I'd say sorry for the delay, but I did warn you it might happen :P. Pretty much too busy on vacation to write much and no time even to be on my laptop every other day to update, but I'll keep trying. I just finished writing chapter 22, but since the day after tomorrow is the day we move back from Prague to Germany and it's a lot of train and car travelling, you might not get the update until Tuesday.
For now, enjoy and let me know what you think!
21. Outlive a Lie
This time, there was no event for the contestants on Friday afternoon and so Elphaba spent a couple of hours driving everyone at the Emerald Palace completely insane. Glinda was the only one encouraging her roommate's worries over posture, hair, clothes, shoes, manners, and make-up; everyone else mainly attempted to avoid the green girl. Unfortunately, while Elphaba was running around in blind panic upstairs, Nessarose was being just as bad on the ground floor, making Glinda and a maid try out five different hairstyles before deciding on one and having quite a bit of trouble fitting in her chair whilst wearing her ball gown, which unlike Elphaba's was a soft, pale yellow colour. They had to devise a specific manner to get her dressed in the gown and then seated in her chair during the show, because the girls only had the time space of one commercial break to change out of their bathing suits and into their ball gowns. Eventually, the men all silently retreated to Oscar's office with a glass of good Vinkun wine and they let the girls sort out their own problems.
By the time they left, both Elphaba and Nessa were nervous wrecks and the others tried to comfort them as they drove to the enormous theatre where the finale was going to be.
"Fae, you're not going to embarrass yourself," Fiyero reassured his girlfriend. "You've made it this far, didn't you? You've done wonderfully. We're all proud of you. You're not going to ruin it now and even if you don't win, it doesn't matter."
"I don't care about winning!" she bit at him. "I just care about getting through tonight without all of Oz thinking I'm some kind of nutcase!"
"You achieved the highest intelligence test score in the history of the pageant," Fiyero reminded her patiently. "No-one is ever going to think you're a nutcase."
Across from her sister, Nessarose was fidgeting. "What if the skirt of my ball gown gets stuck between the wheels of my chair?"
"I still think I look horrible in that bathing suit," Elphaba muttered. "They're all going to laugh at me. Her Froggy Highness. Princess Pea. I'll be surprised if no-one throws rotten food at me, although I suppose if they do, the bright side would be that no expensive dress is ruined, because I'll be wearing nothing than an Oz-forsaken bathing suit, anyway."
"I'll have to sit down in a bathing suit all the time," Nessa stressed. "Everyone will constantly be looking at the rolls of fat on my stomach!"
"Nessa!" Glinda cried. "You are not fat in the slightest!"
Elphaba agreed. "You'll be fine, Nessie. You're beautifully skinny." She squeezed her own arm. "I, on the other hand…"
"Elphaba, even a stick has more fat than you," Boq said, clearly incredulous that they were even having this discussion.
Elphaba bit her lip. "So you're saying I'm too bony? I am, aren't I? Oz, this was a terrible idea," she moaned.
Oscar cut in finally, exasperated about the whole situation. "Okay, that's it. Listen to me – both of you." He looked first at Nessa and then at Elphaba. "Neither of you have anything to prove tonight," he said. "You," he looked at Nessa, "don't need to prove that you can win Miss Emerald despite your chair, Nessa. You are a beautiful person, both inside and out, and the people who can't see that aren't worth your time, anyway. Right now, you are one of the four most beautiful girls in Oz and that in itself is a wonderful achievement."
Nessa sighed, but nodded, seeing his point.
Oscar glanced at Elphaba. "And you… granted, I haven't known you for that long, but I think it's safe to say that the way you're acting right now is very unlike you and you're scaring me a little. You're the girl who went straight against the most powerful man in the country without a second thought and without caring about the consequences. Since when you do care so much about what other people think of you?"
A dark red colour slowly crept up into Elphaba's cheeks and Glinda said knowingly, "I know why. You're right, Your Oz- I mean, Oscar," she corrected herself. "It's not like Elphie to care about other people's opinions, but even though she doesn't want to admit it, she cares about yours. She probably doesn't like it, but you've grown on her now that you two have spent some more time together and she wants to make you proud. She's the princess and you're the leader of Oz; she wants to make a good impression on the people because she doesn't want to embarrass you."
