(AN: Long time no update. Well, my computer overheated and crashed, and I lost the better part of my work on this, so I'll try to fix what I can. Hopefully nothing too important has been lost)

Starting Out

Fiyero didn't often come to the library.

Those with scandalacious reputations to uphold didn't socialize with library-types.

Fiyero couldn't remember having ever stepped through the doors of a library in the past schools he had been to. No, he was thrown out of those schools for different reasons, that had nothing to do with the library.

But, to his genuine surprise, he found himself in the library.

Because it was one of the few co-ed places where he knew he could find her.

"Don't you ever stop studying?" he asked the woman with the dark blue skirt, white uniform blouse and her face hidden beneath a large book whose title was 'Animals in Oz: A History of the Sentient.'

The book was lowered just a little by its occupant, who stifled a gasp of surprise.

Though the way those brown eyes seemed to bulge, he knew he had surprised her.

"Shh!" she hushed him. "This is a library."

"Yeah, it's the first time I've ever been in one." he answered, in his voice-normal level.

"Well isn't that something?" she returned, raising the book over her face. "Now if you excuse me, some of us have studying to do."

"And some of us don't." he replied quickly, lowering the book so he could see the green face beneath.

"Be quiet!" Elphaba hissed. "You're not supposed to talk loudly in a library."

"Well can you blame me?" Fiyero replied, chuckling a little. "It's my first time here. You shouldn't expect me to know all the library rules inside and out."

"Everyone knows there's no talking in the library," she whispered.

"Well, then, can we go some place where talking is allowed?" Fiyero asked, taking the book from her hands and returning it to the shelf.

Not where it was supposed to be.

Elphaba sighed in frustration, picking up her book-bag and leaving the library.

Fiyero was hot on her trail.

"Hey, I'm sorry!" he commented, once they were both outside the doors of the library. "I didn't mean to..."

"Go away, Prince Tiggular!" she snapped back at him. "Some of us have studying to do!"

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"The only place I can get some peace and quiet: Suicide Canal!" she shot back.

"But, wait!" he reached out and grabbed her hand. "I want to talk to you."

"What about?" she returned, coming to a halt as she felt his hand on hers.

For the second time in Fiyero's life, he found himself at a complete loss for words.

He was just trapped in the gaze of those brown eyes.

"Well, out with it!" she ordered, snapping him back into reality.

"I, uh..." he finally got out. "You know, I haven't really gotten a chance to see that record player Galinda bought."

"You can't," Elphaba returned. "Boys aren't allowed in Crage Hall."

"Since when has Fiyero Tiggular ever followed the rules?" he replied, his self-confident smirk creeping across his face.

Elphaba shook her head.

"Please, it won't be for long," Fiyero begged. He put on his best, cutest face: the kind that all the other girls would melt before and give in to whatever he asked of them.

Elphaba wasn't most other girls.

The green girl cast her eyes to the floor, so she wouldn't have to see his face, ridiculously close to her own.

For all of his pompous, rule-breaking behavior and his false bravado.

Elphaba had to admit, Fiyero looked good.

An overwhelming desire overcame her to reach out and touch his face.

Like she had that day with the Lion-cub.

Then it returned to her.

Fiyero was the cutest guy at Ozma Towers, who happened to have her room-mate as his girlfriend.

Galinda Upland, the hottest girl in Crage Hall.

They deserved each other.

"I'll see what I can do." she said at last, keeping her eyes away from Fiyero's face.

"Yes!" Fiyero exclaimed, punching the air with his fist in triumph.

"But don't expect this to be an every-day affair." she said as she walked on her way.

Fiyero wasn't listening.

He was too busy watching the green girl walk away.

And hitting himself over the head...

Mentally, that is.

By Oz, he thought, I can't get her out of my head, but I fall all over myself every time we're alone together.

There I go again!

It all came back to him, everything she had said.

It was true, after all.

His smile dissolved into a gloomy, morose pursing of the lips.

He couldn't wait to be in Crage Hall later today.

Elphaba was pounding heavily upon the oaken door that led to her room.

Well, the suite that she shared with Galinda.

"Open this door, Galinda!" she called out.

The heavy booming of a bass instrument drowned out her voice, making it seem small even in her own ears.

"I'm warning you, open up or I'll blow this door down myself!" she threatened.

The music from the other side even muffled the gasps and titters from Shenshen and Pfannee, who passed the green girl in the hallway behind her.

