Author's Note: Thanks to those who reviewed, and I shall now respond! Okay, so this story is a musicalverse, an the fact that it is musicalverse means people and events generally speaking are as they are presented onstage - unless of course I elect to tell you otherwise. For instance, Elphaba in the shower had a dramatic purpose and that was to indicate that she is not allergic to water in the same way that the rain after I'm Not That Girl tells the auidence she is impervious to the so-called melting effects of H2O. Furthermore, I understand some feel this is moving quickly, and I am well aware of this. We are only on chapter 6 - that is hardly enough time for development in any area so let it grow in the way it will. Also, I don't particularly like long bulky passages of prose and am trying to interject them with dialogue because it's not fun to write and if it's not fun to write it's not fun to read.
Okay, so hopefully I've answered or explained anything that was bothering you. Thank you so much for letting me know that you are actually out there and I'm not just sending this out into the abyss! I love this story and plan to update it every Wednesday. As always, plot suggestions from you are welcome. I shall take everything into consideration my lovelies!
Enjoy x
"Why, why do I need to know this? When am I ever going to use it?"
"Really? You're asking me that?"
"Yes, I'm asking you that."
Elphaba stared at him in disbelief. "Sweet Oz, you're such a child!" She stood in frustration and slammed his textbook on the table.
"I'm not the one who just threw my books away, Elphie." Fiyero had, of course, been joking, and he had laughed at her response. He had simply lost interest in the subject, not that Elphaba wasn't a fascinating study and had he been taking notes on her he could have filled several volumes of encyclopedias. But the text was repetitive and he began to resent everything she told him. Fiyero was immediately filled with regret, however, when he saw how her eyes burned with rage as she stared at him.
"Elphaba." She spat. He said nothing, and she began to close her notes and pack away.
"No, no. Wait, I'm sorry. I promise I won't do it again."
She turned and looked at him, sneeringly. "If you would simply remember not to do it in the first instance, perhaps you would not have to keep apologizing for it. You seem to forget that you have made any such promise the very next day."
"I know. It's because I like teasing you."
Her eyes widened though she tried to prevent it and reluctantly she let him sit her down again and lift her bag from her shoulder. "Oh why do you like teasing me? Don't you think I get enough from everyone else?"
He smiled and shook his head. "You're always so strong, aren't you, Elphaba?" Fiyero braved her potentially scathing reaction to maintain eye contact with her. Her eyes were so full of everything, and it seemed to Fiyero that a lifetime of looking into them would not be sufficient to understand everything they had to offer. Fiyer felt the air around them thicken when she burned her own fiery eyes back into his.
Annoyed, yet reluctant to cause premature ageing by frowning too much, Galinda tried to keep her expression blank as she marched towards the library. Her two closest friends had disappeared for the entire day and after searching for hours it had only just dawned on her that they were probably studying. She would scold Fiyero because his lack of diligence meant she hadn't had the chance to spend much time with either of them recently, and the superficial conversations with her girlfriends bored her after a while.
Spying a convenient entrance, she slipped in and weaved her way around the stacks of books to find her targets.
Elphaba was equally bored. She grew tired of not knowing what he was thinking and of these stupid little childish staring contests. Elphaba didn't like to wish, but she desperately wanted him to just say what he meant. "What does that mean?"
He shook his head at her tone. "For the love of Oz, I'm not trying to insult you. And by the way neither is everyone else." Elphaba started and raised her eyebrows. "You always assume the worst and it makes you seem so unapproachable. If you'd just be nice to people-"
"I beg your pardon!"
"What?" Fiyero, perhaps priggishly, played dumb as though his comments were blatantly obvious to everyone including Elphaba. He was fed up with playing with her now, too, and his exasperation leaked into his voice, which was cutting and sharp and unusually and unnecessarily harsh. "It's just that you complain all the time that no one gives you a second chance because they immediately hate you and that's why you have no friends." She nodded. "Seriously?" She stared at him, confused and angry. "First of all, if you would just give them a second chance, maybe then you would see that people are just curious about you. I mean, can you blame them?" Elphaba shuddered and took a step back from him, appalled at the thought that he condoned the reaction to her skin. "Second of all, the fact that you don't do that makes you a bit of a hypocrite. You're angry that people misjudge you, and yet you constantly misjudge them."
"And you misjudge me." She snarled.
Finally, Galinda had located their voices and walked breathlessly in that direction. As she listened attentively to avoid getting lost in a place she very rarely visited, Galinda recognized a heated tone in their conversation. Or more appropriately, she recognized it as an argument and picked up her pace.
"I don't expect you to understand, Master Fiyero," he blanched, "you who have never had to worry about that kind of thing. While you were basking in the admiration of your legions of fans I was forced to wallow in their admonition."
He sighed. "You're just proving my point! Freaking out whenever someone happens to notice something personal about you and assuming it's malicious. I'm trying to make you realise how much you're exaggerating."
She laughed bitterly. "Oh and you would know what my kind of reality is, would you? You have been omnipotent throughout my whole life, have you?" He said nothing; they both knew the answer was no. "No! You have not!"
