Thanks to every single one of you for the reviews! I really appreciate it. Well, I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter and I was just debating whether I should post it or just leave it be, so... well, it would be great if you could tell me what you think.
I'll be back at school as of 18th May (though in this strange week-system-thingy... one week of school, one week homeschooling) so I don't know how much I'll be working on the sequel. Right now, I've only finished the first chapter, but I'm really excited to write it, so...
Anyway... take care of yourselves (and each other) and here we go with chapter 29!

Started writing: 08.02.2020

Finished writing: 10.02.2020

Chapter 29
Girls

After the second date, their fellow students at Shiz University had already gone crazy. One conspiracy theory after the other had kept everyone talking in class.

Fiyero had glared at them, Elphaba had pressed her lips to a thin line. And eventually, they had stopped talking about them. Of course, there were a lot of unanswered questions, but neither Fiyero nor Elphaba had time enough to answer them.

For the exam phase had just begun, and whenever Elphaba wasn't in class or with Galinda or Fiyero, she was in the library, studying for her exams.

They had already written their Politic and Literature exams and would write the other ones in two days a row.

"It's more than I would've thought," murmured Elphaba, massaging her temples.

"More than you would've thought?" Galinda exclaimed in far too loud a voice for Elphaba's recently extremely sensitive head. "Well, then what am I to do?"

The girls both sat in their dormitory, studying for the upcoming History and Law exams.

"Didn't Fiyero want to come?" Galinda asked, and Elphaba groaned in response.

"He did," she murmured. "But then some guy named Avaric or something asked to meet him this afternoon."

She opened an eye, blinking against the bright light in the room.

"Galinda, could you please draw the curtains, it's far too bright in here."

She heard the blonde walk over to the window.

"Thank you."

"You know, Elphie," said Galinda worriedly. "You don't seem to be that well lately."

"That might be because I am not that well lately," murmured Elphaba. "But these headaches will pass, I used to have them very often when I was young."

She opened her eyes again and sighed. "I just hope it will pass before we have our last exams."

With a groan, she leant forward and began to jot down some notes on the course of trials.

"You don't look that well either," she heard her roomie say.

"Oh, thank you, Galinda," she snorted.

"No, I mean you're pale," Galinda hurried. "Have you been checked by the nurse?"

Elphaba shook her head. "I don't need to. It's either my normal migraine or-"

And suddenly her eyes widened in realisation. "Oh no."

Galinda straightened up. "What is it?"

The green girl stroked over her forehead in a somewhat despairing motion.

"I sometimes get a headache before I get my period," she knit her brows. "Oh, please, not now."

Galinda frowned. "Do you not count days and everything?"

"Yes, I do," Elphaba curled her lips. "But sometimes I lose track and then… then this happens. And always in the best of times."

She stood up. "I'm going to get myself some tea to ease the pain, do you want some?"

Galinda tilted her head. "Yes, please. But Elphie, shouldn't I go and get you tea? You really don't look good right now."

But the green girl shook her head, pulling on her boots. "I could use a bit of fresh air anyway."

And off she went.

When Elphaba woke up three days later, she could tell immediately that she had been right. Whilst the pain in her head had ceased, now it was her abdomen that clenched terribly and made her curl herself up into a ball.

There were times that her period would be very painful, and there were times that she didn't feel any different at all. When they'd been painful, her mother had been the one to know all the tricks to make her feel better. And now that Elphaba even found it painful to move, she wished her mother could help her.

"Galinda," Elphaba whispered hoarsely. "Galinda, are you awake?"

She heard the blonde turn in her bed, but there was no answer.

Slowly, her face contorting with pain, Elphaba turned around to look at her alarm clock. It was five o'clock in the morning. She groaned quietly, settling into her pillows.

For almost an hour, she tried to ignore the pain and read her book, study the last time for today's exams… she even tried to fall back asleep. But then she couldn't ignore it anymore. Groaning in pain, she hauled herself out of bed and tapped into the bathroom. Every single movement was accompanied by pain; her abdomen clenched, her back hurt, her fingers trembled.

When she crawled back into her bed, she was so pale that even she herself could see it without a mirror. Her hands had an almost blueish colour about them, and she couldn't stop herself from shaking.