"I'm not joking!" Elphaba threatened, her finger pointed towards the sealed door. "Open this door right now or your Horse-mane hairbrush is history!"

The lowering of the volume of the music from behind the door meant only one thing.

Galinda heard that.

"How dare you..." she gasped, as she opened the door.

But Elphaba barged past her flabbergasted room-mate and plopped down unceremoniously upon the bed on her side of the room.

"Didn't Madam Morrible tell you to keep the music down?" Elphaba asked.

"Oh, fishy-face needs to lighten up a bit!" Galinda commented as she bounced back over to the record player. "Hey! I thought you were off studying or something at the library."

"I was," Elphaba returned. "Until Fiyero showed up. He wanted to..."

But before she could let anything out, Galinda turned the music back on and Elphaba's ears were assaulted by a provocative dance-tune from Lancely the Warbler.

"Would you turn that down?" she yelled.

"Why?" Galinda asked, bouncing up and down to the music, and flailing her arms about as if she were playing on an invisible drumkit.

Actually, Elphaba was impressed at how Galinda's "drumming" was in precise time to the beat of the song.

But it was still hideously loud.

She walked over and turned the music down.

"I looked up some of the bands you like," she commented, placing herself back on her bed.

"So?" Galinda queried.

"So," Elphaba began. "That Fay-Gish person thinks he's the best thing to happen to Oz since the Wizard, half of Oz thinks GooGoo Mother is a man, and have you even heard what they say about Lancely?"

"I don't listen to criticism!" Galinda returned. "Lancely is amazing! She's the best thing out of Quadling since the rubies!"

"I heard she wears copious amounts of make-up," Elphaba commented. "To hide the fact that she's red-skinned like every other Quadling."

"Of course she does," Galinda returned. "So what?"

"So?" a vein in Elphaba's throat twitched. "People shouldn't be ashamed of the color of their skin!"

Then a twinge of regret came back into her mind, as she recalled that she herself was ashamed of her own skin color...

So much that she had wished that the Wizard would degreenify her, once she had gained fame as his Grand Vizier.

I guess we teach best what we need to learn for ourselves the most, Elphaba thought.

"Well I don't care!" Galinda returned. "Lancely's music is good and she's got enough money and popularity to do whatever she wants to, so Leave Lancely Alone!"

Galinda's "outburst" was not all that motivated by anger, more of her usual silly behavior.

Elphaba sighed, rolling her eyes as she attempted to return to her book.

Just then, a tapping noise was heard at the window.

Galinda bounced over to the window and opened it up, then letting out a loud squeal.

"Elphie, look!" she commented, waving her green room-mate over to the window. "Fifi's outside!"

Sure enough, the brash Winkie prince was standing in the lawn before Crage Hall, a stone in his hand.

"He's insane," Elphaba commented. "He's going to get himself killed if he tries climbing up here."

After a running start, Fiyero climbed a tree and then lept onto the side of the building, making his way up the wall. Elphaba turned away, as Galinda let out her usual "oohs", "ahhs" at Fiyero's bravery, throwing her hands over her gasping mouth as he did something particularly daring.

Once he was up on their level, Galinda gave Fiyero a hand and helped him into their room.

"Are you brainless?" Elphaba asked.

"Completely." he returned.

"What if Madam Morrible catches you up here?" she hissed.

"I'll take all the responsibility," Fiyero responded. "She won't even know you helped me."

"You?" Galinda turned to Elphaba. "You knew he was coming up here?"

"No." Elphaba lied.

"Fibber!" she slapped Elphaba's shoulder. "You should have told me he was coming here."

"I wanted it to be a surprise," Fiyero stated.

This sent Galinda into a fit of giggles.

"So," the Winkie prince said as he looked about. "It's easy to see which of you has which side of the room."

"You think?" Elphaba replied dryly.

Fiyero walked over to the record player and listened intently as Galinda explained how it was operated.

This has got to be a landmark day in Ozian history, Elphaba mused.

Galinda actually teaching someone how to do something.

Fiyero put one of his Falling Rocks records onto the player and began air-guitaring to the riffs of the song and playing to the solo.

"Wow," Elphaba commented. "Somebody's enjoying themselves."

"Huh, me?" Fiyero returned. "Oh, I've always wanted to be in a rock band, but never really got around to learning how to play the guitar. I wonder why."

