Elphaba arrived early to Literature class, having spent less time than she planned for with her sister; she sat down on a bench in the hallway and started reading a book.
“Good morning, Miss Elphaba.”
“Good morning, Master Boq,” she replied without looking up, he was the only person who had ever spoken to her before Galinda decided to be friends with her.
“Ready for the exam?”
“I believe so,” she replied noncommittally. “And you?”
“I’m still a little bit confused about one of the texts, the first one we studied, and I don’t believe the Professor really covered the themes adequately but I hope I shall be able to write enough to pass.”
“You did well enough on the first exam did you not?” offered Elphaba in a tone that wouldn’t have been encouraging in another person but was for her.
“Only because you, very kindly, helped me study for it.”
“As I did this time, though I don’t recall any questions about themes.”
“I thought I would ask the Professor but I just ended up being more confused to be honest. Her way of speaking can be a little bit perplexing.”
“You may find it is because Madame Laelle is Gillikinese, they tend to be at the forefront of changes in language whereas we in Munchkinland tend to stick with the old ways of speaking.”
“Yes, that must be it,” agreed Boq. “May I ask what you are reading?”
“The text for the Law and Politics class, we have an exam next First Day and the Professor seems fond of sneaking in questions that haven’t been covered in class to see who has been completing the reading assignments.”
“Is it a difficult class?”
“It sounds easy when the Professor is talking about it but I suspect that the law and politics of the ‘real’ world are greatly different. The class itself, I couldn’t say how you would find it, I find it quite easy.”
“Yes, but you are a great deal cleverer than I am,” remarked Boq almost glumly.
“That may be so, Master Boq,” retorted Elphaba with a friendly/mocking edge to her voice. “But you’re a great deal more attractive than I am. I’m sure it all balances out in the end.”
“Ah well I umm…”
Boq had no idea what to say to that he wanted to tell Miss Elphaba that she wasn’t ugly but that was hardly a thing one said to her and in any case she was probably joking…
Yes, that must be it, he decided. Miss Elphaba is having one of her whimsical moods.
“You had better study some more before Madame gets here,” suggested Elphaba, to save the blushing Munchkin from trying to find something diplomatic to say.
Boq nodded and scurried back across the hallway just as a group of students, including Miss Rané LeJeune, came around the corner. All of them, except one, ignored Elphaba’s presence and sat down as far from her as possible.
“Good morning, Miss Elphaba.”
This time Elphaba had to look up and put a name to the voice of the person who had greeted her.
“Miss Rané,” she said with no hint of the surprise she felt at being addressed by one of Nessa’s friends – they usually acted like she was invisible.
“Is Miss Nessarose ill? I see she isn’t here yet.”
“She is quite well, I thank you, she had something else to do before class this morning. I’m sure she will be along presently.”
“Oh. Well…thanks. Good luck with the exam.”
“Luck is the last resort of people who do not study for their exams, Miss Rané,” remarked Elphaba; still controlling her surprise at the fact Rané had spoken to her directly even if it was just to ask about Nessa. “But I thank you for the sentiment.”
“You’re welcome,” said Rané a little uncertainly.
Fortunately Nessarose arrived, assisted by one of their other friends who’d picked her up at her room, and Rané hurried over to greet her leaving Elphaba to return to her reading.
“Good morning Nessa!”
“Rané! How are you today?” asked Nessa cheerfully. She was still annoyed at the way her sister had behaved towards Arlina but was determined not to take it out on her friends.
“Quite well, thank you, and you? I was worried you’d be late.”
“I just lost track of the time,” replied Nessa easily. It was true enough; she’d been studying the literature notes, which made much less sense when Elphaba wasn’t there to explain it to her. “Madame Laelle is not here yet is she?”
“No, not yet.”
Rané looked behind her at Miss Elphaba and lowered her voice when she spoke to Nessa again.