Tucked underneath her blanket with her knees drawn to her chest, Elphaba stared at her alarm clock, trying to mentally force the pointer to move faster.

It didn't help anything.

And when the sun began to rise outside, she couldn't help it anymore.

"Galinda," she said far louder than she'd expected herself to. "Galinda, wake up."

The blonde groaned and turned away, but Elphaba didn't let it go. "Galinda!"

"Uh, shut up, Elphie," Galinda murmured, her voice hoarse from sleep.

"Galinda," insisted Elphaba. "I'm not feeling good."

Within a split second, the blonde sat up straight in her bed. "Dear Oz, Elphie, please don't throw up."

Elphaba knit her brows. "I won't. I have my period, and it's just… really painful."

Galina's mouth formed a silent 'o'.

"What time is it?" she asked slowly.

"Half-past six," Elphaba said and added rather hesitantly, "Would you go and get me some tea? That would be really helpful."

The blonde nodded. "Of course, Elphie. Just let me get dressed."

It took her a good ten minutes to get ready and get a teapot from the kitchen. Which was the fastest she would ever manage—both Elphaba and Galinda were sure of that.

"What about the exams today?" Galinda asked quietly as she helped Elphaba sit up, putting an arm supportively around her shoulder.

"I'm going to go there," answered Elphaba sternly. "No matter what."

She clutched her teacup hard when another wave of stomach cramp made her lips curl.

"I would never miss an exam," she pressed between clenched teeth. "It's too important."

And she kept her word, as always.

"You shouldn't go," Galinda protested when she watched Elphaba pull on her boots and pick up her bag later on.

"I'll be fine," Elphaba claimed although it was obvious that she was, in fact, not fine.

Her skin was pale, and her fingers were trembling from time to time, whenever the cramp got too bad.

"Fiyero will be there with me."

"But Fiyero doesn't know of this.", Galinda had both hands on her hips.

"He's not stupid," snapped Elphaba.

"He's not the brightest either."

Elphaba shook her head. "I will be fine, Galinda, I promise. Even though Fiyero won't know what it is, he'll know when he should get me back to my room."

She turned away. "See you later."

"Come back as soon as you've finished writing, okay?" she heard Galinda say. "Okay, Elphie?"

"Yes, Mum," Elphaba snorted and hurried away.

In truth, she couldn't even have stayed anywhere after the exam if she'd wanted to. For, the moment she walked into the cafeteria and Fiyero saw her in all her paleness, he did not leave her side.

"What in Oz is going on?" he asked, hurrying to her side to help her sit down. "Fae, are you alright?"

Elphaba nodded, adding between clenched teeth, "It will pass, it's nothing serious."

"How could you know?"

"I just do," she pulled one knee up to her chest, resting her chin upon it.

Fiyero didn't look all too convinced.

"Do you want me to get you something?" he asked slowly, brows knit.

"Tea would be great," Elphaba answered, and before she could say anything else, he had already jumped up and hurried towards the morning buffet.

Tea had somehow always been something that helped Elphaba ease the pain a little bit, whether it was a simple headache or pain like this, caused by the effects of her period. The warmth and liquid, tea provided just helped her calm down and relax.

"Fae, what's going on with you?" Fiyero asked when he put down a large cup of tea before her. "You're not looking good at all."

Elphaba bit her lower lip, sipping her tea. "It's nothing, Fiyero. I'm just having a bit of a headache.

"A bit of a headache? Fae, you look awful. This is not just a headache."

Another cramp made Elphaba's lips curl, and she quickly gulped down her tea.

"It's all right," she pressed. "I'm just going to write the first exam and then go back to my dorm room to relax a little bit before the History exam."

Fiyero looked at her with a furrowed brow. "How about you go there now?"

But the green girl shook her head. "There's no way I'm going to miss an exam this important, Fiyero."

She drank her tea in silence, trying to ignore the worried look in Fiyero's eyes and the way he stared at her as though she would drop dead at any second.

And Elphaba had to admit, writing an exam whilst in pain wasn't the best situation one wants to be in. She wrote down her answers and notes whenever the stomach cramp wasn't too bad and sat through the pain when she had to, clutching her poor pen harder than was necessary. She could feel Fiyero's eyes on her from time to time and bent further over her papers. His worry wouldn't do her any good; it distracted her from the tasks ahead and made it much harder to focus on the answers.

