And here we go with chapter eight...
Thank you for your reviews, guys; it's wonderful to see that there are people out there who read and like my stuff;)
Or perhaps you're just reading it as a pastime in self-quarantine? I don't know exactly how things are going on in all the other countries, but here in Germany, we just got five weeks off of school... well, technically three weeks but there're the Easter holidays in between so...
I just hope the government doesn't decide to impose a ban on going out... at least I'd have my writing to do but think of so many other people my age... they'll just watch Netflix the whole day (and night, probably).
Anyway... I'd love to hear your thoughts, as always.
Have a good day, stay safe (and healthy) and wash your hands;)

Started writing: 02.11.2019

Finished writing: 05.12.2019

Just noticed that I forgot to add a disclaimer... so, here it is (a little late... oops)

Disclaimer: I do not own Wicked. I wish I would, so that I can get the freaking movie going and cast Idina Menzel as Elphaba (pls not Ariana Grande, pls don't do this to me, Universal Studios!). But I don't. Wicked belongs, first and foremost, to Gregory Maguire. And L. Frank Baum, I guess? And it belongs to Stephen Schwarz... partly? It certainly doesn't belong to me anyway.

Chapter 8
Twirl

"Ooooooh!"

Elphaba wrinkled her nose at the noise. This high-pitched, ear-splitting screaming was going on for what felt like hours now.

"Let me see, let me see!"

How those girls could be heard through a six-inch brick wall was a puzzle to Elphaba. One that the green girl would love to solve with a sharp slap into each of these girls' faces.

Oz, there still were students in here that wanted to learn. But, of course, this brainless squealing girls in their three-inch-heels didn't once think about that.

With a groan, Elphaba shoved a strand of ebony black hair behind her ear and bent over her assignment again. But with all the background noise there was no way that the green-skinned woman could concentrate.

Today was the day Elphaba had been dreading to arrive for almost a week; the day of the dance. It was Friday, and it was hot outside; the sun was burning on the pavement and the air shimmered above the ground. And yet, everyone was inside; the students to get ready for the dance, the professors to get ready for the next day's classes.

Classes had been cancelled today. 'Too hot to concentrate.', they'd claimed and Elphaba had seethed with anger. Wasn't Shiz University supposed to be a professional institution? And now; wasting time because the thermometer showed two degrees too much?

The green girl shook her head in disbelief as she bent lower over her sheets, the ends of her black hair curling across the paper.

She still had this one History assignment to do that she somehow just didn't get right; she'd written and rewritten it almost ten times already, but it always felt as though something was missing. With a sigh of frustration, Elphaba crumbled the sheets into a ball and threw them into the dustbin next to her desk. She was stuck. The words sounded right in her mind but as soon as she put them down on paper, she felt like her thoughts were slipping away from her and the finished phrases sounded close to awful when she reread them.

With a deep sigh, Elphaba pulled another stack of paper from her bag and started writing again. One sentence, narrowed eyes that scanned the paper, two sentences-

A knock on the door.

Elphaba's brow furrowed in confusion -Who in Oz could that be?

With a last glance at her assignment, the green girl pushed herself up and got to the door. As she opened, her mouth couldn't have opened any further.

"Wha-, what are you doing here?" she managed.

Aurelion fidgeted with the hem of his vest and he held something in his fist. "I need your help."

He squeezed past her before she even had the chance to say something. With a sigh, she closed the door and turned to look at him. "What is it?"

Aurelion's cheeks were flushed in what could've been embarrassment and he fumbled with the hem of his vest again, sticking a finger into the small hole between the two buttons at the end of his sleeves.

"Um…," he started and his cheeks got even redder. "I still have to tie my tie and... I'm just so nervous that..."

Elphaba rolled her eyes, stuck her pen into the black mess that was her hair and took a step closer. "You're hopeless."

Aurelion blinked. "Why, thank you. At least I'm going to the dance."

