Fiyero (You heard me: Fiyero! The long-awaited prince!) took advantage of his dark sunglasses and feigned sleep for the last few minutes before his formal arrival at Shiz University. The open-top carriage bumped over stones in the cobbled road. He glanced about, bored, trying to see how students on THIS campus amused themselves.

"ELPHABA! LOOK OUT!" Somebody shouted, unintentionally scaring Fiyero. He looked past the driver to see a girl staring at his coach in fear. She practically dove out of the way, the driver swerving hazardously to avoid collision. Fiyero sat up and pulled on the driver's arm.

"Stop!" He said, hopping out before the carriage fully slowed. He was about to run to the girl, when he noticed two things for the first time. Thing one: She was green. Thing two: In diving out of the way, her skirt had lifted a tiny bit, showing a shapely (green) leg. This girl's hotter than she's letting on. Fiyero thought as he went to assist the damsel that was currently out of immediate distress.

"Your driver just about ran me over," The girl sat up and dusted her navy jacket off. Fiyero took a good, long look at her face. It was actually quite pretty, if you didn't mind the fact it looked like she had been out on a stormy sea for far too long.

"Sorry about that," Fiyero said, offering his hand to help her up. She ignored it and stood on her own. "Can I make it up to you somehow? A night out, perhaps?" Fiyero invented a pickup line around the occasion. She faced him and looked him over.

"You're that Winkie prince," she said, then laughed cynically. "The scandalacious Fiyero Tiggular has to run a girl over to get a date? Get a life." She turned and walked away, received almost instantly by a group of other girls.

"Okay, when will I be picking you up? Eight? Great, see you then, Miss…?" Fiyero said to himself sadly, the reality that he had just been turned down by a girl sinking in. He turned and was instantly face-to-face with a more normal pretty girl. Shoulder-length blonde ringlets framed a perfect complexion accented wonderfully with makeup, short enough to be cute, but not freakishly short, and was fashionably dressed. Still, Fiyero didn't feel the same spark he did when usually in the company of beautiful women. It was like comparing a canary to a peacock. She flipped her curls attractively.

"Looking for something or…" she paused for effect. "Someone?"

"Yes, ah, some sort of history class?" Fiyero pulled out a class schedule from his little shoulder bag.

"Oh, yes, that's in the history building, which is this way," A boy with dark hair about the same height as the blonde girl started to pull him away from the girl. She instantly took the other arm and started leading him in the opposite direction, explaining:
"That class just ended!" She said cheerily, ignoring the other boy completely.

"Well, perfect timing," Fiyero hadn't really wanted to come to a new school and immediately be stuffed in some boring class. "Tell me, what does one do for fun around here?" He questioned, still thinking of the green girl.

"Well…ah…" The blonde girl tried to decide what to say.

"We've been studying!" The boy declared, proudly holding up a book. Fiyero glanced around quickly. All of the students in the courtyard backed up the boy's story. They were reading heavy books, scribbling in official-looking folders, and chewing on short pencils. Fiyero gasped dramatically.

"What? Well, it seems the responsibility to corrupt my fellow students falls to me." He put one arm on the diminutive boy's shoulder. "Fortunately, I'm up for the task. The trouble with 'schools' is they always try to teach the wrong lessons," The girl was taking in his every word. The boy looked distrustful. "Believe me; I've been kicked out of enough of them to know." The boy's face widened in alarm. Fiyero was no delinquent, but he hated schoolwork and didn't bother. "They want you to become less callow, less shallow," The girl's eyes lit up. Clearly she liked this new philosophy. "But I say, 'Why abide stressing?'" Fiyero plucked the book from the boy's hands and tossed it in the closest ditch. "Stop studying strife," He ran after the precious literature, shocked that someone would do that to a book. The blonde girl moved in expectantly. "And learn to live the unexamined life…" Students began to look up from their schoolwork, curious at who was disrupting their study time.

"Dancing through life," He advanced into the cloud of students, all trying to keep their eyes on their papers, but dying to listen to the newcomer.

