So... chapter 16. I'm not quite sure what to think about this chapter... but I guess it will do lol.
For all those who are waiting for the Fiyeraba stuff...: you won't have to wait that much longer:) And the Gelphie friendship also doesn't need much longer to go...
The poems in here are mine this time.
Pls review you guys. (And thanks to everyone who has reviewed already. It's awesome)
Started writing: 06.01.2020
Finished writing: 08.01.2020
Chapter 16
Alive
Elphaba took a deep breath of fresh air and closed her eyes for a second.
"I'm going to go crazy. If not from the pink then from the stupidity," she said and opened her eyes to look at her mother.
"I assume the boy was Fiyero Tiggular?" Momma asked and her brows knit together in a frown.
Elphaba nodded with a sigh. "That's him."
She took her mother's arm and together they strode forwards across the schoolyard.
"He's a real pain in the neck," she murmured and then louder she said: "Ever since he arrived, Shiz has been all upside down. He's caught them all with his 'Dancing through life' nonsense."
Momma raised an eyebrow. "Dancing through life?"
Elphaba couldn't help but roll her eyes. Even the memory of the prince in his tight white trousers, standing on a desk before the teacher came in, announcing that they should all skip school to join him and his friends at the Ozdust made her frown.
"It's his motto; why bother studying when you might as well go off and have fun?"
Momma waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, that's just male naiveté, it'll pass over the years."
"No, it's not," Elphaba shook her head. "Male naivety is skipping school once or twice, staring after pretty girls... those sorts of things. It's not getting wasted every night and change girlfriends every other week."
A sound escaped her mother's lips -something that must've been a restrained laugh or one of her girlish giggles she sometimes couldn't help but utter.
"Elphaba!"
She turned around, searching for whoever was calling her name.
"Elphaba!"
And then she saw him -Aurelion in his worn-out clothes and with his old bag thrown over his shoulder he hurried towards them. He shuddered to a halt in front of her, wrung his hands awkwardly as though he wasn't sure whether he could hug her or not and finally decided that, yes, it would be okay, and stepped closer to hug her. It was a short hug, faint and simple, and their shoulders merely brushed each other before he leant back.
For a second, he grinned at her then he turned to shake her mother's hand and his eyes widened just the slightest bit.
Elphaba raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
"Mrs Thropp," said Aurelion and a blush crept on his cheeks.
Momma smiled. "Aurelion, I assume?"
He nodded, stared, smiled -Elphaba almost cleared her throat- and turned to Elphaba.
"Well?" he asked curiously. "What about your room? Who are you sharing with?"
Elphaba's face fell just the slightest bit and with a grimace, she said, "Galinda."
Aurelion's eyes widened. "Galinda? Galinda Upland?"
The green girl nodded.
"A-And... how is it going? Has she already arrived?"
"She has," said Elphaba grimly. "And it's horrible."
"But why? Why is it her you're sharing with? How did that happen?" the confusion was clear in his eyes and Elphaba bit her lower lip.
"It's her punishment for the party," she said.
She took his arm to pull him with her and her mother, approaching the entrance hall of Shiz University.
"Oz, that's mean," said Aurelion. "Making it a punishment to room with you, that is."
Elphaba simply nodded. She didn't want to talk about the room, about Galinda and Madame Morrible -didn't even want to think about it.
"Fabala," Momma said quietly and the green girl turned around. "I don't want to keep Mr Riving waiting and your father surely is already going crazy about my whereabouts."
Elphaba bit her lower lip.
"Wait a second, will you?" she told Aurelion and slowly she and her mother made their way through the entrance hall and down the stairs. The carriage was already there with the coachman Mr Riving standing beside it, gently patting one of the horses.
"Fabala..." Momma started and she took Elphaba's hand. A smile formed on her lips -a sad one that didn't quite reach her eyes- and Elphaba felt a lump building in her throat.
"You will be okay, won't you, dear?"
Elphaba nodded hesitantly. She didn't trust her voice to be quite as steady as she'd like it to be, so she kept quiet. Momma squeezed her hand. "You're tough, Fabala. You're smart -and you'll get through this, I know."
Slowly she pulled her into a tight embrace and Elphaba nestled her nose into her mother's hair and breathed in deeply.
"I'm proud of you," she heard her mother whisper and then she stepped back and turned around to climb into the carriage.
"Goodbye, my dear."
And Elphaba felt like a little girl left on the side of the street as Mr Riving sat down on the coach-box and clicked his tongue, horses slowly beginning to trot forward, away from her.
For a moment the green girl stared after the carriage as it disappeared behind the gates then she turned around and quickly hurried upstairs -almost running back into the entrance hall and to where they'd left Aurelion behind.
"Sweet Oz," the boy exclaimed and grinned. "Your mother is a whole lot of beauty. And tall. I mean like... quite normal -but tall for a Munchkin. Aren't Munchkins very small?"
