COMMON GROUND

With classes being cancelled, the rest of the day passed excruciatingly slowly. Elphaba watched the sun set outside of her window just as Galinda walked into the room and addressed her forcefully.

"Elphaba, I think we need to talk."

"Really?" Elphaba groaned.

"Yes, really. I think it is time we set some boundaries," Galinda coughed, "Like, for example, I don't want you reading my mail. Speaking of which, where is my letter?"

"I put it back in your drawer."

"Oh, okay, that's fine."

"Glinda, I-"

"GAlinda, Elphaba, it's GAAAAA-linda."

"A few hours ago you were addressing me as Elphie. I will call you Glindy, if I want to."

Galinda screwed up her face and threw herself on top of her bed. She closed her eyes and remained silent.

"Galinda, listen," Elphaba walked over to the blonde and sat on the edge of her bed delicately. She waited for her roommate to open her eyes before she resumed speaking. "I didn't mean to pry. I truly only read your letter by a twist of fate, that being I almost broke my neck on it. I did not intentionally delve into your private affairs."

"You could've just placed it back on the floor without reading it, couldn't you?"

"I guess..."

"Well then!"

"What are you going to do about Aimee?"

Galinda sat up almost instantly and narrowed her eyes. She watched Elphaba closely. "What do you mean?"

"You're going to do something, aren't you?"

"Like what, exactly? It isn't like I can go out there searching for her!"

"You could."

"Don't be so foolish," Galinda scorned, "Honestly, Elphaba."

"It was just a suggestion."

"Oh, okay, and how do you suggest I get out of here to look for her? Don't you think my father would have something to say if Shiz contacted him to tell him of my disappearance so promptly after Aimee's?" Galinda said, "You must remember that I am Galinda Arduenna Upland of the -"

"Of the Upper Uplands, yes I know," Elphaba interrupted mockingly, receiving a glower from Galinda in return, "But I really think you could help."

"Yes, well, you are wrong and I disagree."

"Okay. Did you speak to Madame Morrible today?"

"I may have done."

"Did she tell you about the class tomorrow?"

"She may have done."

Elphaba rolled her eyes in frustration and let out an audible groan. "Make sure you turn up to the class tomorrow, there's something I want to try."

"Elphaba Thropp, what are you planning?"

"I'm not sure yet, but it will fall into place by tomorrow, I hope."

"You make me nervous," Galinda said.

"You make me sour."

"Oh, Elphaba, you are always sour. As sour as a green, green apple."

"That was a low blow, Glindy."

"AH! And what have we here? Something I never thought my own two eyes would behold. A Ms. Thropp and a Ms. Upland. Together. Within close proximity of the other." Madame Morrible clasped her hands together. She stood in front of Elphaba and Galinda, viewing them with amusement and circling the two girls a number of times before excusing herself to go to the bathroom. "You must understand, when you get to my age, things do not work quite as they used to."

Elphaba grimaced.

"Oh, Madame, wait, I must question your intentions!" Galinda said as she scurried after the tutor, "Although I express my dearest gratitution, I thought that these classes would be singular. You see, what I didn't realise was that Elphaba and I would be, well, working together. As a team."

"Oh please! I told you yesterday that we would be working together. As a team. Do you really think I want this? I probably want this less than you do," Elphaba snarled.

"Well I'm sorry, I had other things on my mind yesterday!" Galinda screeched.

"Well, well," Madame Morrible observed, "I'll let you two girls bond. I shan't be but a clock-tick."

The tutor left the room with a hint of merriment about her stride.

"I can't believe she thought this would work," Elphaba muttered.

"Oh, hush! I thought you had devised a plan of kinds."

"Hmph. It's a good thing I'm not apt to let my loathing get in the way of it," Elphaba said, walking over to the desk at the end of the room and grabbing a piece of scroll with Madame Morrible's signature watermarked along the bottom. She took hold of a palette of ink and a nib before turning to Galinda. "I'm going to write a letter to your father."

"I don't think so!" Galinda skipped over to Elphaba, grabbing hold of her wrists and stopping her from further action, "Now you listen to me! I don't know what is going on in that head of yours, but just know that this is not going to work. Nor shall I let it happen at any cost. My father has enough on his mind right now and I -"

"Do you want to find Aimee?"

"Yes, but not in this way!"

"Do you trust me?"

"No! I most certainly do not! And why you would think that I ever could I do not know -"

"Be quiet!" Elphaba yelled, "I know what I'm doing."

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why are you doing what you are doing? I mean, you and I both know we are never going to get along. I just want to know why you are so focused on finding Aimee when you loathe me and do not know anything about her. It doesn't make sense!"

"There is no reason," Elphaba frowned, placing the nib to the scroll and beginning to write.

"Yes there is!" Galinda insisted.

"There does not have to be a reason for everything!" Elphaba yelled, laying down her hand so forcefully that a wad of ink splattered forward onto Galinda's dress. She watched the blue stain trickle downwards, spreading to the skirt.

Galinda looked down and wailed. "Now look what you've done! Oh, my Oz! This will never come out! This is Ozmopolitan, Elphaba!"

"I'm sorry."

"Is sorry going to bring out this stain?!"

"Not unless it's a new brand of detergent which I haven't heard of."

"Oh, well aren't you just the wittiest?"

"It sure beats being the prettiest," Elphaba fired back.

Galinda frowned and for a brief moment met Elphaba's eyes with her own. She quickly cast her gaze downwards and coughed as Elphaba scrawled something quickly across the scroll, scanned it and handed it over to her. "I thought that if your father believed the letter to be from Madame Morrible, he would be less likely to question it."

