AN. So everyone likes the crapartment, huh?
Wicked Is my Life- No, Elphaba is not allergic to water. It's musicalverse, not bookverse.
This chapter is for Julia (who there is a tiny reference in this chapter just for her) and for Kelly and Liana (who I am seeing VERY soon! Hooray!)
Six
Shiz wasn't exactly how Elphaba imagined it. In some ways it was better- she was loving her classes, her teachers and the sense she got from knowing she was working towards her goal. Between classwork and her shifts at Identity, she rarely had a moment of spare time and was busier than she had ever been, but she was thriving on it.
But the situation between her and her fellow students had not improved, even a month later. Elphaba loathed all those rich, privileged kids thinking that she wasn't good enough to be there, simply because she was working her way through instead of living off trust funds. And even if it wasn't bad enough she had to see them in class, many of them quite often came to eat at Identity. In the beginning, they usually purposefully requested not to be served by Elphaba, but that was inconvenient for the staff, so Idonea and Alun instated a policy that customers could not request their servers.
"If you have a problem with the service, file a complaint or leave," Alun told Galinda and her friends, when they complained.
It wasn't all of them, some students were friendly enough. The girl in the wheelchair, Nessarose Thropp and her friend Boq were friendly enough. They were polite when they saw Elphaba and occasionally made light conversation, but they never went out of their way to talk to her.
It was a Friday in early October. Elphaba had rushed to the restaurant from her only class that day and had turned up to find chaos. Nalini had to go home early because she was sick, Alun was in the Emerald City, so it was only Dev and Kaylan there holding down the fort.
"We've been trying to find Ankita," Dev told Elphaba as she hurriedly threw on the black apron she wore over her black dress. "Idonea went to her apartment but no one was there."
"She's off this weekend, going to see her boyfriend in Gilikin, remember?" Elphaba reminded him. "Where's Idonea now?"
"She's out the back, sorting out a mess with the deliveries. And typically, this all hits when we're having the busiest lunch rush we've had in weeks and I haven't gotten my lunch break."
"Let me get a handle on things in here, and I can cover you," Elphaba promised him.
He grinned at her. "You're a doll, snow pea."
Elphaba rolled her eyes and went to work.
As promised, once Elphaba felt she was somewhat on top of everything, she sent Dev for his break. She'd seen Idonea, who had promised to be out to help as soon as she'd sorted out the mix up and dramas with their suppliers.
"Uh, excuse me? Green girl?"
Elphaba whirled around as she was heading towards the kitchen with an armful of dirty dishes.
There was a tall boy standing at the entrance, leaning casually against the podium where the menus and reservation book were kept for seating people. He had bluish-grey eyes and curly dark blonde hair. He had a newspaper folded up in his hand and was casually tapping it against his other palm. Elphaba couldn't help but notice he was very handsome. He looked slightly familiar, but she couldn't place the face.
"Can I help you?" she asked coolly, but politely. He may be a customer, but she didn't take well to being addressed as "green girl", as true as that description may be.
He looked around the restaurant before answering. "Uh, yeah- any chance of getting a table any time soon?"
"There's a fifteen minute wait on a table," she replied curtly, the dishes in her arms beginning to strain.
The boy raised an eyebrow. He seemed vaguely amused and surprised, although Elphaba couldn't imagine why. It was almost as though she was expected to know him. "So… that's a no?"
"I'll seat you as soon as I can," Elphaba promised vaguely and hurried off before he could say anything else.
"Order's up for table six," Kaylan greeted her as she entered the kitchen and set the empty dishes on the bench.
"Got it," she replied with a nod and a quick smile, picking up the order and heading back out to the restaurant.
After giving table six their orders, Elphaba whipped out a rag and hastily wiped down the table she had cleared moments earlier. Then table four ordered more drinks and she had to go fill that order. She was just heading back towards the front of the room when a party of four entered who had made a reservation the day before, so she seated them at the table she'd just cleared.
The boy, who was still waiting, caught her attention as she was coming back to the bar to get their drinks.
"Did you forget me? I'm pretty sure I was here first."
Elphaba looked at him calmly. "They had a reservation. Do you have a reservation?"
"Nope. I'm just passing through, saw this place and thought I'd check it out."
"Well, there's still a ten minute wait on a table if you care to wait."
Elphaba could feel him watching her as she bustled around delivering food, drinks and clearing tables or cleaning when needed. But whenever she looked in his direction, he made a big show of examining his newspaper.