Elphaba wrinkled her nose. "She's not Munchkin by birth -none of my family is. And for the record; she's married."
Aurelion cocked his head. "Very funny, Elphaba."
But his cheeks were still flushed and Elphaba grinned in triumph.
"So, what social project did you apply for?" he asked as they left the building to wander across the meadows of the campus. "I myself don't think any of them are overly great."
The green girl raised an eyebrow at him. "I chose the daycare project. It seems to me that children might be the most... open with me. They judge the least, I'd say."
Aurelion nodded in agreement.
"I'm still torn between the library and the café project, but there's still time to decide," he examined her for a second, took in every single shade of brown in her eyes and said, "Well, I think I'll go for the library project. That way I'll get to see you more often."
Elphaba rolled with her eyes. "That's surely something to aim for -a great reason."
For a moment they walked in silence, even the wind held its breath so it seemed, and finally, Aurelion said, "Did you hear of the poetry gathering?"
Elphaba looked at him in surprise. "The poetry gathering? What's that ought to be?"
Aurelion tilted his head.
"I thought you'd know, especially you," he said. "It's an event hosted by Madame Morrible to talk and hear about politics in another way. It was written in the formulas we got from the reception, didn't you read it?"
Elphaba shook her head grimly. "I suppose I was too preoccupied with unpacking my things and fleeing from Galinda. Oz, I haven't even looked at my schedule."
Aurelion stared at her in disbelief. "You? You haven't looked at your schedule?"
He shook his head. "Something's clearly wrong."
"You would expect her nose to be thousands of miles long with all the lies she's telling," said Elphaba as Madame Morrible sat down after reciting the fourth poem. To give her voice a little break, as Madame Morrible said. To give the students time to gossip, as Elphaba thought.
"Are you in a bad mood of some sort?" Aurelion asked with a furrowed brow and Elphaba snorted.
"Of course not, how could I -with a blonde nag for a roomie?" she said drily and sipped her tea, "And also Madame Morrible is talking rubbish."
Aurelion shrugged. "Great rhymes, though."
The green girl clicked her tongue. "For sure."
Two days had passed since her arrival at Shiz. Two days that she now shared a room with Galinda Upland and hadn't attempted to jump out of the window.
Slowly Elphaba let her eyes wander through the room. The poetry gathering was held in the assembly hall so that the second-semester students could all fit into one room and there was a table on the left side of the hall where they could get tea and biscuits and some leftovers from yesterday's dessert.
On a dark blue sofa in the right corner of the room spotted Elphaba the blonde girl. She was surrounded by a small crowd; her three 'besties', two boys from Elphaba's Law classes and a set of twins with hair so red that it looked as though they were on fire.
Elphaba frowned. Wouldn't dear Fiyero decide to sit with his girlfriend? Or didn't he bother attending?
A fit of laughter echoed through the hall and hysterical giggles sounded. Even before she'd looked up, Elphaba knew who was laughing -and what they were laughing about. And when she looked up her suspicion proved to be true; Miss my-curls-are-totally-natural-Galinda and her friends were pointing at and obviously talking about her.
"...green with envy."
"But it stuck."
"...mother is an olive tree."
Elphaba rolled with her eyes.
"It's hopeless," she murmured and took another sip from her tea.
"What is?" asked Aurelion but she waved a hand dismissively and stood up.
"Never mind," she said. "I'm going to get another cup of tea, do you want anything?"
The boy curled his lips and shrugged. "Bring a few of those round biscuits, maybe?"
Elphaba nodded, reached for her teacup and began to make her way across the hall. Sadly, the green girl had to pass the teacher's table on her way there and when she tried to slip past it unnoticed, of course, a pale hand sneaked into her way and held her back.
"Miss Elphaba," said Madame Morrible with a sweet smile that almost made Elphaba change her mind about the second cup of tea.
"Are you enjoying yourself?"
For a split second, Elphaba's brows knit in a frown. Did she enjoy herself? Not in the morning -that was for sure- when Galinda stomped around in their room with the single purpose of driving Elphaba crazy. Not in class for she either had to sit through an hour of Fiyero Tiggular's spitballs in her hair or an hour of stupid comments by her fellow students. Not in the afternoon when she tried to flee into the library but saw that the library was 'closed until further notice'. And not in the evening when all she wanted was to curl up in her bed with a book but had to listen to the squeaking sound of Galinda Upland singing in the shower. But at night. Yes, Elphaba thought, at night she did enjoy herself.
"Yes, Madame," she said and forced a smile. "Of course, I do. But... may I ask, Madame, when will the library open again?"
Madame Morrible tilted her head to one side and said, "In a few days. The librarian had detected mould on a few books and they're only partway through looking at all of them."
