I'm glad you all liked the sass and the Fiyeraba. :) As I said, I've done the Fiyeraba a little differently this time - kept it easier, maybe, without all the doubts, since I've done that so often before already.
Guest: Thank you so much! And yes, I've heard about the Wicked movie. I'm excited, too, although I'm a little scared to get my hopes up; it could either turn out brilliant or terrible, depending on the casting and the way they're going to film the whole thing... but I'm certainly curious!
10. Very, Very Popular
Fortunately, no-one seemed to notice anything odd between Elphaba and Fiyero that day and since there were no more confrontations with snotty rich girls, either, Elphaba was happy. That changed when she walked across campus with Glinda to get some dinner, however.
"Your Highness!" someone cried and the next thing she knew, someone was almost standing nose-to-nose with her, eyes bright and eager. "Tell me," the woman said breathlessly. "Is it true that you attacked Pfannee Caprice in class this morning?"
Only then did Elphaba notice the pencil and notebook in the woman's hand. A reporter. How had she even gotten onto the premises?
Glinda gave the woman a cold stare. "If I recall correctly, you are not allowed anywhere on campus," she reminded her, but the reporter hardly seemed to care.
"Listen," she said earnestly. "Either you can send me away now and let me publish this story from Pfannee's point of view – and trust me, she gave me a very good story. She's the one who sent for me in the first place, but I get the feeling there was more to her story than she told me and so I decided to come to you as well to hear what you have to say about it – or you can talk to me. I promise you won't regret it."
Elphaba and Glinda exchanged a look.
"Well," said Elphaba. "We hardly have a choice, then, do we?"
Glinda reluctantly shook her head and the dark-haired witch sighed. "Let's sit over there."
Together, they told the reporter the story of what had really happened that morning – Glinda, of course, slightly exaggerating Pfannee, Milla, and Shenshen's behaviour in order to make her own and Elphaba's reactions seem even more justified. They glossed over the fact that Elphaba had used magic, instead remaining rather vague and simply telling the reporter that Elphaba had taken revenge on Pfannee for her remark about Fiyero. When the woman expressed disbelief, Glinda skilfully referred her to Boq, Nessarose, or Dr Dillamond, all of whom had been there. Elphaba could only admire her roommate's ability to spin the tale so that the reporter had her pencil flying across the pages of her notebook, clearly eager to take in every piece of information the blonde gave her. Glinda, of course, concluded with a beaming smile and a toss of her hair, casually mentioning how grateful she was that good and honest reporters such as this woman still existed and that she was confident the reporter would understand which story was the truth and act accordingly.
The woman wanted to ask both of them more, but just then, one of the guards patrolling campus caught sight of her and marched over to her, his expression thunderous.
"You people are not allowed anywhere near the candidates' schools or homes," he barked as he approached the trio. "You know that as well as I do, so get out of here before I call the Gale Force on you!"
The woman quickly gathered her things and hurried off. Glinda flashed a grateful smile at the guard, who tipped his hat at her and then continued his round.
"I hope she'll publish the true story," Elphaba muttered as she and Glinda continued their way to the cafeteria, "and not Pfannee's version, because then my reputation would actually be completely ruined – both as a princess and as a contestant. Oscar is never going to be able to justify my continued participation in the pageant then."
"She will," Glinda said confidently, looping her arm through Elphaba's. "I had her wrapped around my little finger. Don't worry about that."
She turned out to be right. The next morning, she awoke to find Glinda already up and about. That wasn't such a rare thing; despite her self-proclaimed need of beauty sleep, Glinda was actually more of a morning person than her roommate, especially since Elphaba often lost track of time and ended up studying until quite late at night. It wasn't strange for her to catch up on her sleep in the morning and it wasn't strange for Glinda to already be busy with her morning beauty routine by the time Elphaba reluctantly opened her eyes.
What was strange, however, was to find Glinda sitting at her desk, reading. Regardless of what the blonde might be reading, the fact that she was reading at all – or even sitting at her desk, because Elphaba almost never saw her do that – was a bit of a miracle. She looked happy about it, too.