"Skimming the surface, gliding where turf is smooth," Several of the students snuck peeks at this new self-proclaimed god of entertainment whom had arrived at Shiz. Fiyero felt back in his element after his turn-down, he skipped in step, dancing the way he always did whenever there was a blip on his radar he didn't like.

"Life is painless, for the brainless, why think to hard? When it's so soothing…" There were a few tentative believers scattered about, nowhere near enough to get a party started. He continued, hoping the others may abandon their studies soon.

"Dancing through life, no need to tough it, when you can slough it off as I do," Fiyero started adding in more elaborate dance moves, slow spins and little hop steps. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a few people actually close their books and pay attention to him. That's the ticket, he thought. First a trickle, then a flow, then a flood. He had seen it again and again at the various schools.

"Nothing matters but knowing nothing matters. It's just life! So keep dancing through!" Some of the students got up and started joining in Fiyero's little impromptu dance. There we go! He thought, joining in the dancing. Still, a few people stayed sitting, forcing themselves not to join in the fun. Fiyero tried to break their focus again.

"Dancing through life, swaying and sweeping, and always keeping cool," The blonde worked her way back to Fiyero, the short boy following her like a little puppy.

"Life is fraught-less, when you're thoughtless," Fiyero used the smartest words he knew to try to appeal to these studious types. He picked up another forgotten book and pointed at it.

"Those who don't, try never look foolish, dancing through life!" He tossed the book back to the general area of its papery friends.

"Mindless and careless, make sure you wear less trouble and rife!" He swung himself up onto the cane of a statue, the height unintentionally making his pseudo-speech more prominent.

"Woes are fleeting; blows are glancing, when you're dancing through life!" The whole courtyard was on its feet, dancing and laughing as if they had never known what fun was. He smiled down at students. Now for the issue of partying.

"So, what's the most swankified place in town?" he asked casually, still swinging idly on the statue's cane.

"That would be the OzDust ballroom," the blonde said perkily, anticipating what was likely to happen, and what she desperately wanted to be a part of.

"Sounds perfect!" Fiyero jumped down from the statue to make his announcement, the well practiced speech fresh in his mind from when it got him thrown out of the last school for mistaking a teacher for a student.

"Let's go down to the OzDust ballroom, we'll meet there later tonight!" He paused. A few faces said 'Well, I don't know,' so Fiyero added to the promise of a party. "We can dance 'til it's light, find the prettiest girl, give her a whirl," Fiyero was thinking of the green-skinned girl, and how she would look on a dance floor, laughing and smiling and having a great time. The blonde, assuming he meant her in saying 'prettiest girl' advanced again for his attention, but was whisked away by her little puppy, as Fiyero was coming to think of the boy that followed her everywhere. She promptly spun him off for another partner, and started to approach Fiyero again.

"Right on down to the OzDust ballroom," Fiyero was very close to her again. She was pretty, but there was no turning back for him after having seen something better. He didn't like her the way he normally would.

"Come on, follow me…You'll be happy to be there, Dancing through life!" The students' voices joined with his on 'Dancing through life'.

"Down at the OzDust!" They continued, the prospect of a party filling their hearts and minds.

"If only because dust is what we come to!" Fiyero said to add to the carefree attitude that you can do whatever you wanted because it didn't matter.

"Nothing matters, but knowing nothing matters! It's just life!" The students were learning quickly from this new teacher, reveling in the release of his lessons.

"So keep dancing through!" Fiyero added, and the students ran off to get ready for Fiyero's party. It left him, the blonde girl and her puppy, and a shy-looking girl in a chair. The blonde girl's puppy tapped on her shoulder.

"M-Miss Galinda?" Fiyero excused himself to let the puppy talk to 'Miss Galinda' and watch what they were going to say. "I hope you'll save at least one dance for me…I'll be right there, right by your side, waiting all night." This guy is pathetic, Fiyero couldn't help thinking. She's too creeped out by him stalking her to actually like him.

"Oh…that's so kind, Bick…" Galinda said, almost squirming at the thought of him staying so close like that.

