A/N: I think, as of this chapter, this is the longest thing I've ever written. Wow.
Anyway, you know the drill. I own nothing, you're awesome, reviews are great, enjoy!
The weekend passed all too quickly for Glinda, and soon enough she was sitting alone at a table before her life sciences class. Pfannee, Milla, and Shenshen had taken the table behind her, and she could feel their stares on the back of her head. Every giggle that drifted toward her ears made her stomach twist. If she could just get through this class then she'd be off to mathematics, where she could sit next to Elphaba, but for now she was alone.
To distract herself, she doodled aimlessly in the margins of her notebook. Random swirls and shapes started to take form: first a tall, arching window, then another one to match. Then a door between them, complete with an intricate knocker and steps going down. Glinda furrowed her brow and went on, sketching out stories and pillars, filling in brick or stone, adding windows and towers wherever she saw fit. She started jotting down notes about materials and colors and what sort of rooms would go where.
The teacher walked into the classroom with a cheery, "Good morning, class," and began writing that day's lesson on the board. Glinda sighed with relief and started copying down the notes, switching every once and a while between the lecture and her drawing. She could still hear the other girls behind her, but their whispers weren't quite as threatening as before.
In some far off corner of the campus, the bell tower chimed the hour. Glinda scooped up her books and hurried off to the math building before anyone could stop and talk to her. Pfannee and the others were in her math class, too, but maybe she could get a few minutes without them.
She walked into the classroom and straight up to the desk next to Elphaba. The green girl was bent over a notebook, writing intently, but she glanced up just long enough to give Glinda a half-smile greeting.
The blonde sat down and immediately immersed herself in her sketch again. Now she was adding angles and measurements in tiny lettering. She quickly wrote out some multiplication problems for the square footage, circled the answer, and went back to sketching.
"Whoa." Glinda looked up to see Elphaba looking over at her desk, eyebrows raised. "You did this?" Dark eyes rose to meet hers.
Glinda felt the blood rush to her face and she looked back down at the drawing without answering.
Elphaba looked around, making sure the classroom was empty before she leaned in closer. "Glinda…that's really good. I didn't know you can draw. What building is that?"
The blonde flushed deeper. "I-I designed it." She put her pen down and studied the drawing critically. "It's just something I scribbled out last period."
Elphaba reached over and tugged the corner of the paper, pulling it to where she could see better. "I didn't know you were interested in architecture."
"It's what I would have studied if I didn't like sorcery." Glinda looked back up at her roommate, gaining some confidence back. "I adore it. The design, the creativity, making something completely from scratch. And the fact that it's hard, honest work. Facts and figures are concrete—absolute—something you can rely on and build on." She stopped and pressed her lips together, but before she could get too embarrassed, Elphaba grinned and shook her head.
"I've never seen you that enthusiastic about anything but shopping," she said.
Glinda smiled back, but it soon faltered. "Well, I don't usually talk about it much. Especially not with…" She trailed off as the rest of the class began shuffling in. Elphaba followed the blonde's gaze to the three girls who had just entered the classroom. Her eyes darkened a little, and she nodded knowingly as she turned back to Glinda.
"Don't ever stifle who you are." There was a quiet sort of intensity to the green girl's voice. "You shouldn't have to miss out on your life just to please someone else."
Before the blonde could respond, Elphaba had turned back to her own desk and was pulling out her math book. Glinda blinked a couple of times, smiling to herself, and then pulled out her own things.
"Sweet Oz, do they sit next to each other in every class now?"
Glinda rolled her eyes. "You're right, Pfannee," she said without looking back at them. "Lurline forbid that I sit where I want in class." Elphaba's lips twitched.
"Good morning, everybody," their professor said, walking toward the front of the room. "If I remember correctly, we were just starting our discussion about angle properties and conversions. So, if you will all turn to page three hundred and ninety-four in your books…"
Glinda went through class like normal, copying down the problems as they were given, answering them quickly, and then circling the solution before returning to her various doodles on the side. Every question their teacher asked was met with silence, and Elphaba was left to answer almost every time. The blonde noticed, however, that her roommate waited before raising her hand, and only when the silence began to get uncomfortable did she volunteer. Glinda scowled a little at her notebook. She scribbled a few words down in the margin: was everything I knew about her wrong?
She immediately crossed the words out.
