18. The Winds of Chance

Throughout the rest of the semi-final, Elphaba tried to appear as angelic as possible, making sure to keep a smile on her face at all times and to act demure and friendly. She could tell the other contestants were doing the same, even though it was clear that Nathalinia, Saraphina, and Faye were still shocked because of Elphaba's magical display a little earlier, while Glinda and Nessa obviously disapproved of it. Still, Elphaba felt it had been justified.

As Cashel and Reven introduced the panel of judges, she tried to seek out Fiyero in the crowd, or maybe one of the others; but the lights were shining in her face and the audience, to her, looked like nothing more than shadows. She sighed, feeling frustrated, but she tried to focus on the hosts again. There would be another commercial break soon; perhaps she'd be able to sneak away then and do some snooping around backstage.

The judges consisted of three people. There was Gracie Crarter, the fashion designer whose dress Lunare had been wearing tonight, and Elphaba couldn't help but feel like Lunare must have known about that somehow and tried to manipulate it to her advantage. It was too bad she'd been sent home by the audience before she even got to the jury, but it made her wonder. If she'd known Gracie would be in the judge panel, would she have had access to other information, too?

The second judge was Peter Herdson, a journalist who wrote for Ozmopolitan as well as a couple of other magazines and who earned a living by criticising famous people. Glinda loved him; Elphaba, obviously, didn't. In fact, she hardly even knew his name.

The third jury member was, as Elphaba had feared, Madame Morgana Morrible, who had participated in the very first Miss Emerald competition that had ever been hosted. Upon hearing that piece of information, Elphaba had to work hard to keep her mouth from dropping open. Morrible? In a beauty pageant? It seemed too ridiculous for words, although she supposed it wasn't impossible that the woman had been sort of pretty when the first Miss Emerald competition had been hosted – forty-eight years ago.

She could see that Glinda was suppressing giggles and the corner of Nessa's mouth twitched. She could only imagine the way Fiyero would look right now and she couldn't help the slight grin that came to her face at that thought. They'd have to try to find out more about Morrible's Miss Emerald participation later this week. Not even because it might be relevant to the threat, because it probably wasn't. Elphaba was just curious.

After a brief introduction and a few words from each judge, Reven, smiling, said, "Well, we've asked our contestants some questions before, but of course we have something different in store for them now! Everyone likes to hear what they think of the competition so far, but right now we're more interested in the six of them as people. What are their likes and dislikes? Who was their childhood best friend? Those kinds of things."

Cashel took over. "In a little while, our judges will decide which two girls will be sent home as well tonight and their verdict will partly depend on your performance during this interview, so sit up straight, smile, and do your best, girls!"

"The first question is for Miss Nessarose." Reven smiled at the wheelchair-bound girl. "What is your favourite childhood memory?"

Nessa thought about that for a moment. "The bedtime stories Elphaba used to make up for me when we were little," she said eventually.

There were some 'aww's from the audience. Elphaba was surprised. She'd thought Nessa would pick a memory of Frex taking her to a fancy party or something like that.

"That is very sweet," Reven said, smiling at Elphaba now, although the green girl could tell it was a little forced. Clearly, Reven was still upset with her because of what had happened earlier. Elphaba just smiled back as innocently as she could.

"Miss Faye," Cashel said. "Who is your biggest inspiration?"

"Oh, that one's easy," Faye said. "Winola Verkin. She's my idol."

"I love her, too," Nathalinia said, smiling brightly. "Although I must say I also love Adele Dazeem."

"Me, too!" Saraphina chimed in and Faye, Glinda, and Nessa all agreed. Elphaba decided that if she was going to keep up with this, she might need to start reading more magazines.

Reven moved over to Saraphina. "Do you have any pets?"

"Yes!" she said enthusiastically. "I have a dog, Buddi. He's the sweetest thing ever. I love him more than anything in the world."

"Pets are wonderful," Nessa agreed with a smile. "I've never had one, but I'd love to."

Glinda wrinkled her nose. "I'm not really an animal person. Animals stink."

Elphaba snorted a laugh, instantly bringing everyone's attention to her. Glinda narrowed her eyes dangerously and Nessa was shaking her head.

Elphaba quickly cleared her throat. "Sorry." No snorting. She should have remembered the 'no snorting' rule.

"Miss Elphaba, you are not quite a typical lady," Cashel observed, moving over to her. "Do you think you're here only because you're our princess, as some of the other girls have suggested, or do you think the people genuinely like you?"

Well, that was an offensive question. Elphaba shrugged. "How should I know?" she asked, which was probably the wrong thing to say, but she honestly didn't know what else she could say – and besides, if they were going to ask her rude questions, she was going to give them rude replies. "Ask the people. One way or another, I promise I won't hold it against them – and neither will my father."

