CHAPTER 1:

"Now, are you sure you'll be alright while I'm gone, Nessa?" Elphaba asked worriedly.

"Yes, Fabala, I'll be fine," Nessarose Thropp told her for the umpteenth time in exasperation. "You go to that exhibition and do the university proud."

Elphaba snorted. "I'll do my best for Madame Morrible," she replied. "You take care of yourself, Nessie, you hear?"

Nessarose smiled gently at her sister and squeezed her hands. "I will, Fabala. I've got Boq, anyway, and Galinda has offered to keep me company while you're gone. I believe she mentioned something about shopping and make-overs –"

"Surprise, surprise," Elphaba broke in with a fond grin.

"– and of course Madame Morrible will be there."

Elphaba grimaced. "I know, Nessa. I just get worried, that's all."

"I know. But I'll be fine. You worry about yourself, now," Nessarose said with a slight laugh, "and how you're going to handle that rascal of a prince."

Elphaba rolled her eyes. "Hopefully, I won't have to." She looked up gratefully as a coachman placed her suitcase on the luggage rack, before turning her attention back to Nessarose. "Well, I guess this is it. I'll see you in about a fortnight," Elphaba said as she stooped to hug her sister.

"Have a safe journey, Fabala," Nessarose told her, returning the hug.

Elphaba watched as Nessarose wheeled herself away before returning her attention to the carriage. She was about to get in when she realized Fiyero had not yet arrived. She glanced up at the university clock tower. Two minutes to nine. Typical. He was going to be late. She just knew it. Anything for a grand entrance – even when there was no point in it.

Three minutes later, Fiyero appeared.

"Get a move on, Tiggular," Elphaba snarled.

Fiyero smirked. "Can't wait to be alone with me, eh, Thropp?"

Elphaba's scowl deepened. "I'd rather be left alone with Galinda's airheaded friends than spend time alone with you," she said coldly.

Fiyero's smirk widened. "You shock me. I had no idea you swung that way, Thropp."

Elphaba's eyes narrowed and she pointed to the carriage. "In," she commanded in a dangerous growl.

Fiyero complied, slinging his suitcase inside before flinging himself after it, flopping onto the bench and immediately sprawling out.

"Your luggage is supposed to go on the roof," Elphaba informed him through gritted teeth, only to find a suitcase being shoved in her face, causing her to stumble backwards. Elphaba briefly considered attempting to hoist the suitcase onto the luggage rack, before angrily deciding against it. Instead, she dumped the suitcase on the ground and climbed into the carriage. However, her progress was halted by Fiyero's lanky form. "Move," Elphaba commanded in a brusque voice.

Fiyero cracked open one eye. "No." He closed his eye once again.

Elphaba shoved Fiyero's legs aside and clambered over to the other seat, sitting down in the opposite corner. Opening her messenger bag, Elphaba pulled out a book and began to read.

"Did you put my luggage up?" Fiyero asked in a bored tone of voice as the carriage began to move off.

"No."

Fiyero's eyes flew open and he stared at her in alarm. "What?" he cried. "What did you do with it?"

"I left it on the ground," was Elphaba's calm reply.

"But –"

"It's okay," Elphaba interrupted, "one of the coachmen put it on top."

Fiyero heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank Oz for that."

Elphaba pulled her nose out of her book just long enough to give him a disapproving glance. "You should thank the coachman for that."

Fiyero shrugged and closed his eyes once more. "Yeah, whatever."

Elphaba rolled her eyes.

"So, where are we going, anyway?"

Elphaba put down her book in disbelief. "Did you not listen to anything Madame Morrible told us?"

Fiyero shrugged. "What can I say? The woman is a bore. She drones on and on and on…"

Elphaba sighed. "We are going to the Emerald City where we will be attending an exhibition of tertiary institutions. At the exhibition, two representatives of each institution will be present, one of whom will speak about their institution, so that students who are looking at going on to tertiary education can make an informed decision regarding which university would best suit their needs."

"So what are you going to talk about?"

"I have to talk about what the university offers, what sort of programs we have, which programs we are looking at implementing and any future developments, et cetera. And, yes, Madame Morrible has approved my speech. Satisfied?"

