AN:
PLEASE NOTE:
I entered this story (well, an ever so slightly better edited version of it anyways) for this year's Wattys competition. In the very unlikely event that I make it to the short list, this story will become unavailable on fanfiction net, as well as AO3 from OCTOBER 19th 2022. You will still be able to find it on Wattpad. That being said, most likely nothing will happen anyways. Just thought I should give you fair warning. A huge thanks to everyone who supports this little fic. Maybe I'll get lucky with it after all...
Hello, lovelies!
Fancy seeing you here. Lovely of you to come by and have a casual look. I certainly hope you'll stay for a while and come back again and again. So here's my new story... Not going to give you any spoilers, but here goes nothing! Please enjoy!
Happy reading!
xoxo MLE
(=^_^=)
Chapter One
Theoretically, this should have been a glorious day, a perfect start into the new semester, with her absolute favourite subject—Architectural Design—right in the beginning of her not too early Monday morning. Alas, when Galinda arrived at the auditorium, the entire class was already abuzz with the breaking news that their old professor from ARCH101 had been replaced last minute with that louche new lecturer named Miss Greyling. For all Galinda knew, she was said to be more or less pretty and young—very young and very inexperienced, if she remembered correctly. The thought vexed her to no end. After all, she'd come to Shiz to learn from renown masters of their fields. This Miss Greyling didn't even have a doctorate yet. Was that really the best her expensive tuition fees could buy?
The heavy double doors flung open, and a throng of students from the previous lecture poured out of the room. Galinda worriedly scanned her surroundings. Her friend Milla was supposed to be in the same class, yet she was nowhere in sight. As they hadn't seen each other since that party on the first day of winter break, the blonde had rather hoped that they'd be able to chat and catch up before the lecture started, but apparently, there would be no time. If she was really unlucky, the girl might not show up at all, leaving Galinda to suffer all by herself in a room full of mostly boys and a couple of very strange and terribly disagreeable nerdy chicks.
Not willing to risk having to sit in the last row or somewhere behind a big, fat beam, or—even worse—underneath the monstrous thirty-plus kilogram projector, she had no choice but to go ahead on her own. She found herself a lovely little spot just off-centre in the second row and put up her pink laptop tote bag to reserve a seat for Milla. Pulling out her binder, she went through the first couple of pages of the preface, even though she firmly expected housekeeping to take up the majority of their first lesson. Especially if there really was a new person to teach it.
Out of the corners of her eyes, she noticed a tall, fairly dark-skinned guy sitting down next to her. She was determined to ignore him, but just when she'd pointedly turned her head the other way, she felt a finger tapping on her shoulder. Initially rolling her eyes, she quickly thought better of it and put on a sweet smile before facing her neighbour.
"Oh, hi," she cooed prettily, determined not to let her annoyance show.
"Yeah, hi," replied he, looking somewhat flustered.
Taking a clock-tick to study him, she was pleasantly surprised. He was handsome enough, and his eyes were kind. She couldn't say that she'd noticed him in class before. There weren't that many non-Gillikinese students at Shiz to begin with, so a Vinkun fella like him would certainly have caught her attention.
"I know it's a rather stupid question, but I'm new here. Is—is this ARCH111?"
Oh, how cute.
She laughed mildly and held up her folder, the code of the course printed in huge letters, slap bang in the middle of the yellow cover sheet.
"Ah, good to know," answered the Vinkun boy and chuckled along in relief. "Thanks. I'm Fiyero by the way."
"Galinda. How come you're new but in a second semester architecture class?"
He uneasily scratched his neck and made a funny face.
"I hadn't exactly planned on outing myself straight away, but I transferred from another uni after failing most of my courses there. I used to major in arch, but now I'm just doing it as an elective. I'm only sitting here for easy points and because it neatly fit into my schedule. I'm mostly focusing on sociology now."
"Wow, that's like… not related at all," giggled Galinda. "But whatever makes you happy, right?"
Their conversation was cut short by Milla's arrival.
