Yet another rather short chapter (sorry). They'll get longer...
Started writing: 29.09.2019
Finished writing: 01.10.2019
Chapter 6
Dance
"Miss Elphaba!"
The green-skinned woman stopped and turned, searching for the one that had called her name but there was no one around who could have been it. So, she focused on the book again that laid opened in her hands.
"Miss Elphaba!"
No, there was no denying it; someone was calling her name.
Again, Elphaba shuddered to a halt and looked around. When her eyes found the receptionist waving at her, she heaved a sigh of relief. At least it wasn't some stupid boy that found her stopping every three steps was the funniest thing in all of Oz.
Quickly, she shut her book and hurried over to the reception, crashing against the counter. "What is it?"
The woman behind it pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose in the same movement that Elphaba sometimes did when she was reading.
"There's a letter from Munchkinland for you," she said and held out the cream-white envelope.
Hurriedly, Elphaba snatched it away from her, muttered a small "Thank you." and swept out of the entrance hall.
All the way across the campus towards the library, she turned the letter in her hands, fumbling with the edge of the envelope nervously. Her book forgotten in her bag, Elphaba climbed up the few steps to the library and slipped through the door.
As always, she found the library mostly empty and for that she was grateful. With a huff, she let herself fall onto one of the large, red couches and turned the letter again, looking at the neatly written letters that could only have been written by her mother for what felt like an eternity.
Then, eventually, she opened it and unfolded the sheet within.
My dear, dear Fabala.
Oz, how much I loathe these people. How much I want to pull you in my arms for you to find comfort. Is you being happy too much to ask? Is you being treated by people like you deserve to be too much to be even considered before being rejected? I just… I wish people weren't so small-minded and empty-headed. I wish there was something I could do.
Elphaba, you must see that -no matter what happens- I love you all the same and I want you to know that you can tell me everything. I won't judge you and I really hope you know that.
People are stupid, dear, don't let it get to you. I know it doesn't sound like much help but if you just choose to ignore them, they might finally stop the harassing. It hurts me to learn that your fellow students are having so much impact that it overshadows the joy and fun of university. You're supposed to have the time of your life at Shiz, dear. You're supposed to go out and have fun and do all these things that your father and I certainly never want to know about because it would have us drop dead in an instant. You're supposed to find crazy friends and make stupid mistakes, do things that are so forbidden you wouldn't even dare to say aloud…
I do hope that you'll finally get what you deserve, Fabala. And I wish that those who hurt you will, too, get what they deserve. Never has the world been fair to you, my dear, and I desperately want that to change.
But, all that aside, I'm happy you enjoy your classes. I know you'll make good, Elphaba. I just know you will.
Don't despair, my dear Elphaba. Don't let it bring you down.
I wish I could be there for you, dear, I wish I could do something…
Write back soon, my dear,
With all my love,
Momma
PS; Your father will write as soon as his meeting at the Emerald City is over. We love you.
She had known it had been a bad idea, writing them. Now, Momma was all worried and restless and… and it didn't help Elphaba at all. At this moment, Elphaba missed her mother so much that it hurt. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into her arms and cuddle into the warmth of her mother's embrace. Quickly, as though it would make her homesickness disappear, Elphaba folded the letter again and stuffed it back into the envelope.
Focus, she said to herself, focus on other things. Like-
"Here you are!"
Elphaba flinched at the sudden sound of Aurelion's voice and turned around to face the brunette boy.
"I've been searching everywhere for you," he added, sitting down next to her.
Aurelion. He was the first to be nice to her. She'd even consider him a friend, wouldn't he spend almost every free second with 'Miss I'm-too-popular-to-even-talk-to-lovesick-Aurelion-Galinda Upland', swooning over her as though she was the angel in person.
"Have you heard of this dance next week?" he asked and Elphaba tossed the letter into her bag and shook her head, retreating her book.
Aurelion leant forwards. "Are you not interested in it at all?"
Elphaba arched an eyebrow at him.
