Elphaba tried to keep as quiet as possible about who was "escorting" her to the ball. She refused to even speak to Fiyero about it unless it was to work out technical details, and that was only once. However, Glinda had a way of forcing Elphaba to admit things that most people couldn't get her to say.
"Elphie," Glinda demanded, "what are you going to do about the ball? Everyone else is worrying about their escorts – well, except those of us who have escorts – and," Glinda made a face, she was no longer so glad Boq was taking her as he never stopped talking about it and it was the subject of his every conversation, "you're the only one who isn't worried. It's mandatory, Elphie. You can't just not go."
"I'm going, Glinda, don't get so worried about it."
"It's required that you have an escort." She pushed.
"I will, okay?"
"Do you happen to know who that would be now?"
"Yes!" Elphaba snapped, glaring at her roomy. She was trying desperately to take notes on something she never needed to study, simply for the fact of avoiding conversation. It didn't seem to be working.
"Really?" Glinda was suddenly more bouncy. She jumped over to Elphaba's bed and stared at her. "Who?"
"A friend." Elphaba answered shortly.
"Oh, come on, you can tell me," Glinda begged.
"You really want to know?" Elphaba asked, knowing Glinda would affirm this, not sure why she was playing this game.
"Of course I really want to know!" Glinda giggled.
It was almost like she was Galinda again, Elphaba noted, smiling thinly. "You can't tell anyone or I will have to kill you."
"I think that's a bit harsh, but I won't tell." Glinda's eyes were eager.
"Well, I was going to drag Boq, but then he asked you and you actually said 'yes', which pretty much ruined my chances of getting anyone, I hope you know," Elphaba said pointedly.
Glinda pouted. "I'm sorry, Elphie. I wouldn't have agreed to it had I known that."
"I don't think you would've agreed to it had you more than five seconds to think about it. Anyway, someone who knew what my plan was and was with me when I found out that Boq was taking you was kind enough to offer to escort me."
"So he asked you? A boy asked you?"
"Yes, Glinda. Fiyero asked to escort me." Elphaba went back to her notes, hoping desperately that Glinda would take that as a sign that the conversation was over.
Glinda knew what Elphaba's gesture meant, but she wasn't going to let things hang. "Oh, that's so sweet! Isn't he the boy you were so mad about working with? The one you thought was terrible because he was friends with Avaric?"
"Well, he's no longer that close with Avaric," Elphaba said, "and he's nice enough, I guess."
"Nice enough? I'd hope you think so. He is taking you to the ball, after all, he'd better get at least the dignity of being called 'nice'."
"So he's nice." Elphaba gave Glinda what she wanted. "There you go."
"What are you going to wear?"
Elphaba waved dismissively at her closet.
"Elphie, all of your dresses are black." Glinda observed.
"Thank you, Glinda, I'm colorblind and I didn't know," Elphaba drawled. "What's your point?"
"We're not supposed to wear black."
"If Madame Morrible thinks I'm going to waste my money buying a fancy dress because no one informed me I'd need formal wear that wasn't black, she's got something else coming."
"Don't you want to look pretty?"
"Is it possible?" Elphaba retorted. "And why should I? It's just a ball."
"For your date, of course."
"He is not my date, he is just taking me. And why would I want to look pretty for a boy? I don't care what he thinks of me."
Glinda was almost exasperated. "Come on, Elphie, we're going to find you a dress." She reached and grabbed Elphaba's arm, hauling her off the bed.
"Now?"
"Why not? It's Saturday afternoon. All the stylish shops should be open."
"What makes you think that I can afford that sort of clothing?" Elphaba hissed.
"I know you can, Elphaba. You only look like you aren't well off because you don't use any of your money to look anything other. Hurry up, we're going."
And so Elphaba stood in a mirror the night of the ball scrunching her nose and trying to see how anything Glinda had done to "pretty her up" had actually helped. Her dress was a dark crimson-brown, not quite the color of dirt or soil, but something more elegant. Still, with her green skin, she was aware she looked very earthy. That entire effect was shattered when it came to her hair. It seemed odd, the black hair on top of jade. She shook her head. Glinda had done ungodly things to her hair, as well. Insisting that it looked more graceful down, the blonde had styled Elphaba's close to curly hair into perfectly neat, predicable waves and pulled the top half of it into a high ponytail. A half ponytail, Elphaba corrected herself, that's what Glinda called it. Dark locks cascaded around her shoulders and back, but did not get into her face or her eyes – which had been Elphaba's only request.
