiyero shot off, sprinting in the direction of Dillamond's class. Fiyero took the lead over Elphaba fairly soon, cockily shooting past her at full speed. He spared a glance backwards to gloat, only to find that Elphaba was steadily advancing. The hall came into view and Fiyero started losing steam a bit, giving Elphaba the chance to meet him shoulder to shoulder. They both reached the door to the building at the same time and clumsily pulled it open. Elphaba slipped past it first and stuck her tongue out at Fiyero as she took the lead. The pair competitively weaved through dumbfounded students and professors alike until they sped the home stretch to Dillamond's classroom. Both of them stretched their arms out as far as they could in hopes to be the first one to touch the classroom door. It seemed like it could be anyone's race, but one hand managed to hit the door a split clock-tick before the other—a green hand.

"Yes! I won!" Elphaba beamed breathlessly.

"Barely!" Fiyero rasped, clutching his chest as he caught his breath. "How did you learn how to run like that?"

"When you grow up as a target you've got to learn to be fast."

There was a subtle shift in Fiyero's expression at her answer and their eyes met. Elphaba's loose hair was windswept and disheveled, a thin layer of sweat shone on her sharp features, and her lips were parted as she worked to catch her breath. Their eyes simultaneously shifted towards their hands on the doorframe. Fiyero's hand had landed close enough that his pinky finger overlapped with hers. Elphaba cleared her throat before shyly moving her hand away.

"You wore yourself out in the beginning," she explained, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Slow and steady."

"Slow and steady," Fiyero repeated dumbly.

"Yep…" Elphaba nodded before her face broke into a shamelessly arrogant smile. "That's how I beat you! Ha! I won! I won! I won I won I won!"

Elphaba continued to taunt him childishly, jumping around in a celebratory circle and poking him in the chest with her index fingers as she cackled victoriously. Fiyero slid his thumbs in his pockets, taking her jabs in stride as he watched her celebrate. He didn't have the heart to stop her, in fact…he was almost happy that he'd lost.

"Master Tigelaar, Miss Thropp, I'll thank you to join your classmates inside," said a voice.

However, it was not Doctor Dillamond, but rather Madame Morrible who had spoken. Elphaba clammed up at once upon seeing their Headmistress and nodded sheepishly. Fiyero and Elphaba both entered the classroom and sat beside each other at the front row table. Elphaba's eyes shifted around the room and her face fell as she read the demeanors of Madame Morrible, an unknown official, and a rather grave looking Doctor Dillamond who stood behind a cleared desk.

"Something is wrong…" Elphaba muttered faintly.

Doctor Dillamond shifted his eyes to Morrible who gave him a curt nod.

"My dear students, this is my last day here at Shiz," Dillamond said.

"What?" Elphaba stood urgently.

"Miss Elphaba—" Dillamond acknowledged her. His voice was gravelly and hoarse. He lifted his hoof to his throat as if something dry were caught in it.

"Professor, why?!" Elphaba asked.

"Rest assured that you will be sorely missed, Professor!" Morrible jumped in. "We wish you all the luck on your next endeavor."

"Thank you, Madame Morrible," Doctor Dillamond nodded in a docile manner. "I am most grateful…most grateful to…"

"Go on, Professor…" Morrible prompted.

But Doctor Dillamond had trailed off upon spotting Elphaba's desperate expression pleading, pleading him for the truth.

"Animals are no longer permitted to teach!" Dillamond shouted abruptly. Elphaba gasped as the door to the classroom burst open to admit two more officials who seized Dillamond's arms. Dillamond continued to shout as he struggled to resist their hold. "You'll not be told the whole story! My students—!"

"Doctor Dillamond!" Elphaba yelled.

"Hear this, Miss Elphaba! I shall continue speaking out! They can't hold me baaaaa—" Doctor Dillamond let out a terrible rasping bleat.

Elphaba clapped her hands over her mouth in horror as the officials dragged Doctor Dillamond out of the classroom. Elphaba moved to chase after him but a bony arm wrapped around her shoulder to stop her.

"Yes, it's dreadful. Terribly dreadful, Miss Elphaba! But I'm afraid that there is nothing we can do!" Morrible bemoaned. "Doctor Dillamond has grander things in store for him now. Now sit."

"Madame—"

"Sit."

