Chapter 3

Nessarose desperately roamed the halls of the school, knowing full well she could get into huge trouble for doing so. But she reasoned with herself that she had a good excuse: she had go to the bathroom and the person who was supposed to take care of that was missing in action. Once she realized that finding Gawnette was unlikely, she thought about looking for Elphaba, but Elphaba was most likely in class. So there was only one other option.

She would have to go to the bathroom by herself.

That was a daunting thought. Nessa was good at most transfers, but transferring to the toilet was always the hardest due to wardrobe complications. But she would have to do it, or else she would have an embarrassing mess on her hands, which definitely did not befit the future governor of Munchkinland.

Nessa entered the girls' restroom and thanked the Unnamed God that it was empty. She went into the handicapped stall and locked the door behind her. She took a deep breath. I can do this. Not only that, I haveto do this. Let's go. With some effort, she pulled up her skirt and pulled down her stockings while she was still in her chair. Then, she grabbed the bar, stood up, and swung over to the toilet. She sighed in relief as she did her business. Mission accomplished.

Except not quite. She still had to transfer back to her chair. So, with another deep breath, she tried to swing back over to her wheelchair, but as she swung, the chair moved away from her, and down she went. After saying a word that she knew her father would not have approved of, she looked over at her chair, and realized she had forgotten to lock the brakes. Stupid, Nessa! Out of options, she desperately called out, "Help!" But there was no answer because the bathroom was empty. Duh. She was just about to completely despair when she heard footsteps coming into the bathroom. "Hello! I need help!"

"Nessa?" Fabala! Thank Oz!

"Fabala! Thank Oz you're here! I was trying to get back in my chair and I fell! So I need a little help."

Nessa heard Elphaba sigh. "Sweet Lurline. Alright, hang on, Nessa." Elphaba tried to open the stall door, and after realizing it was locked, resorted to crawling in on her hands and knees. "Oz, Nessa, you had to lock the door!"

"I wanted privacy!" Nessa protested.

"Well, privacy could have landed you on the floor for hours!" Elphaba groaned as she lifted Nessa off the floor. Once Nessa was safely back in her chair, Elphaba finally thought to ask, "Where's your aide, what's-her-face? Gawnette! Where's Gawnette? Isn't she supposed to help you with things like this?"

"In theory," Nessa agreed. "I couldn't find her."

"You couldn't find her?! Well, I'm gonna find her! And I'll tell her that if she doesn't do her job, she's gonna be-…" Elphaba swallowed, and stopped herself from saying what she had been about to say. "Arrested. I'm sure I could persuade Father to arrest her."

Nessa sighed in exasperation. "Fabala, no. She didn't do anything illegal; she just did something stupid." As she wheeled out of the stall, she shook her head. "I swear, Fabala, I don't know why Father ever doubts that you're his daughter."

That afternoon, when Frex heard that Nessa had been forced to try to use the bathroom by herself, he was just as outraged as the sisters had thought he would be. "I'm glad you weren't hurt, Nessa, but I'm going to make sure this doesn't happen again," Frex declared. Just then, Gawnette walked up to them with an innocent look on her face, but Frex was having none of it. "You! Don't even try to tell me that Nessa had a good day! She fell over in a bathroom, so she obviously did not have a good day. You're fired!"

"Wha?" Gawnette asked, sounding confused.

"'Whaaaaaa?'" Frex repeated, mocking her. "You sound like you've been snorting Quadling grass! So you've been high while working with my daughter! Or, should I say, not working with my daughter! Get out of my sight!" As Gawnette hurried away, Frex turned to Elphaba. "I really wish you were allowed to help your sister in school."

"I'm going to take that as a compliment," Elphaba said, smiling a little.

Back at Colwin Grounds, Elphaba went into Shell's room to "borrow" a pen (Shell had too many pens in Elphaba's opinion, so she almost never returned the pens she borrowed) to find him drawing what looked like a floor plan. Shell abruptly looked up from his work. "Hi, Fabala!"

"That does not look like homework," Elphaba told him.

"You're right; it's not," Shell admitted. "It's a floor plan of my school. This line is my class schedule, and this line is Tilla's class schedule. I broke into the office after school and memorized her schedule. I'm trying to find an opportunity to talk to her."

"Who's Tilla?"

Shell started gushing. "She's this really pretty girl who runs the biology club, and we're the only members, and she's so smart, and she doesn't think I'm weird!"

Elphaba snorted. "Wait till she gets to know you." She grabbed a pen and pointed at the floor plan with it. "And shred that. It's creepy." And then she walked briskly out of the room.

"Fabala!" Shell called after her. "Give me back my pen, Fabala!" But of course, she didn't. She never did.

Meanwhile, Frex was ranting to Nanny about the day. He didn't like to talk to Nanny often, as she was a painful reminder of Melena, but she was the only adult servant at Colwin Grounds who he felt really listened to him. And sure enough, she listened as he ranted about how awful Gawnette was, and how awful the school was. "That's it, I'm moving the capital to the Pine Barren," Frex decided. "I'll be closer to another group of my constituents, and we can get a better situation for Nessa."

"No, you're not," Nanny said bluntly. "Frex, don't be stupid. What about Elphaba and Shell? They're your children too. What you're planning to do would rock their worlds. Not to mention the possible political consequences."

"I can deal with whatever political consequences might arise," Frex insisted. "As for Elphaba and Shell, I trust that they both have the maturity to deal with this."

"Frex, Frex, listen to Nanny." She grabbed both his arms and looked him right in the face. "You fight and fight to make sure Nessa has a normal life. Elphaba and Shell deserve that too." Nanny stood up with authority. "I will assist Nessa in school."

And Frex knew he couldn't argue with that.