Chapter Three. Hurrah. I like this chapter personally. I like sticking in cameos from the musical, just realized, although this is bookverse. Anyways, here we go again. Thank you to my beta, Kennedy Leigh Morgan, and reviewers.
Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Oz, nor the characters of Glinda, Elphaba, and Liir. I only own my OCs. I don't even own the hat. Hope that you enjoy the fanfic!
Arynna Zien was extremely bored. She had taken this job as a way to earn money to go to Shiz University, since her scholarship didn't cover the entire tuition and most girls from little Gillikinese villages didn't have rich families. Lady Glinda Chuffrey was the one exception. But was it to much to expect something interesting to happen? Dena had been working down at some fancy dress shop and she said that there was a catfight over some pink taffeta gown. Two débutantes who were, as Dena said, very overeager.
But no. Arynna was stuck stocking shelves and bagging things for the inhabitants of her home village. It paid fairly well, she would probably be able to go to college next year if she didn't get fired or her place of employment didn't burn down (although that would be exciting, although unfortunate for her schooling prospects). But really, was it to much to ask for something scandalacious to happen? She wouldn't be at all adverse to a handsome male rogue coming in and sweeping her off her feet and then repenting his evil ways out of love for her.
Like that would ever happen. Her head jerked up from the copy of Ozmopolitan that she was reading.
"Hello?" Arynna said, remembering her employer telling her to always greet customers nicely. "Um. How will I help you?"
The figure in the doorway, keeping one hand supporting the toddler in her arms, closed the door and stepped into a better light. "Technically it is how may I help you, since I have given no notion that I wanted your help. But thank you, I suppose."
Arynna didn't respond, for she was too busy staring at the strange woman. The strange green woman. "Ur..."
"Do you work here?" the woman asked. "I need to buy food, although that should be obvious." She set down the boy, who whimpered slightly.
"No," she told him. "I carried you all the way here and you're heavy." She got up. "So. Miss...?"
"Zien, Arynna Zien," Arynna told the the woman. "Are you really- really truly-actually"
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Green? Yes, I am really really truly actually green. Where is your oatmeal?" She rolled her eyes.
Arynna pointed towards a shelf near a back window. "Over there, um, Ms...?" As Elphaba had done before, she too trailed off for the other girl's name.
"Annaele, Annaele Tllie. Thank you." Elphaba grasped Liir's hand and went in the direction of Arynna's pointing finger. She found the oatmeal, got noodles and some oranges. Milk, too, hopefully she could use it before it went bad She walked back over, grabbing a few other sundry items and then paid. As she left, Arynna Zien stared.
A green woman might bring some sort of drama. Maybe it was a good thing she was here and not at the dress shop like she had longed to be minutes before.
Elphaba walked out, annoyed at the girl who was minding the shop. She was gawking at her like she was an exhibit in a zoo, like she was an interesting plaything for the girl's amusement. She held Liir's hand in her right and the bag of groceries in her left.
They got back and Elphaba was tired. Liir wasn't, not as much as she was. He had had a nap and he hadn't been working all day. When she lay down on her bed Liir lay down next to her and with his little arms tried to hug her.
She turned away from him and felt horrible for doing so.
Two days later, as Elphaba was pounding bread dough with a fist instead of kneading it, Linnet came up to her and waved a pink envelope in her face.
"Remember that cake that you're working on, on and off?" Elphaba nodded. "Yes, it's over there."
"Good," the other woman said. "Well, the party after the meeting is tomorrow and you are invited- not to the meeting, of course! I think that I told you this, you know. Do you have something to wear?"
Elphie shook her head. "I really would prefer not to go."
"Well, you are," Linnet said. "I want you to, and you'll need to field questions from all the society ladies about what's in the cake. I will be busy trying to make connections and possibly more orders."
"No," Elphaba said simply. "I have nothing to wear besides black clothing, half of it mauntish, and I doubt all the society ladies would want to see that sort of thing in their fancy midst. Not frilly enough. I'm not frilly enough."