“You simply must convince your sister to tell you what she said to Master Boq this morning – he was blushing like mad when I got here!”
“Knowing my sister it was probably just an insult to his intelligence and what you thought was a blush was him being angry but too polite to be rude to a, and I use the term loosely, lady,” replied Nessa with a great deal of sarcasm in her tone. “This is Elphaba we are talking about after all.”
“I suppose so. Still I’d like to know, I mean Miss Elphaba speaking to another student is an event in itself.”
Before Nessa could think of something to say in response to that statement the Literature Professor arrived and let them into the classroom.
“Be seated, class,” she instructed them. “Pens out and books away. You have three hours to complete the examination. If you finish before the time is up you may hand in your paper, leave the room quickly and go to the library or your dormitories until lunch hour. I am certain that everyone who studied will have no trouble completing the examination. The papers are on your desks, you may begin when you are ready.”
Madame Laelle prided herself on being able to write exam papers that took even the brightest students most of the allotted time to complete so she found it vaguely annoying when her most vocal student, Miss Elphaba Thropp, stood up and handed in a completed exam only an hour into the class.
“Thank you, Miss Elphaba,” she said quietly, mostly repressing her irritation. “You may go now, if you are quite sure you are ready to hand in your exam.”
“Quite ready. Thank you Madame Laelle,” replied Elphaba respectfully. She never showed her opinion of the Professor to the woman though she suspected that Madame Laelle could tell that Elphaba didn’t think a lot of her class. The Professor waved her hand in dismissal and picked up the exam to read through it as Elphaba left the room.
Once outside the classroom Elphaba went to the nearest window and looked up at the clock tower to see what the time was.
Only half past tenth hour? I thought it took longer than that. She stretched her fingers, cramped from writing legibly, and smiled. No wonder Madame Laelle looked so annoyed. Ah well, Nessa won’t be done for awhile yet so perhaps I shall go and see if Miss Galinda has managed to pry herself out of bed yet.
As it turned out Miss Galinda had pried herself out of bed only five minutes before Elphaba got back to the room. She was alternately running around the suite, trying to frantically get ready for her singing class, and moaning about how much her head hurt.
“Good morning, Galinda,” said Elphaba in a cheerfully smug tone of voice.
“Elphie!” moaned Galinda. “Stop laughing at me!”
“I’m not laughing at you,” insisted Elphaba with a look of almost genuine concern on her face. “You don’t look at all well. Perhaps you need to go to the nurse?”
“And have her tell Madame Morrible I was suffering the ill effects of too much alcohol? No thank you! I shall just have to suff-- oh my head!”
Elphaba took pity on her roommate, even though the younger girl had brought it on herself; she went into the bedroom and took a small container out of one of her drawers.
“Here. Take one of these headache pills the nurse gave to me,” offered Elphaba.
“Elphie, you’re a lifesaver!” squealed Galinda then winced as it made her head hurt. “I might actually make it to class on time now.”
“Since when do you care about being on time?” asked Elphaba sceptically.
“Since my singing teacher has a very penetrating voice and uses it to full advantage when she is displeased,” replied Galinda, she took the bottle Elphaba had offered her. “Excuse me while I go into the bathroom to fetch a glass of water.”
Elphaba shook her head slightly; she couldn’t help smiling at the way Galinda occasionally dropped into a (very unfashionable) manner of formal speaking.
“I have to go back to class and wait for Nessa,” she called out, after Galinda had been in bathroom for ten minutes. “Will you be alright?”
“I’m fine, Elphie, just fixing my hair!”
“Well don’t forget that your class starts soon!”
“I won’t!”
Elphaba smiled to herself again, she’d had a lot of experience prior to their friendship with how long it took Galinda to ‘fix her hair’ and she’d bet that the blonde would be late to her class.
Still, she decided logically, Galinda is a grown woman, albeit a shallow and thoughtless one at times, and I’m not going to nursemaid her.
