So, I'm already really excited about what is going to happen in this chapter. There's a hint to Peter Pan that's impossible to miss... so, if you actually miss it... tell me;) Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this.
Started writing: 01.10.2019
Finished writing: 02.11.2019
Chapter 7
Curse
"You have to stop this."
Elphaba looked up, annoyed by the distraction in the form of her somehow-and-somehow-not-friend Aurelion. "What?"
The boy sank into the chair next to her, pointing at the notes and books spread out in front of her. "This. You never do anything but studying."
Elphaba wrinkled her nose. "What else should I be doing at the university? Party? No, thank you."
Aurelion sighed deeply. "You're throwing yourself into work. You never even eat. How come you've not yet starved?
The green-skinned woman rolled her eyes and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "I do eat, Aurelion. No need to get all worried about me."
She bent over her notes again. "It's just that… midterms are nearing."
Aurelion cocked his head to one side. "You mean… the dance is nearing."
His eyes snapped open wide. "So, you are bothered that no one asked you to go."
Elphaba snorted. "Sweet Oz, no. I'm glad I wasn't asked."
Her pen was tapping in a furious pace against the edge of the table. "I'm studying because I like to, Aurelion, that's the only reason."
Aurelion raised his eyebrows at her. "Well, if it's just that, then you might as well go into the city with me, this Saturday."
Elphaba inwardly cringed at the very thought. But then again, she had her pride to defend. So, she nodded and amused herself at the face Aurelion made.
"But only if you'll let me study now," she said and nudged her elbow into his side.
With a sigh of relief, she watched as he retreated and slipped back out of the library.
In truth, she didn't really study so much for the cause of learning itself but for the cause of distraction. From Galinda and her three annoying friends, from this stupid dance next week that had thrown the whole school off-balance and from the fact that she actually had to write a letter to her mother as she'd promised in her last one. She knew her mother was waiting for a letter to arrive; the sheets were already spread out on her desk in her room, filled with two words: Dear Momma. But she couldn't bring herself to continue. So, she avoided her dorm as best as she could; hiding away in the library whenever she was not in class. She avoided the meadows and benches on the campus because of the other students and she avoided the city and its cafes and restaurants because of the looks she'd get thrown there. All in all, Elphaba found herself doing a fantastic job of avoiding everything and everyone. Well, expect for Aurelion but she didn't know if he counted, he was some sort of friend to her, after all.
"You cannot be serious," Elphaba gaped at her friend as she stepped out of the building. "Did you wait here all afternoon?"
Aurelion nodded sleepily and gave a yawn, standing up from the bench he'd been sitting on. He shouldered his bag and grinned at her. "Of course, I did. I knew you'd slipped away if I hadn't."
Elphaba gave him a look but kept her mouth shut. She just stepped next to him and followed him as they began to make their way into the city.
"So, Elphaba," he said after some time and the pregnant silence afterwards was like a heavy weight on Elphaba's shoulders. Oz, what would come now?
Aurelion took a deep breath. "I'm going to the dance…"
"Tell me something new," Elphaba deadpanned.
He chose to ignore her. "With Pfanee."
Elphaba shuddered to a halt and stared at him. Was he being serious?
"Is this supposed to be a joke?" she said. "Because, for Oz's sake, it's a bad one."
But Aurelion only beamed at her as though he'd just told her the greatest news in all of Oz. Elphaba choked out a quick "Great." and hurried forwards. So, her somehow-and-somehow-not-friend was going to the dance with the girl that chose to harass her constantly. Great.
She kept quiet throughout the whole walk into the city; let Aurelion lead them down the hill, through the small industrial quarter and to the Ostrich's-Road with all its restaurants and cafes.
"So, what do you want to eat?" Aurelion asked her and Elphaba shrugged. They stood at the very beginning of the street that bent around a large building some hundred metres away. The street was lined with signs to 'The Dancing Crow' and 'Café Whiz' and for a Saturday afternoon, it was unusually quiet.