That was true. Elphaba was made up of harsh angles and bony limbs. She was sharp and pointed, in both her looks and her manner.
"Well, we'll go out shopping in a little bit." Linnet said. "I know a place with reasonable prices, so I think you can afford to get something. I'm sure that out there is a dress that will look good on you. But first you need to finish the icing, right? And then there's some pastries to make for it too."
Elphaba smiled and picked up the frosting tube. "No," she said. "I don't need a dress." She paused for a few moments, dragging out the suspense. "All I need is a hat."
"A hat?" asked Linnet, confused.
"A hat," Elphaba confirmed, and nodded. Liir nodded along with her. "A hat." Then she looked up.
"At this party- what am I going to do about Liir?" she gestured down at the boy.
"Oh," Linnet said. "Well, I suppose that he could come along." At that, Elphaba raised her eyebrows. "He's two. I don't want him at parties or anything of the sort."
"Then I'll see if a neighbor can take him."
Elphaba, out of excuses, sighed and nodded.
They went to the dress store, her and Liir. Elphaba had told Linnet that she was perfectly capable of picking out a hat by herself, and went an hour after their conversation, during her lunch time. She walked down a path again, how many paths were in the village anyway? There was a milliner somewhere. She found the shop and walked in.
The milliner, a round woman around fifty came out from behind the counter.
"Anything you need, poppet?" she asked over her rather garish pink bejeweled spectacles. Elphaba nodded.
"A hat." she said. "Something that's fancy and matches a black dress and blue scarf."
A blue Vinkusian scarf Fiyero had bought her, blue with a winding black patterned vine on it,
"And a veil or some netting of some sort attached." Elphaba added on hastily.
"I can see why," the woman remarked. Ephaba ignored the remark at her skin. "And I have just the thing," said the shopkeeper. "Well, depending on the looks of your dress of course."
"High necked, full sleeves, brocade fabric for the bodice, some lace mostly toward the waistline and on the skirt," Elphaba rattled off. "I got it at a place called Arly's Dresses in the Emerald City, if that helps at all."
"Not really," said the woman. "But I think that this hat will work out fine for you, my poppet."
She bustled around behind the counter and eventually came up with a tall pointed hat. The brim was bereft of anything but a small black bow, and there was layers of fine netting hanging off the brim of the hat. Elphaba tried it on and had a strange want to cackle.
"Well, it looks fine on you dear, so shall I ring it up?" the woman asked, noticing her nod. Elphaba grinned sharply.
"Yes, do that please."
After she paid for the hat, she grabbed the bag and walked out with Liir. "Well, goodbye then dearie," said the milliner in a disapproving way. Honestly, people these days.
Elphaba was back at Linnet's Bakery within ten minutes of quick walking and nagging Liir to keep up. "May I see what you bought?" Linnet asked. Elphaba took the hat out of the bag and then the box without any flourish whatsoever.
"Here it is," she said, holding it up by the tip. "I quite like it, even if you don't." Linnet did have an odd look on her face.
"It's, it's interesting," the other woman managed. It was interesting. The hat wasn't pretty, but definitely unique. Elphaba sighed and rolled her eyes. She rearranged her hands so that they were both holding onto the brim and placed the hat on her head. Linnet had to admit that when it was on her, it looked much better. Elphaba pulled down the netting, and Linnet had to rephrase her previous statement. It looked quite elegant on her at least. It suited the girl's overall pointiness.
"It'll do," she said. "Of course, what I am wearing is a bit more traditional." She went out to her house for a while to get her hat to show it off to her employee. Elphaba picked up the frosting tube and began to make the little rosettes, hoping that she wouldn't screw up. Liir, as always, was playing with his blocks.
About a half hour later Linnet came back in, clutching a yellow thing.
"What is that?" Elphaba asked disgustedly. Linnet raised her eyebrows.