Elphaba made her way back to the classroom, prepared to tell anyone who questioned her presence in the hallway that she had permission to be out of class, and sat down on the bench outside the classroom again. Nessa wasn’t waiting for her so she assumed her sister was still struggling through the exam and pulled out her Law & Politics book again. She and Nessa were supposed to be studying for the exam during their next study time and she wanted to be prepared.
“Miss Elphaba?”
Elphaba barely managed to stop herself from wincing when she heard the Headmistress’s voice just above her head. She slowly lowered the book to her lap and looked up.
“Madame Morrible?”
“Why are you not in class, Miss Elphaba?”
While it was hardly a crime for the girl to be sitting in the hallway reading a book Madame Morrible was understandably suspicious of any abnormal behaviour at the moment.
“Why are you not in the classroom, miss Elphaba?”
Elphaba nearly laughed out loud when she realised the headmistress thought she had been sent out of class; luckily she managed to restrain herself and respond politely.
“We had an exam today, Madame. I went back to my room for a little while after I finished and now I am waiting for my sister.”
“That will not be necessary,” said Madame Morrible. “I need to speak with Miss Nessarose when this class is complete, I will wait for her and you may continue your study in a more appropriate location so as the library or your room.”
“Certainly, Madame,” agreed Elphaba. It was hardly unusual that Madame Morrible would want to speak to a student but it still seemed…odd. “Nessa isn’t in trouble is she?”
“No, no, of course not. Just a small matter we need to discuss, nothing for you to be concerned about.”
“Very well, Madame,” said Elphaba. She didn’t really like it when Morrible spoke to her in that almost falsely reassuring tone but knew the Headmistress wouldn’t tell her anything more than that. “Please tell my sister that I will meet her in our usual study room after lunch hour.”
“I will certainly pass the message on so Miss Nessarose doesn’t think you have forgotten her.”
Elphaba nodded, out of politeness, put the book back into her bag and walked away.
I was certain she would insist on staying and telling her sister herself, thought Madame Morrible. She wondered if the sisters had had a falling out and, if so, if there was some way for her to work the situation to her advantage.
Nessarose Thropp had discovered that she detested exams almost as soon as she got to Shiz. In the very first class she had the teacher had given them a written quiz on what they’d learned prior to going there and Nessa had failed horribly, resulting in a large amount of catch-up work. It wasn’t that she didn’t remember what they learned in class; it was just that she had trouble putting it into words when she had to answer questions without being able to ask questions.
It’s not as if this happens out in the real world! she thought irritably. You don’t get graded for what you know or don’t know when you’re a Governor. If you know then you know and if you don’t you find out!
Thankfully she finally finished the exam and she thought she’d done passably well, mainly thanks to having Elphaba’s notes to read (not that she would ever tell her sister so), and she was able to wheel herself down to the front of the classroom and hand in her paper.
“Thank you, Miss Nessarose, you may go now,” said the professor. “Or you can wait for one of your friends to assist you.”
Most of the people Nessa knew in the class had finished quite some time before her. In fact Boq was the only person left in the room that she knew at all and she didn’t want him to think she’d waited for him deliberately so she shook her head.
“Thank you, Madame, but I am sure someone will be waiting for me.”
“Very well, dear. Have a good day.”
To Nessa’s surprise the person waiting for her in the hallway was not Elphaba…
“Madame Morrible,” she said, covering her surprise with a smile at the Headmistress who was always so considerate of her. “I was expecting to se Elphaba out here, I suppose she wandered off and forgot about me.”
“Does that happen often?” asked Morrible almost sharply, not bothering to correct the girl’s misconception for the moment.
“Oh, not very often, she sometimes goes to the library during lunch hour and gets so involved that she forgets to fetch me. It doesn’t really matter, I have good friends who help me sometimes.”
“As it happens, Miss Nessarose, I sent your sister away this time. I need to speak with you before lunch, if you have no other obligations?”