"I once heard of this Peter Pane -thing from the Emerald City," she pointed at a green and red coloured house on the left side of the road. "It's something that the Wizard brought from his world. It's supposed to be really good."
Aurelion shrugged in agreement and pulled her forwards into the restaurant.
A waitress hurried to the door as she saw them enter, let her widened eyes wander across Elphaba's face and said, "You're the Governor's daughter!"
Elphaba gaped at her and Aurelion whirled around. "Governor?!"
The waitress, Elphaba noticed, was slim-built and small, with rosy cheeks and red curls framing her freckled face and the green woman tilted her head to one side. "Are you Munchkin?"
The waitress threw her head back in a giggle and said, "Of course, I am. Or have you ever seen a Gillikin as small as I am?"
Elphaba grinned and shook her head. "I suppose not."
The waitress leapt out for Elphaba's hand and shook it.
"Emry Van Islingfield," she introduced herself. "I always wanted to meet you; you know? …the green and all… it's just so fascinating."
Elphaba couldn't do anything but stare as Emry led them to one of very few empty tables next to a large window and spread out the menu cards before them. "When you were born it was such a big scandal back in Munchkinland; I remember all the front pages that were covered with 'Governor of Munchkinland goes green' and 'The Rose of Nest Hardings gives birth to a stem'. The press was very creative back then."
The waitress pulled out her small notebook. "Drinks?"
Elphaba opened her mouth and closed it again; no words going past her lips.
Aurelion stared at the woman for some seconds, cleared his throat and said, "A-Apple juice for me."
The green woman needed some time to compose herself and then choked out, "Water will do."
Emry jotted down the drinks and beamed at Elphaba again. "You know, almost everyone found it quite weird; the green."
Elphaba snorted. "Imagine that."
The waitress chuckled. "But my mother always told me that everything happens for a reason, that everything serves a greater cause. So, you being green must mean something."
She thought for a second, sticking the end of her pen into the gap between her teeth. "No one has ever made a difference by being like everyone else."
Elphaba's eyes popped open wide. "The Change, Corelia Fawn."
Emry laughed. "Yes, right. You like books?"
Elphaba nodded.
"She never does anything but reading and studying," Aurelion threw in and Emry gave Elphaba a knowing look.
"One might as well sink into a world of fantasy when given a world that's not like you want it to be," she stated and took their orders for food.
Elphaba was sure she'd never enjoyed a meal as much as she did this afternoon. The food was delicious and in the cosy place that was Peter Pane, it was easy to relax somewhat. And with Emry being so nice to her, not the slightest disgusted by her abnormal skin colour, Elphaba felt the time slip away in a blur. For the first time in her entire life, she ate with someone who wasn't part of her family and enjoyed it.
From time to time Emry joined them at the table and they talked about books and life and Munchkinland and when Aurelion and she stepped out of the restaurant, promising Emry to return next week, Elphaba was surprised to find it was already half-past five.
She let out a happy sigh. "This was… surprisingly good."
She took Aurelion's arm. "Mind if we go to the library in town? I bet it's bigger than the one at Shiz."
And Aurelion rolled his eyes and nodded.
Thus, they went to the library that was indeed bigger than the campus library and Elphaba spent the next hour with skimming a few blurbs and filling her bag with some books she wanted to read.
It was beginning to dawn when they made their way back to Shiz.
The sky had already lost the soft light of gold and red and was turning into a blue-ish grey that let the streets look narrow and the ground uneven. They'd just entered the empty market place when it happened.
Elphaba saw the little girl in the corner of her eye; laughing and running away from her older brother. It must've missed paying attention to the street because when she picked up pace, she suddenly stumbled and fell.
And she fell straight before a horse's hooves. Frozen on the spot, Elphaba watched in horror as the horse reared back.
Her hands flew to her mouth and a muffled scream escaped her lips. Then she felt a sudden surge of energy, lighting before her eyes and a rush of… something through her veins. Her eyes withered shut, she missed how everything and everyone froze in their places, and fell to the ground; unconscious.
Otherwise, she would've seen how her fingers glowed in a light green and sparks of white light popped from her fingertips and disappeared when they fell to the ground.