Elphaba shook as she turned back towards her classmates. They were silent, whether from shock or ambivalence Elphaba couldn't tell, but in the end the reason didn't matter. The only one that had budged at all was Fiyero who had stood at his desk, his face difficult to read. Elphaba met his eyes, and only when he gave her a faint nod did she return to her seat beside him.

The official who'd been standing in the corner moved forward to Dillamond's old desk and set a large covered object upon it.

"Class, this is Doctor Nikidik. He will be taking over for Doctor Dillamond. I'll leave you to it, Professor!" Morrible gestured for him to take over. She spared Elphaba one last glance before taking her leave.

"Good day, class! Let's get right to it. As this is a history class, I thought it'd be beneficial for you all to witness history—" he tapped the covered object twice, "—being made!"

He tore off the covering and Elphaba felt like she would be sick. A Lion Cub, a baby, was trembling behind the metal bars of a cage. Doctor Nikidik chuckled and shook the cage, eliciting a frightened growl from the Cub. Elphaba gripped the edge of her table so tightly her palms turned white and Fiyero watched her with a concerned expression.

"Hey…" he began under his breath. "Are you alright?"

"Someone has to do something," she mumbled, more to herself than to him. "Someone has to do something."

"This cage, you see, is actually for the Animal's own good! One of the benefits of caging a Cub this young is that he will never, in fact, learn how to speak!" Professor Nikidik announced. "Now everyone gather round!"

Students began pulling out of their seats and making their way towards the cage to examine it. Elphaba stood and tried to catch their attention as they went by.

"What are you doing?!" she begged her classmates. "Don't just listen to him!"

"Shut up. It's just class," a girl muttered as she passed by.

"It's wrong!" Elphaba shouted desperately. "It's wrong!"

The class was packed around the table now and Elphaba stood on the outskirts, looking over the crowd.

"Can I touch it?" Fox asked Nikidik as he examined the cage with interest.

"Why, of course!"

"Why—why…why don't you care!?" Elphaba began to falter defeatedly. First Dillamond, now the Cub. Everyone was going about as if a great wrong weren't happening before them. She turned to see Fiyero beside her and she gave him a despairing look. "Why doesn't anyone care?"

Something shifted in Fiyero's gaze. He set his jaw determinedly and the next moment he was recklessly charging into the crowd of pupils. He shouldered past them, boldly grabbed the cage, and lifted it over their heads.

"Hey—young man! Young man, what are you doing!?" Nikidik yelled after Fiyero.

Elphaba stood frozen on the spot as Fiyero darted towards her with the cage in tow.

"What are you doing?" she asked dumbly.

"What does it look like I'm doing!?" Fiyero returned in a flabbergasted tone. "You just proved how fast you could run. So, come on…run!"

Elphaba didn't have to be told twice. She turned on her heel and she and Fiyero booked it out of the classroom's back door. They ran out of the building as chaotically as they'd entered it and they did not quit running until they'd reached a clearing far on the outskirts of campus. Gray clouds rolled in as they slowed to a stop and Elphaba took the cage from Fiyero's arms to gingerly set it on the ground. She lifted the covering and moaned in heartache to see the Cub cowering in the corner.

"Hey it's okay," Elphaba whispered. "You're safe now."

Fiyero kneeled beside Elphaba but she didn't look at him. Her lower lip trembled as she offered the Cub the chance to sniff her hand through the bars.

"He's so frightened," Elphaba lamented. "He's frightened of me. All I wanted to do was help."

"You did help."

"No," Elphaba shook her head restlessly and stood to pace away from him. "Nothing I ever do helps. I feel like I've been spending my whole life screaming at brick walls. I just make a lot of noise, Fiyero. I make a lot of noise…and nobody ever hears."

Fiyero stood.

"Yeah…but you try."

"What?" Elphaba asked, turning to look at him with a furrowed brow.

"You try. Even if people don't listen, you still try. That's a hell of a lot more than the rest of us do." Fiyero shoved his hands in his pockets. "That's a hell of a lot more than I do."

"That's not true," Elphaba said softly.

"Sure, it is. Because it's easy. It's easy not to pay attention, it's easy not to think, it's easy to go along with the whole thoughtless lot of them," Fiyero said. "But you cared about the Cub so much that it…changed everything. What's it like to care about something that much?"

"You care about things too," Elphaba pointed out. "I know you do."