When she heard Elphaba stir, she looked up with a wide smile on her face. "Elphie!" she cried, causing her friend to wince at the volume. "Boq just dropped off The Ozian. Read!" Glinda came running over, waving the paper and then dumping it on Elphaba's bed.
The young witch moaned, sighed, and grumbled, but then pushed herself into a sitting position and reached for the reading glasses on her nightstand. Sleepily, she pulled the paper towards her; but then her eyes widened and she was instantly awake.
PRINCESS DEFENDS MINORITY GROUP IN CLASS, one of the headlines on the front page read.
Elphaba quickly read the article, which started with a back story on Elphaba's life and her participation in the Miss Emerald beauty pageant, but was basically the story of how 'three girls from prominent families expressed their jealousy of Princess Elphaba by calling her names and making fun of her', after which 'several of the princess's friends came to her defence' even though Elphaba herself had 'displayed proof of her royal heritage by not engaging in the childish fight, but rising above the situation'.
Glinda huffed at that part. "Is that some hidden criticism of me? She's basically saying I was acting childish by standing up for you!"
"I'm sure she didn't mean it that way," said Elphaba, even though she was pretty sure the reporter had meant it that way. She flashed her best friend a smile. "And besides, I very much appreciate you standing up for me, even if she doesn't."
"Aw, Elphie!" Glinda cried and instantly wrapped her roommate up in a hug.
Elphaba hugged her back, rolling her eyes. "Even then, you shouldn't do it," she said sternly. "Like I said to Fiyero, I can fight my own battles and I'm used to it. You shouldn't rise to the bait. They're just doing it to get a reaction out of us."
"I know." Glinda sighed. "I just can't help it. Why was I ever friends with those girls?" she complained. "They're horrible! Shallow, and stupid, and ignorant, and arrogant, and ditzy…"
Elphaba snorted a laugh. "That not what you said in our first year," she said teasingly.
"Please, Elphie," Glinda said absently, "don't snort when you laugh. It's not ladylike. Keep reading."
Elphaba rolled her eyes again, but complied. The article continued to inform the reader that 'however, when the three girls tried to elicit a response from Princess Elphaba by lashing out at the heritage of her good friend Prince Fiyero of the Vinkus', Elphaba had 'lost her cool' and 'demonstrated her incredible power by pinning the offensive girl against the wall with her magic and demanding an apology for her friend'.
"How does she know that?" Elphaba demanded, suddenly feeling frustrated. "We didn't tell her about the magic!"
"Pfannee must have," Glinda murmured. She looked worried. "Oscar wanted to keep your magic off the public record. He thought it could be an advantage to surprise Bomb Threat Guy with."
"More like Bomb Threat Woman," Elphaba corrected her, still frowning at the article through her glasses. "Remember what Milla said, about Morrible being on the jury panel for Miss Emerald?"
Glinda's eyes grew wide. "Surely you don't think –"
"Of course I think she's behind all this." Elphaba pushed the newspaper away and removed her glasses, tossing them back onto her nightstand. She threw one arm over her eyes and groaned. "She couldn't get us with magic or manipulation, so now she's resorting to violence. Face it, Glin – it's very like Morrible to send word in advance of some evil thing she's planning on doing, just so she can be smug about it once she actually makes it happen."
"It is," Glinda admitted. "But her previous plan was manipulating you into doing magic for her. Do you really think she's now willing to kill you, and a whole lot of other people with you, just to get revenge?"
"Her previous plan was gaining power over Oz," Elphaba corrected her, "by using me and my magic. Making a bomb explode at the Miss Emerald finale would be a huge blow to the Ozian government – no pun intended…"
Glinda giggled anyway.
"…and it would be a potential opening for her," the green girl continued.
Glinda looked thoughtful. "But everyone knows about her betrayal," she countered. "All of Oz knows that why their Wonderful Wizard fired her."