"Boq," he corrected gently. That's a…Munchkin name. Fiyero deduced. I guess that's why he's kinda short…

"But do you know what would be even kinder?" She turned Boq to look at the girl in the chair. Fiyero, in his kick of thinking of girls as birds, imagined the girl in the chair as a maybe a dove- shy, small, kind of plain, yet beautiful. He looked again at her legs, then thought: A dove without wings. "See that tragically beautiful girl…the one in the chair…" she turned him back around. "It seems so unfair we should go on a spree, and not she." She lifted her finger to her chin in mock thought. "Gee, I know someone would be my hero, if that someone were to go invite her…" Boq stood there for a few seconds, then got the idea she was trying to give him.

"I could invite her!" he exclaimed, happy at this little chance to impress Galinda.

"Oh, Bick! Really? You would do that for me?" she acted as if he had come up with this idea himself.

"I would do anything for you, Miss Galinda," he promised, then approached the other girl. "Excuse me? Miss Nessarose…?" He turned back to Galinda to make sure he got the name right. "I have something I'd like to ask you!" He wheeled her away, the dove clearly smitten with the puppy. Fiyero couldn't help smiling at the sight. Unrequited love was a dangerous tool.

"You're good," He said truthfully. She handled that so well, the two didn't know they were being toyed with.

"I don't know what you mean," She laughed, twirling her little purse flirtatiously. "But, I do happen to be free tonight, so…"

Fiyero was tempted to tell her 'Good for you, now do you know a girl with green skin?' but remembered what she had said when he asked her out. 'Get a life.' Fiyero sighed, and gave Galinda what she wanted.

"So I'll be picking you up around eight?" he asked casually, lamenting the fact his date won't be green.

"After all, now that we've met one another, it's clear we deserve each other." She sang, working herself into his arms. Fiyero didn't protest, but he didn't honestly welcome her either. "You're perfect," she told him, looking up lovingly through heavily mascaraed eyelashes.

"You're perfect," he said, thinking of others whom in his mind were perfect.

"So we're perfect together! Born to be forever dancing through life!" He spun her around once, then let her go prepare for the party. He let out a sigh and went to get and unpack his bags.

"So, Miss Elphaba, are you going to this party?" Elphaba sped up a little bit. Why was Deverig following her?! It was annoying, like a fly in your ear you couldn't swat without slapping yourself.

"Actually, somebody asked me," she said, keeping her eyes trained on Madame Morrible's little cottage. "But I said no because I'm not going."

"Who asked you?" Deverig sprinted to keep up.

"Fiyero Tiggular," She was almost running now. If she got to Nessa, Deverig would go away.

"Sweet Oz, he asked you?!" Deverig stopped. "Why'd you say no?!" Elphaba kept going, thankful Deverig was so distracted.

"He had to almost run me over first!" Elphaba reached the door and knocked three times. Madame Morrible opened it.

"Hello, Madame, I've come to visit Nessa." Elphaba said.

"Do come in, Miss Elphaba," Madame Morrible waved Elphaba in to the lavishly furnished cottage. It reminded her of the governor's mansion back in Munchkinland, except built for one instead of a family.

"Elphaba!" Nessa wheeled herself into the front hall. Elphaba bent down and hugged her sister. Madame Morrible discretely left to give the sisters some room.

"Oh, Elphaba! The most wonderful thing happened!" Nessa had never seemed so happy before, it took Elphaba by surprise. "I'm going to the party! And Boq asked me!"

"He did?" Elphaba squatted beside the wheelchair.

"Yes, at first he was too shy to ask me, but once Galinda encouraged him-"
"Oh no, not Galinda!" Elphaba stood up. "This is destined for trouble if she had-"

"Elphaba!" Nessa tried to scold, the effect lessened by the fact she was close to tears because of this outbreak against her date's matchmaker. "Can't you put aside your hatred for once and think of my happiness? It's been so much harder for me to fit in that it was for you, and I'm about to have the first truly happy night of my life, and I owe it to Galinda." Elphaba still stood firm, discontent written all over her face. Nessa grabbed her sister's hand.