Elphaba's cheeks flushed even brighter and Oscar looked a little amazed at that. "Really? Elphaba? Is that true?" he asked almost hopefully and she sighed and avoided his gaze, nodding reluctantly.
"Sort of," she muttered. "A little. I guess."
Oscar beamed at her. "Well," he said happily. "I was hoping you'd manage to forgive me eventually and maybe even have some sort of friendly feelings towards me, but this is more than I dared to hope for – especially within only a year after… well, after we met." He cleared his throat uncomfortably.
Elphaba frowned at him for a moment, then deflated. "All right, it's just… I know I tease you a lot, Dad, and I bring up what happened the day we met all the time because yes, it does still bother me, but… but I've also gotten to know you as a person during the past year and I… I like having a father," she admitted. "Frex never felt like one to me, but you're starting to, and Glin is right. I don't want to embarrass you. Or myself," she added. "If I can help it. But I'm used to embarrassing myself. It's no hobby of mine, but it's happened – a lot – and I've long since stopped trying not to. It's not just you, anyway." She glanced around at her friends, her gaze lingering on Fiyero a little longer. "You're all my friends and some of you have pretty high positions, too. I don't want to embarrass any of you, either." She looked at Nessa. "Oz knows I've done that to some of you enough already."
"Fabala…" Nessa said softly. "I'm sorry. I've accused you of embarrassing me in the past, but you never really did, you know. I was just being a cranky teenager, angry about being stuck in a chair and taking that out on you. I'm really sorry." She reached out to her sister, who took her hand and squeezed it gratefully.
Fiyero cupped her cheek. "I've told you a thousand times already, hon, that there is nothing in the world you could do to embarrass me," he told her quietly. "I love you. You'd never believe how proud I am to have you. I could never be embarrassed by you. I promise."
He could tell she didn't quite believe him, but she nodded nonetheless and he kissed her on the lips – chastely, since everyone else was watching.
"That goes for us, too, Elphie," Glinda said sternly. "We're all friends here. We all love each other. You, too. Would you suddenly stop caring about Boq because he failed an important exam? Or not love Fiyero anymore because he is seen as an irresponsible playboy by most of the Ozian people? Would you no longer want to be my friend if I decided to come to class naked one day?"
Fiyero snorted a laugh at that. Nessa looked a little disapproving. Boq seemed altogether too interested in the idea of Glinda sitting naked in class.
Elphaba had to laugh at her roommate, too. "No," she answered the blonde's question. "You're right. I'm being ridiculous. Even I can be silly sometimes."
"We all know you're ridiculous, Elphie," Glinda told her matter-of-factly, "but we love you for it." She squeezed herself in to hug Elphaba and then Nessa. "Both of you will be absolutely fine tonight."
Oscar cleared his throat. "Now that you've admitted this about me, though, Elphaba… I'm afraid I have a confession to make."
Everyone looked at him and Elphaba narrowed her eyes. "Why do I have a feeling I'm not going to like this?"
He had the decency to look sheepish. "Well… I asked you to go undercover for me to see if you could discover who was behind the threat made about the pageant finale, right?"
"Right," Elphaba confirmed warily.
He fidgeted a little. "I, um… I haven't been entirely truthful with you." He looked at her. "You see, you're the princess of Oz now," he explained lamely. "And I… I know how insecure you are, or were, about that. About yourself, and about a royal position… I was thinking that maybe I could make you feel more comfortable with all that by showing you that you could win the people over. That they could love you."
Her eyes were wide now. "You tricked me," she accused him. "Didn't you? If I hadn't suggested a person on the inside, you'd have suggested it yourself. You tricked me into participating in this stupid contest! Is there even a threat at all?!"
"There was a threat," he said hastily. "That's what gave me the idea. I knew Morrible was behind it – my team figured that out a while ago." He grimaced a little. "I just figured it would make a nice excuse for you to participate – and besides, we really did need more incriminating evidence, so if you were to find that, well, all the better. But really… it was mostly to allow the people to get to know you and to get you to see yourself the way you really are – beautiful."
She pointed a menacing finger at me. "Don't use flattery on me now, Dad. You've been deceiving all of us from the beginning!" Suddenly struck by a different possibility, her eyes widened even further. "Wait a clock-tick. You did deceive us all, didn't you?" She glanced suspiciously around at her friends, but they all looked as shocked as she was.