Elphaba shrugged. "I don't think that would stop her from trying."
"Good point." The blonde narrowed her eyes. "We should definitely keep an eye on her."
Elphaba grumbled something under her breath and dragged herself out of bed. "I'm going to get dressed," she muttered. "I'm hungry. I need breakfast for this. And coffee. Definitely coffee."
Glinda giggled again. "Hurry up then, you."
Of course, the news had by then already spread across the campus like wildfire and everyone was looking and whispering as Elphaba and Glinda made their way over to the cafeteria to get breakfast. Glinda had insisted her friend needed to look good today, to give off an air of royalty to everyone now that she had been declared a hero in The Ozian. This meant Elphaba had been forced into petticoats and low heels she kept tripping over, not to mention a dress that did match the Shiz University colours, but probably defied the dress code in every other sense of the word. Glinda kept insisting it looked great on her roommate, but Elphaba wasn't so sure she agreed. As they walked, she tried to ignore the looks directed their way, but she felt self-conscious – even more so in this dress – and she was glad once they finally reached the table where Fiyero and Boq were already waiting for them.
"Where's Nessa?" Glinda asked as they sat down.
"Sleeping in," Elphaba replied for her sister. "Her classes don't start until later this morning."
Boq cleared his throat. "Are we really going to talk about Nessa's classes right now?"
"Yes," said Elphaba, glaring at the Munchkin. "Because the alternative is discussing the thing I know you two probably want to discuss, but I'm not doing that. If anyone so much as mentions the word "newspaper", I'm going to take my breakfast and eat it in the library, is that understood?"
Boq nodded sheepishly, but Fiyero protested. "Fae, it's not like it's something you should be ashamed of!"
She grunted something under her breath. "Oscar is not going to be happy about this. He wanted to keep my magic a secret and I bet it's all people are going to talk about now. Then there's the fact that everyone is either gaping at me like I'm the Wizard of Oz himself or glaring daggers at me like I've murdered the Wizard of Oz. I already regret talking to that reporter yesterday."
"Only if we hadn't, she would have published Pfannee's story instead and then everyone would be glaring at you like you've murdered the Wizard," Glinda reminded her airily.
Fiyero frowned. "There weren't supposed to be any reporters on campus at all."
"Pfannee sent for this one," Elphaba told him. "She obviously wanted to try to discredit me publicly as revenge for what I did to her yesterday, but the reporter probably thought this would make a more interesting story." She sighed. "Chistery and Dr Dillamond probably won't be too pleased with me, either."
She turned out to be wrong about that. Chistery, who approached her just when she was heading to class, fell into step beside her and didn't stop chattering about the newspaper article, how everyone thought she was a hero now, and how this definitely made up for any mistakes she might have made so far – or might still make in the future – with regard to the beauty pageant. It was clear that he admired her greatly for the way she'd defended Fiyero, even if her magic kicking in had mostly been unintentional.
Dr Dillamond, too, didn't seem angry when he saw her on campus. He merely smiled at her knowingly and nodded before being on his way. She supposed maybe something good had come from the situation after all, although she wouldn't know that for sure until someone told her about the public's general reaction to the whole thing. She suspected it would at least be mentioned on the next Miss Emerald episode the next day.
She spent the rest of the day avoiding people – both haters and admirers – and trying to focus on her studies; but by the time she crawled in bed that night, she was exhausted and couldn't help but think wryly that she was in dire need of another one of Fiyero's 'escape trips'. Maybe he'd be willing to kidnap her again sometime that weekend. She certainly wouldn't mind.
And maybe, she mused as she turned onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, she should make a decision on what to do with him. Did she want to give whatever this was between them a try or was she too afraid? It did scare her, but not much more than the whole beauty pageant thing did and she was doing that, too. Once again, she thought of her resolve to face her fears instead of running away from them. Wouldn't that go for something like this, too?
That was it, then, she decided. Tomorrow, she'd tell Fiyero that she was willing to give it a chance. And after that… well, she supposed they were going to have to tell their friends.