Author's note: In this story, Nessa is in the same year of school as Elphaba. She started school two years earlier instead of one. I'm probably going to say that she skiped a grade or went to an unconventional highschool, allowing her to graduate early. Also, latter in life, Nessa actually gets married. I'm not sure of the circumstances surrounding that yet. Any suggestions for what you want to see happen in the story are welcome.

Chapter Three

Elphaba's dream:

The first thing she took in, while looking around her dreamworld was the scenery. It was completely unfamiliar to her, and yet to her dreamself it was as familiar as if it were home. No, she corrected herself, according to her dreamself, it was home. It was a castle in the middle of …of where? The Vinkus, and it's called Kiamo Ko, her dreamself supplied. Her dreamself was sitting down outside, which was rare. There were several other people in the dream. One of them was Nanny. She was sitting right next to Dream-Elphaba. The real Elphaba realized it would be easier to watch the dream from the perspective of one of its 'characters', so she floated over to her dreamself and soon was a player in the performance.

"Mother," a voice called excitedly from somewhere behind her. She turned her neck to see a young teenage boy, perhaps twelve or thirteen, running up the path to the castle. "Mother, he announced, "The usual caravan has stopped. Somebody's getting off here."

"Well who is it then," Elphaba snapped at her son.

"She talking to Thea right now. She told us her name is Nessarose and that-"

"She's your cousin," Elphaba explained. "I sent for her to come live here after her mother died. I didn't want any mutinous Munchkinlanders to try to kill the poor child. What a poor thing indeed to have been raised by Nessa. And I thought being raised by Frex was bad enough! The girl's head is probably filled with ridiculous religious nonsense." Here she paused her rant and sighed. "Oh well, I suppose we can always try to reverse that." She picked herself up, off the ground and gave Nanny a hand up as well. Then she followed her son down the path.

At the bottom of the hill, there stood three girls. Actually two of them are legally adults, her dream-mind informed her. "Theadora, Melena, why are you giving your cousin the inquisition? I thought I told you that you could ask her all you wanted about current affairs and what-have-you after she had settled in." Her tone with these girls was not as impatient or intolerant as it had been with Liir.

"We're sorry, Mother," Melena said politely. "I just wanted to hear something, anything interesting about the world. It gets so boring here sometimes, with only my own siblings and Chistery for company."

Elphaba shook her head. Melena was exactly like her mother. Well not Elphaba, obviously, her other mother. "You are forgiven. Come on all of you, it's going to rain and I don't want to be caught out in it. And neither do you, Thea, so help your cousin with her bags and let's start walking." With no complaint Theadora, whose skin was the palest of greens, picked up one of her cousin's four bags and handed one to each of her siblings. With each of the children carrying a bag, they made their way up to the castle.

Once there, Nanny cooked them all a satisfying dinner, which they all ate, as a family. It was unusual that Elphaba would eat dinner with her family. She usually ran on a very odd schedule or no schedule at all, so she might be sleeping in the afternoon and having dinner at breakfast. She took this rare opportunity to watch all of her children together. Theadora, the eldest essentially looked exactly like Elphaba. She had pale green skin, long, thick, black hair, Elphaba's stature and build, but her eyes were a sparkling royal blue. They reminded her of someone, but she couldn't think of whom. Liir was much younger than his sisters, possibly a decade younger. He had dark, brown hair, green eyes, and tan skin. She could see nothing of herself in the boy, though she could see that he might someday grow into some of her features. 'Like my nose," she thought. Melena though was a puzzle to the real Elphaba –whereas the dream-Elphaba wasn't confused at all. She looked nothing like her mother or either of her siblings, except for the royal blue eyes she and her twin shared. She was petite, though not incredibly so. Her skin was a completely normal, non-exotic peach color. Her hair was a headdress of golden curls. Oddly enough, she looked exactly like Galinda. Suddenly she realized that was why she recognized the twins' eyes. Galinda.

Galinda's dream:

"Can you believe we've gotten away with this for over a year now," Aura asked, an almost proud smile on her face.

"Barely," Galinda answered, "But at least now I worry myself with paranoia over whether or not you're seeing someone else behind my back instead of worrying about whether someone is watching us behind our backs."

"Are you really that insecure?" Aura questioned. "You're always so curious about what I do when I'm not with you."

"I guess I'm insecurious," she replied with a giggle. This sent the red-head into a fit of laughter.

"Linda, 'insecurious' isn't a real word."

"So," the blond said with a pout. Aura laughed again and kissed her.

Unbeknownst to either of the seniors, who were sitting in a secluded garden on a stone bench, there was someone watching them. And she had seen and heard everything. Shocked, the brown-haired girl ran off to write a letter to her sister, who still lived at home.

A month later, Galinda was tearfully bidding all her friends a final farewell. As she was turning to go, a student named Shaina, who had brown hair and brown eyes stepped infront of her. "Miss Galinda, before you go, I feel I owe you an apology, a huge one."

