Fiyero didn't really remember having so much schoolwork and studying expected of him so soon after starting Shiz the first time. Of course, that was probably because he didn't really care the first time. Fiyero had finally managed to graduate from university though, which meant that sometime between when he originally transferred to Shiz and that glorious graduation day, he actually had given his classes enough attention in order to pass.
Such habits carried over, it seemed, for though it was only the second week into his semester personally, the rest of Shiz was already a third of the way through theirs and he was expected, as they were, to write papers and prepare for exams, so that was what he did. As he began his first paper – one for Dr. Dillamond's class, of course, for the old Goat was famous for his excessive essay assignments – consciously utilizing proper format and citations, he stopped for a minute and considered the change. He never even bothered to write the paper on the Animal Courtesy Acts last time; he remembered thinking about writing the paper, but then the night before it was due he went out exploring Shiz's night life instead, having decided that was a better use of his valuable time.
Even if Fiyero didn't already know an absurd amount about this particular Ozian law, he probably would have attempted the paper anyway and maybe he would have done an all-right job. But Fiyero Tiggular had been Captain of the Emerald City Guard, not to mention absolutely lovesick over Oz's resident rebel-with-a-cause, so he practically had the Animal Courtesy Acts memorized.
The Animal Courtesy Acts were just the Animal Adverse laws, given a positive political moniker for the sake of propaganda. Social unrest deriving from the Great Drought promoted an atmosphere of scapegoating and hysterical patriotism, which lead to the discrimination that was firmly established in sugarcoated legislative bills. Even as Fiyero considered the assignment before him, he knew that the Wizard was the one who shrewdly worded the dense legislation to conceal his underlying motivations, but that wasn't supposed to be common knowledge and thus wouldn't be included in his final draft.
There was a great deal that Fiyero knew that he shouldn't. Scandalacious princes didn't know the Wizard was a fraud; they didn't know military strategies, the layouts of government buildings, or the secrets of Southstairs. When in doubt around people, Fiyero acted oblivious. It seemed safest. Nevertheless, he wouldn't allow everything he had experienced and learned to be in vain. He had taken to making lists in the middle of the night when names and dates would come to him and doodling diagrams of the Emerald Palace in the back of his notebooks at all hours, even during class, which was in fact what he was doing when Dr. Dillamond asked Elphaba to hand out their graded history essays.
Not that Elphaba noticed what he was doing. She was fairly competent at avoiding giving him any attention at all the last two weeks. She refused to raise her opinion of him on the basis of his charm alone, which was disappointing, but the 93% mark at the top of his paper evidently left her flabbergasted; she hadn't expected such a grade out of him. He smiled broadly as the paper was shoved at him, and she simply furrowed her brow and hurried away to dispense the rest. And the smile remained after that, not because of the great grade, but because he had a feeling that it had left an impression.