Cashel smiled and nodded. "I think that's a brilliant idea – and, of course, we already took care of that! We asked our audience members this question before the show and guess what?" He paused dramatically. "87% of the people who have voted for you, say they have done so because they are fond of your looks, skills, and/or character."

Elphaba chuckled. "I'd expected worse."

"Me, too," she heard Glinda mutter beside her through her smile, sounding impressed. She glanced to the side and Glinda grinned at her.

"Miss Glinda." Reven stood in front of the blonde, who quickly wiped the grin off her face again. "Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Not right now," said Glinda, shaking her head. "I've dated Prince Fiyero for a while, but he's obviously moved on to greener pastures. Quite literally, too." She winked at Elphaba, who flushed. Then Glinda gave a blinding smile in the direction of the cameras. "I'm very much available at the moment, so if anyone is interested…" She blew a kiss into the camera. The audience went completely wild.

Cashel had to clear his throat a few times before the noise died down. He was standing with Nathalinia now. "Miss Nathalinia, who do you think has changed your life the most?"

She smiled a little at that. "My mother," she said. "She's always been so wonderful. No matter what happens, she's always there for me, and I love her." She waved at someone in the audience. Elphaba wondered how she could have picked out her mother in the darkness; maybe she'd known beforehand where her family would be sitting.

Reven took over again. "Miss Nessarose, an easy one for you this time. Favourite colour?"

"Pale yellow," Nessa replied instantly.

They asked Faye and Saraphina about their best friend and hobbies, respectively, before it was Elphaba's turn again.

Cashel glanced at the young witch. "What is the scariest thing you've ever done in your life?"

She froze up a little. What could she say to that? 'Stand up to the Wizard'? That probably wouldn't go over well, and people shouldn't even know about that, anyway. 'Enter a beauty pageant in an attempt to find a criminal who wants to blow up the most important people in Oz'? Yeah, not going to happen.

The only thing she could think of was the advice Glinda had given her a while ago for such situations: 'If you don't know the right thing to say, then be honest. Just please try to do it without being rude or offensive somehow.'

And so, before she fully realised it, she'd already blurted it out. "Falling in love."

For the first time that night, she was glad she couldn't see Fiyero's face in the audience. She kept her eyes on Cashel, hoping she didn't look as flustered as she felt. The audience responded with 'oh's and 'ah's and she could almost sense the surprise of the girls surrounding her, but she didn't dare look at any of them.

"How so?" Cashel asked, clearly intrigued.

She took a deep breath. "I'm a perfectionist," she admitted. "A control freak. I always thought I'd stay alone forever, because… well, because of the green, so I threw myself into my studies instead. I never thought that, when I came to Shiz, I'd make friends, let alone something more. Falling in love means losing control and I was terrified of doing that."

"But you did it," Cashel said and she nodded.

"Did you ever regret it?" Saraphina asked her, her eyes soft.

Elphaba smiled despite herself. "Not for a single clock-tick," she said and she heard the collective sigh go through the audience. It was a little silly, she thought, but, well, if this made them relate to her, all the better. She hadn't intended to play them. She just hadn't known what else to say if not the truth.

Cashel and Reven went through the rest of their questions without Elphaba really paying attention, still thinking about her previous answer, until they came back to her with a new question.

"Miss Elphaba, by now we've all learned that you have magical powers," Cashel said cautiously. "I think we're all very curious about how such a thing came to be and what you can do with them, exactly."

She shrugged again. "I was born with them, I guess," she said. "I used to have magical outbursts when I was younger. I've tried to learn to control it, but that is difficult." Especially since her magic teacher had turned out to be a power-hungry maniac trying to use Elphaba's magic to gain power over Oz as a whole and then had her magical powers taken away, leaving Elphaba without any magic teacher at all. "I can usually suppress it, unless I'm very emotional – sad or angry, mostly. Then it sometimes just… bursts out in some form."

"Such as when you pinned your classmate to the wall because she offended Prince Fiyero?" Cashel asked and although she felt like it was a trick question, somehow asked to make her look bad, she simply nodded.

"Yes."

They moved on after that and soon, the interview was over. As the audience applauded, the cameras turned off for the next commercial break and the girls all moved backstage for a short time.

Glinda, Nessa, and the others all instantly started discussing their interviews and how they thought they'd done, but Elphaba sneaked off and down towards the dressing room where the other girls were supposed to still be. She quickly checked the room. Umbia, Lunare, Karise, Micaela, and Caila were still there, in various stages of anger and disappointment. Macy, however, was missing and somehow, Elphaba felt like she already knew what that meant.