Fiyero grunted.

"Well, you did ask," Elphaba huffed, picking up her book again.

"True," Fiyero conceded, before muttering, "Don't know why I bothered."

"Neither do I," Elphaba threw back.

The carriage once again lapsed into silence.

That was until Fiyero started snoring.

Elphaba stretched out her leg and kicked Fiyero hard in the shin, jolting him awake.

"Hey, what was that for?" he complained, clutching at his wounded limb.

"You were snoring."

"Yeah, so?"

"I can't concentrate when you're snoring."

"Did you try?"

Elphaba scowled at him. "I shouldn't have to."

"But did you?" Fiyero pressed.

"Yes."

"Then try harder."

Elphaba turned away from him. "Why did we get stuck together?" she asked of the ceiling.

Fiyero flashed her a smug grin. "Because I need to get away from school and you need to loosen up."

"Or maybe Madame Morrible wanted to torture me," Elphaba moaned.

"Hey, you think this is any fun for me?" Fiyero asked. "I'd rather get out of school with anyone other than you."

"What a surprise," Elphaba retorted sarcastically.

Fiyero rolled his eyes. "Go back to your reading."

Throwing him one last glare, Elphaba did just that, though she kept waiting for the next interruption.

Just as the plot reached its climax, the interruption came.

"So when is this exhibition thing?"

Elphaba sighed irritably and slammed her book shut. "It starts on Friday."

"Until…?"

"All day Friday, all day Saturday plus Saturday evening, Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning and Tuesday evening. We leave to return to Shiz on Wednesday morning," Elphaba informed him.

Fiyero stared at her. "All that time just to say how good our school is?"

"No, Tiggular," Elphaba barked in frustration, "the exhibition entails much more than that. There are going to be stands for each institution where students can see what the university offers – we will be handing out pamphlets, giving students information, answering their questions, and so on; there will be a seminar in which we will learn about the most recent developments in all manner of educational programs and devices; there will be a meet-and-greet; and there will be a student representative dinner."

Fiyero whistled. "Sounds pretty full-on. How come you never mentioned any of this before?"

"I was trying to keep it simple for you," was Elphaba's dry reply.

"Aw, I feel loved," Fiyero said facetiously.

"I think your feeling censor is out of whack. It's detecting the wrong end of the scale."

"And I suppose I have to be there for everything?" Fiyero asked, conveniently ignoring Elphaba's remark in favour of switching back to the topic.

Elphaba's only reply was a glare.

"Just thought I'd check. I guess that means I'll have to figure out what to wear."

Elphaba looked at Fiyero as though he were crazy. "What do you mean? You'll be wearing your formal uniform. You did bring your formal uniform, didn't you?"

"Oh, is that what that was for? I wondered what Horrible Morrible was on about."

"So did you bring it?"

Fiyero shrugged. "Not sure. It might be in my suitcase…or it might be in my wardrobe."

Elphaba felt like shaking the boy to his senses, but refrained. He probably hasn't got any senses to be shaken to, she concluded. Instead, she settled for growling, "It had better be in that suitcase."

"Eh, I'll check tonight. Which brings me to another point: where will we be staying?"

Elphaba dug her information and itinerary sheet out of her bag and thrust it into Fiyero's hands. "Here, read it for yourself. Oh, wait, I forgot: you can't read," she hissed sarcastically.

Fiyero narrowed his eyes. "I can probably read better than you, Thropp," he challenged.

Elphaba snorted. "Then why do you never do it?"

"Unlike some people," Fiyero said breezily, "I don't need to practice."

Elphaba snorted again, rolling her eyes for good measure. "Yeah, right, keep telling yourself that."

"Why don't we have a little competition, then," Fiyero suggested slyly, "since you obviously don't believe me."

Elphaba cocked her head to the side, slightly curious. "What sort of competition?"

"I assume you have a couple of spare books in there," Fiyero said, nodding towards Elphaba's bag.

"Yes…"

"Have you read them before?"

Elphaba shook her head.

"Perfect. How about you take one and I take one, and we'll see how far we can get in an hour. How's that?"

Elphaba smirked. "You're on." She extracted two thick books from her bag and handed Fiyero the dullest-looking one. Not that she considered it to be dull, but she knew Fiyero would.