"Hey, Galinda! Sorry I'm late."
"Uh, that's fine," replied the blonde, casting her new acquaintance a fleeting apologetic smile before turning around.
Removing her bag from the adjacent seat, she made room for Milla. When she looked up at her, she noticed that the other girl was crinkling her nose at Fiyero. Thankfully, they were soon distracted by yet another late arrival.
"Good morning class!"
A lank, plain woman with thin, shoulder-length, light brown hair was making her way down the steps and towards the front of the lecture hall. A small number of students immediately took to watching her curiously, while the majority ignored her presence altogether. Galinda merely pursed her lips and directed her attention towards her bag, on the hunt for her pen and her phone. As she dug through the large compartments of her tote, all she could think of was how unfortunate it was that the rumours had turned out to be true in the end.
"Is this thing on?"
A shrill feedback noise rang through the speakers. Miss Greyling had attached the small wireless microphone to her pale blue woollen sweater and tried several of the controls, accidentally turning up the volume and some other knobs she probably shouldn't have touched in the first place. Galinda cringed ever so slightly. Next to her, Milla groaned and buried her face in her hands in obvious despair, despite her prominent position, right in their lecturer's line of sight.
By the end of their class, Miss Greyling's incompetence was no longer a mere rumour, but fully and completely established fact. Milla in particular simply couldn't stop ranting on and on about that disaster of a lecture, while Galinda mostly nodded and agreed, using taciturn replies.
"And then her presentation wasn't even formatted correctly? Like the entire flow chart was a mess. How are we supposed to take anything useful from that? I don't care if that woman maybe actually knows how to be a decent architect, but she obviously is utterly unqualified to teach us how to follow into her footsteps."
"She certainly is awful," mumbled Galinda. "I guess the new objective from now on is to get through this course with decent marks and then pray that she'll be gone by the start of the next semester.
"Anyway, I better head off to biology. Which stream are you in for the tutorial at three o'clock?"
Milla tilted her head and shrugged.
"I can't remember. But I think my room is in the Arts Hub?"
"Good. Same," smiled Galinda. "See you then, I guess."
With that, she was off, too much in a hurry to turn around and see if Milla would care enough to wave. Unfortunately, the science building was exactly on the other end of the campus. Perhaps she should keep chatting with Milla to a minimum next time she had to make the same trip.
She arrived just on time before the doors closed. While they always remained unlocked, she hated drawing unnecessary attention by pushing them open after class had already commenced. Of course everyone did it from time to time, especially with tight schedules and overly talkative teachers; but Galinda wasn't everyone.
Pausing at the top of the large theatre, she gauged the room. Doctor Dillamond was early as usual, standing at the lectern and sorting through his notes. She'd been more than sceptical when he'd first introduced himself in the beginning of her first semester, but as it turned out, the Goat was a formidable educator. If only she cared as much about this elective as she did about her real subjects, which were the true reason why she attended Shiz. The notion that her Animal bio teacher was more capable than her human architecture lecturer was nothing short of infuriating.
She continued her observations, and her eyes were inexplicably drawn to the first row of the left-hand side. Against all her expectations, the seat they honed in on was vacant. Her brows furrowed in mild confusion. The spot belonged to an exceedingly peculiar girl. While most students were flexible and changed seats regularly, she'd occupied that very same chair every single lesson without fail last semester. After the first few times, no one else would even dare to try and contest her right to sit there. Of course, this was not the strangest thing about her. Mostly preoccupied with herself and her group of friends, Galinda doubted she would have noticed something as insignificant as that. But she also happened to be an insufferable know-it-all, a classical teacher's pet and…well…green.
Yes, green. And that, admittedly, had been far more shocking than having an Animal for a professor.
Strangely enough, Galinda had mostly gotten used to it. She'd also gotten used to her annoying voice piping up every couple of minutes and to the fact that she was always sitting in the same seat, usually with her nose buried in her notes or some tattered library book. Over time, it had become somewhat a reassuring constant amidst the chaos that was her daily undergrad life. So much so, that she was now almost inclined to wonder whether this unexpected deviation from the usual routine was a bad omen.