She was just behind the bar, getting yet more drinks and hoping desperately that Dev would be back from his break soon, when the boy leaned over the side wall that separated the bar from the foyer.
"Hey-"
Elphaba snapped. "Look," she said brusquely, turning to him. "We are short staffed, busy and I am doing the job of three people here. I'm sorry, but I will seat you as soon as it is possible, okay? If you don't like it, you're free to leave."
The boy raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, I was just going to ask you when your birthday was."
Elphaba was surprised and suspicious. "Why?"
"Making conversation?" he suggested.
Elphaba paused, but answered, figuring at least then she could get back to work. "April twelfth."
He nodded slowly, as though pondering that. "April twelfth. Thanks."
"No worries," Elphaba muttered, picking up the drinks and walking away.
It was when she was back at the bar a few minutes later that he spoke again.
"Uh, oh. You might want to see this."
Elphaba looked up, startled by his tone. "See what?"
He waved the paper at her casually. "Your horoscope."
Elphaba snorted. "I don't believe any of that rubbish."
He grinned. "No? Well, I think you might want to check this one. You're an Aries, right?"
"I guess," she replied slowly.
"That's a coincidence. I'm a Leo. Our signs are compatible, did you know that?"
Elphaba stared at him as though he had two heads. "No, I didn't know that."
"Well, you really will want to see this," he said pushing the paper towards her.
Cautiously, she took the paper he offered and looked at the horoscopes page. And there, next to Aries, was something scribbled in an unfamiliar handwriting.
"You will meet a handsome, charming and persistent young man today. If you seat him and give him food, he'll go away," she read aloud.
Then she looked up at him and smirked. "Thanks for that. Let me know if he shows up, will you?"
He laughed and merely looked at her, smiling charmingly.
Elphaba wanted to be able to ignore him, but she felt as though her face was turning red the longer he looked at her. She resisted for a moment longer before rolling her eyes. "You could eat at the bar if you're desperate, I suppose."
"I'm desperate," he replied quickly, and she gestured for him to take a seat at the bar.
Elphaba grabbed a menu and handed to him as he seated himself at the bar. He made a big show of studying it and ignoring Elphaba as she waited impatiently. Finally, she picked up her pencil that she used to take orders and hastily wrote something next to the horoscope for Leo.
Without saying anything, she slid the paper back over to him and walked away to clear a few more tables as people left. She purposely didn't look back at the boy, so she didn't see his reaction as he picked up the paper with interest and saw what she had written.
'You will meet a green waitress today. Do not keep her waiting and tip her well, and she won't spit in your food.'
When she returned to the bar a minute later, he was still chuckling to himself.
"Are you ready to order or do you need another minute?" she asked, extra sweetly.
He only grinned. "No, I'm good."
Dev came back just as she finished taking down his order, so Elphaba's need to spend much time at the bar was greatly reduced. She didn't even interact with the boy again until she was collecting a drink order as he was paying his bill.
"Hey, green girl?"
Elphaba turned to him, frowning at the 'green girl' title once again. He was ripping a little bit out of the paper and he handed it to her with the bill. When Elphaba looked down, she saw it was a generous tip in addition to the bill, and the tiny Aries horoscope.
"In case that guy turns up," he winked at her. "You should hang on to it. It might bring you luck."
Elphaba said nothing, she couldn't before he turned and walked away.
"Who's the guy, sugar snap?" Dev asked and Elphaba turned to him, rolling her eyes.
"Really, Dev? How do you make a vegetable sound like a sickening nickname?" she demanded.
He shrugged. "It's a gift."
She rolled her eyes again as she picked up the tray of drinks to deliver. Almost subconsciously, she slipped the paper into her apron pocket.
Elphaba was only doing a five hour shift that day, and she had almost an hour to go when Idonea pulled her aside.
"Nalini was supposed to work at the OzDust tonight, but she obviously can't now. Are you interested in covering her shift?"
Elphaba's eyes widened in surprise. She'd never worked at the OzDust before, but it was that little bit extra money that she never passed up an opportunity for.
"Sure, I can do that. What time?"
"Seven to eleven, that okay?"
Elphaba nodded eagerly. "No worries."
It would only give her two hours between finishing Identity and starting at the OzDust, but the extra money from working tonight would allow her to maybe treat herself come payday.
When she entered the OzDust Ballroom that night, she was surprised by the crowd. There were many kids she recognised faintly from Shiz, and it seemed as if the whole campus was there.
"It's like one big party," she muttered to herself, making her way through the room to find the duty manager.
