AN. I went to see Carrie Underwood last night at the Opera House in Sydney (!) and only got home at 1.30 this morning. The show was AMAZING.
Five
When Elphaba woke up on Monday morning, it took her a moment to realise the day. It was Monday.
The beginning of the Shiz semester, the beginning of her college education and the next chapter of her life. And she could hardly wait to begin.
She'd had her bag packed the night before with a few notepads and pens and a small lunch, because she didn't want to waste money by buying food on campus.
Orientation was due to begin at nine am, but it was only a quarter past seven and Elphaba was already impatient to get to campus and start her day. By the time she'd quickly bathed, and dressed in the simple navy blue skirt and blazer that was the closest thing to the Shiz uniform Elphaba could afford, worn with an old pair of brown boots. Her hair was pulled back into a long, tight braid and she'd cleaned her glasses three times.
By that stage, it was a few minutes to eight, and Elphaba decided she couldn't wait in the tiny apartment any longer. She grabbed her bag, checked four times to make sure she had her keys, lunch and enough pens and papers, then left the apartment and headed out of the building.
She felt a bit stupid for arriving at campus an hour early, but she simply couldn't think of anywhere else to go. She'd been looking forward to this moment for so long, and now it was finally here.
It was a ten minute walk from the crapartment to Shiz, and as Elphaba passed through the gates and onto the campus, she looked around in awe. The campus was beautiful, filled with large ivy-covered buildings and big trees over the sprawling grounds. Elphaba was surprised by the wonder and thrill she felt as she took it all in. After all, Shiz was nothing compared to the tall, sparkling buildings of the Emerald City that she had grown up with. But it had its own beauty, and the very vibe of the university campus seemed to be one of prestige and learning.
According to the information she'd been given with her acceptance letter, Orientation was to begin in the auditorium; which happened to be on the other side of campus, according to the map Elphaba found. As she crossed the campus, she became more and more glad she was here so early. Having the extra time meant she could drink in the sights as she passed, instead of having to rush past things on her way so as not to be late.
There was the library, which Elphaba had read was four stories high and held over two million books; the stone courtyard which was centred by the large bronze statue of Valhard Shiz, the founder of the university some three hundred years prior; and the beautiful gardens overlooking Suicide Canal.
Finally she located the auditorium. It was completely empty, but Elphaba couldn't help herself from stepping inside to look around. There were portraits hanging on the walls, both of humans and Animals. Elphaba wasn't sure if they were former Headmasters, graduates or merely important donors to the school.
Feeling rather self-conscious considering she was in an empty room, Elphaba sat down against the wall and pulled a book out of her bag to read. It was a quarter to nine before someone else entered the room, and Elphaba recognised the awkward looking Munchkin boy and the Governor's daughter.
As they entered, the boy pushing the girl's wheelchair before him, they looked over at Elphaba, then glanced away awkwardly, moving to the opposite side of the room. That occurred more and more as the room became more and more crowded. Elphaba gave up on trying to read, it was too disconcerting to focus on her book whilst everyone's eyes bored into her skull.
It was just before nine when the doors opened and Elphaba's stomach dropped and she groaned internally. The snooty blonde girl from Identity, whatever her name was, was entering and all around the room people were staring and (in the case of most of the boys and a few of the girls) gawping in adoration, and quite frankly, it made Elphaba want to throw up.
She waltzed into the room, nodding and smiling at everyone at though she was the queen and they were her loyal subjects. She waved flirtatiously at a few good-looking boys who were staring at her appreciatively, and Elphaba rolled her eyes at their reactions. She made her way to the front of the crowd where the three girls she had been eating with were standing. And then she saw Elphaba.
Immediately her smile fell and her mouth twisted into a smirk of disapproval. By now, everyone's attention was firmly fixed on Elphaba and even from the other side of the room, she could hear the mutterings.
"Is she green?"
"She's a freak!"
"Who is that?"
Elphaba tried to pretend she couldn't hear them, but she was desperately hoping for something, anything to break the silence and get the attention off of her.
Thankfully, a few minutes later the doors opened again and a small group of people bustled in, people Elphaba knew immediately were staff members. The woman leading the group was wearing heavy make-up and quite frankly, looked somewhat like a fish.
"Welcome! Welcome, new students!" she cried, attracting everyone's attention.
"I am Madame Morrible, Head Shizstress of Shiz University. And whether you are here to study law, logic or linguification, I know I speak for my fellow faculty members when I say we have nothing but the highest hopes… for some of you."
Elphaba thought that was an odd comment, but couldn't dwell on it as the HeadShizstress moved swiftly on to other matters. There was apparently some outcry when it was revealed that the blonde girl- it was Galinda, Elphaba was reminded as she introduced herself to Madame Morrible (Galinda Upland of the Upper Uplands, she'd added, stressing the latter part so all knew it was important); Galinda had apparently managed to snag herself a private suite, much to the dismay of her adoring fans.
Galinda managed to placate them with a vague promise they could all come visit her whenever they wanted, and Elphaba rolled her eyes.
Madame Morrible finished the basic administration details and dismissed them all. Throughout her speech, she somehow had not appeared to notice Elphaba, which was odd- lately, everyone always noticed Elphaba.
