Chapter 5.
"It's unbecoming," she agreed. "A perfect word for my new life. Unbecoming. I who have always been unbecoming am becoming an un." – Gregory Maguire, "Wicked"
"What an insufferable morning," Elphaba muttered to herself through grit teeth. She picked at an apple, nibbling at it with precision as she propped a book open with one hand. Nimble fingers flicked away tiny shreds of the fruit's skin, and Elphaba didn't much care if they found themselves in the fluffy pink circus tent that was her dear roommate's bed.
The dorm room was vacant save for the green girl herself, and she was glad of it. The hour of peace and quiet that breakfast afforded was a godsend. Galinda was not a morning person, and frequently complained about how unfair it was for her to be up so early to primp and preen before the day's classes began. It made the Thropp's head throb with each syllable. Luckily the young Arduenna was prone to meeting with her squealing friends over croissants and tea during the week, and so Elphaba would sit, reading, jammed into the corner of her bed, having already made herself ready hours before the blonde beast rose. The unlikely roommates were not always at one another's throats; though Elphaba rather enjoyed prodding at Galinda to the point of exhaustion, if only to provoke some thought from the blonde's glitter filled brain. It was in there, all right, buried under blonde curls and hair products galore. Bickering came naturally, and besides, Elphaba had honed the ability to tune out Galinda's incessant giggling whenever it grew to be too much.
Sleep did not always come easily to Elphaba. She seldom fell asleep while her roommate was still up and about at her dresser, and almost always awoke some time before her. She did not know why her internal clock kept her at this pace, but it did, and so she flicked over another page with her finger all the same. It didn't particularly matter to her; she'd never needed that much rest, and all her mind craved in the late hours was knowledge – the words on the page, the pathetic escape they brought.
Elphaba's mind drifted to Nessarose. After the scene she'd caused at the room assignment meeting two weeks prior, she was sure her perfectly dignified little sister was still thoroughly mortified at her outburst, even now. Another student had made to help her on her way, already pushing Elphaba aside and out of her sisterly duties like she was nothing. Rendering her a failure. But she had seen Nessa's face, and Nessa had heard Madame Morrible's claim. That she would write to the Wizard regarding Elphaba's strange knack for magic. The Wonderful Wizard himself!
And Nessa had looked happy for her in those few seconds. She'd looked proud, even, and that was enough.
A thought flickered through her mind in sparkling silver, just like those shoes... she could picture them now, tucked up inside their little case beside Nessa's bed as she slept, radiating with all the hope and love she craved yet was so far from...
She pondered writing to Frex, to tell him how things were settling, tell him how Nessarose was doing, but thought better of it. Surely she had more important things on which to spend her time. The time, the time—"Oh, for Oz's sake!" The green girl leapt up at the realisation of the time. Doctor Dillamond's lecture was due to start in fifteen minutes, and she'd be damned if she missed a second of the old Goat's time. Galinda and the Misses Shenshen, Pfannee and Milla were generally fashionably late, according to the blonde, and Elphaba reminded her she had no use for lateness or any ridiculous fashion and so she would be on time. She cursed her thoughts, cursed herself, though she felt cursed already. Elphaba swept out of the room, slinging her book bag over her shoulder with efficiency and slammed the door shut, leaving room 22 in relative silence.
Elphaba sighed, flipping her notebook open to the correct page and twiddling her quill between her fingers. She took a quick look about the room, a silent glance down her nose and over the edge of her glasses. The jeers had more or less dwindled into the odd pointed finger by now, as the unruliest of students had gotten bored of poking fun at her serpentesque skin colouring. But they were rowdy as always, chattering and sitting on tables until the Goat teacher scuffed his hoof on the ground in an attempt to gain some control. "Settle down, class. Settle down. We are about to begin."
The green girl snapped to attention immediately, gladly letting the noise from the class fade away into the background. She'd hardly known Doctor Dillamond for more than a fortnight, but already she felt a strange connection with the old Goat. As he was an Animal in a position of authority, the only one perhaps, Elphaba found that she had built up a strong admiration for him and his teaching and looked forward to attending his classes more than anything. And he didn't seem to mind her, which suited her perfectly.
Doctor Dillamond began his lecture, thwacking the blackboard with a wooden cane now and again to emphasise his speech, and as Elphaba suspected, to surprise the other students out of their mindless daydreaming. It was then that the green girl noticed an empty seat to the side of the room, directly behind the space her sister took with her wheelchair. Oh, Nessa.