“Certainly, Madame Morrible,” agreed Nessa, assuming that the headmistress wanted to take tea with her before lunch, something she tried to do at least once a week.
Madame Morrible took Nessarose to her sitting room, she’d already arranged for one of the servants to bring tea up, and exchanged pleasantries with the girl for a few minutes as the tea was prepared. As soon as the servant girl left the Headmistress turned the talk to more serious matters.
“I asked you here, Miss Nessarose, because I have heard some disconcerting information about your sister and I wanted to ask you, as her closest relative bar your good father, if the information is true. However, if you do not feel you can answer the questions, I am also going to write to the Governor but I need to know if the… information is going to cause any immediate problems. It is quite a grave matter and I hope you will take that into account when you decide whether to answer my questions or refer me to your father.”
“This does sound very serious,” said Nessa in a long-suffering tone. “What has Elphaba done now?”
“As a matter of fact this is about something she did some time ago. Professor Torelle has informed me that she is acquainted quite closely with your family and I am assured that she will show no favouritism in class so your schedule will not have to be rearranged. She told me about certain…problems Miss Elphaba had as a young woman and I am infinitely curious to know why your father felt it unnecessary to share this history with me, which is what I intend to write to him about. I thought you might be able to shed some light on the subject. Of course if your father has indicated he would prefer you not to speak about it then I will not ask you any more questions but instead refer them to him.”
“Arlina…I mean the Professor…told you what happened when Elphaba was thirteen?”
“She did.”
“I don’t remember the specifics myself, Madame, I only know what father and others told me since then but I can assure you that my father takes his responsibilities very seriously and if he had thought my sister was a danger to the school and its students he would have found someone else to send here with me. It is true that my sister is not a stable person but she has been very good for the last few years, the…incident when we arrived was the first time something like that has happened in years. While I was surprised that our father agreed to let her study with you I see now that it is for the best if she learns to control herself.”
Nessarose had been going to say “her abnormality”, which was how their father always referred to it (if he referred to it), but she realised that was not the most politic thing to say to Madame Morrible.
“My father also said to me that if anything very serious should happen I was to tell you that you need not bother asking his permission to send her home but simply do so. He only sent her to school to keep me company, you see, and I know both of us would prefer me to be here alone to having her embarrass our family.”
“I have warned your sister that any further incidents such as what happened in History class will not be tolerated. I am certain she understands that and what I am really concerned about is whether or not she has recovered from the…illness she suffered after the magical incident.”
“Oh, you mean is she in her right mind?” concluded Nessa, in a way that seemed rather too causal to Madame Morrible. “Father had Doctor examine her before he even considered the idea of letting her come to Shiz. The doctor said he thought it was a bad idea but that there was no medical reason why she shouldn’t come here. Of course he considers her skin discolouration a birth defect rather than a medical condition.”
“Did your family doctor, I presume he is so?” When Nessa nodded she continued. “Did he elaborate on his reasoning?”
“Not in front of me, Madame, but I think he said more to Father. They often spoke together after our appointments.”
“Very well. One last question, Miss Nessarose, if you do not feel it too impertinent to answer – do you believe that it is dangerous for me to allow your sister to remain at Shiz University.”
“Well…I,” Nessa hesitated, on the one hand this was a perfect opportunity for her to get her embarrassing sister sent home but on the other hand did she really want to be responsible for making Elphaba’s life that miserable?
“Please don’t feel obliged to answer, my dear,” said Madame Morrible, in a manner that was actually comforting for the girl. “The fact that you did not say ‘yes’ immediately suggests that it is safe enough to refer the matter to your father, which I shall do presently.”
“I think that would be the best thing, thank you Madame.”
“Not at all, my dear Miss Nessarose. Now you finish your tea before it gets cold and then join your friends for luncheon.”
While they were finishing their tea in silence there was a knock at the door.
