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Started writing: 21.01.2020
Finished writing: 24.01.2020
Chapter 21
Dancing
Elphaba had never thought she'd hear herself say this, but the green girl actually felt as though she and Galinda had sorted things out at last. Or maybe not 'sorted things out' -but definitely 'come to terms with each other'.
"You should do something about that," Galinda mumbled, a toothbrush stuck between her lips and some hairpins in her left hand.
Elphaba raised an eyebrow at the blonde and dared to take a quick look at her own reflection.
"What do you mean?" she asked cautiously and watched as the blonde girl pointed at her hair.
"Your hair," she said, put the toothbrush away and turned to look at Elphaba. "It's pretty."
Elphaba snorted. "Why should I even bother? It's not worth trying."
Galinda frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"
The green-skinned woman pressed her lips to a thin line. "What do you mean 'What do I mean'? I'm green, isn't that obvious?"
Galinda tilted her head to one side. "Yes, but that doesn't mean you couldn't look pretty. It's a little bit strange, maybe, but that hair of yours..." She sighed. "Many a girl would be so jealous."
She put her hands on her hips and eyed Elphaba for a second. "I've decided that yes, we're going to do something about it. Let me just..."
Before Elphaba could do so much as protest, the blonde girl had snatched away her brush and began to comb her hair.
"Stop it," Elphaba struggled to say. "You needn't-"
She could hear Galinda search through her bag.
"Alright, alright," she hurried, and Galinda turned to her with big eyes, excitement sparkling in them. "I'll wear it down. But nothing else."
For a second, Galinda's shoulders slumped. Then she straightened up with a smile and said, "Oh, very well then. Small steps. That's alright."
She stepped in front of the mirror again. "You know, there's this party tonight..."
Elphaba shook her head. "No. If you're implying what I think you're implying; no, I won't go."
Galinda stuck her lower lip out in a pout. "Oh, but you must."
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "I must do nothing. And shouldn't you be mourning your break-up with the Winkie prince?"
For a moment, Galinda blinked at the green girl dumbfounded, then her lips curled into a smile. "You mean Fiyero? Oh."
She waved a hand. "That was nothing, really. A fling you could say, a tiny little... adventure?"
Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "You cried a whole night through. That's not nothing."
Galinda shook her head, so her curls bounced around her pretty face. "But I was exaggerating. Of course, it did hurt, but life goes on."
The green girl couldn't contain a snort. "Life goes on, I see."
Galinda rammed a hairpin into her curls and smiled. "As it does for you. So, what are you going to wear tonight?"
Elphaba shook her head. "I'm not going, Galinda."
"Yes, yes, you are," said the blonde. "You must; it's going to be so great. And you wouldn't want to miss all the fun, now, would you?"
Elphaba turned away. Not only away from Galinda, but away from the mirror as well. There was nothing quite as hurtful as seeing herself -green and strange and ugly- besides someone as purely beautiful as Galinda Upland.
"It wouldn't be fun to me," she said. "Fun for everyone else, of course, when they make fun of me."
Galinda pulled out a small jar of some kind of powder with a furrowed brow. "They're only making fun of you because you're never there."
Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "Was that the reason you were making fun of me?"
The blonde girl pressed her lips to a thin line but didn't answer.
"There you have it," said Elphaba quietly and grabbed her bag. "I'll go to the cafeteria now."
But before she could even open the door-
"No, wait," Galinda's voice sounded, and within a blink of an eyelash, she stood right before Elphaba with her big blue eyes and her lower lip stuck out in a pout.
"You have to come," she whined. "I-I... It's just... well, Pfanee has come down with the flu, and Shenshen doesn't want to go without her and Milla... well, Milla doesn't want to go at all."
Elphaba's brow furrowed as she opened the door.
"Alright," she said with a raised finger. "But mind my words -if it's not fun, I'm blaming you."
She pulled the door close before Galinda could say another word.