She patted Elphaba's green hand. "You'll live without it for a few days, won't you?"
Elphaba grimaced but said nothing.
"Now you go wherever you were going. We'll continue reading in a few minutes."
And Elphaba turned around and practically ran to the table with the teapot and biscuits. She didn't yet know how she'd survive the Sorcery classes on Saturday but she'd have to figure something out quickly for otherwise, she'd probably 'accidentally' magic-spell the woman into the fish she looked so very much alike.
With a steaming cup of tea and a small plate with a few biscuits in her hands, Elphaba made her way back to her place, hurrying past the teacher's table. She gave a small smile to both Professor Graeling and Professor Dillamond, lowered her head and proceeded on towards the small bench Aurelion sat on.
"Here you go," she said and placed the plate of biscuits on his lap before unceremoniously falling into her seat. "I hope Madame Morrible won't get ahead of herself and decide to add a poem or two to her repertoire."
She sipped her tea and tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear that had loosened itself from her braid.
"You are in such a bad mood today," Aurelion whispered, watching as Madame Morrible stood up and stepped onto the podium again.
"Students, dear students," she said loudly and smiled one of her sweet smiles. "Please, calm down and settle in so that we can come to the last part of today's poetry... session, if that's what you want to call it."
She opened her thick book, flicked through it far too roughly for Elphaba's taste, cleared her throat and began to read.
"All of Oz is shining bright
The Yellow Brick Road in dazzling daylight,
The City of Emeralds with all its green
Oz is shining bright
-no more to be seen.
"Once was a time of different days
Of war and suffering, a ruler's delays
To save the citizens of Oz
Once was a time
-so hard for us.
"Nowadays we see in different lights
The Ozma Regent's wrongs and rights
A cruel past, a frightened crowd
Nowadays we see
-and to see we are allowed.
"Have we not learnt from the past
Credit to those who will last
To those the past not altered
Have we not learnt
That Animals should be seen and not heard?"
A gasp went through the crowd, air sucked in in a shocked inhale as Madame Morrible closed the book. Aurelion and Elphaba exchanged a look.
"Is this supposed to be a joke?" Aurelion whispered and Elphaba raised an eyebrow at him.
"I should certainly hope so," she said coolly.
Whispers filled the assembly hall, angry whispers, disturbed. Elphaba threw a look at the teacher's table and if she hadn't known that it was impossible for him to pale, she would've said that Doctor Dillamond had turned white.
A boy in the back of the room raised his hand and said, "Excuse me, Madame, but how should we understand this? Is this about the past or about the present?"
Madame Morrible's smile was disturbingly sweet as she said, "Neither."
And Elphaba felt her skin crawl. If it was neither past nor present then there was only one thing it could be. Future.
She hadn't realised she had jumped up until Aurelion tugged at her sleeve and raised an eyebrow at her. She shook her head.
"Madame Morrible," she said without even raising her hand. "I'd like to... to say something."
The woman's lips curled but she smiled anyway, stepped back from the podium and said, "It's all yours, Miss Elphaba."
Slowly Elphaba approached the podium, hands trembling as she grabbed the wooden stand and she wasn't sure whether from excitement or from rage. Her eyes wandered across the room and found her fellow students staring at her wide-eyed. Fiyero had slipped into the hall unnoticed in the last minutes and now sat next to Galinda and looked as though he wouldn't give a twig.
Elphaba took a deep breath.
"All is good, all is great
They say with confidence
So much love and never hate
All protest comes far too late
And Oz takes down defence
"Where's the point of fighting love
Don't want to repeat the past
Just look up to those above
And try accept the fate of Oz
so, we can live in peace at last
"We are ready to forgive
And forget the smaller loss
For no matter at what costs
Love we'll always try to give
Now I challenge all of Oz;
We are alive -but do we live?"
The silence in the room was awful. It was as though no one even dared to breathe because they didn't want to break the tension in the air. Elphaba saw their eyes wander to Madame Morrible quite a few times before they landed back on her. Aurelion's mouth stood open in a gape and Elphaba wrung her hands behind the podium.
This had been an awful idea. Not that it had been an idea at all… she hadn't even thought a second about all this before she'd stood up and gotten into all of this mess.
A terrible, terrible idea, Elphaba decided as her eyes wandered to the teacher's table where Doctor Dillamond stared at her wide-eyed and Madame Morrible had her lips pressed to a thin line in either awe or anger.
Now Elphaba was quite sure she wouldn't survive her Sorcery classes on Saturday -but for a whole other reason than she'd thought a mere ten minutes ago.
Head lowered, eyes kept on the ground, she stepped back from the podium.
"I'm sorry, Madame," she said quietly. "I shouldn't have done this."
And quickly, she hurried to her seat, grabbed her coat and scarf and bolted from the room.