“Enter,” snapped Madame imperiously.
A maid, carrying an envelope, entered the room and curtseyed to the Headmistress.
“This came by special messenger for you, Madame,” she said, handing over the envelope.
“Thank you.”
Noting the seal in the envelope Madame Morrible put the letter face down on the table. The bell rang for the beginning of lunch.
“Ah,” said Madame Morrible, looking at the maid. “Would you be so good as to escort Miss Nessarose to the student dining room? Thank you.”
“Good day to you, Madame,” said Nessa, not objecting to being so summarily dismissed.
When the girl was gone Morrible picked up the letter and opened it.
Madame Morrible,
The Wizard requests your presence at the Emerald Palace for a meeting with His Ozness at the tenth hour of the sixth day of this week. Please notify the Palace if you are unable to attend this appointment.
On behalf of the Wizard,
Senior Secretary LeJeune.
She put the letter down again and pondered its content.
The only reason he could want me to go there, she thought. Is that he wants to discuss our plans regarding Miss Elphaba and doesn’t want to pass the information through the secretary.
Of course he could have written the letter himself but that would make some of the Palace officials suspicious and the last thing she needed was one of them sending someone to nose around her University.
A quick letter to the Governor while the maid packs my things and someone will need to go and organise the carriage. I must speak to Miss Elphaba and Miss Upland as well, to cancel their class…but then it really would be a shame to postpone dear Miss Galinda’s class yet again…
Fortunately it was easy to arrange a trip to the City from Shiz even on such short notice. Once she had the maid and a messenger to the stables organised she sat down at her desk to compose a letter to the Governor.
Your Excellency,
It is my hope that I find you in the best of health and I hasten to assure you that the purpose of this letter is not to alarm you with news of your own daughter’s ill health. Miss Nessarose remains quite well, however there are other matters I need to address to you.
I shall be blunt, sir, and hope that you will forgive me the presumption. A new professor has recently been employed here at Shiz University, Arlina Torelle of Gillikin. I discovered today that Professor Torelle has been quite well acquainted with your family and she told me some things, which I found quite disturbing, about your older daughter. She told about some of the problems Miss Elphaba had as a young woman and questioned the young lady’s suitability to attend school. I spoke briefly with Miss Nessarose, who told me she could not comment on whether or not Miss Elphaba was a danger to the other students and said I should refer my questions to your good self, which is the purpose of this letter.
As you know I am now teaching Miss Elphaba the proper usage of her magical powers and this is something I should not have started without being in full possession of the facts about her prior medical conditions. I can understand Miss Elphaba being shy about giving me this information but I respectfully suggest, sir, that I am a trustworthy woman and should have received the information from your good self. I would ask that you now give me the information, including a full doctor’s report, to assure me that it is safe to have her here or promptly remove your older daughter from the University.
Regards,
Madame M. Morrible.
Headmistress of Shiz University.
She sealed the letter with her own personal seal, as opposed to that of the university, and placed it on the section of her desk reserved for outgoing messages with a note instructing who it was to be sent to. Another knock on the door prevented her form beginning to dress for the journey, as she had been about to do.
“Enter.”
It was the servant she had sent to have the carriage prepared and he looked nervous – not a good sign.
“What is it?”
“The stable master has had a message from Shiz City, Madame. They had a messenger telling them that the road to the Emerald City will be impassable until this evening due to a large storm passing through there yesterday and another one heading this way today.”
“When will I be able to depart?”
“Late this afternoon or early this evening, Madame. A message will be sent to us as soon as the mail coach from Emerald City gets through to Shiz City.”
“Very well. Send someone to me then.”
“As you wish, Madame,” replied the man
He departed, thrilled that he wasn’t going to be blamed for the vagaries of the weather, and left Madame Morrible to ponder.
I might be able to sort this storm out, she decided, standing up briskly.
