Sorry it's late; I've got a lot of stuff to do and I don't have very many pre-written chapter for this one, so updates will be a bit irregular. Sorry in advance! That being said, thanks for all your reviews and here is the next chapter. :)

2. Behind the Scenes

Upon Elphaba and Glinda's return from the Emerald City, now a little over six months ago, things had changed drastically. She'd suddenly had all this new information to deal with and it had been hard on her. Not just processing everything she had learned about the Wizard not being nearly as wonderful as she'd always thought he was and attempting to forgive him for everything he'd done; but also dealing with the knowledge that he was her biological father. She'd been utterly confused. Should she tell Frex? Nessa? Should she try to fight the Wizard or work with him? Did she want a relationship with him and if so, what kind of relationship? What in Oz was she supposed to do now?

The only people she'd told the truth about everything almost instantly were Nessarose, Fiyero, and Boq – Glinda, of course, already knew what had happened, since she had been with Elphaba on the trip. The green girl had talked about it with Nessarose, who advised her reluctantly to not tell Frexspar about this. Elphaba had agreed. This new information would not improve their relationship. He might even throw her out of the house and she didn't want that, especially since it would mean she'd have limited access to Nessa once they would graduate from Shiz – if she could even finish Shiz, because Frex would most likely stop paying her tuition, too. Thankfully that situation had been solved in the end, but back then she'd been determined to keep her newly regained knowledge about her parentage hidden from him.

On top of all that, everyone at Shiz seemed to be acting strangely as well. Nessa was still having a hard time accepting that her sister was actually her half-sister and had been acting a little awkward around Elphaba. Glinda kept shooting Elphaba sympathetic glances and asking her if she was okay, telling her roommate that she was there for her if she needed to talk. Boq just seemed to be completely in awe of the fact that Elphaba was, in fact, the Wizard's daughter and thus the princess of Oz – he now started to stammer and stutter around her the way he always used to do around Glinda, which was extremely annoying.

As for Fiyero... well, he'd come to pick them up from the train station the day they had returned, acting just as strangely as he had when they'd left. He brushed Glinda off with a quick kiss to the cheek and a "Hi, Glin" before hugging Elphaba – much to her discomfort – and handing her another bouquet of poppies. Glinda had confronted him about his behaviour that same night and they had broken up, although they had agreed to remain friends. Elphaba still didn't know what to make of that whole situation, but had decided she probably didn't even want to know, ignoring the small part of her that was relieved at Fiyero and Glinda's break-up.

Ever since then, Fiyero had been acting a little strange, too – such as right now. She was studying for their impending midterms (the fact that she was apparently participating in a stupid beauty pageant did not change anything about her resolve to try her hardest in school) and he was watching her. She was trying very hard to ignore him, but it was like she could feel his bright blue eyes burning a hole in the side of her head and she finally looked up. "Seriously, Tiggular, what is your problem?"

He blinked. "Huh? Problem? I don't have a problem."

She gritted her teeth. "Then stop watching me."

"Oh." He flushed, which confused her a little. "Sorry."

She kept staring at him pointedly until he lowered his gaze, his fingers playing with a pencil. She felt like lately, since not too long before she and Glinda had left for the Emerald City, the atmosphere between her and Fiyero had changed and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing. For the past year or so, she'd really liked being friends with him. It was nice to not only have Nessa and Glinda to confide in; no matter how wonderful they were and how much she loved the very first friend she'd ever had, Fiyero often viewed things in a different way she found refreshing – not to mention he never squealed or giggled, which was definitely a plus.

On the other hand, however, she often felt awkward around him, like when he kept staring at her or touched her just a little too long. She also felt like she couldn't read him anymore. He'd been an open book to her in the beginning – spoilt playboy prince pretending to be self-absorbed and shallow when really, he was just unhappy – but now she often had no idea what he was thinking or feeling and it drove her mad, especially since she had always prided herself on her ability to see right through other people.