"I did," Oscar told her. "None of them knew. Not even Chistery."
Elphaba glared at the Goat sitting next to Oscar, who was suspiciously quiet. "And Dr Dillamond?"
Now he looked uncomfortable. "I, um… I might have been aware of His Ozness's plan," he confessed, lowering his gaze. "I am sorry, Miss Elphaba, but I agreed with his reasoning. I thought it might be good for you."
"Great," she said sarcastically. "Just wonderful. Now my own father and my favourite teacher have been lying to me. Did you lie about not manipulating the votes, too? Have you just made sure I got this far so you could prove your point to me of the people loving me?"
"No, Elphaba," Oscar said firmly. "I did not. I haven't manipulated anything so far in the competition. Everything you've achieved, you've achieved on your own, by being yourself and showing yourself to the people."
She pressed her lips together and crossed her arms.
"I did it to help you, Elphaba," Oscar said beseechingly. "I'm sorry. Perhaps I shouldn't have, but I really did think I was doing something for you – that it would be good for you."
"It has been good for her," Glinda mused. "I mean, I do feel you've grown a little more confident over the whole princess thing, Elphie, and also about the way you look."
"That's true," Fiyero confirmed. "You haven't even protested me calling you beautiful for the past few weeks."
She stuck out her tongue at him. The others just laughed.
Upon arrival, Elphaba and Nessa were instantly whisked away to the four finalists' dressing room backstage. They were stripped of all their make-up, their hair was brushed and left loose, and they had to put on the simple, grey dresses and ballerina flats they had received for their fittings the weekend before. That would be the first part of the show: a presentation of the girls with a completely natural look.
Elphaba could tell she was probably the one who felt most comfortable this way. Nessarose kept stealing glances at herself in shiny surfaces, smoothing out her hair and skirt every time she saw her reflection. Saraphina was fidgeting with the simple dress, looking decidedly uncomfortable, and Nathalinia kept running her fingers through her hair.
"I never wear it loose," she said when she noticed Elphaba watching her. "It feels strange."
"I almost never wear it loose, either," Saraphina admitted. "It's so long and thick, it gets tangled very easily and then it takes me years to run a brush through it!"
Elphaba grinned and held up a lock of her own long, thick raven hair. "I know that problem."
The other two girls laughed.
"I feel so naked without make-up," Nessa confessed and Nathalinia nodded in agreement.
"Not to mention wearing shoes with no heels," said Saraphina. "I've been wearing heels so often lately, especially now with the competition, I almost have to get used to flat shoes."
Reven came in, chirping, "Girls! Are you ready for the show to start?"
"It won't be long now!" Cashel said, beaming at them. "In a few minutes, the finale will begin; and in a couple of hours, we'll know who is the prettiest girl in all of Oz! Are you excited?"
"Yes!" Nessa, Nathalinia, and Saraphina said in unison. Elphaba hoped it wasn't too obvious to the hosts that she hadn't said anything.
Luckily, they seemed not to notice. "Come with me," Reven instructed. "I'll take you to your spots and explain to you how we're going to go about the show tonight. There will be two quick changes of hair and clothing today, so you'll need to know exactly where to go the moment the commercial breaks start."
The four girls all nodded obediently and followed Reven onto the stage.
She explained that the girls who had been eliminated the previous week would all be sitting in the front row tonight to watch. The four remaining girls would be presented looking completely natural and each one of them would give a short speech about her participating in the competition. The live audience would vote, resulting in one girl having to leave the competition. She would have to go backstage and wait there for most of the rest of the show. Then, the remaining three girls would do their 'bathing suit parade', as Elphaba secretly called it, and the judges would send one more girl away. At this point, the two final contestants would have to change into their ball gowns and the audience would get to vote again. The two contestants who had been eliminated before that, would also be put in their ball gowns – probably, Elphaba suspected, because it would be a waste not to, since all four girls had a custom-made ball gown already – and they would be sitting a little off to the side of the stage while the winner of the title of Miss Emerald was announced.
As everyone took their positions, Elphaba took a deep breath and exchanged a look with Nessa. This was it, then. The threat was gone, Morrible was safely locked up; and one way or another, it would all be over in a few hours.