After two painfully long hours, Elphaba finally jotted down the last answer and handed her papers to Professor Nikidik. Although she felt she'd needed all eternity to finish, she still was the first student to hand her exam to the teacher.

"You may go," whispered Professor Nikidik and Elphaba sent Fiyero a quick look.

He nodded and waved a hand at her, trying to tell her not to wait for him.

Elphaba nodded. She shouldered her bag and folded her jacket over her arm, slipping out of the room.

The sun was shining fiercely, and the birds were chirping, singing songs only they could know, accompanying her all the way back to the dormitory building. Never before had the many stairs up to her dorm room felt so long, and when Elphaba finally opened the door, she felt she could sleep for a year.

"You're back," exclaimed Galinda, turning away from her work.

Elphaba groaned in response. "And I'm here so I can sleep. So, please, shut up."

Galinda wrinkled her nose but said nothing. She watched the green girl pull off her shoes and let herself fall onto her bed.

"We have three hours left until the History exam," she said quietly.

"Wake me up twenty minutes before we have to go, okay?" Elphaba answered, already half-asleep.

She didn't hear Galinda's reply but was sound asleep, her dreams filled with black nothingness.

She missed Fiyero's visit and how he tried to pry some information out of Galinda who refused to say anything. She missed how he sat down beside her and gently caressed her cheek, worry written all over his face.

"Oh, Fae," he sighed quietly. "You're so stubborn sometimes."

"Tell me about it," Galinda giggled behind a raised hand and bent over her notes again.

They woke her up a good quarter of an hour before the exam would begin and Elphaba felt groggy and quite miserable but said nothing.

She didn't want to miss the exam. Even though she had come to loathe History classes with Mister Athington and refused to let anything he said about Animals and their history and motivations stay unremarked. She just couldn't stand the way he talked about them; as though it was right what they did to them, stripping them off their rights, as though they had every right to do what they had done to the poor Lion Cub.

She couldn't imagine what would have happened to the poor thing, hadn't she and Fiyero stepped up to rescue him.

"I'm going to take a cup of tea with me," said Elphaba, grimacing in pain when they passed the kitchen down in the dormitory building.

Fiyero knit his brows. "Let me get you some tea. You can go ahead; I'll be quick."

Elphaba rolled her eyes, although thankful and turned away, taking Galinda's arm.

"He's fussing over me," she told her blonde friend when they left the building. "I hate it when people do that."

"He's worried.", Galinda squeezed her arm. "It's a good thing, Elphie; he cares about you."

The green girl wrinkled her nose. "But I'm not an invalid."

"Of course not," said Galinda, "But he just wants to help. Which is very sweet, I might add."

She gave Elphaba a slight smile. "And it's awful to see you suffer like this and know that there's nothing we can do to help you, really."

"You are helping me, actually. Talking is a perfect way to distract me from this cramp."

Galinda smirked in sympathy.

"I've never had a cramp before during my period," she said, and Elphaba's eyes widened.

"Lucky you," the green girl uttered, opening the door to the History classroom. "I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy."

"Ladies," sounded the strange voice of Mr Athington from next to them. "Your exams."

He handed them both their papers and looked at Elphaba with a twisted smile. "Good luck to you both."

Elphaba couldn't contain a snort when they sat down.

"'Both' don't make me laugh," she said quietly. "He hates me."

Galinda shrugged. "He hates everybody who doesn't share his opinion. Which means he pretty much hates all of us."

Elphaba reached for her bag to take out paper and pen. Galinda sighed beside her.

"Look, there's Fiyero," Elphaba looked up.

There he was, indeed, carrying a large cup of tea, full to overflowing.

"I didn't know whether you wanted sugar or not," he said and put down the cup in front of her. "So, I left it be."

Elphaba smiled at him. "No sugar is absolutely fine."

She leant forward to kiss his cheek and nudged Galinda's side when she heard her sigh in delight.

"Class," boomed Mr Athington's voice. "Class, sit down, we'll start with the exam now. Please remember that it is not allowed to cheat; your eyes are to stay on your own papers, not on your neighbour's."