"Fabala?"

Shaken from her thoughts, Elphaba looked up to see her younger sister approaching, her chair being pushed by Glinda. The blonde was wearing her school uniform, but it was so covered in sequins that she nearly blinded everyone around her – knowing Glinda, she'd probably deemed her regular school uniform too boring all of a sudden and decided to make it look "prettier". Nessa, in comparison, looked demurely elegant in her own dark blue and white uniform, her hair pulled back with a headband as usual.

"Glinda," said Fiyero, blinking furiously and squinting against the light reflected by the sequins. "What in Oz...?"

"Do you like it?" the petite girl gushed, twirling so that everyone could admire her new attire from all angles. "I was just looking at my uniform the other day and I was thinking that it's so incredibly boring, so I sent it to that dress shop in town to make some changes. I offered to have Nessa's done, too, to give her some extra flash – especially with the Miss Emerald elections coming up – but she said it's not really her thing."

Elphaba exchanged a look with her sister behind Glinda's back. Nessa grimaced and Elphaba had to bite back a laugh. She couldn't imagine pristine, modest Nessarose wheeling across campus all sparkly and glittery.

"I'd offer to have Elphie's done," Glinda continued, "but I'm not even going to bother."

Elphaba patted her on the back. "Look at that. She can be taught."

"Speaking of Elphie and fashion," her roommate continued without so much as pausing to breathe, "I need to talk to you. Preferably now."

Elphaba looked at Nessa, who shrugged; and then at Fiyero, who also didn't seem to know what this was about. "Um... okay?"

She let Glinda pull her into the hallway and then into the girls' bathroom, where she waited until the two girls working on their make-up in front of the mirror had left before starting to talk. "Elphie, Dr Dillamond told me about your meeting and your plans regarding the Miss Emerald competition," she said.

Elphaba groaned. "Right."

"Are you sure about this?"

"No." The young witch tiredly rubbed her forehead. "But I have to. I hate this whole thing already, but these threats are serious, Glin, and if I can help protect you and Nessa and those other girls this way, I will."

"I know." Glinda sighed. "Oh, Elphie, it's just that... and I don't mean this in a mean way, but... a beauty pageant? You? Are you really sure about that? They're going to tear you to pieces, Elphaba."

Elphaba huffed. "You're always saying I shouldn't listen to what everyone says and that I'm 'beautiful in my own way'." She used her fingers as quote marks, obviously not believing a word of it, even though Glinda had indeed been trying to tell her roommate that ever since they had become friends.

"I know. And you are." Glinda looked troubled. "It's just that other people can't seem to see that. I do think you're beautiful, Elphie – you know, more so if you'd get rid of the glasses and the braid and the horrible black frocks, but that's beside the point. All those other girls aren't going to be nice to you and the press... I just don't want you to get hurt."

"Okay, let me get a few things straight," said Elphaba sternly, locking her eyes with Glinda's. "First and foremost, I'd gladly take a billion insults if it means I can somehow keep you and Nessa from getting hurt. And second," she added, "it's not like I'm not used to people hating me and letting me know very explicitly that they do. I don't care about them. I'm just going to focus on this mission and I can take whatever they throw at me."

Glinda opened her mouth, but the green girl cut her off. "I know what you're going to say and I won't deny that the things people say about me bother me, Glin. I won't deny that it hurts, because I know you know me better than that. But I have you, I have Fiyero, Nessa, and even Boq; and now Oscar, Dr Dillamond, and Chistery, too... I can handle insults from a bunch of ignorant Ozians. Really. If only because, if they're so interested in an Oz-damned beauty pageant, they're obviously not intelligent enough for me to even care about their opinion."

Glinda crossed her arms and tapped her foot and Elphaba grinned at her. "With some rare exceptions, of course."

"Why, thank you, Elphie," the shorter girl said with an indignant little snort. She instantly became bright and sunny again, however. "According to what Dr Dillamond told me, though, I'm supposed to teach you how to be a lady, right?"

