AN: Yep, Avaric should die. Yep, Nessarose is pretty horrible. Yep, Fiyeraba is cute. Yep, I love Galinda saying 'deadified', too.

18lzytwner: Because university means Morrible, and I wouldn't want to tell Her Fishness, either? :P No, they could do that, but somehow I feel like they wouldn't - because Elphie just wants to let it go and the others are too angry to think about this properly. Something like that.

Moreanswers24: I agree with your idea completely, bring it on! :D Also, interesting theory about Aliyra...

PocketSevens: Thank you so much! I was worried alright, so I'm really happy I made it!

No Fiyeraba yet. Patience, my friends, patience...

Chapter 9. Payback and bets

When Elphaba turned up in class a few days later, only to find Galinda sitting with Milla, Pfannee, and Shenshen, she was slightly wary; and when she realised that the four girls were all giggling and whispering together, she became downright suspicious.

"What are they up to?" she asked Boq and Nessarose when she sat down in her usual spot.

Boq shook his head and Nessa shrugged.

"I have no idea," she said, "but I doubt it's anything good."

"Well, it's Galinda," Boq reminded her. "I don't trust those other girls any farther than I can throw them, but Galinda would never betray us or pull a prank on us, would she?"

"Probably not," Nessarose agreed, "but I still think it's strange."

"It is." Elphaba stared at her blonde roommate, wondering what was going on. "She has barely even looked at her former posse anymore since she befriended us."

Boq shrugged. "Maybe she missed them," he said. "She's been spending more time with them for the past couple of days already."

"Yeah, maybe," Elphaba said slowly, but she didn't really believe that. She kept on watching the four girls until the professor came in and cleared his throat to demand the class's attention.

She wasn't even sure why it worried her so much, but she couldn't help but think about it all the time. What if Galinda had decided she liked those popular society girls better than her green roommate after all? Honestly, she couldn't really blame the blonde – Elphaba was, after all, hardly someone a girl like Galinda would deem appropriate to socialise with. Maybe Galinda had finally come to her senses and seen Elphaba for what she really was, the dark-haired girl couldn't help but think wryly.

When class was over and Elphaba walked Nessarose to her next lecture, Galinda caught up with them and linked her arm with her roommate's.

"Good news," she said, beaming at the Thropp sisters. "Elphaba has been avengerated!"

Nessarose frowned uncertainly, and Elphaba translated, "Avenged."

"Ah." Nessa nodded, but then frowned again. "Wait. What?"

"Yes, exactly," Elphaba said, looking at her friend. "What?"

Galinda grinned widely at them both. "I told you, Elphie," she gushed, "I told you that we would get back at Avaric for you, and we did! Oz, you're not going to believe what Shenshen did!" She burst out in a fit of giggles. "You're going to love this!"

Nessarose looked disapproving. "You did not pull a prank on him, did you?"

"Maybe." Galinda shrugged. "He deserved it, Nessa. He tried to drown your sister!"

Elphaba cast her eyes heavenward. "For the last time," she said in exasperation, "he did not try to –"

"Oh, sweet Oz!" Nessa suddenly exclaimed, and Elphaba fell silent immediately.

Galinda followed the younger girl's gaze and burst out in a fresh wave of giggles. "Oh my Oz!" she cried, nearly tearing up with laughter. "This is even better than I had imagined it to be!"

Elphaba could only stare at Avaric wide-eyed, not believing what she was seeing.

When he caught sight of her, he stalked over to where she was standing, his face murderous. Every student on campus stopped to gape at him, whispering or pointing, and most of them were laughing, too.

He stopped in front of Elphaba, who held up both hands and, trying her hardest not to laugh, said, "I swear to Oz it wasn't me."

"It wasn't," Galinda agreed cheerfully. "But I'm not going to tell you who it was, Avvy."

He glared at the blonde. "You think this is very funny, don't you?" he growled.

"No," Galinda said cheerfully. "Not very funny." She burst out in a fresh wave of giggles.

"Who did this?" Avaric demanded.

Galinda shook her head. "I'm not telling you," she said brightly. "Let's just say that you have made a lot of enemies here, Avaric. Well, okay, not enemies," she conceded, "but people that would do something like this," she nodded at him, "to get back at you." She smirked. "Maybe this will teach you a lesson about how to treat people. See, it's not nice to call them names," she started counting on her fingers, "or pull pranks on them, or punch them in the face, or sleep with them and then dump them, or cheat on them, or throw them into an Oz-damned canal…"

"I get it!" he barked at her before stomping off again. Nessarose and Elphaba both gaped after him, mouths slightly open.

Then Nessa let out a giggle.

"I know it's not proper to laugh at people," she said apologetically, trying to hide her smile with her hand, "and I must say that I do not exactly approve of all this, but…" Her smile widened. "This is just… priceless."