As quickly as she could in her high heels, she rounded a corner; only to be stopped by Cashel.

"Miss Elphaba!" he cried, waving his hands madly. "Where are you going? The commercial break isn't that long – you can't go back there!"

She pointed at the hallway. "But I -"

"No 'but's, Miss Elphaba," Cashel said sternly. "I want to see you back on that stage in thirty seconds max! We need to go over some things for the final part of the show!"

Elphaba bit her lip, doing some quick thinking. She couldn't follow Macy herself, but maybe she could get someone else to do it for her. There was no way she could contact Oscar, Chistery, Dr Dillamond, Fiyero, or even Boq from here, though, which meant she'd have to put her trust in someone else.

Devising a hasty plan, she hurried back to the dressing room with the other candidates and called quietly, "Umbia, Karise? Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Umbia and Karise came over and Elphaba beckoned them into a corner.

"I don't have much time," she said, "but I'll try to explain it very quickly. Someone has made a bomb threat for the finale and I'm helping some people to try and figure out who it is. Right now, I'm very heavily suspecting Macy, especially since she's not here. I've tried to look for her, but I can't go very far since I'm still in the show."

"Right," said Karise, instantly understanding what Elphaba wanted and jumping on it. "We're on it. We'll try to find out where Macy went and if she's involved in this."

Umbia looked a little taken aback by all the new information, but she, too, seemed ready to help. "Do you suspect anyone else?"

Elphaba nodded. "One of the judges. Madame Morrible. She -"

"Miss Elphaba!"

She swore softly, earning herself an amused look from both other girls.

"Go," Umbia urged her and Karise added, "We'll take care of this. Go kick some arses."

Elphaba grinned at them both. "Thanks." Then she hurried back onto the stage.

"All right," Reven was saying quickly. "You six girls need to stand here in a line again. Left hands on your hips – yes, like that – and smiles on your faces! Look at the judges, but feel free to look around into the audience a few times, too. Miss Elphaba, you must stand here beside Miss Nathalinia; and Miss Saraphina, could you just step up beside Miss Faye, please? Very good. Now," she said sternly, "two more girls will be eliminated tonight, but I would very much appreciate it if those two girls did not make such a fuss of losing as some of our other contestants did earlier. Is that clear? I assume you do still want to make a good impression on the people of Oz, regardless of whether or not you're still in the competition, and trust me when I say that being a sore loser is not at all becoming for a lady. Is that understood?"

"Yes," the girls chorused. Elphaba noticed Nessa glancing at little anxiously at the other girls and her heart ached for her little sister. She knew how important this contest was to Nessa. In her mind, this was her chance to prove to everyone that she was more than just her chair. Elphaba hoped her sister wouldn't be sent home by the judges now.

"Cameras back on in ten, nine, eight…"

Elphaba quickly reached around Nathalinia to squeezed Nessa's shoulder. "No matter what happens, you're the prettiest in all of Oz to me," she whispered, smiling encouragingly.

The wheelchair-bound girl laid her hand over Elphaba's for a moment and squeezed back. "Thanks, Fabala."

"Positions!" Reven hissed.

"Three, two…"

The annoying Miss Emerald tune played and Cashel grinned widely. "Welcome back to the semi-final of Miss Emerald!" he sang at the cameras. "Which one of these six lovely ladies will be this year's Miss Emerald? That is something we will see next week. For now, however, our judges have the unfortunate task of sending two of them home, based on their overall performances during the past month but also not in the least on the way they have held themselves here on this live stage today."

"Before they make their decision known, however, we would like to hear a little bit from our judges on each of these girls," Reven added. "Miss Crarter?"

Gracie smiled. "It's clear that all six of these girls have tried their best to make a good impression today," she said. "Of course, we do have some notes on each and every one of them."

"Both positive and negative, that is," Peter Herdson added. "For example, I am quite taken with Miss Nessarose. She's been demure, elegant, and polite throughout the entire competition so far and she's certainly a very beautiful young lady to look at. However, I'm wondering if she might be a little too poised and if her chair is something we should take into account."

"My own personal opinion is that some of these girls, mainly Miss Elphaba, Miss Nessarose, and Miss Glinda, simply do not have what it takes," said Morrible, a sickeningly sweet smile on her face. "I hope they'll prove me wrong." She chuckled. "I doubt they will. Miss Saraphina is the winner for me – or perhaps Miss Faye."