"Along with Dr Dillamond himself plus Nessa and Oscar, yes," Elphaba confirmed, slightly wary. "Oscar thought that between all of you, you could make me good enough at it to pull this off. Obviously he can't be here all the time, but he's going to check up on us a couple of times to help. I'm going to get through these midterms first and after that, we still have a week until the start of the competition, so we should be able to –"

"A week?!" Glinda shrieked, causing Elphaba to wince and cover her ears. "Oh my Oz, Elphie, a week is not nearly enough!"

"I'm sure you can do it," the dark-haired witch told her friend. "You're a miracle-worker when it comes to these things."

Glinda beamed. "I am, aren't I? All right then, very well. I'll let you do your midterms, do some prepping, and then we'll start straight after you're done with your final test – because let's face it, Elphie, you've got an awfully long way to go."

"You know," Nessarose commented that night at the dinner table, after Elphaba had told her friends about the plan Oscar and Dr Dillamond had come up with, "sometimes it's still hard for me to believe that my sister is actually a princess."

Elphaba cringed. "Please don't say that," she begged. "I'm not. I'm Oscar's daughter, sure, but that's it. It's not like I'm ever going to rule Oz or something!"

Glinda smirked a little and patted her roommate's arm. "Keep telling yourself that, Elphie." She took a bit of salad and sighed. "But yes, Nessa, I know what you mean. I mean, when I just met her and Morrible suggested to her that she could have a career in sorcery, Elphie was acting like a schoolgirl with a crush – going all dreamy-eyed whenever the Wizard was mentioned, humming under her breath..."

"Excuse me!" Elphaba cried, feeling her face heat up. "I did not act like a schoolgirl with a crush, thank you very much!"

"Oh, but you kind of did, Fabala," Nessa said, giggling as well now. "You were so eager to meet him!"

"And now here we are," Glinda continued, impaling another leaf of lettuce on her fork and waving it around, "a year and a half later; and Morrible is now a regular, magic-less teacher, all the Animal Banns have been turned around, and our dearest Elphie here turns out to be the princess of Oz, daughter to the Not-Quite-So-Wonderful Wizard, and she's working for him. Who would have thought?"

"There are a lot of things none of us would have seen coming," Fiyero noted. "Most of those things weren't as big as Elphaba turning out to be a princess, but still. I mean, who would have thought that Boq would actually fall in love with Nessa or that Glin and I would break up?"

"You would have thought the latter, obviously," Glinda muttered, huffing, "or you wouldn't have broken up with me at all."

Fiyero sighed impatiently. "Oh, come on, Glin. Why would we have stayed together? "We're both perfect" is not a good foundation for a relationship and you know that, too, deep down. It was based on nothing."

Glinda huffed again. "Well, I don't care. I'll find myself someone who is a thousand times better than you during the beauty pageant and you're going to be begging me to take you back, but I won't do it and you're going to end up heart-broken and crying yourself to sleep every night because you let the most perfect girl in Oz go." She tossed her hair over her shoulder, narrowing her eyes when she noticed that everyone around her was stifling laughter. "What?"

"Nothing, Glin," said Elphaba with a straight face. "You're completely right."

Nessa was giggling a little and Glinda threw her napkin at the younger girl. "Don't laugh at me!"

"I would never!" Nessa protested, still giggling.

"Anyway," Fiyero continued, "my point is that life never really seems to go the way you expect it to. You can come up with a thousand possible things that might happen and whatever really happens is usually a scenario you didn't even think of."

Elphaba, having always tried to think out every possible scenario in every situation, could only agree with that and Glinda said in wonder, "That's actually a pretty smart thing to say, Fiyero."

This time, it was Fiyero throwing his napkin and Glinda was at the receiving end of it.

Boq, meanwhile, had taken Nessa's hand and they were smiling at each other. "I was wondering about something," he said to her. "Am I going to be allowed to be there with you during the big events?"