Elphaba felt a pang of guilt strike her at the sight of Nessarose. The thought of her having to share quarters with Horrible Morrible, of all people, when Elphaba had been instructed by their father...! But Nessa appeared to be well – happy, even; her cheeks slightly rosy and her chin resting on her hands, and her dark eyes on the Munchkin in front of her. Was Nessa's happiness not good for her, too? Elphaba observed from behind her textbook, intrigued by the sparkle in her eyes, and in the end concluded that Nessarose's not so subtle want for the boy's attention was nothing to do with her.
A sudden slam of the classroom door interrupted her thoughts, and she breathed a heavy sigh through her nose at the voice that followed.
Galinda strutted into the room, all flirt and flounce as per usual, and quickly took her seat. "Do go on, Professor. I'm sorry I'm so late, of course, but shouldn't you teach us history, rather than harping on the past?" She giggled and flicked a golden curl over her shoulder, oozing sickly charm and innocence. Shenshen and Pfanee laughed, making a spectacle of themselves, but Galinda's statement only made Elphaba roll her eyes in the blonde's direction. Her sneer did not go unnoticed.
"It seems the sprout is steamed," Galinda chirped, eliciting laughter from all sides of the classroom. Elphaba's head whipped around, her eyes boring into the blonde's skull with such intensity she thought she would burst a blood vessel, and preferably not her own. Her chair scraped across the floor as she made to stand, her hands balled into tight, bony fists, but Doctor Dillamond intervened before she could. "Silence, silence! We are here to learn, and nothing more. Miss Elphaba, please kindly take your seat." His voice was gentle as he addressed her, and he looked at Elphaba with a soft stare. She nodded, uttering a quiet "Yes" and quickly regained her composure, choosing to ignore her roommate for the duration of the class, no matter how satisfying it would be to shoot down her ignorant remarks.
Elphaba's attention returned to Nessarose. Their eyes met for a moment, and the older sister's sharp jaw tightened at the disappointment she found written all over the younger's face.
"Miss Elphaba, I'd like to speak with you for a moment, if you don't mind? You can return to your friends soon enough."
The students had scattered and vacated as soon as the Goat professor had dismissed the class, leaving only he and Elphaba behind. The green girl took her time sliding her books into her bag and papers back into their coverings, and had no desire to rush off to the outside world. No desire to be heckled, and therefore forced to sit in the small room she shared with Miss Popularity herself.
"Of course." Elphaba perched rigidly on the very edge of Dillamond's desk, book bag clasped tightly under one arm. "And that's quite alright. I have no friends. Merely acquaintances."
"Yes, well..." The old Goat padded across to his blackboard, smearing the day's chalked notes off with his sleeve. His brow crinkled into a strange frown – an expression Elphaba had never seen on his face before. "Elphaba. I'm sure you've noticed the distinct absence of Animals here at Shiz."
The young Thropp prompted him to continue with a curt nod, a slight tilt of the head. It was true – she had noticed this the very moment she had arrived at Shiz, with Nessarose in tow. She had seen Doctor Dillamond mingling with the staff, the students... he stood out against the drab backdrop of Gillikinese, Munchkinlanders and City dwellers. It had unsettled her even then, and perhaps he sympathised with her, too, in all her green glory. She stared at him with those piercing yet entirely vulnerable eyes.
"There is something bad happening here, I am sure of it. Something awful happening to the Animals of Oz. A cull, as it were. My dear Elphaba, there are Animals who are losing the ability to teach, to live, to speak. It seems I am the only one left in a position of power here at this University, and that is where I must ask you a favour."
Elphaba grit her teeth. A vein throbbed in the side of her forehead. "How can this be happening? How can people be so ignorant- so blind that this can happen?" She felt sick to her stomach at the thought that something could actively eliminate the oppressed so easily, and yet no one cared enough to investigate the matter further. The discrimination toward the intelligent, speaking and thinking Animals of the land was nauseating. The green girl empathised with them on many a level, she found. They did not live with the intention of only pleasing others, they existed for the sake of living a decent life that was denied by their appearance alone. They were treated as sub-par, as not quite good enough, and she certainly knew how that felt. Elphaba unclenched her jaw, removed her biting fingernails from tearing the edge of her book bag when Doctor Dillamond's voice pulled her from her musings.
"If you discourage someone enough from speaking out, you can keep anyone silent." He muttered, lowering his head. "But all the same, I'd like to know if you'd be interested in helping me with my research at the old lab by the Crage Hall library. Odd weeknights, if you feel up to it."
Elphaba felt her entire being expel the weight of everything with those words. It gave her some purpose, she realised. A greater cause than she could yet imagine. "I would be honoured, Doctor Dillamond."