Black. Black and sparks of white. Or green. No, definishely white.
With a groan, Elphaba opened her eyes, her eyelids heavy as though they were glued together. The white of the ceiling was so bright that it made her eyes hurt and her head throb and her lids closed on their own record.
"Miss?"
The voice was like a thunder that ripped through the silence in the air and Elphaba groaned again. A face came into her view; a woman's face framed with blonde curls that fell across her furrowed brow as she said, "Miss? Do you know where you are?"
With another groan, Elphaba pushed herself up onto her elbows and looked around.
She was lying in a small bed that stood opposite a large window with thin white curtains. The wooden door next to the bed had a number on it.
Elphaba frowned slightly. "The hospital?"
The woman wrote something into her notebook. "Your name is Elphaba, right?"
The green-skinned woman nodded.
"So...," the blonde started and sat down into a chair next to the bed. "There was an accident in town as you might remember. And this boy that brought you here said you somehow fell and hit your head on the kerb, so-"
Elphaba's eyes widened in shock as the pictures began to flood her mind. The girl... this tiny little girl that had almost been crushed by the horse's hooves... and the boy. Maybe her brother- what had he been doing anyway, racing his sister right into that monstrous horse?
"Miss Elphaba?"
The green girl blinked. "I'm sorry, I... what were you saying?"
The nurse had her forehead furrowed in a worried frown and she tilted her head to one side. "Are you alright, Miss?"
Elphaba nodded absentmindedly and murmured under her breath, "I should've known; green, of course, just isn't enough to punish me."
The blonde woman bent forwards a little bit. "What was that?"
Elphaba shook her head, throwing the blanket away that covered her legs. "I've got to go."
"No, no, no, no, no," the nurse hurried to say and pushed the green girl back into the pillows. "You can't go anywhere, Miss Elphaba, you have a minor concussion and the doctor said-"
"But I have to go to my classes, I have to do my History assignment. Midterms are nearing and...," stammered Elphaba helplessly.
The blonde woman shook her head. "Oh, Miss Elphaba, you make it sound worse than it is; you only have to stay until tomorrow morning."
She turned, ready to leave the room.
"Wait," Elphaba cried out in a hurry. "Miss ...?"
The nurse stopped. "Oh, I'm so sorry, where were my manners? I'm Nurse Laurence."
Elphaba rubbed her fingers together nervously. "Nurse Laurence, what about the girl?"
Nurse Laurence frowned in confusion. "What girl?"
"The girl that was crushed by the horse."
The frown increased. "What horse?"
Elphaba's mouth slammed shut as her brain started putting together the pieces.
The green sparks... they hadn't been an imagination after all; they had been real. She hadn't slipped and hit her head, she had fainted and hit her head. After...
"It must've been a dream," Elphaba murmured loud enough for Nurse Laurence to hear and the woman nodded and reached out for the door handle.
"I'll be back soon to check on you," she said and was out the door.
With a deep sigh, Elphaba let herself fall back into the pillows.
She had to write to her parents -to her mother, first of all. Oz, she'd be worried sick if she found out through someone else than Elphaba herself. When Nurse Laurence came back to 'check on her', she'd have to ask her for pen and paper. Or for her bag, on that ma-
"Miss Elphaba, Miss Elphaba!" the door was flung open to reveal a fishlike face that was followed by a long, green and yellow dress.
Elphaba sat up straight immediately. "Madame Morrible."
She cleared her throat awkwardly and shifted on her place under the white blanket. She was suddenly very aware of the long flannel shirt of the hospital that reached only halfway down her thighs and she pulled her knees to her chest.
"W-What are you doing here?" she finally managed to say and watched Madame Morrible close the door with a furrowed brow.
"Oh, you know, my deary, I heard of your accident and just had to come and visit you," the fish woman stepped closer to the bed. "You slipped and fell, didn't you?"
Something about the way Morrible pronounced 'slipped' made Elphaba's frown increase.
"Yes, I did, Madame," she answered.
