A/N: Hello everyone! This is Nicole (aka Fae5288), and my very good friend Lauren, back with installment number two! This chapter is about me and a bit of what I was doing before Lauren and I met, just like the last was some background on Lauren. I realize it's confusing, and seems to have no point right now, but it will get exciting VERY soon, I promise! So DON'T HURT US, PLEASE!

Disclaimer: Lauren and I do not in any way, shape, or form own or claim to own the amazingness that is Wicked. .: shakes fist :. CURSE YOU, GREGORY MAGUIRE!

xXxXx

Chapter Two: Concerning College Life, Fan Fiction, And An Obnoxious Green Visitor

Nicole's attention was drawn away from the glowing screen of her laptop by an authoritative voice she'd come to know well over the past month or so.

"Nicole, are you EVER going to shut that thing off and get some sleep? You have class tomorrow!"

"Are you EVER going to stop nagging me, Elphie?" Nicole returned, and was rewarded by a poisonous look from the girl who was sitting on her bed. "I mean, what are you, for Oz's sake, my mother?"

"Heavens, no!" shuddered Elphaba. "And it's a good thing I'm not, too – I'd have killed you long ago if you were my kid."

"Thanks a lot for that. I'll remember that next time you need my help."

"Since when have I ever needed your help?"

"I'm just saying…" Nicole cast her brown eyes to the ceiling for a moment before returning her gaze to the laptop on her desk. Her mind, however, was far from the website (one that lit up her screen.

Glancing over her shoulder, Nicole once again regarded the puzzle that was Elphaba Thropp. The girl couldn't have been any older than her early twenties; in fact, she could easily have been mistaken for simply another student living on the campus of Nicole's college. Her long black dress fluttered gracefully about her ankles, and her shiny, waist-length black hair was pulled back in a single long braid to keep it out of her face as she munched on an apple Nicole had pilfered for her from the dining hall. Elphaba could have been any other normal college student, except for one thing. She was green. Yes, that's right. Elphaba's skin was the same verdant hue of grass, frogs, emeralds, Nicole's favorite sweatshirt… take your pick.

Most of the rest of the world knew Elphaba as the Wicked Witch of the West from the classic tale "The Wizard of Oz." But since seeing the musical "Wicked" six months earlier, Nicole had known better. She was no more a Wicked Witch than the Wizard of Oz was… well, a Wizard. Elphaba was merely a victim of circumstance, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, exploited shamelessly by those in power, and left for the masses of Wizard-worshipping Ozians to tear apart.

And once again she was being used to secure the Wizard's power. All of Oz was being told that she was dead, melted into a harmless puddle of green goo, the direct result of a bucket of water thrown by a female child – Dorothy Gale of Kansas, sent by the Wizard to destroy her. But all of Oz was rejoicifying in vain. Elphaba wasn't dead, not in the least. She was very much alive, holed up in Nicole's university dorm room, where she had been almost since the day Nicole had moved to college.

"Hey, Nicole," her next door neighbor had greeted her one afternoon during the first week of classes as Nicole passed her open door on her back from work.

"Hi," Nicole responded cautiously. The other girl was a sophomore, so she hadn't met her during orientation, and didn't know her very well.

"Hey, um, I thought I heard something crash in your room a little while ago," her neighbor told her.

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. It sounded like something fell over."

"Okay. Thanks for telling me, I'll check it out." Nicole unlocked her door and stepped inside, steeling herself to be confronted with a broken lamp, a collapsed shelf, the set of bunk beds reduced to a pile of firewood… anything but what she actually found.

Sitting on her bed, leafing through Nicole's copy of the Grimmerie (a birthday gift that Nicole bought herself after seeing "Wicked"), and looking very surprised at the book's contents, was a very familiar green girl. Nicole shrieked in surprise; Elphaba dropped the Grimmerie and shot to her feet. Nicole demanded to know what the Witch was doing in her room and how she had gotten there; Elphaba just wanted to know where the hell 'here' was and whose room it was she'd landed in.

Eventually they both calmed down, and Nicole soon grew used to having the green girl around. She didn't cause any trouble, as she never left Nicole's room – she didn't want to be seen any more than Nicole wanted her to be seen. The only person who knew she was there was Nicole's roommate Rachel, but it was all right, because Rachel knew and loved "Wicked" like Nicole, and certainly had no desire to get Elphie in trouble. It could be a bit of a pain having her there, though. Nicole was finding it hard to get any work done with Elphaba constantly on her case about something. It seemed that the green girl wasn't truly happy unless she was making someone else miserable, and more often than not, that 'someone' ended up being Nicole.

Nicole rolled her eyes again, her focus coming back to the computer screen. In this case, she supposed, Elphie's nagging was well-founded. It was after two in the morning, after all, and she had to get up for a 9:10 class. "All right, I'll go to bed," she muttered to no one in particular. "Just let me check my e-mail one last time." Clicking on one of the little bars at the bottom of her screen, Nicole brought up her e-mail program.

Highlighted in bold was an unopened message from and the subject line informed her that someone had submitted a new review to one of her stories. Nicole had only recently begun posting her "Wicked" stories on and she dearly loved it whenever someone gave her feedback on her writing. She clicked on the unopened e-mail and brought it up, and found that the review was for her latest story, "Water and Oil," which was, to use fan fiction lingo, a fluffy little oneshot – in other words, a romantic, one-chapter-long story. She quickly glanced over the review, submitted by an author with the penname kaliawai512.

sniff That was so beautiful! I loved it! Wow, girl, you have SOME talent for writing! Keep up the good work!

Yet another person telling her they liked what she wrote! Nicole couldn't get over how wonderful it was to finally be recognized for her skills as an authoress. With a pleased smile, she clicked on the "reply" link included in the email and typed,

Thanks for the compliment! I really enjoyed writing this little oneshot. I am absolutely in love with Fiyeraba, so... yeah.

Thanks for reading and reviewing! I'm glad you like my writing. I like to think I'm pretty good, but it's always nice to hear other people say so! LOL.

Anyways, keep reading and reviewing - it's what keeps me motivated to update!

Thanks,

Fae

She signed the reply with her pen name and clicked the 'send' button before closing the window and shutting down her computer. Ordering Elphie off of her bed, Nicole turned down the covers and climbed in, and was fast asleep in minutes.

Little did she know that the review reply she had just sent would be the start of something more incredible than she could ever dream…