The green girl arched an eyebrow at him whilst she slipped the tie around his neck and started arranging it at his collar. "I don't even want to go."

Her fingers made quick work of tying the bind correctly and she stepped back.

"I just-" Aurelion tilted his head. "Where did you even learn how to tie a tie?"

"My father has two left hands and when my mother is busy, I'm the one in charge," Elphaba frowned. "And why did you even come to me in the first place? You couldn't even know whether or not I could tie one."

Aurelion shrugged. "You seemed like the kind of girl that could do it."

Elphaba's frown increased, and she fell into her chair. "Should I take that as a compliment?"

Aurelion didn't answer. He just grinned and shoved his hands into the pockets of his suit.

The green girl rolled with her eyes. "So? What are you up to, now?"

She pulled her legs to her chest and rested her chin on her knees, watching her friend closely. He looked somewhat misplaced in his fancy suit in the middle of her dorm that was filled with books and assignments; that screamed of studying.

Aurelion let his gaze wander for a second, then he slowly stepped back and sat down onto her bed, fingers stroking over the grey and black duvet.

"I've never been in your dorm before," he stated quietly, ignoring her question, and Elphaba swallowed hard.

'And for a reason,' she wanted to say. 'You're invading my only shelter on the entire campus.'

But she bit the words back and simply shrugged. "It's not a big thing, Aurelion, it's just a dorm, like everybody else's."

The boy frowned for a short second and looked at her. "I somehow always imagined you in a shared dorm."

Elphaba's eyebrows shot up. "And who is sharing that dorm with me in your imagination, may I be so bold to ask?"

Her face showed amusement, but her words dripped with sadness. Aurelion didn't answer, his cheeks just became scarlet red again and Elphaba turned around to her assignment.

"What are you working on?" her friend asked, and he actually sounded interested.

Elphaba gave her pen a light nudge and answered, "The History assignment. I've been working on it since Monday, but I just... it never comes out the right way."

Aurelion's eyes widened. "Oh no, I totally forgot about that!"

He smacked his forehead so hard that Elphaba flinched and his lips curled in light pain. "Such an idiot."

The green girl rolled her eyes. "Calm down, Aurelion. This won't help you with anything."

She tucked a strand of jet-black hair behind her ear and tilted her head to one side, staring at her friend without a single word.

Aurelion wrung his hands before him. "Could you maybe-"

But Elphaba shook her head. "No, we do these assignments to help us learn, you'd miss the point when you'd always just take my unfinished ones."

She was almost sure that Aurelion was suppressing the urge to roll his eyes.

"All right then," he said, his fingers drumming a beat on her duvet. "I just... would you mind if I stayed here for a while?"

Yes, actually I would. I'm working on my assignment and you're interrupting.

"Not at all, make yourself at home," Elphaba said with a sweet smile.

She watched warily as Aurelion pushed himself further onto her bed and tried her best at suppressing the urge to frown heavily at him. It wasn't his fault that she absolutely loathed it when people suddenly came so close; when they suddenly sat on her bed as though they owned the place.

"I-If you don't mind... I'd go back to my assignment now," Elphaba said, her smile getting more and more restrained.

"No, that's okay," was the answer and the green girl turned to her desk, her brain already fully focused on the task ahead.

Just that Elphaba found it very hard to concentrate when she could literally feel a pair of eyes burning holes into her back. And it didn't make her feel any more comfortable when the feeling disappeared and she instead heard nervous, curious fingers flick through her books. She didn't know how much time had passed, but it felt like hours until she finally heard the mattress shift under her friend's weight as he stood up.

"Um..."

Elphaba slowly turned around and her eyes met Aurelion's. He stared at his hands that grabbed the edge of his jacket and said slowly, "I got to go."

Elphaba nodded. "Alright."

For a second it was absolutely quiet in the room. It was one of those uncomfortable silences that developed when no one knew what to say; when it felt as though the words were slipping away before one could get a grasp of them.

