Rifiuto: Non Miriena
A/N: Written: 2009. Found: 2018- Licia
Glinda didn't see Elphaba until noon the next day, when she caught her traipsing across the green, that familiar duffel bag slung over her shoulder. She hadn't been to class, which was unusual for the green girl. But, now that she thought about, neither had Fiyero.
"Where does she go every day? it's always at the same time, too. And that Fiyero, he always disappears about the same time also." Milla stated, sipping her coffee.
"They don't have any afternoon classes." Glinda replied, and the other three turned to her.
"How would you know?" ShenShen asked, and Glinda fell silent. A moment passed, before the brunette got a gleam in her eye that Glinda knew meant no good. "I know. Let's follow the frog and see where she goes."
The other two nodded in agreement. "Coming Glinda?" A moment of indecision, before the blonde stood, grabbing her book bag and slinging it over her shoulder.
"Maybe she heads out to the woods to dance naked and cast spells. Like some sort of wicked witch!" Pfhanne suggested as the four girls quietly followed the green girl.
"Where the hell are we?" ShenShen asked, once they'd entered the building that housed the ice rink. The pounding of music and familiar schlick! of blades on ice had Glinda taking the lead. It took them a few minutes, but when they finally entered the rink area, they stopped, surprised to see the green girl doing jumps and tricks in air, always landing on one slender blade. Once the music stopped, Fiyero slid towards her, tossing her a pair of black shoes.
"Ready to practice? We do have a tournament coming up in two weeks." She rolled her eyes, taking a seat on the ice and undoing her skates, pulling her sliders on climbing to her feet. At the other end of the ice ink, there was a Roaring sheet, with a peculiar looking bulls eye in the center. Two hacks sat at one end, and two strange looking brooms rested against the wall, one of which Fiyero tossed to Elphaba.
"So how do you want to do this? It's not like we have another team to practice with." She said, oblivious to the four spectators taking seats in the stands.
"One on one?" She raised an eyebrow. "Give us a chance to practice our shots?"
"Or," She suggested, thinking. "We could designate ten for one team and ten for another." She glanced at the stones with the red handles. "Make those the 'opposing team' and the yellow will be ours."
"You're the Skip, Fabala, it's your call." He replied, setting his broom down.
"What is this?" Milla asked, and Glinda shrugged.
"Morrible did say they were Ozlympians." She replied.
Elphaba, who'd deliberately led the girls to the rink, knowing they wouldn't be able to stand not knowing where she was going, rolled her eyes. "Quiet from the peanut gallery!" Fiyero turned, glancing over his shoulder. "My roommate and her gossipy friends followed me." He shook his head, grabbing one of the red stones.
"I thought she was leaving you alone."
"So did I." She replied, sliding over to the other end of the board.
The girls watched in silence for two hours as the pair worked on throwing stones, before ShenShen and Pfhanne decided that it was too boring and left. Milla and Glinda, however, stayed, fascinated by the game. The pair noticed, but didn't say anything, as long as they were quiet, they didn't care.
"You've got the hammer, Fabala." She nodded, grabbing the last stone and setting up to push off. Fiyero stood at the other end of the board, his broom resting between two stones- a yellow and a red- indicating that would be the perfect area to knock the red one out of the house, if the chance was taken. He then moved out of the way, returning towards her, as she pushed off and released the stone.
Glinda watched in surprise as the stone seemed to sail forward of its own accord-
Without a word, Fiyero rushed to sweep- "Hurry hard, Yero!"- and Glinda and Milla watched as eventually, the stone managed to knock the red stone out of the house, as Fiyero had thought.
Eventually, Milla had left, leaving only Glinda to watch her roommate and her partner practice for the next six hours. Eventually, when the pair realized that they'd exhausted all possible plays, they gathered their things, slipping off the ice to find the blonde still there. "I'd have thought you'd have gone back to the dorm." Elphaba said, grabbing a bottle of water and taking a sip. The blonde shrugged.