Elphaba couldn't help but roll her eyes.

"You have four hours to finish, starting now."

The sound of paper rustling and chairs scraping filled the room for a second; then it fell silent.

Elphaba bent over her exam papers and knit her brows.

"Explain how and when the Animals first began to speak and how it affected other citizens of Oz," she read. "Such crap."

For almost one and a half hours everything went perfectly well, with Elphaba sipping her tea and working through the ridiculous amount of questions and tasks. But then, just when she'd finished the last but two questions-

Elphaba sucked in a gasp as her stomach clenched horribly. Her pen slipped from her fingers, and she clutched the tabletop hard.

"Elphie?" Galinda whispered in worry, and Elphaba shook her head, not able to answer.

She held her breath, closed her eyes, knit her brows and almost kicked against the table leg. One hand wrapped around her stomach, she tried to focus on something else than the pain that was surging through her body. Her breath shook as she let it seep from her lungs in a shuddering long exhale. It didn't help.

"Elphie, are you alright?"

She shook her head again and opened one eye.

"I'm really not feeling-" she gulped down a groan as another wave of stomach cramp shook her body.

"Let's go," whispered Galinda and put away her pen in a hurry. "I'm stuck anyway."

Elphaba knit her brows. "No, Galinda, that's-"

"Yes, we're leaving," the blonde insisted, nudging Fiyero's side. "Elphie's not feeling well."

Reluctantly, Elphaba stood up, narrowing her eyes at Fiyero who was on the point of standing up.

"You finish your exam," she hissed, face contorting with pain. "Woe betide you if you stop writing now. All this studying would've been for nothing."

Galinda took her arm and handed both their exam papers to Mr Athington.

"May we leave, Professor?" she asked with a sweet smile as though that could make up for Elphaba's deadly glare.

The teacher nodded slowly. "If you think that this is how you want your exam to be."

Galinda opened the door and led Elphaba through it, waving goodbye at Fiyero who stared after them with wide eyes.

Elphaba groaned in pain. "Sweet Oz."

"Maybe we should get you to the nurse's office," said Galinda carefully, but the green girl shook her head.

"No, that's unnecessary," she told her blonde friend, clenching her fists. "I just need… my bed, I guess."

Galinda didn't look all too convinced.

"Is it always that bad?" asked Galinda later on when they sat together on Elphaba's bed, Galinda combing through the green girl's long black hair.

Elphaba shook her head. "No, usually it's bearable. Sometimes it gets like this though."

Galinda let go of the brush and began to braid Elphaba's hair. "And what do you do when you're at home? Do you take medicine?"

"My mother knows some tricks to help ease the pain," the green girl said.

She reached out to pick up her teacup from the nightstand.

"At least we won't have to write any more exams. We can just wait for the summer holidays to come."

Elphaba propped her book up on her knees and sighed. Whilst she still had a stomach cramp, it wasn't nearly as bad as before. Now she could at least sit up straight.

There was a knock on the door, making the girls flinch, and Galinda leant over Elphaba's shoulder, the braid in her hand and said, "That's Fiyero. Should I send him away?"

Elphaba shook her head. "No, it's alright."

She stood up and quickly fixed the braid. Then she opened the door.

"Fae!" Fiyero exclaimed in relief. "I was so worried about you."

Elphaba smiled. "I'm fine, Fiyero, really."

He stroked through his hair. "Why did you have to leave so early? You were so pale."

"Was I?" she knit her brows. "Well, I'm not anymore. It's getting better."

Slowly, Fiyero took her hands in his. "I just… I wanted to jump up and come after you. Mr Athington must've thought I was going crazy."

Elphaba smirked at him. "I think he didn't think anything else before that either."

Fiyero arched an eyebrow. "Cheeky."

She laughed.

"But tell me, Fae," Fiyero stroked over the back of her hand. "What's going on with you?"

Elphaba averted her eyes for a second. "I-It's nothing, Fiyero, I promise. It's a… girl-thing."

"So, it's not contagious?" he asked, and Elphaba couldn't help but chuckle.

"As contagious as my skin."

"Great."

He grinned at her and leant in to kiss her on her lips.

Elphaba sighed. This was a rather good distraction as well.