"Maybe a little discipline you lack." the green girl returned.

"Discipline, my least favorite word." he commented. Galinda laughed at his wit.

"Well, maybe if you ever get 'around to it'," Elphaba said, making "quotation marks" in the air with her fingers. "You and Galinda can start your own band. She looks like a drummer."

"Well, surprise surprise!" commented Fiyero.

"Aw," Galinda blushed, hiding her face in a mess of criss-crossed fingers. "It's nothing."

"You should have seen her play along to Lancely." Elphaba commented, waving her hands about in imitation of Galinda's air-drumming.

"Really?" Fiyero remarked, his tell-tale grin creeping across his face.

"Well, Momsy and Popsicle always said I had tons of energy," she returned.

"Gee, I wonder why." Elphaba commented.

"But Fifi doesn't like my kind of music," Galinda faux-pouted, turning to Fiyero. "Do you, darling?"

"Not really." he said. "I mean, it's not really that special, just the same four beats over the same chords over and over."

"But it's danceable!" Galinda retorted, bouncing about and waving her arms about wildly.

Elphaba turned aside, trying not to look at the ridiculous sight that was her room-mate.

"Hey," Fiyero suddenly said, a look of surprise on his face. "Hey, I just had the best thought ever!"

Galinda came to a screeching halt.

"What did you just say?" she asked breathlessly.

"I have the best idea ever!" he returned.

"You mean you're thinking?" Galinda's mouth was gaping open widely.

"This is new." Elphaba dryly stated.

"No, listen to this," Fiyero continued, not taking into account their shocked looks. "What if we started a band of our own? Huh?"

Galinda's mouth was still agape at the thought of Fiyero thinking.

Elphaba shook her head.

"Come on!" he argued. "We could pull it off. I might not be a guitarist, but I can play bass like none other. I mean it! There isn't another bassist better than me in all of Oz or I'm a scarecrow!"

"I don't like your rock music." Elphaba returned.

"Who says we have to play rock?" Fiyero replied. "I heard some of that Never Silent stuff once. It's actually rather good. We could do something like that, something that has meaning! Huh? Show the people of Oz what music is really about: the emotion, the message, the power!"

"But none of you can sing." Elphaba stated.

"Elphie can!" Galinda said, pointing to her room-mate.

"No I can't," the green girl returned.

"You are such a big fibber, Elphie!" Galinda returned, playfully giving her room-mate a push into her 'drab' bed. "I'm your roomie! I've heard you sing in between crying every night or so."

"Galinda!" Elphaba cried, in shock.

"You cry in your sleep?" Fiyero asked.

"No!"

"Sometimes," Galinda returned. "But she's sometimes just singing to herself. I've been woken up from sleepy-sleep by her voice: it's amazing!" She gasped in awe at Elphaba's voice.

The green girl hid her face in her hands. It was turning an embarrassed shade of violet.

"Come on, you can't be that bad." Fiyero stated.

"But we can't do this," Elphaba returned, her natural color flushing back into her face.

"Why not?" Galinda pouted.

"Well, for one, we'll need a guitar. None of us know how to play guitar!"

"Don't worry, I'll handle it." Fiyero returned, holding up his hands. "I know someone who can play."

"But where will we play?" Elphaba asked. "We can't be smuggling you into Crage Hall every night for practice, and none of us want to be around those rowdy, drunken boys at Ozma Towers."

Silence filled the room, as they were all lost before Elphaba's statement.

"We'll find some place," Fiyero answered. "Surely there's got to be some empty class-room or building for rent in-town we can use to practice in." He turned to Elphaba, arms open. "But we still need a singer. What do you say?"

For as long as she could remember, Elphaba would never know why she did what she did next.

She jumped off her bed and threw herself into Fiyero's open arms.

Fiyero took a step back, his eyes open in shock.

Galinda, thinking it was a group hug, threw herself onto Fiyero's back.

"I guess that means yes." Fiyero stated.

(Horay! The action has begun! Yes, that's very quick for one of my stories. Usually my epic tales take forever before the story gets going. But this is an experiment in new territory.)

(And I don't own Chris Crocker, nor do I want him to sue me for using his phrase. It was just for lols, no infringement intended!)

(Everything still in character? Any questions for what will happen next? Ideas? Comments? You know where to leave them. Stick around for more updates on this and other stories.)