Shrugging off this silly idea, she shook her head at herself. Letting her gaze wander towards the right corner, she spotted Pfannee and Shenshen. How vividly she remembered both girls swearing that they would drop the subject after the end of last term! Well, she was glad they hadn't; at least now she had someone familiar to sit with and talk to. She supposed, despite their loud, audacious ramblings about the unsuitability of Animals in the public domain, let alone the educational sector, the loss of vital points and time had still dissuaded them from following through with their plans.
Money could have been another reason; Galinda knew that both of them weren't quite as rich as they liked to pretend they were. This was particularly true for Shenshen. Not that Galinda minded. After all, being and staying on top of their little hierarchy was a whole lot easier for her as long as she could afford to compete with them and their extravagant tastes. It allowed her to cut herself some slack in other areas.
"Hi, Glinda," Pfannee greeted her with a cheeky grin the moment she noticed her approach. "Are you ready for yet another semester of that stupid, old Goat butchering your beautiful name?"
Galinda scoffed at the thought and let herself drop into the empty chair next to her.
"Hey, Shenshen," she greeted her other friend with a small flutter of her fingers.
"So the whole band is re-united after all," came a male voice from behind them, causing Galinda to wheel around in surprise.
"Avaric!"
"Why, you look surprised, blondie?"
Her lips curled wickedly.
"Absolutely bewildered, to be perfectly honest. I totally thought I'd be rid of you after that disastrous final exam."
"I hate to disappoint," replied the sandy-haired boy innocently. "But I managed to do some extra work for a couple of bonus credits. After a lot of careful consideration, having to repeat the class and missing out on your lovely company seemed too high a cost."
"Flatterer," laughed Galinda, shaking her head as she turned back around.
To be fair, she didn't actually think he was lying or even exaggerating; she only really wished he was, because of how much she hated having to pretend being at least marginally interested in his overtures. She rarely made any such efforts with the other boys, but Avaric was, for all intents and purposes, exceptionally good-looking and even more exceptionally wealthy. Any normal girl in her right mind would give her best arm to land a guy like him. For her to reject him outright would have been asking for trouble, that much was certain.
"Alright, class, settle down now, settle down," a slightly bleating voice rang through the speaker system, and bit by bit, the murmuring of the crowd faded into a few hushed whispers. "Wonderful. Well, I'm glad to see you all congregated in such great numbers. A lot of familiar faces."
The Goat nodded to himself, looking quite satisfied as he scanned the room section by section. When he finally reached the left wing, Galinda believed to see him frowning for a moment.
"At any rate, welcome to Biology 2, our final introductory class for biology majors and the last biology course for our dear Gen Ed students. I hope you all—regardless of your specialisation—make the best of this semester and work hard. After all, the study of life itself is such a fundamental part of our existence. There are few other fields that have such potential to leave a lasting impression on young minds.
"Let me begin by announcing the dates for our four big assignments this semester and—oh yes, we need to appoint a lab assistant." His eyes briefly flicked back to the empty seat in the left corner. "It appears Miss Elphaba is not among us today, though I dare say I saw her name on the attendance sheet…" Clumsily shuffling through the pages before him, he shook his head. "Does anyone happen to know where she is this morning?"
His question was met with dead silence and a few raised eyebrows.
"Very well, we can manage without Miss Elphaba for the time being," he chuckled.
He walked over to the right-most seat in the front and handed the attendance list to the student who occupied it.
"Sign your name and pass this on, please," he instructed before once again lifting his gaze to survey his class. "Well, I suppose we should elect a deputy then, someone to help me set up the lab on Wednesday."
Galinda noticed many of her peers lowering their heads and frantically concentrating on their course books—like that was actually going to save them, she thought with a concealed grin.
"Well, how about you, Miss Glinda?" she suddenly heard the professor say.
Her eyes widened in horror. Her friends left and right of her began to titter. Schooling her expression, she turned to face Doctor Dillamond.
