Elphaba wore loose brown trousers and a loose brown jacket over her a white shirt. She had to wear loose clothes, because if she didn't, they would cling too tightly to her body, and her feminism would be obvious to anyone. She also wore gloves to cover her green skin. She wore a cap that she put her long hair underneath and she kept it lowered so as to hide her face. She wondered if she'd be able to get away with this. But she'd gotten this far, hadn't she? She stood in the kitchen, the job of a boy servant. The jobs of cleaning, stable work, (any work for that matter) and waiting on the royals of the castle, King Dettri, Queen Aliandra and their son, Prince Fiyero. She hadn't met them, and wasn't supposed to. She followed an old cook around the kitchen as she was directed her work. The old woman was squinting at Elphaba's application.
"Says here you're name's Elias, that right?" said the old woman.
"Um, actually, it's El-eye-us, with an I, not and E." said Elphaba in the lowest voice she could muster (it wasn't very low).
"Right, how old are you?" asked the old cook. Elphaba figured she didn't really have to lie about this.
"16." she replied, about the only thing she was being truthful about.
"They get younger each day." the woman muttered to herself, she then looked at Elphaba, up and down, causing Elphaba to look down and pull the edge of her cap lower. The old woman had an odd expression on her face, "What're the gloves and cap for?"
"Um, religious reasons." Elphaba muttered.
"Huh, never heard of that religion." the woman remarked, "You've got to be the skinniest boy I've ever seen, anyway here, this is your room number, go find it then meet me back here." the woman handed Elphaba a small paper with the name, Elias written on it and a room number beneath. Elphaba wandered around the castle's servant's quarters till she found it. It was isolated from the other rooms, she figured it would've been since she'd gotten the last job and everyone else would've already chosen the better rooms, this was obviously the last one left (she would've taken the maid's job, then she wouldn't have needed to dress as a boy, but those jobs were taken.) The room was small, reminding her of the attic she'd lived in at home. She walked in and set her satchel down on the dusty bed, and let out a long sigh of relief. She walked back down to meet the old woman.
"Here, take this to Prince Fiyero, it's his breakfast, if he's not awake, don't wake him. Just set it on his desk." The old woman said, handing a large tray of food in silver dishes to Elphaba. She almost dropped it, but caught it just in time.
"Where's his room?" asked Elphaba, using both hands to hold the large tray.
"The top floor, in the east wing, you'll find it." the old woman gave Elphaba a shove up the stairs that almost sent her flying, but she caught herself and hurried up the stairs as fast as she could without dropping the tray.
*******
After much wandering, Elphaba had found her way to what she assumed to be Prince Fiyero's room. She knocked quietly, then remembered she was supposed to be a boy and knocked a little harder. After a while, a sleepy Fiyero was at the door. He opened it to see who it was.
"Yes?" he asked. Elphaba found it hard to breathe for a moment as she looked at the boy in front of her. He had messy blonde hair, light smooth skin and mesmerizing blue eyes. She quickly regained her composure though and straightened up in an attempt to appear more like a boy.
"Um, your breakfast." Elphaba muttered, almost forgetting to keep her voice low.
"Oh, thank you." said Fiyero, he looked at Elphaba quizzically for a moment before taking the tray and holding it in one hand. Elphaba had had to use both of her arms to carry the tray, which went to show that she definitely did not have the masculinity of a man, which is why she wore loose clothes.
"Hey, are you new?" asked Fiyero. He always liked to know his servants names so he didn't just call them 'hey, you' or 'you there', knowing their names made him feel better about having servants.
"Uh, yeah, I started today." said Elphaba. Fiyero looked at her. He saw a boy who looked to be about the lankiest boy he'd ever seen. He was several inches shorter than him and he couldn't make out his face because of the cap he wore. He also noted that he talked weird, like he had to remember how to speak.
"What's your name?" asked Fiyero.
"Elias." said Elphaba promptly.
"I'm Fiyero, nice to meet you." said Fiyero. Elphaba nodded.
"Nice to meet you too." she murmured back before she left, stumbling down the stairs quickly. Fiyero stared after her (a he in his mind) and then went back to his room to eat his breakfast.
*****
As soon as she was out of sight, Elphaba leaned against the wall and let out the breath she'd been holding. She'd almost blown her cover back there, she couldn't let that happen. She decided to make it a point to avoid Fiyero...and those mesmerizing blue eyes of his.
*******
That plan didn't work too well. Two weeks later, she was given the job of being Fiyero's personal servant. She had proven not to be manly enough for all of the work the other boy servants did, so she got his job instead. It was alright, better than everything the boys did, it was hard and required a lot of muscle in which she lacked. She followed Fiyero everywhere and cleaned his room and brought his meals to him and got his horses ready for him when he wanted to go riding etc. The job forced her to spend more time with Fiyero, and in doing so, they became pretty good friends.
"Elias," Fiyero said as he lay on his bed, twiddling a pencil around in his hand as Elphaba cleaned his room.