When the bell tolled across campus, the roommates packed up and left together. Elphaba glanced cautiously around them as they headed down the path that would lead to Crage Hall. She wanted to ask something, but she didn't want the blonde's answer to be overheard and twisted into more vicious insults.
Seeing no one within earshot, she spoke up. "Glinda, why don't you ever answer in class?"
Glinda stayed quiet for a moment. "Not everyone's as smart as you, Elphie," she said quietly, "Math is hard to follow."
"Not for you," the green girl pointed out. "I saw you writing all those answers down."
"They were just guesses," she replied, a defensive edge to her tone, "They're not right a lot of the time."
But that wasn't true. She had watched her, and Glinda answered every question correctly, sometimes even before Elphaba was finished. The green girl studied her roommate closely. She's embarrassed. She's embarrassed about being smart.
"I guess it makes sense," Elphaba said casually. "Math fits pretty closely into architecture. I could never do something like that—keep all those angles and dimensions and conversions straight."
Glinda tilted her head to the side, keeping her eyes on the sidewalk. "But…you already do that. Oz, Elphaba, you're the smartest one in every class."
"So then why were you finishing your answers before me half the time?"
The blonde flushed slightly, but she stayed silent. The two girls entered their dorm room, shrugging off their coats as they began to warm up. Elphaba immediately went to her desk and began switching out the books in her bag, but Glinda moved slowly to her bed. She sat down gingerly, twisting her fingers in her lap.
"Elphie?"
"Mm?" The green girl didn't even look up.
She kept staring at her fingers, tangling and untangling them. "Sometimes it's…hard."
Elphaba glanced up at the tone of her voice. Her brow furrowed. "What's hard?"
"You said not to stifle myself, and I…I want to."
"Glinda?"
"I want to be good at math and I want to design buildings. I want to do well in all my classes and have all the teachers like me. Believe it or not, I worked hard to get into Shiz. My parents wanted me to just get married, but I fought them until they agreed to let me come here. So yeah, I want to get good grades and learn things. But sometimes…sometimes all I can think about is what people will say…and how they'll look at me…"
Elphaba just stared at her. The blonde swallowed hard and kept looking down.
"I know that makes me weak, and it's not fair to you at all, but I just…I can't..."
"No one's asking you to change overnight," she said softly.
"I changed my entire name!" Glinda burst out. "I changed my name, and my friends, and everything! But I'm not strong enough to stop caring about what they think."
"Oz, Glinda, even I care what they think."
The blonde's head jerked up at that. "Y-you do?"
Elphaba nodded, and Glinda shook her head, letting out a choked laugh. "Elphie, you terrible green thing. Here you had us all believing that you didn't give a twig about what any of us said or did."
The green girl smiled gently. "That, my sweet, comes from years of practice." She slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm going to class. Boq has asked us to join him and Crope and Tibbett for dinner, by the way. Just so you know." She slipped out the door before the blonde could respond.
Glinda stared at the spot where her roommate had been, thinking hard. Years of practice? It wasn't the first time she had wondered about Elphie's home life, but it was the first time she was genuinely, wholeheartedly concerned. She was so preoccupied, in fact, that she almost didn't notice the words of endearment.
Almost.
Glinda felt a little anxious when she walked into the café that evening. But unlike Saturday morning, the group almost immediately put her at ease.
Boq waved her over, and she took the seat next to him, across from Elphaba. Crope and Tibbett tipped imaginary hats to her, both of them sporting the same mischievous grin. Conversation rose and fell naturally as the five of them settled in. Crope and Tibbett teased and joked with everyone. Boq blushed frequently and came up with the occasional witty comeback. Elphaba smirked with the boys, falling into casual debates whenever they goaded her. No one laughed harshly and mercilessly at any of the others. No one fought to be the center of attention, or forced a smile, or made vicious remarks just to make themselves seem better.
Glinda enjoyed every second of it.
Every once in a while, she caught Elphaba sneaking glances at her. She couldn't tell what was on her face—concern? Anxiousness? Content? Was the green girl still thinking about their conversation from that afternoon? Was she worried about what Glinda thought of Boq and the others? Was she just happy that, for once, they got to spend time out and about campus without worrying about everyone else? Whatever the reason, every look Glinda saw out of the corner of her eyes made her cheeks flush a little deeper, the green girl's attention making dinner that much more enjoyable.