As well as the public workroom in which Elphaba’s first ever sorcery lesson had taken place Madame Morrible had a private room attached to her suite that no one was ever invited into. It was the place where she kept her spell books and other implements of magic including a large silver bowl used for magical scrying.
She still shuddered to think of the amount of damage Elphaba’s first lesson had done to some of the delicate work she had set up in the room, despite the heavy shielding. That had been the main reason she had temporarily moved their lessons to an old, empty, classroom. The fact that the girl’s magical residue had lingered for days in her rooms made it easy to decide to turn the classroom into a permanent learning area.
The scrying bowl was already filled to the brim with water, its use happened to be one of Morrible’s particular talents, especially when looking at things happening in the present. The scrying spell was exceedingly simple; she imagined a ‘drop’ of magic being moved from her to the bowl of water and murmured a short incantation. Once the bowl was prepared she concentrated on seeing the storm that had caused the poor road conditions.
The rain had stopped and the clouds were already breaking up, it didn’t look like she would have to do anything but wait for the roads to dry out and that was something she could not speed up. The other storm might be a different matter, however, so she focused her attention on that.
Careful examination, and her extensive knowledge of weather patterns, made it obvious that it would cause far too much trouble later on to redirect the upcoming storm now. It seemed that if she went to the Emerald City today, and she would have too, she would not be back in time for the promised class with Miss Elphaba and Miss Galinda.
“That may not be a bad thing,” said Morrible thoughtfully. “Perhaps Miss Elphaba would make some more progress than she has if she had someone to compete with. And that pair have not had their differences resolved for so long that it wouldn’t be easy to make them compete again.”
Thinking about Elphaba reminded Morrible of the fact she intended to record what she had learned today in her private journal. It was a leather bound book that she kept locked in this private room and spelled so that only she could open it. She opened the book to the last page she’d written on, a record of the History class incident…
An incident orchestrated by her. She smiled to herself in amusement as she reviewed the whole thing in her mind; it had worked so perfectly, though the results had been less than optimal.
Naturally she had known of the wizard’s planned law against Animals being allowed to teach humans and had been aware that Dillamond would be taken away so she took the opportunity to arrange for a little test of Elphaba’s control, outside the Sorcery classroom. Elphaba had responded exactly as Madame Morrible had predicted she would. The older sorceress was annoyed when the girl had pushed away the binding spells as if they weren’t there! When Morrible had spent weeks very cautiously and subtly placing them on Elphaba and her magic. Still it was useful in that it told her she would need to strengthen the spells next time she placed them. She couldn’t help smirking as she remembered Arlina’s confusion at her apparent lack of concern regarding Elphaba.
“Really,” she muttered as she finished recording the conversation. She had a perfect memory and could record every word spoken. “All she has done is tell me more about how I can control the girl, and that is very useful indeed.”
Madame Morrible still wasn’t certain what she was going to do about the Sorcery class, obviously Galinda needed to start as soon as possible if she was going to use the minuscule amount of magic Morrible could see in her. That was why she had rejected the girl on the very first day; she didn’t feel it was worth the effort of teaching her. As for her ridiculous essay that had been discarded as soon as Madame Morrible read the title.
“Now if she had half of the brains Miss Elphaba does she might actually be able to use what little magic she has to do something worthwhile with her power…”
Morrible tapped her pen on the desk, trying to push away the ludicrous thought that was trying to make itself known to her.
“Trying to make them work together instead of competing,” she muttered, addressing the idea as if it were a living thing. “That’s a fine notion now because it would force Miss Upland to learn properly, and perhaps learn something about brains from Miss Elphaba, but what happens if they decide they don’t like my plans? No, it is far too dangerous…and yet the idea has merit.
It would certainly save me the tedium of teaching that silly blonde to hold a wand properly and Miss Elphaba is certainly capable of teaching her that much. Now that I consider the idea it seems to me that being forced to teach Miss Galinda will hardly bring them closer together, not when one remembers what a scholar Miss Elphaba is and Miss Galinda is not. Very good, I shall let them know this afternoon before I depart, it will be an interesting experiment.”