"Me?"
She hated the warm look in his big, soft eyes. Should she be thankful to have been hand-picked as the green girl's replacement, as the Animal's assistant? She expelled a long breath. Most likely he'd only chosen her because she was one of the few students—besides Elphaba—whose name he could remember. At least sort of. They'd clashed quite a few times in the beginning of the first semester over its correct pronunciation, until she'd finally given up.
Resigned to her fate and heaving yet another sigh, she nodded.
"Okay. I'll do it."
"Excellent. Please be there by eight thirty on Wednesday. Now, with that out of the way, let's discuss the assignments.
All three girls had a bit of a break after this lecture. They each bought themselves something small from the food stalls at the Uni Square and sat down at one of the picnic tables.
"I'm surprised you haven't lost your appetite," remarked Pfannee as she pilfered one of Galinda's tortilla strips from her plate.
The blonde blinked for a clock-tick, then realised that she was referring to the dreadful business with Doctor Dillamond.
"Oh, it's all I can do not to fall apart completely," she answered dramatically, dejectedly slumping her shoulders for good measure.
Her friends both sympathetically rubbed her back.
"It's all that green thing's fault!" exclaimed Shenshen. "If only she'd turned up for her bloody first class, this would never have happened."
"Well, in saying so, you admit that you actually want her to be there in the first place," argued Pfannee.
This comment caused somewhat of a debate between them, until Galinda magnanimously decided that even obnoxious, green people had their part to play in society, if only to elevate those more fortunate.
"Very wisely put," nodded Shenshen eagerly, while Galinda could hardly keep her face straight. Sometimes she did not know how she even managed to put up with her undeniably somewhat simple-minded cronies.
On her other side, Pfannee sulkily rested her head on her propped up hands.
"But what are you going to do about this? That's the real question."
Galinda shrugged helplessly. What could she possibly do about it?
"I suppose I'll wait for Elphaba to come back. I doubt she'll stay away for too long. Most likely she's just sick or something."
"I don't even know how you can remember her name," muttered Pfannee, turning her nose up.
Pretending to be interested in a vaguely attractive guy passing by their table, Galinda avoided to look at her. How did anyone not remember Elphaba's name when Dillamond spent nearly half of their class calling it out, due to a lack of participation from the remaining students?
When Pfannee and Shenshen went off to go to accounting together, Galinda hurried to the business complex for her statistics class. The building was huge and relatively new to her. Finding the correct room was a bit of a mission, but at least she was right across the road from the Arts Hub and wouldn't have to worry too much about being on time later. The lesson was about as boring as she'd predicted, especially with no established friends around to turn to. It was just as well, however, seeing as Galinda found the material challenging enough, even without any outside distractions.
At least the day finished with somewhat of a silver lining. Her final subject was a double Architecture Studio class with Milla and it was everything she'd hoped for and more. The teaching assistant who conducted the lesson knew exactly what he was doing, was affable and helpful and the actual design aspect of architecture had always been Galinda's favourite part. This was exactly what she'd signed up for. This was what she'd been dreaming of ever since middle school. It felt terrific being reminded of that at the end of a rather trying day.
Thus more or less placated, she got home just before six, dumped her bag in the corner, made herself a hot cup of cocoa and crashed onto her little, cream coloured leather sofa. Pulling out her phone, she checked her social media accounts for any exciting updates. There was a picture of her and Milla, enjoying a celebratory shared mug of milkshake right after finishing their last class.
'Survived our first day back,' read the caption.
Galinda chuckled bitterly. What did lovely, oblivious, average Milla know of survival? The struggle had hardly begun yet. What about assignments? What about semester finals? What about the years to come? What about the pressure that came with being a straight A student? What about the kind of struggles within the social context of university life that had nothing to do with academics at all? Truly: what did Milla know about any of that?
