Unsurprisingly, Elphaba did not have Life Sciences, Literature, and Botany classes with Boq nor Avaric.
Literature class had been cancelled for the day, apparently, the professor was suddenly called on for an emergency in which the class cared nothing for. Thus, they all retreated outside and spread out, from the Shiz garden to the empty hallways and some to their dorms.
Elphaba on the other hand, made her way to the library. The doors and the halls leading up to the library were very intimidating. The great Oak used for the door was simply divine. And as the other doors around the campus, there were also very intricate designs carved on it. As Elphaba opened the doors, the scent of old books hit her nose, the warmth of the fireplace in the middle of library made her feel welcome. The library was big and grand, it would have fit about a quarter of all the Ozians. Let's not overlook the chairs, they were comfortable looking single sofa's and not wooden seats. She was glad she was able to see it and spent a solid thirty minutes there, before making her way to her Life Sciences class.
Their Life Sciences professor was an Animal ― or rather ― a Goat. He stood on his hind legs, stout and regal in some way. He spoke of the subject with this undeniable passion; he spoke of it with such devotion and fidelity that once the bell had rung, most of the students were still discussing the differences of animals and Animals. His name was Demitry Dillamond.
Rather impressed with the subject and its professor, Elphaba grew fonder with the subject and its handler. She always had this inclination and passion for Life Sciences, not treating it as a subject but a part of the whole world.
This passion for Life Sciences started to sprout when she was at a tender age of four years old. At the time, Elphaba resided in Rush Margins along with her mother and her father: Melena and Frexspar. Their neighbors were of course, Boq and his family and a family of Gazelles. When Frespar would go on his preaching missions, Melena and her offsprings would head down to the Hanthrop's house and the Gazelles would also be there. At times that Melena would not be home, the Maurisa, the female Gazelle, would make her way to the Thropp's residence and bring the children some food. These Gazelles served as an extension of some sort for the Thropp family, that was until the Wizard came by, and everything changed.
Botany was fine too, if not less interesting than Life Sciences. It was taught by a middle aged man, with a balding spot at the top of his head. His name was Knollan Hemister, as he had said for how many times all throughout the introductions. Unlike the other professors, he made the whole class introduce themselves individually while standing in front of the whole class. Stating mandatory things like: names, family lineage, interests, and other things. Professor Knollan (as he preferred himself to be called) threw in a few questions while the students introduced themselves. Questions like: "Have you any interest in actually pursuing botany?", and occasionally, if he sit fit, he would ask actual questions concerning Botany. One of which was: "What is the scientific name of the Poppy plant?" and of course only one student was able to answer that: Elphaba.
Now, Elphaba was at the brink of exhaustion, but not quite yet. As she walked down hallways, went down steps, and went up some stairs and reached the top of the stairs near their dorm; she felt like she could dive on her mattress and sleep for all eternity. That was, until her stomach made a rumbling sound and she realized, she was famished. Logically, she would have gone into their room and dropped her bag off, but her tired mind and empty stomach were much too unbearable to not pay immediate attention to.
She went down the stairs again, and made her way to a café near Suicide Canal. A booth near the edge caught her eye and mechanically, her feet moved towards it. She sat down and set her satchel next to her. After saying her order, she brought her hands u to her temples and began a slow rhythm of rubbing them and in the process, she felt her eyes begin to close.
Almost half-way closed, the door to the café burst open, making the bell sound a tad more louder. Elphaba slowly fluttered her eyes open and stared at the table for a few moments before she felt something that completely jolted her whole body awake. Her fingertips were glowing peculiarly with a purple tinge. Similar to yesterday's events, the air around her suddenly began to fizzle and crackle and somehow, Elphaba knew who had just entered the café.
A squeal, and then Elphaba felt the strong urge to look up. When she did, a mass of blonde hair engulfed her face and lithe arms pulled her in for an awkward hug: awkward wherein Galinda was standing up and hugging Elphaba's face to her chest.