Madame Morrible nodded, her skirts rustling as she moved even closer to the green-skinned woman.
"And you don't -by accident- remember any sparks being involved in the... incident?" Morrible asked and her voice sounded too sweet to be nice.
Elphaba froze, her chest moving rapidly as she tried to flatten her breath.
"N-No," she managed.
The Headshiztress threw her hands into the air as she spoke. "Oh, such a shame. Because the Wizard is looking for a new Magic Grand Vizier and I had this feeling that you -extraordinary as you appear to be- might have the potential to become just that."
Elphaba shot up. "The Wizard?"
But the Headshiztress was already halfway out the door. And Elphaba jumped up and bolted forwards, bare legs long forgotten as she leapt out for Madame Morrible's arm. "Wait."
She was breathing hard, and she felt a little dizzy. Madame Morrible turned, a look between satisfaction and shock displaying on her fishlike face. "Yes, please?"
Elphaba took a deep breath. "I-I... We'd just arrived at the market place and there were this little girl and boy who raced each other and the girl stumbled and fell right before this horse's hooves. And the horse... it just got scared -it wasn't its fault. It reared back and... I don't know what had gotten into me, Madame, I really don't."
Her long and green fingers closed tightly around the Headshiztress' arm and her deep brown eyes pierced straight into Morrible's.
Without so much as a blink, Madame Morrible closed the door properly and pressed her lips to a thin line.
"It was like... an explosion," Elphaba bit down on her lower lip. "I-I couldn't control it."
She self-consciously stepped backwards until her fingers found the thin cloth of her blanket. Madame Morrible curled her lips into a smile.
"You see, deary," the woman said sweetly. "If you can't control it then you must learn how to control it."
She took a sharp breath, one finger tapping against her pointed chin as she said, "I shall tutor you privately and if -if- you'll do your best, Miss Elphaba, then the Wizard might..."
But she didn't end the sentence and just turned around, saying, "You haven't got any classes on Saturdays, have you?"
Elphaba slowly shook her head. She didn't quite know what to think of all this, her thoughts racing through her brain, begging for answers with a severe headache.
"Good, good," the Headshiztress opened the door. "Then be in front of my office at 11 am sharp next Saturday."
And she whirled around and was out the door, leaving behind the heavy scent of orange blossoms that almost made Elphaba sneeze. For a while, the green girl stared at the closed door before her. Somehow a part of her just waited for Morrible to return, telling her she'd changed her mind. After all, Elphaba was the strange, disgusting Artichoke that no one wanted to have anything to do with, at all, ever.
Elphaba let out a breathy, disbelieving chuckle. The Wizard. He was the one thing that was out of her imagination; a person so good, so pure, so perfect couldn't be from this world and nor could it be from another. 'A God's creation.', her father would probably say. But at home, back in Munchkinland, they didn't talk about the Wizard so much. Political topics were banned from the dinner table because Father knew how his oldest daughter could ramble on and on for hours when she was passionate about something. And politics were something the green-skinned woman was very passionate about. Thus, Elphaba just read every single book that was ever written about politics and lost herself in all the stories and essays, keeping it all to herself.
She'd often imagined meeting the Wizard, working with him, side by side at the very top of Oz. She dreamt of going to the Emerald City and never coming back; adored and worshipped by all of Oz she would work with the Wizard, living and loving the life that she so desperately wanted. No one would dare to raise their voices against her, no one would make comments on her odd skin colour.
And now, it seemed that she was just a stone's throw away from her dream; that she just had to reach out and grab the luck that was usually just passing by to get what she'd always wanted.
The birds were chirping furiously, and the sun peeked out from behind a small cloud to shine onto the green girl's ebony black hair. Two days had passed since her stay at the hospital; two days in which Aurelion had hovered over her like an animal hovered over its prey, jumping at every single move she made.
And that was why Elphaba had fled into the courtyard and sat on a bench, a few sheets of paper on her knees and with her hair falling in front of her face like a curtain.
Dear Momma [she wrote]
I'm writing to you in particular, I just don't think Father would be overly excited about the news I have.