As much as Galinda loved the freedom that came with living away from home and the fulfilment she got from studying in her dream field, there were plenty of things that still held her back. She wasn't effortlessly perfect, despite what she had managed to make people believe. She was anything but. There was a side of her that she was not ready to show to anyone, a part of her that stood in stark contrast to the girl she appeared to be. Keeping up her image was hard work. She studied relentlessly, but couldn't let it show. She was a lot more liberal than most of her friends, but felt the need to conform to their views, at least as long as they were listening and looking. Heck, she didn't even dare to let on how extremely creative and quirky her mind really was, despite her chosen discipline affording her with at least somewhat of an acceptable outlet.
Those were the more substantial struggles of her life. It was, however, a lot easier to concentrate on the much less significant ones—even if those were occasionally somewhat of a fabrication to suit the persona she'd created.
Surely, by any good socialite's standards…what was there to not resent about that terrible assistance role Doctor Dillamond had thrust upon her? With all the dread she could muster, she thought of Wednesday morning: bio at nine a.m., lab duty half past eight. Oz damn that green girl for not attending her first lecture of the semester. She'd literally had one job!
Right?
Yes, that was the spirit.
Growling to herself, Galinda picked up her mug and comforted herself with a sip of her velvety chocolate drink. Ah well, she'd survive it this one time. Most likely, Elphaba would already be back next session, relieving her from this unnecessary burden. Just a slight gulch. No need to fret. All would be well. Just like the best of martyrs, Galinda Arduenna Upland was so gracious and good that she'd be able to handle it. That was exactly why everyone loved her.
All was certainly not well when Wednesday rolled around and the impertinent green thing was still MIA.
Galinda dutifully arrived at the bio lab five minutes before the appointed time. She helped Doctor Dillamond in setting up the classroom, though she often felt like she was running around like a headless chicken, unfamiliar with the store room and endless drawers, hardly being able to find any of the things he needed her to fetch. Furthermore, there were many obstacles her professor faced due to his clumpy hooves, which she had not taken into account before. More than once, she tried to pass a retrieved item on to him, only to awkwardly realise that he wouldn't be able to grab it. The Goat politely glossed over all of her faux pas, but she still felt the humiliation deep in her bones.
After half an hour worth of intense work, he sent her away with his notes and his staff card to make copies for the entire class. When she returned, the lab was filled with students and only two seats remained. She distributed the sheets among her peers and neatly placed the stack of unused copies on Dillamond's desk, then chose the chair furthest away from him to sit down. Pfannee and Shenshen sat three spaces further to the left and had either not tried or not succeeded in reserving a spot for her.
The lesson itself passed rather uneventfully, but Galinda couldn't shake that certain sense of unease that had been plaguing her all morning. If anything, it was only intensifying. She peered at the empty seat on the other side of the room. Was Elphaba supposed to be sitting there?
After the lab had finally concluded, Galinda grudgingly dragged herself in the direction of Doctor Dillamond's desk to discuss the future of the assistant position with him.
"Well," said the Goat, "Miss Elphaba is scheduled for the B-stream. She should be here within the next five minutes or so."
Galinda breathed a sigh of relief. So the green bean was not the absentee she'd been so worried about.
"If you'd like, you could write down your number for me and I'd call you later to let you know whether your help will be required on Friday."
Shaking her head a little too vigorously, Galinda declined his proposal.
"No, that's alright. I'll just wait for another couple of minutes to see if she shows up. Is there anything you need help with?"
He smiled gratefully at her offer and asked her to kindly place another round of copied notes on each table. It was a quick and simple task, and when she was done, she moved on to wiping the whiteboard, despite not having been told to do so.
Finally, the students of the next stream arrived. None of them was green. Galinda's face fell, and an angry feeling rolled through her stomach. After momentarily gritting her teeth at the sight of lines upon lines of perfectly pale-skinned people before her, she harshly reminded herself to fold it in and act casual. This was fine. She'd deal with it. Elphaba would be back by Friday.
She still did vent in front of Milla when they met up before their next architecture lecture. It was simply too infuriating a matter for her to keep all the frustration bottled up inside. At least Milla was a friend, a confidante, and sharing such problems with her promised to garner her a few sympathy points. At least if she presented the problem in the right light.