Then, of course, there had been the make-up. Glinda hadn't been able to powder Elphaba's face like she would anyone else, but that hadn't stopped her from trying other techniques. She'd lined Elphaba's eyes slightly, bringing them out and, Elphaba noticed uncomfortably, making them seem wider, more delicate. She'd even added mascara to Elphaba's lengthy lashes, and Elphaba wondered exactly how much like a young girl's makeover toy she appeared. The eye shadow was light and copper. Her lips were a deep red with a hint of brown – to somewhat set off her dress. There was a tinge of blush on her cheeks. Disturbingly, at least to Elphaba, she looked refined.
Elphaba looked over at Glinda, whose dress was shorter than Elphaba's (her dress went only an inch or two below her knees, though Elphaba had chosen a dress that flowed to the ground) and had only three-quarter sleeves. It seemed ironic. In order for Elphaba to look her best, she'd needed to cover as much skin as possible. In order for Glinda to look good, she'd revealed more skin. And the green girl couldn't help but think that she must be horrifying naked – not that she cared or thought anyone would ever know, she chuckled to herself.
"Elphie, the boys will be here any minute!"
"Yours will. I told Fiyero to meet me at the entrance to the auditorium. I won't be treated like a weak, girlish college female."
"Why not? I don't see anything wrong with it." Glinda stuck her nose in the air. "Isn't it nice to be treated like you're special?"
"But why should he need to walk me? Does that imply that I can't care for myself? Does that imply that he actually wants to spend more time with me than he has to? Neither of those is true, so I will meet him there." Elphaba said matter-of-factly.
"How do you know he doesn't want to spend time with you, Elphaba? He offered to escort you, didn't he?" Glinda countered.
Elphaba had an answer for everything. "He offered to escort me because he knew I needed someone to and no one else would! As I said, he's nice. Why wouldn't he help?"
"I don't know, Elphie, but you shouldn't always think that people don't like you."
"It's pretty darn hard to when people always don't!" She took a deep breath. "Let's not talk about this now. We wouldn't want to get all worked up and spoil ourselves before the ball, would we?" The second half came out only half-mocking. In a way, she didn't want to mess up what had been done to her. Admittedly, it made her feel almost appealing, and she didn't want to ruin it, not yet. A few people could see, first. Not specifically Fiyero, certainly, but he would, because he would be there, but she just wanted… she whipped her head back to the mirror and eyed Glinda behind her. "All right?"
Glinda nodded solemnly. "I hope you have a good time tonight, Elphie," she said softly.
"You, too, Glinda."
They both really meant it.
Then there was an exasperatingly measured knocking at the door – which Elphaba had to assume Boq had practiced several times before on his own wall. Elphaba answered the door for Boq and then left the room quickly, knowing she did have to meet up with Fiyero.
All around her as she walked outside in the already darkening evening, couples strolled by her, most of them too mortified and nervous to speak. Elphaba thanked Oz for this reason that she hadn't chosen to have Fiyero pick her up at the dorm. The entire situation was awkward enough, and she was not going to make it any worse than it had to be. And it was much different, her and Fiyero compared to these couples. Most of the couples around her had some sort of romantic interest in each other. She and Fiyero did not. Well, she hoped they did not. Occasionally her thoughts would wander to the strange dark skinned boy with blue diamonds on his skin, but she decided it was just his differentness, like hers. That wasn't the thing to be thinking about tonight, anyway!
Her hands clutched at the velvety fabric of her dress, holding it up slightly so she didn't trip over it or it didn't drag on the ground. The smoothness of the cloth soothed her and she found herself a safe enough distance away from everyone else wandering the campus to hum to herself. She didn't notice it when she slipped easily into singing, instead.
"In the dark, Elphaba, I couldn't tell it was you until I heard that voice of yours." Fiyero said, smiling as he strode next to her. "Ready?"
"Yes. Why wouldn't I be? A night of hell, that's what this will be. But I've been prepared for it for three weeks and I am now." Elphaba said, looking at him, biting back a reprimand for sneaking up on her. He'd watched her when she'd felt alone, and she hated that. But she'd have to leave it be, for now, she supposed.
When they reached the building where the main auditorium was, it was lit up and they could finally confirm whose faces they were looking at. Fiyero turned to Elphaba and gulped. "You look… nice."
"Ah, yes," Elphaba wrinkled her nose. "'Nice' the adjective commonly used when you have nothing else good to say about someone."
He didn't say anything. Fiyero had wanted to say more, but he supposed her reaction would have been even worse had he called her beautiful.