But Elphaba figured she should introduce herself, given that it had been Madame Morrible who had awarded her the scholarship that allowed her to come to Shiz in the first place. Morrible was still there, talking to a few students, including Galinda Upland and her posse.
"Excuse me? Madame Morrible?"
The Headshizstress turned and subconsciously jumped back, uttering a strangled half- gasp, half- scream when she saw Elphaba's face.
Galinda and her friends fell silent, but took a step back also, as though to put as much space between themselves and Elphaba as possible without being outwardly rude in front of Madame Morrible.
As she recovered from her fright, Madame Morrible placed a hand over her chest.
"Oh! My- my dear…"
Elphaba tried not to show her disconcertion. "Madame Morrible, my name is Elphaba Rozek. I- I wanted to introduce myself."
Madame Morrible raised an eyebrow. "Rozek?"
Elphaba nodded, and watched as Morrible looked through some pages on her clipboard.
"Ah, Miss Rozek. Our scholarship student!"
"Yes, Madame."
"Where is it exactly in the Emerald City that you came from, my dear?"
Elphaba stalled momentarily. People always had the same response when she answered that question.
"The- the Ernest Rusch Children's home, Ma'am."
Elphaba didn't miss how Galinda's eyes lit up at that information, and she immediately turned to whisper to her friends.
"Ah, yes. I recall your application. Well… I'm sure you're very bright."
"Bright? She's phosphorescent!" Elphaba clearly heard Galinda sneer to her friends, giggling and making no effort to keep her voice low.
She flushed and tried to pretend she hadn't heard. Madame Morrible either really hadn't heard, or likewise pretended she hadn't.
"Well, Miss Elphaba, welcome to Shiz. I trust you'll work hard, to prove you are deserving of this scholarship."
"Yes, Madame, I will," Elphaba replied immediately and Morrible nodded.
"Good. Well, if you'll excuse me," she said politely, and turned to address another one of the lingering students.
Elphaba decided while she was still on campus, she may as well go and buy her books for the semester. She had her small savings in her bag, and whilst she was almost loath to part with it, knowing she had so little, she knew she had to get her books at some stage.
She was able to easily spend two hours in the campus bookshop, not just buying the books she needed, but staring longingly at all the books she saw and wished she could buy, if only she had the money.
At first, it was just one or two that she thought could come in handy in relation to one of her subjects, and resolved to remember the titles. But the more she looked, the more she saw. Eventually, she gave up and rooted through her tote bag until she found a pencil and a scrap of paper and she wrote down title after title, to look them up in the Shiz library at a later date.
When she finally left the bookshop, the clerk staring after her in a mixture of fear and curiosity, she looked around aimlessly. She had nothing else to do until her first class the next afternoon.
'May as well go home, I guess,' she thought to herself with a little sigh. As she headed towards the campus exit, she walked past several large buildings, which according to the map, were the dorms.
Elphaba looked up at them, expecting to feel perhaps regret that she could not too room in the dorms with her fellow students, instead of a small, rundown apartment on the outskirts of town. After all, this was her first time living by herself. Even at the orphanage, she'd always shared a room with others, at one time with four other girls. But she didn't.
True, at the orphanage the other children had always been mostly polite to her; but there was always a distance between them. Elphaba had always known that she was different from them- and considered strange because of it. Her being green had never been a problem, just a difference.
It was wasn't until she had come here, to Shiz, that people made her feel like she was a freak because of the colour of her skin. Elphaba had, as promised, kept in touch with Kistine since leaving the orphanage, but she'd neglected to tell her about the negative aspects of things, merely focusing on the positive.
Although it felt odd at times to suddenly have all this space and especially- it was the silence that got to her; but she would rather be alone than be forced to room with any of the girls she'd so far met at Shiz.
Elphaba's first class was An Introduction to Ozian Law, and she was really excited. The teacher was a retired barrister, and was supposed to be an amazing teacher, from what she'd heard.
As she made her way to the classroom, she passed by a group of students in the hall. When they saw Elphaba, they immediately turned and whispered to one another.
"She's an orphan," she heard one of them hiss.
"I heard they used to lock her in the basement so people wouldn't think all the children were freaks," someone else replied.
"I heard her birth parents left her on the side of the road."
"Yeah, I heard that too. Wasn't it from a moving carriage too? They were trying to kill her."
"It was the doorstep, actually."
The group looked over to see Elphaba standing there, her arms crossed over her chest. They looked uncomfortable that they had been caught talking about her, but not ashamed for actually gossiping about her.
"I was left on the doorstep of the orphanage," Elphaba continued coldly, meeting their gazes. "And I was never locked in the basement. Any other rumours I can clear up for you?"
"It's not a rumour, but I'd like to know how in Oz's name you got here."
Elphaba turned to see Galinda standing behind her, her hand on her hip.
"I walked," she retorted, pretending to misunderstand.
Galinda smirked. "I see. Well, you are 'bright', aren't you?" she said mockingly, using the words Madame Morrible had used the day before.
Elphaba rolled her eyes and continued on to her classroom. As she walked away, she heard Galinda say loudly,
"I don't know what this place is coming to if they're going to allow this riff-raff in here. Giving an orphan a scholarship- especially when she looks like that. I was told Shiz was a place of prestige."
Elphaba kept walking and pretended her face wasn't flaming with embarrassment.