Neither of the young woman being talked about had any idea of what Madame Morrible was planning, both of them were far more concerned with their plans for the afternoon.
In Galinda’s case this meant an extended nap (to recover from the lingering hangover), followed by a vague attempt at studying for the upcoming Law and Politics exam (made more difficult by the fact she’d lost her book at the beginning of the year).
Elphaba had arranged to meet her sister in their study room to prepare for the same exam Galinda was pointedly not studying for.
The afternoon didn’t start well for Elphaba, she’d taken her lunch to the rooftop garden and gotten so engrossed in a book she hadn’t read that she didn’t even hear the bell ring for class changes and only saw the time because she was looking up to check the weather. It was quite cold and cloudy outside but so far it didn’t look like rain.
“Oh damn!” she cursed, not something she normally did, when she saw it was nearly half past one o’clock in the afternoon…she was supposed to meet Nessa promptly at one.
To Elphaba’s surprise Nessarose hadn’t given up on waiting for her but was sitting stiffly in her chair, next to the table since Elphaba hadn’t been there to make room at the table for her.
Oh curse it! She wants to talk to me about something, she must or she would have left by now.
“I’m so sorry I’m late, Nessa. I was studying and lost track of the time. Have you been waiting long?”
“Long enough considering I was here on time.”
“I did say I was sorry. Are we studying or not?”
“I want to talk to you about something first.”
My behaviour this morning, guessed Elphaba silently.
“Your behaviour this morning was quite disgraceful!”
“You only saw me for five minutes, Nessa, surely I couldn’t have upset you that much,” said Elphaba reasonably, resisting the urge to shout at her sister.
“You know very well that I’m referring to the way you spoke to Arlina!”
“Oh I see. That.”
“Yes, ‘that’, Elphaba! Anyone would think you learned no manners at home at all!”
“I apologise if my dislike of our former nanny upset you, Nessa.”
“That’s not good enough, Elphaba! She’s my friend and you were rude to her.”
“Well she was rude to me as well!” protested Elphaba. “Ignoring me in class yesterday, speaking to me like I’m still twelve today! I don’t see why I should have to put up with that.”
“Be that as it may, if you continue behaving like that towards her I will write to Father and tell him that I no longer need you here with me!”
“Very well, Nessarose,” said Elphaba, switching to a formal mode of speaking as a defence against an outburst of temper. “I will be polite to Professor Torelle. Are you ready to study?”
“Actually I came down here to tell you that I am going out at the second hour after noon today with some of the other young ladies. Miss Rané asked me this morning; they got a special permission from Madame Morrible to go to the Shiz City Art Gallery.”
“Don’t let me keep you then. I shall see you at your music class tomorrow afternoon unless you want me before then?”
“No, that is fine, thank you.”
“Do you need assistance getting to where you’re meeting your friends?”
“No, Elphaba, you can go.”
“Goodbye Nessarose.”
Elphaba walked out of the room, leaving Nessarose to take herself to the front of the school.
“There you are at last, Nessa!” exclaimed Rané. The red-haired girl was sitting on the front steps of Shiz with her roommates, Syra, Kara, and Seiana. “What took you so long?”
“I had to wait for my sister,” replied Nessa, rolling her eyes then smiling at Rané when the older girl helped her wheel herself down the ramp. “She forgot she was supposed to be meeting me this afternoon.”
“What a nuisance,” commented Kara, though it was uncertain if she meant the waiting or the person Nessa had been waiting for.
“Well let’s not let it ruin our day, it took us longer than expected to track down Miss Seiana and convince her to come along anyway.”
“Good day, Miss Nessarose,” said Seiana softly. She was a small, quiet, girl from Gillikin though her brown hair indicated some other race in her family
“Good day, Miss Leiana,’ replied Nessa. “I’m glad you decided to join us today.”