"But I can empathise."
"With what? You're experience of bullying is being teased by your family and friends. I have never had any friends. Not one. When I came here, people screamed at me they were so frightened. You can ask Galinda."
At the mention of her name, Galinda came upon them. She stood behind Elphaba and tried desperately to grasp the situation. It did not take her long, but when the reality of what Fiyero had said was made clear to her, she very much wished she had gotten lost instead.
"My own family can't accept me. My father can barely look at me and my mother is dead. When you danced with me the other night, it was the first time anyone had been that close to me in my whole life."
Now, Fiyero stood and paced across the study space. "Bullshit!" He laughed. "That's impossible! I'm pretty sure your relatives would have realised that you're quite normal in all the time they've known you."
"Well maybe you would think so, but that is not the case."
"You're such a liar! You're so desperate just to be right!"
She gaped at him in utter fury. "And you're a fucking moron."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah." She spat under her breath, "A son of a bitch." He cocked his eyebrow at her, feigning - hopefully feigning - ignorance. It infuriated her. "How fucking dare you! You're a hypocrite, yourself, making all these assumptions about me when you have no idea what it's been like for me. I'm so glad that your life has been so effing rose-tinted that you cannot possibly contemplate that someone else might not have been so easily accepted as you or anyone else. But try."
Fiyero shook his head. "My life has not been rose-tinted, thank you very much. Your observations about my life are not wanted."
"And your observations about my life are equally unwanted. I never asked you for them! I am uninterested in your badly informed opinion of me."
"It's only ever badly informed if you don't agree with it though, right?"
He was being such an ass and it was plain to her that even if somewhere in his mind he had realised the massive hole he'd dug for himself, he was not about to admit to to her anytime soon. Or maybe he genuinely thought those things about her. Something inside began to hurt and she swallowed, visibly choking back a strange lump in her throat. "Well, fine. I'm obviously not wanted here." She locked eyes with him and he was suddenly quite frightened. "You and your half-assed opinions can fuck the hell off and leave me alone. I hope you fail, you bastard." She strode up to him and slapped him across the face, a very large part of her almost singing at her actions. He deserved them.
"Well you've proved me wrong." He spat, sarcasm dripping from his lips and burning her. "You know if everyone thinks you're such a bitch, maybe they have the right idea. You're just such a witch! You're a terrible, awful person and I'm not fucking surprised no one touches you."
Galinda watched Elphaba and fully expected her to storm out of the room. But she didn't. She did not move and though Galinda couldn't see her face, she knew it would mirror the horror written all over hers. Somehow, Elphaba's form seemed to shrink and when she moved silently to leave her body dragged itself as though it weighed a thousand tonnes. Galinda waited for Fiyero to notice her. She had never been so angry at anyone before and felt triumphant that he had been physically punished in some way. Fiyero's gaze followed Elphaba as she left and when they landed on Galinda, her expression coupled with Elphaba's words made him think he was missing something.
"Fiyero, what in Oz' name did you think you were doing?" He sat down; feeling very tired all of a sudden. "How could you say those things about her? How could you think them?"
He had no answers to her questions. Elphaba's sudden departure seemed to jolt him back to reality and put his words into a very harsh context. In anger, he'd said those things, but now he could not take them back. Regret did not help him and right now he had to convince Galinda that he was not a complete asshole. Holding his head in his hands, he spoke. "I am so fucking sorry."
"That makes everything so much better." Her deceptively sincere tone made him look up at her in surprise before he sensed her bitterness and sighed. "You are . . . were one of her closest friends and you have actually insulted her more than anyone else at this University. At least they just ignored her."
"I know, I know." He paced. "What the hell am I gonna do? Should I go after her?"
"No. She hates you and I am not far behind her." He tried to apologise again, but she held up her hand and stopped him. His apologies did not good when voiced only to her. "Fiyero, she is a very private person."
"But she seemed to just be overreacting; at the B Bar she lightened up and everything was fine. Apart from Avaric, but then he's the exception."
Galinda shook her head. "No, Fiyero. Avaric is not the exception. We are the exception." Looking pointedly at him, Galinda could see he was sorry. She was not positive that would be enough for Elphaba, though, and wondered if she would forgive him at all. Galinda had no idea how he should make it up to her and her presence would be much more beneficial were she to find Elphaba.
"No, wait! Don't leave!" He exclaimed when she turned on him. "You have to help me."
"Why, Fiyero? You're an ass. You messed things up with Elphaba because you're a smartarse. Well, if that's the case then you'll know exactly what to do to make it all better. Personally, I can't even begin to think what that might involve. You had better be sincere though, because when she gets mad, her magic gets mad, too."
When Galinda had been gone for a few minutes, Fiyero punched a hole in the wall. Now he had a bruised wrist and a dented wallet to top everything off.
At Crage Hall, Elphaba slammed her hand against the tiles in her shower cubicle again and watched the blood as the water washed it away.
ooooh! What was that you said Fiyero? A bunch of poppies from Fiyero for reviewers! x