Galinda giggled and patted the girl's head. "Exactly. I knew even you would appreciate it." She looked at Elphaba expectantly. "So, what do you think?" she asked excitedly.

Elphaba opened and closed her mouth a few times. "You…" She shook her head. "What did you do?!"

Galinda giggled once more. "I made a potion during Sorcery the other day," she said smugly. "One that causes people's hair to fall out. I gave it to Shenshen, who pretended to let Avaric seduce her so that he took her to his room, and she then dumped it in his shampoo bottle." She smirked. "It was Fiyero's idea, and I executed it with Milla, Shenshen, and Pfannee," she said proudly. "Don't you think it's perfect? I think he looks much better without hair."

Nessa laughed. "He kind of does," she admitted.

Elphaba was frozen in place, both shocked and touched at her friend's admission. She couldn't believe Galinda had done all this, gone through so much trouble… for her. She felt like kicking herself. How could she even have thought for the briefest moment that Galinda didn't want to be her friend anymore? The blonde had just been off doing this – punishing Avaric for what he had done to Elphaba.

"Glin," she said, her voice sounding a little choked. She squeezed her roommate's arm tightly. "You are the best friend ever."

Galinda smiled and threw her arms around her friend in a fierce hug. "Oh, I love you, too, Elphie!" she gushed, planting a kiss on the green girl's cheek. "I'm glad you appreciatify it!"

Elphaba couldn't stop thinking about it all day; and when Fiyero dropped down in his seat next to her during History later that afternoon, she looked at him.

"Is something wrong?" he asked her when she kept on staring at him for a long while.

She shook her head in an attempt to clear it and forced a smile. "Nothing," she said. "Just…" She blushed a little. "Thank you for sticking up for me."

He instantly knew what she meant. "The whole plan to get back at Avaric?" he guessed. He gave her a lopsided grin. "You're welcome, but honestly, I didn't do much. I just came up with the plan. Galinda is the one who actually did everything."

"Still," she said softly. "Not many people stood up for me in my life."

He smiled at her. "It's what friends do."

She returned the smile.

Five years.

Fiyero only realised it when he had already woken up and taken a shower, preparing for the day. He was just searching for his shoes, ready to go out and get himself some breakfast before running off to class, when his eye fell upon the photograph on the mantelpiece again… and then it dawned on him.

It had been five years. Five years ago on this very day. It made him swallow. It seemed so much longer and so much shorter at the same time.

He looked at the picture, stared into her hazel eyes for what seemed like an eternity, but of course it was not the same. It was a beautiful picture, yes; but it was hardly comparable to the real thing. Staring at her eyes on a photo was nothing compared to looking into her actual eyes – something he had loved to do and could now never do again.

He shook his head and told himself to get over it. He had wasted years of his life being an idiot. Now, it was time to start over. He would try his best to drop the act and be himself again, something he had denied himself and the people around him for too long already. And it wasn't until Elphaba had called him out on it that he had realised what exactly he was doing.

Elphaba, he recognised, had been a great influence on him. First he had thought that was because she resembled Aliyra so much. Then he'd thought it to be because she saw through his façade and was able to look at the real Fiyero, the one underneath all the drinking and partying.

And then, that day with the Lion Cub when she had touched his hand, a new thought had crossed his mind. The thought that the reason why she was such a good influence on him was because maybe, just maybe, he may or may not be the slightest, tiniest little bit head-over-heels in love with the green girl.

That, of course, had scared the wits out of him to the point where he had basically ignored Elphaba for nearly a week as he tried to sort out his feelings regarding her, but he hadn't really made any progress.

And then he had rescued her from Suicide Canal. He had carried her back to his dorm room and he had looked at her, watched the flutter of her eyelids and felt her clinging to him as he carried her through the rain, heard the slight catch in her voice when she had apologised to him… and then it had struck him like a bolt of lightning and he didn't know why he had even doubted it for a clock-tick.

He loved Elphaba Thropp.

And he couldn't do anything about it.

For so many reasons, he could not make a move. He'd scare her away, for one. She'd push him away and not want to have anything to do with him ever again, and he didn't want to lose her friendship. She meant too much to him.

Maybe she wouldn't return his feelings. Could he handle that? Could he deal with her rejecting him?

And then, of course, there was Aliyra. Was he ready for this? He wasn't sure. He wasn't even sure he loved Elphaba for the right reasons.

And so he had decided that they should just be friends.

But it was times like these, when he was sitting right next to her and watching her from the corner of his eyes, that he found that to be most difficult.