"Finally, for this one night, I'm about to have a fun night with this Munchkin boy Galinda found for me, and I only wish there were something I could do for her to repay her. Elphaba, see we deserve each other, and Galinda helped it come true! We deserve each other, me and Boq." She looked wistfully off into the distance as if Boq were in the very room. She looked back up at her sister. "Please, Elphaba…try to understand."

Elphaba didn't know what to think. The self-centered obnoxious Galinda put others before herself for once in her life. Was there actually a brain beneath the blonde, a heart with room for others? It didn't seem as impossible as it had when she first met Galinda. She kneeled beside her sister.

"I do…" Nessa smiled, the glorious hopeful smile of somebody who just might have all of their dreams come true. "C'mon, Nessie." Elphaba stood and took her sisters chair, guiding her over to the wardrobe. "Let's get you ready for a party."

"Do me up," Galinda said as Pfannee drew the corset of the dress tightly, accenting Galinda's chest. "Now, I must accessorize myself for: Fiyero!"

"You're still not sore about the news?" Pfannee asked Galinda as she tried to decide which pair of pink shoes matched her dress best. "Deverig told Meritina who mentioned to Yvnotte who came to Triztri who told me that Fiyero had asked greenie first!"

"Not at all!" Galinda said cheerily as she bounced back to the dresser to find her pink hair flower. "He didn't know I existed yet. And if greenie can't tell when something good comes her way, she loses," Galinda secured the flower and pinned in her hair. "And I win."

"Galinda, what is Oz is this?" ShenShen held a round hatbox and a black pointed hat by the tip disgustedly as if it got too close to her it would leave black streaks all over her.

"Pretend you didn't see that," Galinda snatched the hat and held it with equal contempt. "My granny is always giving me the most hideodeous hats. I'd give it away, but I don't hate anyone that much."

ShenShen and Pfannee exchanged looks. "Yes, you do!" They smiled malevolently. Galinda's eyes widened. Greenie.

"I couldn't…could I?" Galinda looked down at the hat. It would be a tremendous joke if Elphaba wore it…she would have the sense not to, right? Somebody knocked. ShenShen and Pfannee hid themselves in the room.

"Guys!" Galinda hissed. The door opened, and in came Elphaba.

"Galinda? Listen, my sister and I were talking about you just now, and-" Elphaba began sheepishly, but Galinda cut her off. Do I want to get rid of this or not?

"And I was just talking about you! I thought you might want..." Galinda barely faltered. Please let her have enough sense not to take me seriously. "…To wear this hat to the party tonight!" She held up the pointed hat. She could see a lot of dust on the hat, and hoped Elphaba wouldn't notice. "It's really, uh…" Ugly. Unattractive. Pointy… "Sharp! Don't you think? You know black is this year's pink!" She gestured first to the hat and then to her pink outfit. Elphaba raised one eyebrow. "You deserve each other, this hat and you! You're both so…" Strange. Unusual. Nerd-like… "Smart! You deserve each other, so, here!" Galinda pushed the hat into Elphaba's hands. She took it, stunned at the sudden generosity. "Out of the goodness of my heart!" Galinda left the room, despite the fact that she had completely no makeup on and was nowhere near finished preparing.

Elphaba looked down at the hat. She had never seen one like it before. Well, maybe one like it in an antiques store, but she hadn't given it a second glance. Galinda gave her sister a date. Galinda gave her a hat. Elphaba shifted uncomfortably on her feet. All of this made Elphaba think again of her father. 'Remember to be nice to everybody,' and here was Galinda being a patron saint to them. Did she want to end the rivalry? Life would be so much simpler if they did. A slow smile formed on Elphaba's lips. She glanced at a clock. Seven twenty-two. There was so much to do and so little time…

She was going to go to a party, with or without a date. Goodnesses should always be repaid.

I hope you're happy now! There's Fiyero, and all that good stuff you wanted in this chapter. Next is the OzDust ballroom, where things get UGLY!!! And not just Elphaba's hat…(Shifty eyes) I found the USB drive (!!!), which means this gets posted today (Thursday) as opposed to sometime in the future (The weekend). Review me! Pwease? Thank you all for everything, and keep reading! I'll keep posting for you all. -LostOzian.