She made her way downstairs and to the cafeteria where she met with Aurelion for breakfast before they'd have to hurry to their History classes. Today was the first day back to normal after the social project and Elphaba had to admit that she wasn't exactly unhappy to leave the day-care.
Just leaving Alivia had been a little hard on her.
Aurelion was gobsmacked when he found out she would be going to the party.
"Now, that's not fair," he complained and watched how Elphaba sprinkled some fruit on her yoghurt. "The first party you're attending and I won't even be there."
Elphaba raised an eyebrow. "Why won't you?"
The young man sighed deeply. "Professor Nikidik gave us a new assignment to write, and it has to be finished tomorrow already."
"And when did he give you that, may I ask?" said Elphaba and when Aurelion replied 'on Tuesday', she couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Well then," she said. "You don't have the right to complain. You could've finished it days ago."
Slowly, she began to spoon her yoghurt and eyed him with a raised brow.
"I did start to write it just the other day," Aurelion argued. "But I thought it wouldn't take me so long to finish."
He leant back, crossed his arms in front of his chest and said with a grin, "At least you'll be able to tell me everything tomorrow morning. If you wouldn't be going, I'd never hear about what's been going on."
Elphaba bit her lip and said nothing. She wasn't sure she'd last so long as to be able to tell Aurelion something of importance.
Whether Galinda had already found herself another love interest or not, for example.
Elphaba didn't know what to say.
Well, of course, she did know what to say, but she actually couldn't say it because of the booming bass that was ringing in her ears. It was stifling in the grand hall of the Ozdust ballroom, and even though the front door constantly opened and closed for the students to get inside, it was still very warm. Slowly, almost hesitantly so, Elphaba shrugged off her coat and hung it over her bare arm.
Galinda stood beside her, bouncing up and down in her pink dress and waving at girls and boys in the dancing crowd.
"You know, you needn't stand here with me all night," Elphaba told her after a few seconds.
"Oh," said Galinda, waving with her hand dismissively. "I didn't plan on doing so. I'm just waiting for some handsome boy to ask me for a dance."
Elphaba rolled her eyes and stepped away from the pretty blonde. "I'll get myself something to drink, then. Should I bring something for you as well?"
But when she turned around, she saw that a young man had already swept Galinda away.
He'd just waited for her to step away, Elphaba realised and pressed her lips to a thin line.
Of course, there was nothing to drink but spiked punch and Elphaba wrinkled her nose as she filled a glass with the liquor and turned around, leaning against a wall. She watched how the boys whirled the girls around in the fast beat of some strange scream-like music. Once or twice, she spotted Galinda in the crowd, squealing and jumping around a black-haired boy.
She rolled her eyes -what was it that everyone liked about this nauseating kind of music? About moving round and round in a large crowd, sweaty bodies touching at every single motion. She herself couldn't see the fun.
And the disgusted looks from the group of boys before her didn't really help her current state of not-having-fun-at-all.
"What is it?" Elphaba said after some seconds. "Is there an axe murderer behind me, or why are you staring at me like that?"
No answer.
"Has the cat caught your tongue? Or should I rather say 'the green'?"
Again, they only stuck their heads together and whispered something to each other.
Elphaba arched an eyebrow. "Can't you speak up? I'd love to know just what you're saying about me."
One of the guys turned around, his brows raised, and his eyes narrowed.
"Who the hell asked you to come?" he spat out after a second and Elphaba crossed her arms in front of her.
"No one, I just broke into this heavily guarded place to spy on you. Since you're committing such terrible crimes."
The boy wrinkled his nose. "Seriously, who let you in here? We'll have to throw them into the Suicide Canal."
Elphaba raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, how generous of you," she said drily, "I'm already beginning to hate them for inviting me to such a boring event."
"Then why can't you just leave?" the boy said with a sneer. "No one wants you here anyway."
The green girl shrugged. "I was asked to come, mind you."
She turned away. "And if you have a problem with that, I'd recommend you go and address it to the organiser."