"Oh, Elphie! You don't know how atrocious my day has been!" From there, Galinda took a few steps back and sat in front of Elphaba. She began telling the other woman of her whole day, from Political Sciences to the 'scandalicious' Vinkun Prince. All the while, Elphaba was not not listening per se; she was simply observing the blonde as she gushed on and on. Elphaba took note of the small change in coloring of Galinda's cheeks. Also, the green woman noticed how completely giddy and bouncy the blonde was.
"Galinda," Elphaba started as she stared at the blonde "Calm down, okay. What is it you are trying to tell me?" Rude? No, simple straight to the point.
Galinda stared at her for a few moments with a look of undisguised shock because of the interruption. "Why, Elphaba, I was simply telling you about my day. I see my presence is not welcomed here." She said and prepared herself to stand up, "very well then, I-" she was unable to finish her sentence for a hand grabbed her wrist, stopping her in her tracks.
"I apologize. I did not mean it that way." Elphaba looked up at her with her disgustifyingly wonderful and soulful eyes. "I think my agitation was caused by the abrupt cancellation of Literature. Forgive me." She then loosened her grip on the blonde's wrist and stared down at the table once more.
The blonde looked down at Elphaba, it was only the first day of school and already the stress had both gone into their heads. Galinda simply smiled and nodded then took a seat again.
There was an uncomfortable silence between the two.
"Here, let me take you out on some coffee or whichever you prefer." Elphaba said as she grabbed her money pouch, ready to extract money for Galinda's meal.
Galinda giggled, maybe this was Elphaba's nervous side or her guilty side, whichever, Elphaba was cute either way. "Thank you for being chivalrous, but may I just ask-"
She stopped, then looked Elphaba directly in the eye.
"Is this how you make advances on people you like?" Galinda joked and giggled once more, but seeing Elphaba's cheeks take on a darker shade of green, she realized her error.
"I-uhm, I didn't-uhm…" Thankfully, the waitress had brought Elphaba her order at that precise moment.
Before the waitress left, Elphaba looked at Galinda and said: "Please, Galinda, order." She smiled. Her cheeks were now a much more normal color of green by now.
And order Galinda did: A croissant and a cup of coffee.
While waiting for Galinda's order, Elphaba did not touch her food. Taking notice of this, Galinda spoke up: "I respect your gallantness, Elphie. But please do eat now." She smiled, hoping the awkwardness that had began to cloud the atmosphere would lift somehow.
Sensing the blonde's apprehension, Elphaba grabbed Galinda's hands and stared at cerulean orbs before saying: "No harm done." She did not indicate which she was referring to, but Galinda knew. And with a reassuring smile from Elphaba, the awkwardness disappeared.
The two friends talked for quite some time, things like where the other grew up, favorite kind of coffee, preferences to just about anything.
Talking to Galinda made Elphaba see something: she saw how blithe and excitable Galinda was.
Actually, she was surprised at herself too, at her being able to slide into conversation so easily and languidly.
When the topic reached family though, it was as if Elphaba's fallen walls had started to reconstruct and grew even higher. Galinda noticed her shoulders tense, and she could see something in Elphaba's eye which seemed grim and haunted. Politely, Galinda did not push the topic of families anymore and decided she'd go with something simpler.
"What are your beliefs? Your passions?" Galinda queried.
At this, Galinda could almost see the invisible walls come down, she could see marvelous green eyes light up and fleetingly she thought of possible answers.
"Beliefs are something which I view as subjective. Why believe in beliefs and fate when you can pave your own way? When you can create your own? Why believe that a stronger and more powerful force is controlling us, like little marionettes pulled on strings by a haughty and narcissistic puppeteer? Tell me, my darling Galinda. What is the purpose of a belief?"
'A debate. Really, Elphie?' The blonde thought, but seeing Elphaba so wound up and full of passion, she rose to the bait.
"First, beliefs are somewhat of a constant normalcy for other people that they hold on to them for dear life. That they would risk everything and anything for their beliefs. People crave normal, Elphaba. People crave constant and unchanging. Second, a lot of people lose hope in humanity and everything else. They get their strength from something as mundane as beliefs, their belief in success, their belief in love, their belief on bonds. Simply, the purpose of a belief is to give hope."