Slowly, with an uncertain glance at Elphaba, Aurelion turned around and opened the door.

"I- Thank you for the tie," he said and smiled self-consciously.

Elphaba nodded. "No worries."

And just before he gently shut the door, she added, "Have fun."

The muffled 'Thanks' finally eased out all the tension that had built up inside her. But -of course- being alone didn't provide the wished effect, for Elphaba still couldn't find the right words. Only when she could feel a throbbing, dull pain slowly settling into her head that even the smooth circles she was drawing against her temples couldn't push back, she put her pen away and settled into the comfortable cushions on her window sill. Her head resting against the wall, the green girl listened to the many and quick footfalls that soon made their way past her room, hurrying off to the dance. She watched the girls meet the boys outside in the courtyard, giggling and blushing when the boys offered them their arms to lead them away. She saw many a dress hurrying across the campus, disappearing in the dark like a colourful veil trying to lighten up the darkness of the night.

It was half an hour later that Elphaba couldn't stand the feeling of the walls closing in on her anymore and for the throbbing pain in her head hadn't gotten any better, she decided to flee her room and go for a walk. Coat draped around her shoulders, she headed out and hurried through the hallway and out into the night. The wave of air that hit her as soon as she'd stepped out was more of a relief than any painkillers could ever have been. Elphaba sighed and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her coat. It was these moments that she missed her mother most. She somehow always found a way to take the dull ache away that Elphaba herself struggled to cure even with the medication that the doctor had prescribed her.

She'd always had a penchant for headaches but in the last few years they'd gotten worse and more frequent, so her mother had sent for the doctor.

Most of the doctors they'd visited before tended to blame whatever had caused the green and dismissed her with a small wave of the hand. But this one was different. He wasn't the kind of doctor who cared about his patients or who tried to be overly nice to them. He just did his job and -as he'd once said- he wasn't there to find friends.

He hadn't even raised an eyebrow when Elphaba had come to him the first time, hadn't commented on her skin and hadn't been the slightest bit reluctant to touch her.

But in the end, he hadn't been able to explain where the headaches were coming from and prescribed her some painkillers. "Some people are very sensible when the weather changes," he'd said. "It might be that. But if it gets worse, we might need to make some tests."

But luckily the headaches had gotten less frequent -which didn't mean they were any less painful- and right now Elphaba longed for nothing more than her mother's magical teas and cold compresses. But her mother wasn't here and thus the green girl would've to be satisfied with the fresh air.

With another sigh, Elphaba wandered across the schoolyard and stepped into the Building of Arts. The library was closed at this time, she knew, but the classrooms in the basement never were. Her steps were the only noise in the staircase and when she reached the doors of the Art department, she felt as though the building had never been more deserted. The room behind the door was pitch-black, and the lights flickered for a second after Elphaba lit them.

There was something terribly devastating about all the empty chairs and the deserted teacher's desk and the green-skinned woman quickly took two steps into the room. The door closed behind her with a small thud. Her dark eyes wandered through the room and took it all in; the pencils and crayons in every colour on earth, the canvases -painted or still plain, waiting to be filled with colours and dreams and fantasies. There was a strange itching in her fingertips and Elphaba unconsciously rubbed her hands together. With a frown, she threw another look down the hallway through the small gap of the door. Then she approached the plain canvases, collected brushes and oil colours from the cupboard and sat down in front of one of the easels. And soon her world seized to a blur of red and green and blue and purple. And black -so much black.

Elphaba blinked against the bright light and rubbed her eyes. Her head rested on her arms and the sleeve of her coat had some paint on it.

The green-skinned woman groaned. "Oh no."

Oil paint never got out of clothes and this had been her best coat. Father would surely be furious.

With a sigh, Elphaba stood up and began to tidy up her working place. Throwing a look at the large clock above the board, she realised that she only had two hours to get ready for -what a coincidence- Art classes. Quickly, she put the three coloured canvases to the back of the room to let them dry and turned to bolt from the room. She still had to shower, change and finish her Art assignment, after all.