And she took her coat from the chair she'd put it on and downed her punch in one go -whether for reasons of a dramatic exit or for the effects the drink would have, she didn't know.
At first, Elphaba tried to find Galinda in the dancing crowd, but she couldn't spot the blonde girl and soon returned to the place near the entrance where she sat down and watched the people dance to the now slightly slower music. She went to get herself another glass of punch when they turned the volume up even more and tried to distract herself from the looks she got.
She had just filled up her glass when suddenly she felt something push into her back. Before Elphaba could do so much as open her mouth, she had half of her punch all over her dress, and her lower back was throbbing slightly with pain.
The green girl whirled around ("What in Oz-?") and found herself face to face with quite familiar green eyes.
"Are you crazy?" she snapped at Gimes, and the boy raised his hands in defence.
"I didn't do anything," he said. "It was you who blocked the way. And also I do not have the time to care to walk around you."
Elphaba withstood the urge to rub her back -she would never give stupid Gimes the satisfaction of knowing he'd hurt her. She turned away, ready to leave -and for good, this time- but could only take two steps before she felt herself being yanked backwards.
"Hey," Gimes said, his brow furrowed in an angry frown. "You've spilt your punch. Won't you go wipe it away?"
"Hey," said Elphaba. "You've spilt your brains. Won't you go take it to the bin?"
She could see Gimes' face slowly darkening with anger, and he raised a finger as though she was a child to be chided for something.
"You shut your ugly little mouth, Artichoke," he hissed. "Or they might find you in the Suicide Canal tomorrow morning."
"Uh," Elphaba said and crossed her arms -although she was trembling slightly underneath the wet of her dress, no one could've known she was panicked. "That almost scared me. Maybe add a little horror, so you sound more convincing next time."
Gimes pressed his lips to a thin line as he said, "I don't have to add the horror, you're already here, after all."
And Elphaba almost laughed at that -or to put it more specifically; she probably would have laughed, hadn't Gimes suddenly stepped much closer to her. Closer than she would've thought he'd dare to near the green.
"Have you got any idea just how disgusting you are?" he hissed. "That they're even allowing you to come here is a disaster. Or maybe it's for quite social reasons... so the girls don't have to fear for being assaulted, you being the complete turn-off that you are, I bet nobody's had a good lay ever since you arrived."
Elphaba snorted noisily.
"Your lips keep moving, but all I hear is 'blah blah blah'," she said. "Try and find something of interest to say. Then I might be able to listen to your rambling."
Before Gimes could hold her back another time, Elphaba hurried away.
Although she tried to pretend as though they didn't, the boy's words had hurt her deeply. Of course, Elphaba never worried about her sex appeal to others -she knew that was a hopeless case-, never had, never would, but to hear someone speak it out loud; that she wasn't just simply not a turn-on, but a turn-off to everyone...
She couldn't keep herself from wondering if the boys even tried to imagine her when they felt their excitement rise and needed to control themselves. She didn't want to think of such terrible things, but she couldn't help it. Her own thoughts seemed to betray her and Elphaba couldn't do anything against it.
The cold air hit her face like a punch in the gut, and she felt her cheeks prickle with the cold that pierced as a thousand needles would. It was a relief of some kind -like her single way out of her own mind.
Slowly, the green girl slipped into her coat and put on her scarf. Then she made her way back to the campus. Galinda would manage perfectly on her own, she figured.
Although Elphaba kept telling herself, she hadn't expected anything else but being-made-fun-of of the party, she knew deep down she actually had. She had hoped that she could have a night of fun, she had imagined enjoying herself for an evening and telling her parents about it in her next letter, writing of how great a night she'd had.
She'd imagined how proud her mother and father would be, how she would relieve her mother of her sorrow...
But instead of happily floating back to her dormitory, Elphaba now made her way across the meadows of Shiz University with slightly slumped shoulders and a grim look; lips pressed to a thin line.