Most of all, Milla could hardly even believe that the whispers about the green girl on campus were more than just an urban legend. Galinda had never dared telling her about Elphaba before then and, to the best of her knowledge, the redhead had no other friends who'd seen her either. Now that Milla mentioned it, Galinda couldn't remember seeing her outside of class either. Apparently, she was quite an elusive creature.
"Well, she definitely does exist," she assured her sullenly. "Only at the moment, she's not showing up for class. Who would have guessed that the absence of a green smart-ass could cause more of a stir than her presence?"
"Well, I feel for you. But at least bio is only your elective."
"Exactly!" Galinda huffed. "I'm not even a bio major. Why should I, out of like over a hundred students, have anything to do with it beyond sitting there and doing the bare minimum of what is ordinarily required?"
Naturally, Milla had little advice to offer beyond a few consoling words. They went to the convenience store to stock up on energy drinks and then made their way to their lecture.
It was a short day for Galinda, ending after just another stats class, right after. Taking a shortcut through the university's botanical garden, she walked past the student centre and remembered that she still had to hand in that form for her new student ID card. She stopped to rummage through her bag but ultimately concluded that she hadn't brought it with her. When she looked up, she barely trusted her eyes when she saw a certain green girl leave the building.
She blinked. Was this really her? If so, why had she not been to class this morning? She made to follow her, broke into a brief sprint, then slowed down again. She had no idea what was compelling her to halt and give up, other than sensing that every fibre of her being seemed to try and keep her away from Elphaba. Was she afraid of her? Or of the possibility that her odd discolouration could be catching? No, that was really not it.
The girl in question soon disappeared behind a gentle hill. There was no catching her now. Annoyed with herself, Galinda tightened her grip around the strap of her bag and set out on her way home.
At least the encounter had restored a measure of faith in Galinda. Elphaba was still around and had not been kidnapped or murdered or succumb to some kind of mystery illness. All those things considered, there was a decent chance that this Friday would be her last day on duty as Doctor Dillamond's assistant.
Once again, she arrived earlier than necessary. As it was only a lecture day, the preparations she had to help with were limited, but there were a couple of small things here and there that the Goat found difficult to accomplish without the benefit of long, nimble digits. Galinda did everything he asked of her without complaint. Maybe, she hoped, he would remember her favourably if she needed an extra point or two for one of her assignments.
Once again, she eagerly awaited the filling of the classroom. She half expected Elphaba to be the first person to stride through the large, open door, satchel clamped under her arm, nose in her book, black, shiny, impossibly straight hair trailing behind her. But there was only Avaric and a cluster of his idiotic friends and a number of less familiar students. Then came Shenshen and Pfannee and the entire rest. There was no Elphaba.
"That will be all, Glinda, thank you."
Slightly dazed, she looked at her professor, then nodded and returned to her seat where her bag was waiting for her. Her friends had managed to find chairs in the row right behind her.
"Hey, Galinda," half-whispered Pfannee, seeing as the lecture was about to begin. "Are you coming with us tonight? We're going to the Philosophy Club."
"Possibly? I guess? I'll text you later, okay?"
Doctor Dillamond greeted the students and passed Galinda the attendance register. She signed next to her name and was about to push the paper sideways to the next person, but suddenly froze mid-way. Awkwardly, she pulled the sheet back towards herself. Cheeks blushing slightly for no apparent reason, she bit her lip and allowed her eyes to pore over the list.
Elphaba…Elphaba… She found her name close to the bottom. 'Elphaba Thropp'. Her heart skipped a beat as she read her full name. Perhaps that would help somehow? She wasn't sure what exactly she'd do with this information, but it certainly wouldn't hinder her search.
Her search? Her search. Huh. She hadn't even realised that she'd made any such plans. Still, she supposed it made sense. The way things were going, she was rather worried that Elphaba was, for some obscure reason, not inclined to come back, and she needed to fix this. For her own good, of course.