Oh Momma, so much has happened since my last letter. There's this boy in my History class who I somehow seem to become friends with. He's actually kind of nice, even though he has a total crush on Miss blonde-and-behaving-that-way-Galinda and spends almost every minute of his free time drooling at the sight of her extremely painted face. His name is Aurelion, and he's from the Emerald City. The Emerald City, Mum. You know I've always wanted to visit the Emerald City but imagine living there.
Anyway... last Saturday he forced me to go into town with him and we had lunch at Peter Pane. Not only was the food delicious, but I also met the first sympathetic Munchkin. And the first one to be interested in books. I had such a great time, Mum. We went to the Library and spent a little bit of our time there. But on our way back when we crossed the market place, there was this little girl and boy who raced each other. The girl stumbled and fell right before a horse's hooves. I don't even know what happened, I just overreacted and there was this rush through my body and then I fainted and woke up in the hospital.
But please don't worry, Mum, I just had a minor concussion and had to stay overnight and now everything is fine.
Now, there is still something I need to tell you about. For when I was in the hospital, Madame Morrible visited me. She wants to tutor me in Sorcery and she thinks I really can achieve something with it; The Wizard's Grand Vizier, she said.
Imagine that, Mum wouldn't ...
A sharp hem ripped Elphaba from her thoughts and her head snapped up. Her searching look wandered across the wine-draped wall and past the large tree. Then it fell on two persons standing in the entrance to the courtyard.
"Oh Oz, I can feel the IQ dropping in here," Elphaba groaned.
"Oh Oz," Galinda mimicked. "I can feel the coolness dropping."
The blonde hung on the arm of a tall, black-haired boy that had both his hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers.
"That's not how it works," said Elphaba with a snort.
Galinda stepped closer, her eyes narrowed. "Yeah, and the green isn't how the universe works."
Her hand slipped from the boy's arm. "Say, what exactly is your mother? A beanstalk, maybe?"
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Never heard that one before."
She straightened up and put her sheets next to her on the bench. "But maybe you could leave my family out of it, they have nothing to do with this."
Galinda's blonde curls bounced furiously as she said, "Yes, they have. Your mother, for example, could have spared us your ugly looks by just aborting the pregnancy."
Elphaba's lips became a thin line and although she tried to suppress it, she felt Galinda's words pierce her heart.
"As yours could've spared us your non-existent brain," she snapped and jumped up, stuffing her things into her bag.
A book pressed to her chest and her bag dangling from one shoulder, Elphaba squeezed past Galinda and her boyfriend and hurried away.
"Witch."
The green girl froze.
"What?"
She turned around, slowly, her gaze meeting Galinda's ice-blue eyes.
For a moment, everything was quiet. Then the boy stepped forward.
"Rumours are saying you're a witch," he spat as though he would be explaining something to a very stupid child, "That your mother was screwing around before you were born and the Unnamed God sent you as a punishment."
Elphaba stood as still as a post, her heart pounding hard against her rib cage. So hard that it hurt.
"Green and cursed," Galinda said. "Or maybe you are a curse. Which would explain the green."
She took her boyfriend's arm. "You're an abnormality. Weird and ugly and disgusting and green and... did I mention disgusting?"
Elphaba bit her lower lip, then slowly and as composed as she managed to, she said, "The Wizard thinks differently."
The boy on Galinda's arm (or the boy on whose arm Galinda hung) raised both eyebrows. "Yeah because the Wizard hasn't seen you yet. I bet he'll change his mind as soon as he finds out. He might even throw you into Southstairs, it's where you belong."
Elphaba clutched the book in her hands harder. "No, it's where you belong. 'Captivated because of stupidity.'"
She saw how Galinda shook her head. The blonde girl narrowed her eyes. "You're a freak, Artichoke. A real freak. And don't expect to be treated better than one."
Elphaba didn't. She never had, and she was positive that she'd never get her hopes up high enough to change that. And that was okay. And it would always be okay; what else could she do? She wouldn't suddenly start crying over milk that had been spilt at the moment of her first breath, and that was for sure.