"Ah, Elphaba. I'm as careless as they come."

"No, you're not," Elphaba reaffirmed. She gave Fiyero a long, knowing look. "Or you wouldn't be so unhappy."

There was an abrupt, visible change in Fiyero's body. Paralyzed and dumbfounded, he searched Elphaba's eyes with fierce, sudden meaning.

"What did you just say?" he asked in a hushed tone.

"I said that—"

"Do you know?"

"Know what?"

"Damn it, Elphaba!" Fiyero yelled. "If you know then you have to tell me! Do you—are you—"

"Look, I don't know why you're yelling at me!" Elphaba reacted defensively before turning to storm away.

"No, Elphaba. Wait!"

Fiyero instinctively threw his arm forwards and clutched Elphaba's hand in his own. He laced his fingers with hers and held on tight so that she wouldn't run away. Elphaba stopped and slowly turned back towards Fiyero. Their gaze shifted towards their linked hands and then back to each other with a tender expression as their hearts hammered in a way that was impossible to ignore. Elphaba opened her mouth to say something but, for once in her life, she was speechless. Or, was it perhaps that for once in her life…nothing needed to be said?

The spell was suddenly broken when a large, unexpected drop of rain splattered against Elphaba's temple. They hastily unlinked their hands as the bead of water slid down her face and Fiyero gave her an urgent look as more scattered drops pelted around them.

"Are you okay? Do you need to get out of here?" he asked in concern.

"What—"

"The rain! Are you okay in the rain?!" he asked, his eyes scanning the clearing for shelter.

"It's just rain, Fiyero."

"But what about what your—your—"

"My what?" Elphaba lifted an eyebrow.

"Your allergy! People are saying that you're allergic to water!"

Elphaba paused. "Why are they saying that?"

"Well, when Jozsef threw the water at you, you stopped it so people started saying that maybe water—"

Fiyero stopped short and slammed his mouth shut, as if finally hearing how dumb it all sounded.

"Go on," Elphaba pressed, narrowing her eyes.

Fiyero swallowed and anxiously observed Elphaba's glare. "They were saying that water could…melt you?"

Elphaba pursed her lips, her hair beginning to dampen and stick to the sides of the face as the rain picked up. She silently shook her head and turned her back to Fiyero as she processed.

"It was just a stupid rumor, Elphaba. You know how gossip can get out of hand—"

"That's not what I'm mad about!" Elphaba shouted, turning around menacingly. "People make things up about me all the time. I'm mad that you would be empty headed enough to believe them!"

Fiyero went rigid at her comment. He'd been prodded one too many times.

"Why do you always do that, huh?!" Fiyero asked angrily. "Why do you make so many comments about how brainless I am!? Do you know how stupid that makes me feel?"

"Well do you know how dehumanizing it feels to hear that you believed—"

"I didn't say that I believed it!"

"—that water would melt me?!"

As their altercation grew in intensity, so did the rain, forcing the quarreling duo to raise their voices over the downpour.

"You know what, Elphaba? You're always talking about how nobody likes you and then you turn around and act like you're so much better and smarter than everyone else!" Fiyero accused.

"You don't know the first thing about me!"

"Oh yeah? Well, maybe I don't care to."

Both parties now sufficiently wounded, the pair ceased fire. They each held each other in a strong stare, teeth gritted, shoulders tensed, and nothing accomplished. Low thunder rumbled through the clearing as the pair, now drenched and cold, caught their breath.

"I can't believe that I actually thought that you were different," Elphaba said weakly. "I can't believe that I actually…"

She trailed off before she could introduce the implications to reality. Fiyero said nothing, he didn't need to. He knew exactly what she meant. They both felt that if they never acknowledged what had been happening between them…that it'd be like it never happened at all.

"Yeah well…" Fiyero cleared his throat.

He gestured to the Cub's covered cage before sparing one last glance to Elphaba. Soaked to the bone and shivering from the chill of the autumn rain, Fiyero observed that Elphaba was uninjured…though perhaps not altogether unharmed. He grabbed the cage and dashed off with sloshing steps in search of a dry place to release him.

As Elphaba watched him go she could feel herself steeling up for what was to come. She urged her mind to scratch out the racing of her heart, the feel of his hand, and the blue of his eyes.

It would be as if Fiyero had never happened to her. Like he'd never happened at all.