"Thank-you," Fiyero said, whisking the other book from her grasp and flashing her a cheeky grin.

Elphaba rolled her eyes.

Fiyero glanced down at his watch. "Okay, one hour, right? Time starts…now."

For the next hour, all was silent in the carriage. The fourth time Fiyero looked at his watch, he announced that time was up. "Okay, how far did you get?"

"I'm on page one hundred and eighty-three."

Fiyero grinned, but didn't say anything.

"Well?" Elphaba demanded.

"One hundred and eighty-four," he crowed triumphantly.

"I don't believe you."

"See for yourself."

Elphaba looked and, sure enough, he was on page one hundred and eighty-four. She looked up at him in disbelief. "Did you actually read any of it?"

Fiyero pretended to be affronted. "Of course I did!"

"Tell me what it's about."

That, Fiyero did – in detail.

Elphaba scowled.

"So where are we staying?"

Elphaba continued to stare at Fiyero in stony silence.

"Okay, different question: who's paying?"

"The university is. We don't have to spend a dime."

Fiyero grinned and put his hands behind his head. "Great."

"Says the multi-millionaire," Elphaba muttered, turning back to the book she had been reading initially.

"Says the lazy multi-millionaire," Fiyero corrected, his grin widening into a smirk.

Elphaba ignored him for the rest of that day until the carriage pulled up in front of a tiny inn on the outskirts of a small town.

As Elphaba stood, Fiyero jolted awake. Cautiously opening his eyes and peering out of the window, he said, "I take it this is our stop for the night?"

Elphaba merely gave him a pointed look.

"Right." Fiyero yawned and stretched, purposefully taking his time in doing so and making a big show of it all in the process, to Elphaba's growing irritation.

Fiyero sensed this and took full advantage of it until Elphaba finally snapped at him, "Get on with it!"

Fiyero eventually scrambled out of the carriage, Elphaba just about tripping over his heels in her eagerness to get into the inn. In doing so, Elphaba stumbled slightly, swaying into Fiyero, who caught her with a grin.

"Falling all over me, huh?" he smirked.

Elphaba righted herself and glowered at him. "Full of it, aren't you, Tiggular?"

"Yep," Fiyero agreed cheerfully, "full of charm and personality." He winked flirtatiously. "That's why you love me."

Elphaba grimaced and made a gagging sound, before turning her attention back to the luggage one of the coachmen had fetched down from the luggage rack. Picking up her suitcase, she turned to go inside. However, Fiyero's voice stopped her.

"Hey, isn't that my suitcase?"

Elphaba looked at him incredulously. "No," she replied evenly, pointing at the other suitcase, "that is your suitcase."

Fiyero frowned. "Are you sure? I mean, they look exactly the same."

Elphaba let out a snort of laughter. "They do not. They are different. Oz, Tiggular, can't you even recognize your own belongings?"

Fiyero shrugged. "Not if it's the same as somebody else's. Shouldn't we open them and check?"

"Fiyero," Elphaba replied with exaggerated patience, "my suitcase does not have a gold leaf imprint of the royal monogram of Prince Fiyero Tiggular of the Vinkus on the top. This is definitely my suitcase."

Fiyero looked sheepish. "Oh."

"Damn straight 'oh'," Elphaba shot back, stomping into the inn.

Fiyero followed, leaving his suitcase to be carried inside by one of the coachmen. He approached Elphaba – who was standing at the front desk – arriving just in time to hear her ask for two single rooms and two rooms in the coachmen's quarters. As the desk clerk shuffled off to find the appropriate door keys, Fiyero painted a fake hurt look on his face. "What, don't feel like sharing with me tonight? Was it something I said?"

Elphaba shot him a death glare, before turning her attention back to the desk clerk.

Fiyero, not expecting a verbal response, was taken aback when one came.

"More like something you did."

His heartbeat sped up. What, was she saying she would have otherwise considered sharing a room with him? He frowned. "And what was that, then?"

At that moment, the desk clerk returned and handed four keys to Elphaba, who thanked him, ignoring the odd looks he was throwing her. It was only as Elphaba made for the stairs that Fiyero got his answer: "You were born."