"Interested in stupid girls spending too much money on much too indecent dresses to have brainless idiots whirling them across the dance floor all night to hideous music that's not even live-played? Why, for Oz's sake, should I not be interested in that?" she deadpanned and Aurelion blushed a vague shade of red.
"If you put it that way it sounds like a disaster," he mumbled.
"Because that's exactly what it is," Elphaba said, opening her book.
After some mere seconds passing in silence, Aurelion began to shift awkwardly on his place and finally managed to ask, "Would you go with me?"
"No," Elphaba shot out straight away.
"If you need any excuse to be swooning over Galinda, just ask her," she added without batting an eyelid.
When she looked up, she saw that the vague shade of red had turned into a flaming red that decorated his whole face.
"B-But…," Aurelion stammered. "She doesn't even know my name."
Elphaba shrugged, not taking her eyes off her book.
"So, what. She doesn't know my name either but cares to insult me all the time. If you are lucky enough, she might care enough to say yes," she said matter-of-factly.
The boy's cheeks flamed as he leant forwards and tried to look Elphaba into her deep brown eyes. "S-So you think she'll say yes?"
The green woman shook her head, turning over a page. "I merely said you have a slim chance that she will. But I don't think she will."
Aurelion's shoulders slumped. "Oz, you are really not motivating."
"It's called being realistic."
"I, myself, prefer optimism."
Elphaba's eyes popped open wide. "Then you also prefer naivety."
He shook his head at her, crossing his legs. "So, I assume you won't go to the dance?"
"Sweet Oz, no," the green woman answered and her lips curled into a twisted smile. "It's all these brainless girls are talking about. I don't need that sort of distraction."
Aurelion stared at her with a furrowed brow. "It's one night."
"And Oz knows, a night wasted for drinking and dancing around until your feet hurt," Elphaba said plainly.
She stood up and shouldered her bag, looking down at the boy in the corner of the couch. "I'll go to my Arts classes, now. See you around."
And before he could say anything else, Elphaba swept out of the library.
Arts, she knew, was a rather simple class. She'd had to find out that it wasn't much about painting and drawing and more about the analysis of pictures and pieces of art, but in the end, she liked it all the same. The other students were mostly okay if you didn't count Pfanee and Shenshen in who were friends with Galinda Upland (or 'the irreversibly blonde Blonde' as Elphaba liked to refer to her).
Sadly, these two girls were the ones that stood before the Arts classroom as Elphaba arrived. And, of course, they didn't hold their tongues.
Pfanee's eyes widened as she saw Elphaba approach. "Oh, look who's there, Shenshen. The green bean."
The girls giggled at their 'original' joke and Elphaba rolled her eyes, opening her book.
"I'm wondering...," one of them said. "Are you going to the dance, Artichoke?"
Elphaba turned over a page with vigour, her eyes never leaving the page as she wisely kept her mouth shut.
"Are you going to answer anytime soon?!" Shenshen snapped and Elphaba shot her a glare.
"She isn't going anyway," Pfanee said with a twisted grin. "Who would ask her?"
"No one of this world, that's for sure."
Again, the girls fell into a loud fit of laughter, showing off their new hairstyles as they tossed it around.
"I'm not even sure she's a she," Shenshen whispered so loud that even a deaf person could have heard it. "' It' would fit best, don't you think?"
But before Pfanee had a chance to share her -surely unimaginably wise- opinion on the matter, Professor Linister suddenly appeared beside them and fumbled with his keys.
"Now, now, class," he said and shoved open the door. "Me being late doesn't mean you are allowed to dawdle around in the threshold."
Quickly, Elphaba shut her book and slipped into the classroom as the first.
Behind her, she heard the girls giggle.
"Listen," Shenshen said. "This morning Livander asked me to go to the dance with him."
Both Shenshen and Pfanee broke out in a high-pitched scream and Pfanee let her bag drop to the ground.
"And?" she squealed.
"Well...," said Shenshen, drawing out the word as long as she managed to. "His suit wouldn't match my dress..." -Elphaba rolled her eyes- "So I said no."
With a huff, the green girl sat down in the first row and took out the notes she'd been taking in the last lesson.