"Most of the time," Elphaba answered for her sister. "We have to spend a day or two in the Emerald City most weekends in order to attend some kind of event – a public presentation or some fancy social gathering – that will be recorded. A compilation of that event will then be broadcast on TV on Friday night so the people can see how we act in certain situations. There will be interviews, parties, an intelligence test, and all kinds of other things. The girls will be judged by how they look, how they've performed, how they handle the press, and how likeable they are – the public can vote for their favourites. That in itself is a reason why it will be completely unrealistic for me to make it to the finale," she added, "because who in Oz is going to vote for the asparagus? But that's beside the point."

"Elphie," Glinda scolded her. Fiyero was frowning unhappily.

Elphaba ignored them both. "In any case, that's how it goes the first few rounds, but the public's votes aren't shown until the second-to-last round, when half the girls are eliminated at the beginning of the show. The final two rounds will be huge events that can be attended by every Ozian who can get tickets before they are sold out and they will be live on TV for everyone to see. The finale is a really big deal, apparently – it's in the centre of the City itself and all former contestants and their families will be there, along with a lot of press, an official panel of judges, and even many high officials – tickets have already been reserved for them. That's probably why it was chosen as the place and time for the attack, since many important people will be gathered in one spot." She had memorised all the information Oscar had given her the other day.

"So Oscar is making sure you make it to the finale so that you can keep an eye on things," Nessa concluded and Elphaba nodded.

"If that is even necessary," she said. "If I find out who's behind it sooner, all the better – I could just retreat from the competition and it'd be over. Honestly, I hope I'll find the culprit as soon as possible. I'm not looking forward to any of this."

"I think you made that clear by now," Glinda said drily, causing Nessarose to burst into giggles again.

Boq spoke up. "But if you find out whoever is behind this before the finale..."

"...I'll tell them I'm pulling out of the contest and I can continue my life," the green girl finished for him. "If not, I'll be keeping an eye out for anything suspicious during the finale from a vantage point no other guard of Oscar's will have – centre stage."

"It sounds like a good plan," said Boq appreciatively.

Fiyero, who had mostly been quiet throughout the conversation, was still looking unhappy. "Isn't that dangerous?" he demanded. "You're going to try to find a terrorist by yourself! What if you get hurt? Or worse?"

"If I don't do it, a lot of other people will get hurt – or worse," she told him matter-of-factly. "Including Glinda and Nessa. Is that what you want?"

"Wait a clock-tick!" Glinda squealed, cutting off any reply Fiyero might have been about to give. "That's not fair! Your father is controlling the pageant? Then how will it be fair? It has to be fair or winning won't give me any satisfaction!"

Elphaba rolled her eyes – along with Boq and Fiyero. "He's only controlling how far I come," she corrected her blonde friend. "The other girls will be treated fairly – if you get enough votes, you'll get to the finale and you'll win."

"Oh." Glinda smiled. "All right, then."

Nessa crossed her arms in a silent challenge. "Who says you will win, anyway? Maybe someone else will win. Maybe I will win."

"Who knows? You are tragically beautiful, after all," said Boq, somehow actually managing to make it sound like a compliment, and Nessa smiled at him.

"Or the Ozians will somehow fall in love with me and I will win," Elphaba said, although her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Fiyero gave her a lopsided grin that made her heartbeat speed up. "I'd vote for you."

To hide her surprise and discomfort, she rolled her eyes at him. "Right. Anyway, I have to go. I have another midterm tomorrow and I need to study." She pushed away from the table and gave her friends a meaningful look. "So should you."

"Studying is boring," Glinda declared. "I'm going out with Shen and Milla tonight."

Elphaba shrugged and left. She was going to have a lot of work to do with this Miss Emerald election, but she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind. She'd have to work hard to ace her midterms first.

Mostly a chapter establishing where everyone is with regard to the original Wicked storyline and what's going to happen. Still, reviews are very much appreciated! ^_^