The next day was a busy one, with a lot of special effects. The stage manager was testing out the 'flying' mechanism, the lighting manager was testing the lights, and the stagehands were playi-ur I mean-testing the fog.

"I need Elphaba, Glinda, Madame Morrible, Guards, and Citizens," the author said. They got on stage and began.

"Uh . . . Author?"

"Yes?"

"Where's the broom?" Rose asked.

"WHERE'S THE BROOM METHUSELAH?" the author boomed.

"What uh ur? Oh! The broom! Hmm I think I put it here . . . or was it over there?" Methuselah jumped into a pile. After a long time of rummaging, he found it on a table.

"Jesus . . . " the author whispered after he announced his find. "Go!" They began to sing.

"I hope you're happy . . . right . . . NOOOOOW." Then a light shined on where Constance should have been.

"Uhh . . . Constance?" the author said.

"Yes?" she answered.

"Where are you?"

"Oh! Oops!" Constance ran up the tower. "Citizens of Oz . . . " she boomed.

"Oh God! Turn down the volume!" The author put her hands over her ears.

"Sorry!" the manager yelled from his booth. Constance finished. The author sat astonished. Finally! Some good acting! Rose was transforming from the young Elphaba to the more mature Elphaba. She looked vaguely insane. The author liked that. Cornflower looked scared and awed by the transformation. It was perfect.

"Uh Author?" Rose asked.

"Yes?" The author snapped out of her daydream about singing with Oliver Tompsett.

"Did Methuselah find the Grimmiere?"

"Dunno, ask him. I'm tired of yelling." Rose came back a couple minutes later with a beat up book. "What did he do to it?"

"It was in a HUGE pile."

"Oh." Rose began chanting. When Cornflower yelled 'Stop', everyone looked at the author, thinking it was she who had seemingly mad the building shake. The author, who had been spacing out, suddenly snapped out of it. Murmurs of 'Wow' and 'I never knew she had a voice like that' and I thought she was supposed to be quiet!' were heard. "Whoa! Uh . . . Good Job Cornflower!" the author praised.

They continued, their voices soaring as they sang together in harmony. The broom even flew! "It's a miracle!" the author said to herself. But the scene was going too well. And the author had just jinxed it. "Great," she mumbled as she read what she just wrote. They sang with a lot of emotion as Glinda decided to stay.

"My freeeeeeeind" they sang, smiling genuinely as Rose quickly went behind the curtain.

"Ok now, Rose? Are you on the platform?"

"Yes," was the muffled reply.

"Ok! Go!" The platform rose. And then . . . there was a hideous crash. "Oh my God!" The author ran backstage. There was a crowd. Rose sat on the floor dazed. "Are you ok?" The author pushed through the crowd.

"Yes. Just a little shaken," she said, her voice literally shaking.

"What happened?"

"The platform started when I was least expected it and with a jolt. So I fell."

"Oh my gosh, you scared me!" the author said, flustered.

"Where is she? Get out of my way! I need to get through!" Martin pushed through the crowd. "Are you all right? Did you break any bones? Wiggle your toes. Do you need a Band-Aid? Some apple juice? An ice pack?" he babbled continuously.

"Martin, I'm . . . "

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three and . . . "

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" he shouted and flung his arms around her, almost choking her.

"Yes, I'm alive. Now can you let go?" she croaked.

"Oh sorry."

"Continue people! Let's try that again," the author said, going back to her seat in the audience. Rose got on the platform and this time smoothly rose up while singing with such strength it blew the author away.

"So if you care to find me, look to the western sky!" she sang from the depths of her soul. The lights were working, the fog was working, she had the broom, the guards had come out. It was perfect. Until the stagehands went overboard with the fog. It became so thick, you could barely see Rose. Cornflower and the guards were enveloped in it.

"Stop! Where is all this fog coming from?" The author ran backstage, but it was so slippery, she fell. "Guys! Stop the fog!" she yelled, getting back up. "It's thicker than a summer morning in San Francisco!" The stagehands looked around shiftily with their hands behind their backs. "Whose fault is this?!" the author said, shaking with anger.

"Uhh . . . y'see . . . well . . . " they mumbled.

"WHO?!"

"All of us," Winifred said quietly.

"DON'T MAKE ME COME BACK HERE AGAIN!!!" They did the scene again, and this time, everything went perfectly. "Beautiful!" the author beamed, " Now, I only need Emerald City peeps, Madame Morrible, Glinda, and Fiyero." The Emerald City . . . peeps . . . were in front of the curtain. "Go!" They sang. Badly. "Ok now I want Killconey to sing, 'Like some terrible green blizzard, throughout the land she flies!' and I want Darkclaw to sing 'Defaming our poor Wizard' and . . . "

"Wait! Isn't my line sung by a girl?" Killconey said annoyed.

"Yes. Sorry. Cluny didn't have any girls in his horde 'cause he's sexist that way."

"Wait, you're a guy? I thought you were a girl!" Darkclaw exclaimed, disturbed.

"Well, actually I'm a..." Killconey began, but was drowned out by the music. The curtain opened to the officials on the platform. When it was announced that it was an engagement party, the sign didn't come down.

"Where's the sign?" the author asked. Nobody answered.

"WHERE'S . . . THE . . . SIGN??!!" She ran backstage to the unlucky stagehands.

"Uh . . . well . . . um . . . "they mumbled.

"I TOLD YOU TO NOT MAKE ME COME BACK HERE AGAIN!! NOW WHERE'S THE SIGN?"