She was just so pretty. There was nothing about her that he did not find gorgeous, or graceful, or admirable, or interesting. Right now, for example, she was hunched over her Life Sciences book, studying. Most people found her glasses dreary; he thought they made her look even smarter than usual. Galinda always insisted Elphaba wear her hair down, but Fiyero found that there was something good about her wearing it up, as well, because now he had a great view of the elegant curve of her neck as she tilted her head slightly to the side, furrowing her brow as she tried to work out a difficult problem. Her hair was being held up in a bun by a couple of pencils she had stabbed into it and she had a look of utter concentration on her face that Fiyero found kind of adorable.

He was jolted from his thoughts as she poked his hand with a pencil. "Where are you with your head?" she wanted to know.

He gave her a sheepish grin, but did not answer.

She rolled her eyes and pointed at the book in front of him. "There is your Politics book, Fiyero. Can't you at least try to concentrate?"

"I am trying!" he protested. "I'm just… failing." He sighed.

She smiled at him encouragingly, showing a flash of her pearly white teeth. "You shouldn't put yourself down like that, Fiyero." She squeezed his arm. "You can do it, I know you can. You just have to apply yourself."

"I'm trying," he said again, tearing his gaze away from her mouth to look at her – her eyes – unhappily. "It's just so hard."

She gave him a long, appraising look. Then she sat up a little and removed her glasses.

"You know what?" she said. "We still have a few weeks until midterms. I'll help you. How does that sound?"

"Boring," he replied truthfully.

She whacked his arm with her notebook.

"I'm serious, Fiyero," she chided him. "If you don't study, you'll fail. If you fail, you'll get flunked out. Is that what you want?"

He sighed. "Not really," he admitted.

Starting over, he reminded himself. No more partying and hanging around with girls and getting kicked out of universities. You're going to be the real you again and you're going to make everyone proud. Yourself, your parents, and Elphaba.

She was still looking at him expectantly, so he offered her a weak smile. "I think that might be a good idea," he relented. "You helping me, I mean. Thanks for the offer."

She smiled again and patted his head as if he were a puppy. "That's a good Fifi," she teased him. "Alright, then. I'm just going to finish my own work now, but I'll meet you in the library tomorrow after class?"

"Sure," he said, not yet knowing how much hard work the next few weeks would prove to be.

"You're not trying."

"I am trying!" he cried indignantly. "I really am!"

She shook her head. "You're not," she accused him. "I know what it looks like when you're trying, and this is not you trying, Fiyero. This," she tapped his notebook with her pencil, indicating all the useless doodles he had drawn in there during the past minutes, "is you fooling around."

"Fabala, don't be so hard on him," said Nessarose, who was sitting at the table next to Elphaba and Fiyero's with Boq. "You've been pushing him to his very limits for weeks already."

"I wouldn't push him if I didn't think he was capable of doing it," Elphaba insisted. She looked at Fiyero. "I know you can do this, Yero," she said, softening a little. "You're much smarter than you think you are and capable of so much more than you've let on until now."

He shook his head miserably. "I don't think I am," he said, hanging his head a little. "I mean… the highest mark I've ever gotten for anything was a 64. Out of a hundred. What if I'm just too stupid?"

"You're not," she said with absolute certainty. Her dark brown eyes burning with intensity, she looked at him. "I think," she said, "that if you try hard, you could get a score of 90 or higher."

He snorted a laugh. "Yeah, right," he said, amused. "Fae, that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

"Let's make it a bet," she suggested.

He thought about that for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay," he said. "If I score 90 or higher on even oneof my midterms, you win."

She raised one eyebrow. "And then what?"

He winked at her. "That's up to you to decide."

She rolled her eyes. "And if youwin?" she asked him.

In a heartbeat, he made a decision.

"I'm going to take you out for dinner after Lurlinemas break," he informed her, "to thank you for your help."

She rolled her eyes again, but she was blushing slightly. "Yero…"

He held up one hand. "That's not the reward," he said sternly. "I'm going to take you out regardless of whether I win the bet or not, because I want to do something for you in return. If I win the bet, however, then I get to pay for all of it and you will dress up and let Galinda give you a makeover, because if I win, we'll be going somewhere fancy. And you," he finished smugly, "will not be allowed to complain about any of it."

She was scowling. "That doesn't seem fair to me," she pointed out. "If you win, you have to pay for an expensive restaurant? How is that in your advantage?"

He grinned at her. "Trust me," he said. "It is."

Nessarose and Boq were watching the whole exchange with interest.

"Do we have a deal?" he asked her.

Her scowl deepened, but she accepted his hand and shook it.

"Fine," she said. "There won't be a fancy dinner, anyway, because you're not winning this bet."

He snorted. "Oh, come on, Fae. Maybe if you'd said 80 or higher, you would have stood a chance; but 90? No way. Never."

She smiled knowingly. "We'll see." Then she punched him in the arm. "But you have to try your hardest, understood?"

He sighed and stared back down at his book like a disobedient little boy.

"Yes, Mummy."

Favourite lines? :)