Galinda read Elphaba's words silently. Once she had finished, she looked up and pouted. Elphaba sighed, bracing herself for whatever torrent of unconvinced remarks were about to come her way.

"Elphaba, you have written here that I am sick with the flu and have been quarantined. I am a very healthy person, I don't get sick -"

"Healthy people get sick too -"

"- and quarantined? I am not an animal, Elphaba."

Galinda handed the letter back to her roommate and watched as Elphaba folded it and put it in an envelope. "What is your father's address?"

Galinda told her. "Don't you think Morrible will send out her own letter once she realises I'm missing?"

"No. I've been working on something -"

"Oh, I do hate it when you work on stuff."

"- and it will hopefully rid Madame Morrible of any memory of us being here this term."

"You cannot be serious! Elphaba that is extremely dangerous!"

"Listen, she's going to be back any minute now. When she arrives, I want you to say that you feel nauseous and run to the bathroom. Take this with you," Elphaba pushed the envelope into Galinda's hand, "And mail it out. I'll work on Morrible and tonight we will leave."

"We can't leave! We have nowhere to stay. What will we eat? What will we wear?" Galinda gasped, "What shoes shall we don?"

"Really?" Elphaba said, "Is this the same cousin you were crying over yesterday?"

"Yes." Galinda said simply. "Now, tell me why. Before Morrible gets back. Tell me why you're helping me. I know you don't like me. And if I'm being honest, Elphaba, I do not trust you. I need to know why you have suddenly become so forthcoming with your intentions. This unforeseen change of heart is most bizarre."

Elphaba scrunched her eyes together and grumbled. "When I was younger my sister went missing, okay?"

"You have a sister?"

"Had. I had a sister. I remember little of her; only that my father blamed me for her disappearance. My mother went out to search for Nessarose and was found dead a few weeks later. I wanted to go out and search for her myself but at thirteen my father said I was too young. He also added that even if I wasn't, I would be hopeless at it anyway. In fact, I recall his exact words that night being, 'hopeless, green and good at ruining lives.'"

"Oh, Elphie..."

"And I don't want to be hopeless and I don't want to ruin lives. I don't particularly want to be green, but, well..."

"Elphie..."

"Stop calling me that."

"You're not hopeless."

Madame Morrible strutted back into the room. She was muttering under her breath about the lack of control over canoodling students in the corridors but she stopped when she saw Elphaba and Galinda huddled together.

"I see you two girls have found common ground," she said, "Anything I would be interested in?"

"I doubt it," Elphaba grunted, squirming as Galinda aimed a sympathetic smile towards her. She hated pity, which was the cardinal reason why she never brought up the subject of Nessa with anyone. That and the fact that it hurt too much.

"Well, not to dwell! Let us proceed!" Madame Morrible squealed.

"Oh, oh!" Galinda cried, smacking her hand to her mouth.

"Galinda, dear, what is it?"

"Oh, Madame! It's just, I suddenly feel very nauseous!" Galinda fanned her palm in front of her face and fell to the floor in a bundle.

Elphaba rolled her eyes at the dramatisation. What did the girl think it was? The Ozcars?

"Miss. Galinda!" Madame Morrible knelt down next to the girl and placed her palm upon her forehead, "Please, see yourself fit to be excused."

Galinda stood up slowly and sloppily, patting her cheeks regularly and breathing heavier than was necessary. Elphaba raised an eyebrow at the spectacle and was rewarded with a discreet, over-the-top wink from Galinda as she left the room. Madame Morrible tucked a stray grey hair behind her ear and turned to Elphaba.

"It appears that your sessions have reverted back to the one-to-ones you so greatly desired," she said, "Galinda's nausea wouldn't have anything to do with that, would it?"

"You think I made her feel sick?"

"I know what you are capable of, Miss. Thropp."

"Oh, believe me, if I were to do anything to Galinda, I would do a lot more than make her feel nauseous," Elphaba mumbled, "But, let us agree that it is easy for people to gain a sense of nausea when they are around me. Maybe it's my greenness. Maybe they find that being around someone whose natural aura is that of a sick person, they actually begin to feel sick themselves."

"Miss. Elphaba!"

"May I get a drink of water, please?"

Madame Morrible nodded distractedly as Elphaba walked over to the water fountain at the front of the class. Once she was there, she shut her eyes tightly and willed all of her power together like she had done the previous afternoon in the cafeteria. This was her first and last try at the spell she had been chanting over and over throughout the night. She had spent the evening under her covers, reading by torchlight and Elphaba hoped that now it would pay off. She couldn't save Nessarose but by helping Galinda find Aimee, she could prove to herself that what her father had said about her wasn't true.

"I need to ask you something," Elphaba said just loudly enough for Madame Morrible to hear, "Please, will you sit down so I can talk to you for a moment?"

Madame Morrible sat down behind her desk and offered the seat opposite to Elphaba who took it quickly. She grabbed the tutor's hands with her own and looked into the pair of eyes opposite her, offering a delicate chant which sent Madame Morrible immediately into a state of delusion. It was then that Elphaba began the real spell. She took a deep breath and began.

Galinda sat on her bed, playing with the frills along the hem of her patchwork cover. Her thoughts were elsewhere, her thoughts were flitting around Elphaba. Was the spell working? Was it safe? Did Elphaba really know what she was doing? And what about her sister - was Nessarose still out there somewhere? There was so much about Elphaba that she didn't know. Upon their first introduction to each other, Galinda, along with the rest of Shiz, had immediately labelled Elphaba as a monster, the freak of the university, the one with the green skin. She hadn't thought or mused into the fact that Elphaba had had a past. But, of course, just like anyone else, she had had a past. As Galinda played with her bedding, she began to realise that there was so much more to Elphaba than the colour of her skin.