"It hasn't arrived yet . . . "

"YOU WERE MAKING IT!!!"

"We were, but then someone messed it up by spelling 'Congratulations' 'Congratulotions'." Winifred explained.

"IT'S SUPPOSED . . . TO . . . SAY . . . THAT!!!!!!!" the author roared with rage. "GET ME IT AND THEN GET OUT OF MY SIGHT BEFORE I KILL YOU!!!!" the author screamed at the very unlucky stagehands.

"We really should talk to the union about this," Winifred whispered to Foremole. Once the sign was up, they continued.

"Now I will assign singing lines. Mangefur, 'I hear she has an extra eye that always remains awake'. Scumnose, 'I hear that she can shed her skin as easily as a snake'. Frogblood, 'I hear some rebel animals are giving her food and shelter'. Redtooth, 'I hear her soul is so unclean, pure water can melt her!'" Mangefur, Scumnose, Frogblood had no trouble.

"I hear some rebel animals are giving her food and shelter," Frogblood sang. There was no response.

"Um . . . Redtooth?"

"What? Uh oh I kinda spaced out for a moment."

"Again?"

"Yes." Frogblood sang again. Redtooth stared into space.

"Redtooth! SNAP OUT OF IT!" the author yelled.

"Oh! Sorry! I hear her soul is so unclean, pure water can melt her!"

"What?" Martin replied.

"He said that water will melt her," Cheesethief said smugly.

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SING 'MELT HER! PLEASE SOMEBODY GO AND MELT HER'!!!!!! HE WAS SUPPOSED TO SAY 'WHAT'!!!!" the author thundered at the very unlucky Cheesethief. He cringed. Whenever Cornflower or Martin even looked at each other affectionately, Rose and Matthias would glare at them savagely. When they had to hug, it was only timely intervention by the author that saved Martin's life.

"Matthias! Stop! I'm not having a repeat of last time!" the author warned. She was not in a good mood. The scene ended.

"I NEED NESSA, BOQ, AND ELPHABA!!" the very unhappy author yelled. "Get in the wardrobe Rose." She got in. "Tess, in the chair. Matthias, push her on." They got ready. "Let's start!" They began. Unfortunately, no one had told Tess that Rose was in the wardrobe.

"Well . . . it seems the beautiful get more beautiful . . . " Rose began. Tess whirled around and screamed. Rose and the author started rolling on the floor laughing. Tess pouted.

"I fail to see what is so funny about scaring a girl to death!" Tess scowled.

"Well . . . heehahee . . . then . . . heeha . . . you're . . . hee a.. failure! Ha hee ha hee haha!" Rose gasped.

"Hee ha! Contin-continue! Heehumuh," the author tried to stop herself from laughing. Rose stifled a giggle as she got in the wardrobe and said her line again. Tess was extra good at being upset with Rose. "We should do this more often," the author said to herself as she saw how more realistic it looked. They were very good actresses. It went great until Matthias had to come in.

"Boq! Boq! Come quickly!" Tess yelled. He did not come out. "Boq!" Tess yelled again. "BOQ!" all three girls yelled.

"Oh! Sorry!" Matthias ran on. Again, things became a little awkward.

"Hold hands!" the author yelled. The two relatives turned and stared at the author open-mouthed. "Well, at least, Tess look like you like him." Tess looked from Matthias to the author and back. "Come on! Both of you look excited, but of course for different reasons." They gulped and tried to look like they were excited. It was better than earlier as Matthias only had to be excited about leaving, which wasn't all that hard. Tess was having trouble coming out of her shell and being angry.

"Tess, you're supposed to be angry," the author said gently.

"I know. It's hard for me, that's all," she said with her eyes cast down.

"Try," the author said. Tess tried to be angrier and more upset. Matthias had been spacing out and when his heart was supposed to be shrinking, he just stood there.

"Matthias?"

"Oh! Sorry!" He started convulsing and it looked like he was having a heart attack and a seizure at the same time.

"That looks really disturbing, Matthias," the author said, raising an eyebrow. Now it looked like he was doing the worm standing up.

"Really?" He also raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Please just look like you're in pain," the author said. He fell back in the chair.

"OWWWWWWWWW!!!! *$#%!*" he howled, jumping straight back up again.

"What?" the three girls asked.

"Who put that pin there?!" he asked, shaking with anger. Tess stifled a giggle. Rose stifled a giggle. Cornflower, who was in the wings, stifled a giggle. "WHO?!" He became more angry as she saw all four girls bubbling with laughter.

"I have no idea," Rose said with what she thought was a serious face.

"Neither do I," Cornflower shrugged.

"I don't know," Tess shook her head.

"URGGG!!" Matthias growled as they fell over each other laughing. "Can we get on with the scene Author?" he said angrily.

"Sh-sh-sure!" the author was beside herself. He scowled so deeply he looked like the author's sister when she was two (she's gonna love me for that). They finished with Tess trying to be dramatic and making faces when she sang, "my sweet, my brave him" and everyone except Matthias trying not to laugh. The author never did find out who did it . . . but a giggling Tess, Rose, and Cornflower trying to soothe a fuming Matthias left her suspicious.

No, I do not have such anger management issues in case you're asking. :) Oh and I got the idea with Killconey and the questionable gender from a Geico advertisement, (obviously) and from the fact that in some editions of 'Redwall', they refer to him as a he and a she. And this the new chapter six because, well, I just realized I messed up on my order and missed this one out. I'm surprised no one noticed...sorry!