Chapter 3.
Authors note: Just a short chapter this time, guys. Hope you enjoy it anyway. :)
"There was much to hate in this world, and too much to love." - Gregory Maguire, "Wicked"
Long verdant fingers flexed, tapping and finally closing around the handles of Nessarose's wheelchair. Elphaba stood behind her sister, anxiously waiting to leave the station platform, as eager and alert as she had been on the train from Nest Hardings. The journey had been uneventful to say the least, but she had no reason for complaint.
Her suitcase lay on a luggage trolley, somewhat battered and beaten in appearance. Elphaba didn't particularly mind, however, and removed herself from the back of her sister's chair so as to haul several other bags on top of her own before they could be dragged up to Crage Hall with the other students' excessive baggage. The feeling inside her at this moment... she could barely describe it. Was it excitement? She wasn't entirely sure. Still, something had changed and indeed, everything around her was so different. The architecture; the very air she breathed; the faces that passed by, staring...
Oh.
The stares were the same. The jeers. The fear and judgement behind those unfamiliar eyes. And Nessa didn't seem to be as adept in the art of simply ignoring the glares as Elphaba was. The older Thropp had grown used to being on the receiving end of pointed fingers and funny looks, and was quite above them by now. For once, ignorance was bliss.
Rolling her eyes, Elphaba leaned around her sister, bending slightly over the back of her chair. "It's alright, Nessa." She placed her hands stiffly on Nessarose's shoulders, as affectionately as she knew how. The action was practiced by now, and Nessa's anxious squirming had visibly ceased. The navy of her jacket's cuffs stood out against Nessarose's white and blue uniform almost as much as her skin did, she noticed, as she slid her hands back onto the chair's handle. Her... literal vibrance couldn't be helped, no matter how much she had held on to the shadows. Yet here she was, attending one of Oz's most prestigious universities.
Although Frex had reminded her time and again she was only here for Nessa's benefit, it was astonishing. Stepping forward, Elphaba wheeled her sister around to face the vast departure hall. "Father and Nanny are looking for us. Come, Shiz awaits."
The day had arrived. At last, at last.
Small pebbles crunched beneath Elphaba's boots as she steered toward the station exit. She looked down her nose, eyes darting about the crowds; The students, their minders, workers and teachers. There was scarcely an animal or an Animal amongst the lot, save for one old Goat. Elphaba watched, carefully observing as the professor scuffed his hooves against the cobbled path and pushed up his spectacles with some difficulty. Was he the only one?
"Over here, duckies!" A shrill voice snapped Elphaba out of her thoughts and she turned her head in time to see Nessarose waving across the courtyard. Ah, there was their old Nanny, and Father beside her, looking as stern as ever - a strangely decorated box in his grasp. He was anxious to leave his precious Nessa in the hands of an alien institution, Elphaba supposed. Anxious to leave her in the care of her less adequate, less than perfect counterpart. She sighed, exhaling noisily through her nostrils, and escorted her sister to Frex's side.
Standing awkwardly, expectantly for some reason, Elphaba glanced at the box in her father's clutches as he flipped the lid open and offered it to Nessa. "As befits the future Governor of Munchkinland."
"Father! Jeweled shoes..."
The magnetism Elphaba felt at that moment was as sudden as it was inexplicable. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the shimmering silver in her sister's hands until she held her breath and reached for the box... was there something for her too? A parting gift?
"Elphaba," Her father warned, gruff voice ringing and grating in her ears. "I'm only sending you to this school for one reason. Remember that."
"I know." 'To look after Nessa.'
The lid dropped, narrowly missing green fingers, and snapped shut before Elphaba could retract. Nothing. There was nothing... There would never be anything for her, because she wasn't of enough importance to Frex. She was an afterthought.
Not at all like Nessarose.
The shoes moved away, and Elphaba could almost feel an otherworldly sense of love being removed with them. Furrowing her brow, she moved her hands back to the safety of Nessarose's chair and watched as Nanny helped to place the dazzling shoes onto the ecstatic girl's feet. "They're gorgeous, Nessa," she managed, effectively swallowing her disappointment. This strange resentment was confusing... but it lingered in the back of her mind, festering in a slightly bitter feeling as she glanced down at her own feet.
'I don't need these. I don't need anything like this,' she told herself again and again.
She observed as Frex kissed the top of Nessarose's head. Tenderly and loving, and so unlike the curt nod he offered her instead. "Look after her," he'd said. Elphaba could only nod and watch the distant Father turn to leave, eventually melting away into a swarm of people.
Elphaba took a deep breath, and glanced up to the grand front doors of Crage Hall's main building. A huge sign hung above the doorway, glittering and shimmering in the midst of it's intimidating surroundings. As she looked up, a hand placed gingerly on Nessa's shoulder, she suddenly felt the weight of the responsibilities Frex had left her with. The pressure of fitting into this new world; not that she could or would, society be damned. But he didn't care, did he? Nessarose was his priority, and Elphaba was left to fend for herself.
"Come on Elphaba, we're going to be late."
She nodded, lips finally curling slightly into a small smile, and the sisters began the trek through the doors into the grand hall.
It was about time for a change.