Very few lights were still lit on the campus and for a short second Elphaba thought about sparing Aurelion a visit in his room, but she couldn't be sure he'd be alone, and furthermore, she didn't want him to know about how much of a failure she'd been at the party.
Thinking about it, Elphaba had to admit to herself that she hadn't even tried to enjoy herself, to enjoy the music and the people. She'd been so very prejudiced about her fellow students, had distanced herself from them and frowned upon them having fun. Now, Elphaba was almost ashamed of her behaviour. She had been full of jealousy, seeing how all the girls could have a good time, a good laugh, how everyone could relax for a while and have fun, but her.
She fumbled with her keys and opened the door with some difficulty, for the hallway lay in darkness, and she didn't want to turn the lights on and catch someone's attention. When she finally slipped into her room, she heaved a sigh and shrugged off her coat.
She went to take a quick shower, cleaning off the punch that had surely soaked through her dress and made her body all sticky. For just a short time, she let the hot water patter down on her slim body as she hugged herself tightly, nails digging deep into her green skin. Then Elphaba settled in front of the fireplace, hair still wet from the shower, with a pad of writing paper and began to calm her spinning thoughts down by capturing them all then and there, in a long letter to her family. She started many times anew, crossed out at least five sentences a page and finally had it all written down as she wanted it to and neatly folded the thin paper to put it into the envelope. The letter felt like a burden on her shoulders, and Elphaba put it onto the coffee table with two fingers and eyed it for a long time, debating whether she should send it or not.
It was long after midnight when Galinda returned to the dormitory, with Elphaba in her bed, a book lying open beside her. She had her head on her arm and her knees drawn close to her chest as though she was freezing under her blanket.
She could hear Galinda slip inside and close the door, slip out of her coat and then slowly approach the bed.
The green girl was pretending to have fallen asleep over her book, but as she tried to even her breath, she knew Galinda knew she wasn't really asleep.
"I didn't know you'd left," she heard Galinda say. "It was quite early, wasn't it? Why did you leave, exactly?"
But when Elphaba didn't answer, the blonde simply heaved a sigh and stepped back.
"Milla and I will go to the Pancake Elephant for breakfast tomorrow morning. I just thought I should tell you, so you won't be worried when I'm already gone when you wake up."
She said it out of politeness, not kindness, and Elphaba knew. Maybe Galinda felt guilty for practically forcing her to go to the party. And Elphaba wasn't mad at her. She had no reason as to why she should be. As long as she pretended the blonde had invited her because she wanted her to come as company and not as someone to be laughed at, everything would be quite alright.
And the green girl would rather that than have the walls they'd built around them tumbling down on her within a single fight.
When Elphaba stepped out of the bathroom the next morning, she was surprised to find Galinda had already returned from her breakfast with Milla.
The blonde sat on her frilly bed, one foot tucked underneath her white skirt, and looked at Elphaba from big blue eyes.
"Good morning," she said, and it sounded almost like a question.
Elphaba couldn't help but arch an eyebrow at her. "Morning."
"You know," said Galinda with an uncertain smile. "You needn't have left just like that, yesterday. We could've left together; I wouldn't have had to go alone."
Elphaba snorted quietly. "Oh, I'm sure you weren't all alone. That boy you'd been dancing with surely accompanied you."
Galinda lowered her head, a blush creeping onto her cheeks and Elphaba rolled her eyes.
"But," said Galinda, jumping up from her place on the bed. "I could've been all alone, and then I'd have gone lost and been dead before dawn."
The green girl crossed her arms in front of her. "You're exaggerating. And hadn't I come at all, you would've had to go on your own, anyway."
Galinda's face softened ever so slightly as she said quietly, "Did you have fun at least?
Elphaba simply shook her head.
"Then, I'm sorry," said Galinda. "I shouldn't have pressured you to come."
"No, you shouldn't have," Elphaba agreed. "You really shouldn't have. It was quite awful."