When the green-skinned woman hurried down the corridor again, it was half-past eight o'clock and when she slammed the door to the basement shut, she could already hear Professor Linister's keys jingle. She fastened her pace, quickly rushing into the Art classroom.

A wall of students greeted her. Or to put it more precisely; a wall of students' backsides greeted her.

They all were standing in front of the back wall of the room, staring at something. They were all so preoccupied with staring that they didn't even notice the professor stepping inside and putting his bag onto the teacher's desk. Only when Professor Linister stepped closer to them did the wall of students part and cleared the view onto-

Elphaba's breath hitched. These were her paintings. And they were all looking at them in awe.

"What...?" started Professor Linister and quickly nuzzled the few students that were blocking his way to the side. "What in Oz-?"

He approached the first canvas and picked it up. "This is beautiful."

'This' was a painting of a small lake in the middle of a forest. Dark green fir trees stood close together and shielded the meadow and the lake from the rest of the forest. Drips of frost sparkled on the petals and stems and a water lily had grown in the lake, close to the shore. And there, between the reeds and roses, sat a girl, one delicate hand reaching out to touch the water lily.

"Did you paint them, Professor?" asked a boy and Elphaba pressed her lips to a thin line.

Professor Linister shook his head slowly.

"Can I have a look at it too, Professor Linister?" sounded a girl's voice and the teacher absentmindedly handed her the canvas.

Elphaba didn't know how her lower lip hadn't already started to bleed. She watched with her hands pressed close together as -one after another- her fellow students stepped closer to the paintings, picking them up and looking at them in curious suspicion.

"Such precise work with the brush..." the professor murmured, a finger hovering just above the painting as though he was debating whether it would be wise to touch it or not.

"Look!" Gimes exclaimed and pointed at something on the third canvas. "It's so detailed."

Another boy tried to catch a look at it over his shoulder and his brow furrowed just the slightest bit. "But... what is it? The whole painting is so dark... I can't tell one thing from the other."

"It's a flower."

Elphaba bit her lip as everyone turned around to face her.

"How would you know?" Pfanee blurted.

The green-skinned woman swallowed hard. "I-I..."

"Good sight," she eventually managed and quickly averted her eyes.

Pfanee snorted, gesturing at the glasses on Elphaba's desk. "For sure."

Then she turned to look at the canvas again.

The 'thing' they were looking at was indeed a flower, Elphaba knew. A large meadow at night could be seen in the painting, dark green and dark blue almost blurring into one another where night sky and ground met in a shadowy line. And in the middle of the deserted meadow stood a single flower, small and almost impossible to be seen.

"What's that?" Gimes bent over and narrowed his eyes at the sight of small, thin lines in the corner of the canvas.

Elphaba felt her blood running cold as she saw just what the boy had spotted.

"It's a signature," Milla whispered and was the first one to touch any of the paintings as she let the tip of her finger travel across the thin lines.

"E...l...T," she slowly said with a frown. "El. T. Who might that-"

And then, almost in slow motion, she turned around, thinking so hard that Elphaba was sure she could hear her thoughts.

"Wait..." said Milla quietly, "These weren't here yesterday, I know because I had to get my scarf. And yesterday everyone was at the Dance. Everyone except..."

Her eyes grew wide along with Elphaba's as Milla looked directly at her. "You."

The green girl averted her eyes.

Pfanee's face fell, and she stared at the canvas in her hands with a sudden wave of disgust and wrinkled her nose. "You painted these?"

Elphaba pressed her lips to a thin line and kept silent.

"You did?" Professor Linister's voice sounded.

The green-skinned woman stared at her fingers. "I did."

The sudden sound of something crashing to the ground had Elphaba's head snapping up.

The third canvas, the one Gimes had been holding, now was at his feet, frame broken into pieces, the sensible linen cut through in a neat slash.

Elphaba's mouth fell open.