"And why is that, Miss Shaina," Galinda inquired a little coldly in an attempt to mask the fact that she was on the verge of breaking down.

"Because it's my fault that you're going home," the girl confessed.

"What?" The heartbroken blonde girl could hardly believe what she was hearing.

"I saw you and Miss Aura in the garden once. I was shocked and wanted to confide in someone I could trust. I wrote a letter to my sister, who lives with our parents, near your own home. I should have known better. I should have known my sister would tell our parents, who obviously mentioned it to your parents. I'm so sorry." Before Galinda gave herself the opportunity to curse at the other girl and probably become hysterical, she spun on her heels and boarded her carriage. She never looked back for fear she would fall apart.

Suddenly the dream shifted away from all the negative things and she found herself in the midst of a very pleasant dream. She and Elphie were standing together on a balcony in a gigantic palace. Elphie had her arms wrapped around Galinda, holding her close.

"I never would have thought that whatever power there is would deem it fair to give me a happily ever after," Elphie said softly.

"Well you have it anyway, love," Galinda said with a lugh as she reached up to kiss her lover tenderly on the lips.

"If I wanted to be cynical, I'd say it's too good to be true, but it seems that for once in my life cynicism doesn't suite me," the emerald-skinned woman joked, "Because it is true and now you and I are free to finish growing old together."

"We're not that old, Elphie," the petite woman protested, "We're only fifty one."

"I suppose that's true. You know, why don't we go see how Candle and the baby are doing?" then Elphie took her hand and led her through several rooms until they reached their destination. Lying on the bed was a pretty, young Quadling woman, their daughter in law. A young man, who had emerald green eyes and Elphie's nose, but who otherwise reminded her of Fiyero sat beside his wife on the bed. In her arms, Candle held their newborn baby daughter.

"Did you pick her name yet, Liir," Galinda asked.

"Yes, Glinda, we did."

"Well what is it?" This question came from Elphaba, who was very eager to know the name of her first grandchild.

"We named her Fae, after you, Mother, but sort-of after my father too, since he was the one who called you that." Galinda saw Elphie smile in approval and then the image faded from her sight, but her memory stored it safely away to be looked at later.

While Elphaba and Galinda slept, each in their own dreamworld, the younger of the two Thropp sisters was tossing and turning, unable to sleep. What with the devastating discovery of the previous morning and the scandalous accusation of this afternoon, it was no small wonder that the pious Nessarose lay awake worring over the safety of her sister's soul.

(THE PREVIOUS MORNING)

Nessarose wheeled herself into the room adjacent to hers with the intention of making sure that her sister's roommate was up and moving. Elphaba was already at the library, of course, getting a head start on next week's homework before class started. Galinda however was known to oversleep if no one woke her up. Sure enough, when Nessa entered the room, Galinda was still fast asleep.

Maneuvering her wheelchair between the two beds, she reached over to shake the blonde girl awake, when she noticed something on the floor next to the girl's bed. It was a pick, fluffy diary. Normally, Nessarose would have simply picked the book up, closed it, and put it away, but the page clearly had her sister's name written on it. She wanted to know what Galinda was saying about Elphaba. She hoped it wasn't anything bad. Reaching over very carefully, she picked the book up off the floor and laid it in her lap. She quickly scanned the page, only reading the part about her sister. When she read a particular sentence however, she gasped in horror. By the time she had finished reading the page, she was blushing with indigence and anger. She felt completely mortified and could not believe what she had just read. It absolutely sickened her. She threw the book down on the floor in disgust and hurried out of the room, slamming the door behind her. Seething, she waited for the other girl to make herself appear decent before returning to the room. She knew that the noise the door had made had certainly woken her up.

Twenty minutes later, she reentered the room and waited silently for Galinda to notice her. When the blonde girl, who was finishing up her make up, saw Nessarose's reflection in the mirror atop her vanity, she turned around and began to greet her cheerfully. She fell silent however when she saw Nessarose's icy expression. "Miss Nessa, what-"

"Don't speak to me as if I am your friend, Miss Galinda," the girl in the wheelchair ordered, obvious distaste in her tone. "I saw what you wrote about my sister in your journal, you heathen, sinful, wench. How dare you! How dare you claim to be in love with my sister? No woman can love another woman in that manner. And you have the audacity to not even be ashamed of your sin! I shall warn Elphaba about your evil ways." Nessa condemned her in a tone of fiery contempt that the terrified Galinda had not even known the other girl could use, "Be it upon your own soul to burn in hell for your sins, but for the love of the Unnamed God, don't you dare drag my sister down with you." Then she had disappeared from the room, leaving Galinda trembling and in tears.

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The next chapter should be posted the day after tomorrow at minimum and in one week at max. (That is assuming my teachers don't throw a bunch of homework at me to make up for all of us having been on winter holiday.)