Elphaba looked at her and for a second Galinda could see the cynical look on Elphaba's face, but after a millisecond, it was gone.
Elphaba swirled the cup of coffee in her hands before looking directly at Galinda again: "Tell me, what do you perceive success, love and bonds to be?"
Galinda bit into what was left of her croissant before answering: "Success," she stopped "isn't what the world dictates as an accomplishment. Success for a single person, should be getting to live freely, being able to live a day of being themselves and not giving a single care as to what other people think. Success is being happy with yourself."
The verdant woman considered this before saying: "What is love then?"
The blonde sat up straighter and mustered all her courage before speaking: "Love," a melodramatic pause "Love is when your insides feel as though they're being knotted into a complex pretzel. Love is comparable to nothing else on this earth, love is ethereal. It can come at any time it pleases, it sneaks up on you life a hunter for a prey. Love, is unfathomable, it is when you have the thoughts and feelings and yet, in all this world, there is not a word you can describe that feeling with, and then you struggle to find the word that best defines it. And that's the thing about love: there is not a thing on this world that could describe it, except for the simple name of your beloved. Love is love."
After saying this, Galinda felt a little light-headed and out of breath. Did she just say that in rapid-fire style?
The cup of coffee on Elphaba's hands was already empty. And the owner of said hands had their brow furrowed. "Tell me Galinda, if love is so undefinable, where did you find the words to define it then?"
Surprised that Elphaba did not ask about 'bonds' yet, her eyebrows suspiciously skyrocketed upwards. "Uhm.." At a complete lost for words, Galinda bends over the table and her hands reaches for Elphaba's chest, the area where her heart was. "It comes from here, Elphie." And slowly, Galinda touches the skin on Elphaba's chest. "You don't define it, you feel it."
As if on cue, the spot which the blonde was touching felt as though it emanated a great warm summer's day into Elphaba's skin. Like the single finger pressing into her skin was injecting a thousand butterflies into her.
Not satisfied, Galinda added: "Love comes from nowhere but is everywhere at once."
This statement seemed to have rendered Elphaba speechless and in thought. That single and simply constructed sentence but in meaning, it had too many dimensions, some of which Elphaba herself did not understand. In truth, she had never understood how feelings worked.
How was one to love and understand when all it resulted to was hurt and confusion? How was one to believe in promises of "til death's" and "forever and always'" when even simple promises were hard to fulfill? How was one to believe in "together forever's" when one has not even remotely experienced love and any kind of rapport?
Holding back any more questions and retorts, Elphaba gives in and smiles at Galinda with such warmth and ― or was it just Galinda's strong imagination ― awe.
Tired of banter and her stress of the day, Galinda started taling about more light-hearted topics and having sensed this, Elphaba went along with it.
Unbeknownst to the pair, the door to the café opened once more. Revealing a tan-skinned man, wearing some kind of a red shirt with a white vest ― and let's not forget ― tight white pants.
He spotted Galinda's blonde hair and immediately recognized as the girl from Political Science class, he made his way to her booth, thinking she was alone. That was, until he heard her talking out loud. Confused, he slowed his pace and tried to spot who the blonde was conversing with. A little move of his head to the right, and he finally caught sight of who Galinda was talking with. He came closer to make sure his eyes were not betraying him and they weren't.
A smile appeared on his face and he took a few strides towards the pair and asked: "Elphaba?"
Obviously livid, Elphaba stopped talking and lifted her head up to see what in Oz's name gave this stranger the courage and confidence to disrupt their conversation.
Then a twinkle of familiarity appeared in her eyes as she said his name in utter bewilderment. "Fiyero?"
Is it just me or does Prince Edward from Enchanted act very much like Fiyero? (in the musical)
Reviews are the Elphaba to my Galinda, or in this, towards the chapter's end's case: the Fiyero to my Elphaba.
-Neroli