"What you do is interesting. What is it, exactly?"
The pair shared a surprised glance. "How have you never heard of Roaring?" Fiyero asked, as the trio left the rink.
She shrugged. "I've never been into sports."
"Let's go get dinner, and we'll explain it. It's gonna take a while."
The three slipped into the cafeteria twenty minutes later; Glinda watched as the two set their duffels down at a table and made their way in search of something to eat. She set her bag with theirs, and followed, hearing the whispers of the other students. She stopped as Elphaba leaned down, studying a sandwich. With a wrinkle of her nose, she sidled up to Fiyero, who'd decided on a salad.
"Must you put those disgusting pine nuts on everything you eat? It's almost like you do it on purpose." He chuckled, tapping her lightly on the nose with a carrot stick.
"At least I don't drown everything in Gillikinese vinegar." He replied as she grabbed her own bowl and began fixing a salad. After a moment, Glinda joined them, keeping quiet. She watched Elphaba flick open the glass canister of the vinegar in question and breathe. "I happen to like it, thank you very much. Besides, it's not like I'm offering you any." Glinda took the canister from her, after watching the girl drown her salad in the dark blue vinegar.
Once they paid, they returned to their seats, and Glinda finally spoke up. "So... what is Roaring exactly?"
And so Fiyero and Elphaba spent the next two hours explaining the ins and outs of the game, the rules and regulations, and what it would mean for a Vinkun team- especially one as young as theirs- to attend the Winter Games in the City.
"So is it just you two or do you work on a team?"
"We play on a team." Elphaba said, in between bites of lettuce as Fiyero took a sip of his tea.
"So, if the team is going to the Games-"
"But we're specifically playing as Mixed Doubles- male and female." She clarified, taking another bite.
"Just because we'll go as a team, doesn't mean we won't try to also go as a Mixed Doubles for the Vinkus." Fiyero added. "And that's... almost as important, if not more than going as a full Roaring team." He glanced at Elphaba, who grinned, mid-bite. "The team as a whole has strength together, but the strongest players are determined by the doubles. Only one Vinkun team can represent Mixed Doubles and that section of the team, and it has to be us."
"So there are other women that play?"
"But they don't play Doubles." Elphaba replied.
"If we go, we'll go as members of the team, but we also want to go to represent the Doubles, because we believe we're the strongest pair out there. We've won more tournaments than any other Doubles in the Vinkus has." Fiyero added. Glinda glanced between the two, something nagging at her.
"How did you two meet? You're from Munchkinland and your're from the Vinkus. That's not normal-"
"My father sent me to the Vinkus because he didn't want to deal with me. He told me I was an unruly child, a problem, and that the best place for me would be a Vinkun orphanage."
"That's horrible." Elphaba shrugged.
"I never made it to the orphanage."
"Turns out, my parents had heard what the Governor was going to do, and offered to take her in. We were both seven going on eight." Fiyero met Elphaba's gaze. "Roaring is a common game played in the Vinkus. I've been playing it since I was a kid. I taught Elphaba how to play." She rolled her eyes, taking another bite of her salad, before reaching over and forking a piece of his salmon.
"So... what is St. Prowd's? Because you've mentioned it-"
"It's the most prestigious athletic school in the Vinkus." Fiyero said. "Those who seemed to have any sort of talent in athletics are granted entrance into St. Prowd's."
"So it's like a performing arts school?"
"In the sense that you live and learn your craft? Yes." Elphaba replied, grabbing her tea.
"And you... roomed together? Isn't that inappropriate?"
"See, Glinda, the thing about St. Prowd's, is you're there to focus on your craft, not on the opposite sex. We're trained to be the best, in whatever sport we choose."
"And you chose... Roaring?"
"Roaring and Figure Skating. We do both, but our strength is Roaring."
"And this tournament is-"
"Mixed Doubles Nationals. If we win this, we're one of four Vinkun teams that gets to try for Qualifications for the Winter Games."