She jerked her head to one side, leaning her hip against her desk. "But that cannot be helped anymore. You did what you did; it was a mistake -we learn from our mistakes."
She saw Galinda shaking her head.
"Well, I certainly did," Elphaba declared loudly. "I, for my part, won't ever be lured into a party at the Ozdust again."
"Uh," Galinda suddenly said, breaking the silence that had overtaken the room and began to search for something in the pocket of her (white) jacket. "I totally forgot…"
She stamped her foot like a difficult child and for a second, seemed to fight something with her fingers. Then she pulled out a small envelope of white paper.
"The receptionist told me to give this to you," she said and handed Elphaba the letter.
The green girl frowned upon the envelope in her hands. It was of sparkling white paper with a yellow stamp that said 'Express'. The seal was that of Munchkinland, and the sender was-
Elphaba's frown increased as she turned the letter in her fingers.
"Nessie?" she said, more to herself than to anyone else.
Slowly, the green girl began to open the envelope and unfold the sheet within.
Dearest Fabala (it read)
I'm sorry to interrupt you like this, but I must tell you to come home immediately.
Something terrible has happened, Elphaba, and I believe our family cannot bear it without you.
Please come as fast as you can; I'm afraid you cannot wait a day longer.
Your sister, deeply worried,
Nessa
Elphaba paled. She felt all air seeping from her lungs as she released the breath she didn't even realise she had been holding.
"What is it?" she heard Galinda ask, but she didn't answer.
She stared at the letter for another couple of seconds; eyes widened in shock and fingers visibly trembling. Something terrible has happened. Elphaba couldn't help but feel the panic rise inside her.
"Elphaba?"
And finally, the green girl blinked at set into motion, hurrying to the other end of the room where her bag lay on the sofa.
"It's from my sister," she said between gritted teeth as she began to search for her coat and scarf, "I must leave immediately."
"What?!", Galinda exclaimed in shock and stared at the green girl, now already halfway out the door, "Why?"
Elphaba found the blonde's blue eyes for a short second. Then she averted her eyes and said, "I don't know. I'll be back as soon as I can. Tell my teachers it's a family emergency, will you?"
But before Galinda even had the chance to say something, Elphaba was already out the door and hurried downstairs. She only stopped at the reception for a short second, informing Mrs Arnstein about her 'plans' before she hurried outside and waited impatiently for the carriage they'd called to arrive.
It didn't take very long until she sat inside a small coach, indulging in her own skittish thoughts rather than in the book she'd taken with her.
A letter from her sister that arrived with the express mail and said she must come home immediately; the family couldn't bear it without her.
Elphaba's teeth dug deep into her lower lip, and she was surprised there was no blood. Never in her life had she felt such worry. What could it be that Nessa couldn't dare to spell out in a letter but have her return back home in the middle of the week? What kind of emergency could have occurred that was so very damaging to their family? The only thing Elphaba could think of -and tried not to think of at the very same time- was death. Someone died, she was sure of that by now. But who? Her father? Her mother? Elphaba felt her blood run cold. She wouldn't know how to bear it. She wouldn't know how she could return to Shiz when something so terrible had happened.
It took the carriage almost the whole morning to get to Munchkinland. The snow had already thawed away, and the sun was shining -very dimly, but even so.
When the carriage stopped in front of the gates of the mansion, Elphaba could feel her heart pound against her ribcage so hard that it almost hurt. She didn't wait for the coachman to open the door, but quickly climbed out of the carriage and hurried to the gate.
It was closed, and with her trembling fingers, Elphaba had a hard time opening it.
"I'll be back and inform you of when we'll return," she told the coachman, turned around and practically ran along the meandered path that led to the mansion.
The curtains were drawn aside; a window was opened. No black, no flag. And for a second, Elphaba felt hope spark inside; maybe she wouldn't have to face a funeral.
She stumbled up the two steps to the front door and rang the bell with such force that she feared for a second, she'd break the button.
Elphaba held her breath as she heard movement inside the house.
Then the door opened.