"Yes Master Fiyero?" Elphaba said, she was instructed to call him that even though Fiyero had asked her countless times to just call him Fiyero.
"Fiyero, the name's Fiyero!" said Fiyero, hating that his only real friend called him Master. He supposed that Elias was technically a servant, but that didn't matter. Fiyero didn't have many real friends, they just befriended him for his title, which he was fine with, obviously shallow friends were better than no friends, right? But Elias seemed different, he actually seemed to listen when Fiyero was talking, and he actually answered back in intelligent answers and had more to speak of then just girls.
"Um, yes, Master Fiyero?" Elphaba said Master anyway, trying to avoid a beating from the servant head for dropping the honorary on Fiyero's name. Fiyero sighed at the honorary.
"I've been thinking, and this is an odd friendship we have." Fiyero thought aloud.
"Considering you are a Prince and I am your servant, I would not really describe this as a friendship, more so as an acquaintance." Elphaba replied.
"Our current jobs or standings are not what I was referring to. I was referring to the fact that I've never once seen your face." said Fiyero, looking straight at Elphaba. He continued, "It's like being friends with a stranger. Why don't you take the stupid cap off?"
"I told you, religious reasons." Elphaba muttered, instinctively lowering her head so as to make her face even harder to see. She thought it ironic that she (who was the least religious person in Oz, would be using religion as a cover for the odd attire she wore)
"I suppose that's why you wear those gloves all the time to right? 'Religious reasons?'" Fiyero said mockingly.
"Yes." Elphaba said, picking up his morning breakfast tray with the dirty dishes on it and setting it on the cart she'd brought up. She went around the room picking up his dirty clothes and putting them on the cart as well.
"What happens if you take off the cap?" asked Fiyero curiously.
"Then I get into a lot of trouble." said Elphaba, this wasn't a lie.
"With whom?" Fiyero pressed.
"Um...my...father." Elphaba said, this wasn't a lie either. If her father knew this was where she'd been the whole time, he'd probably come here and take her back to Munchkinland, and who knew what he'd do from then on.
"Oh, harsh father?" asked Fiyero.
"Yeah..." Elphaba murmured, shutting out the memories of her father and trying to steer Fiyero away from the subject of herself.
"I've got to say, you've got to be the lankiest boy I've ever seen." said Fiyero.
"Thank you Master." Elphaba said sarcastically, "It's not as though I've never been told that before."
Fiyero chuckled, "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you turned out to be a girl." he mused, laughing at his joke. Elphaba however froze and immediately began to panic. Had he figured her out? Fiyero noticed Elphaba's sudden stop in movement.
"I was only joking Elias." Fiyero said quickly.
"Oh, right." Elphaba was able to murmur through her sigh of relief and relaxing.
"So, I'm going to throw a name out at you, tell me if you know who it is." said Fiyero, leaning back into his bed.
"Alright." Elphaba agreed.
"Galinda Upland." said Fiyero.
"Don't know her." Elphaba said.
"She's coming over tomorrow, we started dating last month." Fiyero explained. Elphaba felt her heart drop at the mention of Fiyero dating someone.
"Oh, what is she like?" asked Elphaba.
"She's...blonde." said Fiyero, "Very perky and talkative."
"She sounds nice." Elphaba commented wryly. This girl sounded completely snobbish and annoying.
"I suppose she is." said Fiyero.
"You suppose? Don't you know?" asked Elphaba.
"Well, it's not that I don't like her, it's just...I don't know if I love her." Fiyero mused, "I mean, I hear all of these great things about love and crap, and if this is love, it is extremely over rated."
"Well, maybe you just haven't met the one." said Elphaba, remembering how her sister had talked of Fredrick.
"The one?" asked Fiyero.
"You know what I'm talking about." Elphaba said.
"No I don't, care to enlighten me?" Fiyero said.
"Look Fiyero," Elphaba began.
"Ha! You didn't' say Master!" Fiyero exclaimed.
"Oh, sorry. You know, I don't know much about all this love stuff, but if you don't like Galinda, you should break up with her. It's cruel to lead her on." Elphaba said. Fiyero thought about this for a second.
"I didn't say I didn't like her." he said, "But I'm just not sure if she's 'the one', as you put it."
"Well, maybe you should go out with her a little longer and get to know her." said Elphaba, "I'm sure feelings can grow."
"I suppose. Would you mind spending the day with us?" said Fiyero, "I never know what to do when I'm alone with her except to compliment her on what she's wearing."
"If you insist Master Fiyero." Elphaba said.
"FIYERO! Drop the Master!" Fiyero groaned.
"Yes...Fiyero." Elphaba said.
"Thank you." Fiyero sighed, "Anyway. So you'll be spending the day with us?"
"If that is what you wish." Elphaba murmured.
"Great." Fiyero sighed with relief. Elphaba nodded and began to push the cart of dirty clothes and dishes out of his room. She carted it downstairs, nervous about meeting this Galinda character.