"Yet I," Gracie Crarter chimed in again, "have been rooting for Miss Glinda from the beginning and I like the fact that Miss Elphaba is brave enough to step out of the box and do things a little differently than the other girls. Like Peter, I've been very impressed with Miss Nessarose as well. Miss Nathalinia, I believe, is the perfect blend of bubbly and ladylike; Miss Saraphina is both very beautiful and has a lovely personality; and Miss Faye seems a wonderful example of what a proper lady should be like. It hasn't been an easy choice in the slightest."

"Despite that fact, though, we have made our choice." Peter Herdson looked at Reven and Cashel, who nodded.

"That is good to hear, Mr Herdson," Reven said happily. "Before we hear your verdict, however, we will have to announce two names. These names are the ones of the two girls who have gotten the very most votes from the viewers over the course of the past month, which means they are safe regardless of the decision of the judges. These two ladies are the first to be certain of a spot in the finale next week!"

"The first of these names," Cashel said, pulling a little card from the inside pocket of his jacket, "is…"

Again, the ominous music played and the stage lights dimmed.

"Miss Nathalinia Hearst!"

Nathalinia clasped her hands over her mouth as confetti fell from above. She threw her arms around Elphaba, who patted her back awkwardly, and then around Saraphina, Faye, Glinda, and Nessa as well. "Thank you!" she said fervently, blowing kisses at the audience. "Thank you all so much!"

"Congratulations, Miss Nathalinia!" Cashel cheered. "You are the first finalist of this year's Miss Emerald!"

Reven pulled out a card of her own. "Now for the second name," she said, pausing to increase the tension.

Elphaba sighed. She already knew this would be her; Oscar hadn't wanted to involve any of the jury members in his plan, since he wasn't sure if any of them could be trusted, so the only way to make sure the green girl safely got to the finale was to manipulate the viewers' votes. She could only hope Umbia and Karise had discovered something incriminating about Macy so the girl and anyone else involved could be arrested and Elphaba could just drop out before the finale. Or at the very least be the first girl to be eliminated in the finale.

"Miss Elphaba Thropp!" Reven announced. More confetti, triumphant music, and hugs from the girls around her. When she went to stand next to Nathalinia, the dark-skinned girl squeezed her in a hug so tightly she could hardly breathe. She glanced over at Glinda, who looked resigned and a little disappointed. When the blonde caught her roommate's eye, though, she gave Elphaba a smile and a thumbs-up.

"Judges," Cashel said, glancing at the three of them. "It's up to you now."

"Yes." Madame Morrible sat up a little, the corners of her mouth pulled down just the slightest bit. Elphaba supposed she was mad that the dark-haired witch had made it through. "No matter how wonderful all these remaining girls are, there are only four spots in the finale, two of which have now been filled."

"We won't keep you on the edge of your seat any longer." Peter Herdson cleared his throat. "The first girl joining Miss Nathalinia and Miss Elphaba in the finale next week is Miss Saraphina Bulok!"

Saraphina actually jumped a little upon hearing her name, a beaming smile spreading across her face. She, too, hugged the others and then Cashel and Reven, who looked startled at that. "Thank you!" Saraphina called at the judges, curtseying deeply. "I won't let you down!"

"We're looking forward to seeing you again next week," Gracie said with a smile.

Peter took over again. "The second and final girl who made the finale is… Miss Nessarose Thropp!"

This time, Elphaba was cheering even louder than the others, genuinely happy for her sister. Nessa looked surprised yet touched and very happy, tears in her eyes as she thanked Reven and Cashel and moved her chair in front of the jury panel, holding her hands to her heart and mouthing 'thank you'. Gracie and Peter both gave her warm smiles in return, even though Morrible looked a little cross.

"You made it!" Elphaba whispered happily to her sister, embracing her. "Congratulations, Nessie!"

"You, too!" Nessa smiled, but Elphaba shook her head and gave her a look. Nessa made a face, realising what her sister meant – that Oscar must have manipulated the votes.

"Unfortunately, this means we'll be saying good-bye to Miss Glinda Upland of Gillikin and Miss Faye Alis of the Vinkus," Reven said. "Can I have a big applause for these two beautiful contestants!"

The audience cheered and clapped so loudly that both girls, despite their visible disappointment, couldn't help but smile. They took each other's hands and curtseyed together before the audience and the judges, blowing kisses and waving again as Cashel and Reven talked into the camera, wrapping up the episode. Finally, the cameras were turned off and Elphaba let out a breath, exchanging a look with her sister.

One live show down, one more to go.

Next update is on Sunday. On Monday, I'm leaving for a ten-day holiday with some friends, but I'm bringing my laptop and I should have wifi everywhere; so if everything goes according to plan, there shouldn't be a lot of delay in updates, even though they probably won't be as regular as usual.

Also, we're nearing the end of this story; I've almost finished writing chapter 21 and there will probably only be one or two more after that.