She soon realised, that that was exactly what it was. Elphaba was surprised that she felt slighted for not knowing about the party, although she hadn't expected to be invited. How long had they been planning this party?
But that aside, she was enjoying the work. It was just bar work, a matter of delivering drinks and clearing tables, but the whole atmosphere was different than working at Identity. About twenty minutes into her shift, she was making her way through the crowd with a tray of punch when she found herself facing Nessarose and Boq.
"Oh, hi, Elphaba," Boq greeted her.
"Hi. Would you like some punch?" she offered.
"What's in it?" Nessarose asked her.
"Melons, lemons and pears," Elphaba replied, supressing the urge to wrinkle her nose.
"Oh, my!" Nessarose exclaimed and politely refused a cup, as did Boq.
"So, what's the occasion?" Elphaba asked, gesturing to the room and Boq looked surprised.
"You haven't heard?"
At her questioning glance, Nessarose explained. "We have a new student. Fiyero Tiggular, the Vinkun prince?"
Elphaba had heard of him, of course, he had quite the "scandalacious" reputation and many of the teenage girls in the orphanage had had pictures of him cut out from magazines in their rooms over the past few years, swooning over him- and his hair.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, he's over there- with Galinda," Boq pointed.
Elphaba looked over, although she really wasn't that interested and got a jolt of surprise. For there, on Galinda's arm, was the handsome, charming boy from the restaurant at lunch.
"That's Fiyero Tiggular?" she asked in surprise. Of course, now she realised why he'd looked faintly familiar and felt slightly stupid for not recognising him, even though she'd never really noticed all the magazine articles about him.
"Yeah. He's taller than I imagined," Boq grumbled, and Elphaba supressed a laugh. It was a well- known fact around campus that Boq was head over heels in love with Galinda, and seeing her draped all over Fiyero Tiggular must not be a beautiful image to the Munchkin boy.
Although Elphaba was surprised at the twinge of jealously she felt seeing him with Galinda.
"Sorry, Boq," Elphaba apologised with a faint smile and excused herself.
Despite what was in it, the melons, lemons and pears punch disappeared fairly quickly. Elphaba was just cleaning up a few tables littered with empty glasses when she found herself face to face with Galinda, who looked just as unimpressed to see Elphaba as Elphaba felt to see her.
"What are you doing here?" she sneered.
"Salsa dancing," Elphaba replied dryly, because honestly, the apron and tray were kind of self- explanatory.
Galinda scoffed. "Please. You don't work here."
"I picked up a few extra shifts here. I'm sorry, I didn't know I needed your approval," she replied coldly.
The blonde girl smirked. "Don't think you can show up here and get in with the popular kids. It doesn't work like that."
"I'm working," Elphaba said flatly. "I'm here for no other reason than I'm getting paid to do so. Believe me, I have better things to do with my time than to pretend I give a damn about what colours are "in" this season."
The two girls glared at one another, then a male voice broke the silence. "Hey, Galinda, did you want-" Fiyero broke off mid-sentence as he saw who his date was talking with.
"Well, if it isn't the green girl," he greeted her. "Welcome to the party."
She stared at him, unimpressed. "I'm working."
"Hi, working. I'm Fiyero," he replied and extended his hand.
Elphaba raised an eyebrow but sighed and took it, a little surprised he was willing to touch the green girl.
She felt a slight flutter in her stomach at his touch. "Elphaba," she introduced herself quickly, and pulled her hand back quickly.
Galinda slid an arm around Fiyero's waist and giggled. "Dearest, I was just asking… Elphaba, here to bring me a drink. Would you like one?"
"Sure," Fiyero agreed easily. "What are we having?"
Galinda turned back to face Elphaba. "Two Ozmopolitans," she ordered brusquely, her tone making it perfectly clear that Elphaba was just an employee.
Elphaba forced a tight smile. "Coming up."
"Who's that?" Fiyero asked Galinda as Elphaba disappeared and they joined a group of kids.
Galinda shrugged dismissively. "Some scholarship student. She's an orphan," she added in a low voice, as though it were a shameful secret.
"And a freak," Pfannee added. "I mean- she's green."
"Such a low class," another boy added quietly. "I can't believe they let her in, even if she is so smart."
"It brings down the whole university," Shen-Shen agreed.
Fiyero said nothing, just took it all in. So, the green girl was an orphan… she definitely didn't fit in with the rest of the students at Shiz. But still… there was something about her that intrigued him. He just wasn't sure why.
AN. In case no one knows what a sugar snap is (I know sometimes vegetables have different names in different countries, or don't exist at all), it's a type of pea.