"My hat, Miss Tllie."
"Of course," Elphaba said. "What does it look like on?" She dearly hoped that she wouldn't laugh as Linnet placed the hat on her head. It was a sight, that hat, yellow with all three of the things Elphaba thought were a crime to have on hats- fake cherries, fake flowers, and a little fake bird.
"It's very- very Gillikinese," she managed to say.
"I know," Linnet said. "It was a present, a thank you gift, from a lady who's wedding I catered. The very height of style, I must tell you, the height of it."
Now Elphaba arched her brows. "Of course, even I can see that." see that hideous monstrosity, she said to herself and almost laughed. Shaking her head, she finished the last of the pink iced roses on the bottom tier and moved on to the middle. Linnet got a spoon and yellow icing and started covering the bare cake on the top. They worked like this until the cake was finished and it was time to clean up.
"You can go," Elphaba said. "I think I can get it all by myself." Linnet shrugged, nodded, and smiled.
"Alright, Annaele" she said, leaving out the front door. On her way out Elphaba saw her flip the open sign over so it read closed. She began cleaning up, dusting flour off counters and cleaning dishes. Linnet had a pair of glove like things to wear so the hot water wouldn't burn, thank god. Although in her case it wasn't just the hot water, all water burned.
She wondered half amusedly if too much water would make her melt.
An hour later the bakery was clean enough for the next day, and Elphaba and Liir could go upstairs to their little home. Almost like the corn exchange, she thought, and then winced and picked up Liir, who needed a bath. She had nicked the gloves for washing dishes from downstairs, made of that weird water resistant stuff, so she could bathe him. "Thank Oz that you don't splash," she muttered to him. He squirmed. "And yes, you are taking a bath."
Liir shook his head. Elphaba sighed and quirked her lips. "I don't care whether you want it or not, you need it and heaven help you if you splash me this time."
She plunked him down in the smallish tub that took forever to fill, cursing the quality of running water that she got, although at least she got some and this time it was hot. Elphie put on the gloves and soaped up Liir, warning not to splash again.
After she had toweled Liir off, she pulled out her dress from her second bag. Elphaba tried it on, and put the hat on. She found the scarf in the bottom of the bag, wadded up. Smoothing it out, she tied it around her waist and gasped slightly. It was a different scarf but he had still bought it for her... and besides, it was also her only scarf that was blue. She liked the blue color, and Elphaba wanted to add some color to her outfit. Black did get slightly tedious, but at least it didn't clash with her skin like most other colors. And since the green hue of her skin would be hidden, the blue scarf would most likely look fine.
She untied the scarf and threaded it through her arms, their thinness hidden by the heavy sleeves, then dropped it. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and couldn't resist a snort, without the netting hanging down from the pointed hat she looked like a Wicked Witch.
She pulled the netting down over her face and was finally satisfied with her appearance except for her hair. The bun she kept it in while working looked bad, but she didn't just want to let it hang loose over her shoulders. Glinda had told her once it looked good like that but she had never taken the blonde girl's advice. It was in her face then, annoying and blocking her peripheral vision half the time. But Elphaba realized that with her hair down like that there was even less of a chance of someone- her former roommate in particular- recognizing her. With the high necked black dress, the veiled hat, and her hair she would be mostly covered, her skin in particular would be mostly covered.
She looked at her self in the mirror again with pursed lips. In all her dark finery she realized she could stick out like a sore thumb among the Gillikinese society ladies, them in pink and blue and light, light green. She had seen Linnet's monstrosity of a hat. She would assume that the wealthier that you got, the more hideous your clothing was too.
With some trepidation on her part she picked up the scarf from where it had been flung across the bed a few moments before and tied it around her waist again. Threading it through her arms, while a lovely effect, was a pain. And she did want to add some color.
"Ah well," Elphaba said aloud. "At least the scarf isn't green."
Bit abrupt, but it leads into the next chapter. Hope that you all liked. Read, review?