“Thankyou, Miss Nessarose, I’m looking forward to seeing the Gallery.”
“I’m sure it’s not much compared to back home,” replied Syra haughtily (the effect was somewhat spoiled by the fact she was grinning). “But one must make do with what one has.”
“That was uncanny,” said Rané in genuine amazement. “You sounded just like Madame Morrible!”
“Darn,” said Syra pleasantly. “It was supposed to be Madame Laelle. Still Gillikin is Gillikin, close enough. Shall we go?”
“We shall,” agreed Rané, the others nodded.
Elphaba watched through the window as the girls, smiling and laughing, set off down the driveway to go to the City. The Art Gallery had been one of the first places she’d visited when they came to Shiz University. It was about the second week and Nessa had made friends already, they invited her out to afternoon tea and she didn’t want Elphaba around “embarrassing her” so she’d gone to the Art Gallery and collected Nessa later.
“Well,” she muttered. “I might as well go back to the suite, at least my bed is more comfortable to sit on than these chairs.”
The quickest way back took her past Madame Morrible’s office. Staring straight ahead she started down that hallway and stopped when she realised that someone was watching her.
It was Fiyero Tiggular, slouching against the wall next to Madame Morrible’s office. He was doing a masterful job of pretending he was staring at the ceiling in utter boredom but she could tell he was watching her as well.
“A photograph lasts longer,” she muttered sarcastically as she drew level with him.
“I beg your pardon?” he replied nonchalantly.
“To stare at people.”
“I wasn’t,” retorted Fiyero defensively. “I’ve been looking at the ceiling since I got here.”
“I don’t care if you were staring,” she lied as well as he did. “After all, how can you help it?”
Before Fiyero could react, or had even realised she was mimicking his words of the night they met, she started walking down the hallway again.
He shook his head in a combination of bemusement and irritation, it was bad enough that Morrible had asked to see him again already but then she came along making accusations!
And how did she know I was watching her anyway? he wondered. He had been watching her, not for any particular reason, he was just bored, but he was using an Arjiki hunter’s trick and she shouldn’t have been able to tell that he was watching.
“Master Tiggular, the Headmistress will see you now.”
Madame Morrible’s secretary interrupted his train of thought; he straightened up and followed her into the office with a bored expression on his face. The fact Elphaba had seen him watching her was far more of a mystery than any reason Madame Morrible might have for wanting to see him and he was fairly certain he hadn’t done anything yet that would get him expelled. Still he could do his impression of ‘Horrible Morrible’ for Galinda later, that always seemed to entertain her.
The sound of the door slamming jolted Galinda awake. She half stepped half fell off the bed and stumbled into the living room to see her roommate dropping her book bag on the table with another crash.
“Elphie?”
“Sweet Oz, Galinda, I didn’t see you there!” exclaimed Elphaba, she smiled to make up for the loud voice and continued more softly. “I thought you’d be out somewhere.”
“Normally I would be but no one had any interesting plans for today so I came back here to have a nap and study a little, perhaps.”
“Perhaps,” repeated Elphaba, mimicking the younger woman’s Gillikinese accent so accurately that Galinda looked twice to make sure she was still talking to Elphaba.
“You do know how to talk like a civilised person!” she exclaimed and clapped her hands in mock delight.
“Of course,” replied Elphaba, amazed by the way her bad mood dissolved around Galinda. “I was just talking like you for a lark.”
“Elphaba!”
“Galinda!” Elphaba imitated her again.
“I do not talk like that!”
“Only when you’re being superior, Gaia dear,” replied Elphaba in her usual accent. “Which, incidentally, is a great deal of the time.”
“Well I can’t help the fact I was born superior to most of the people here…”
Her voice trailed off when Elphaba pulled a face at her.
“Don’t do that!”
“I didn’t want to interrupt you by expressing my opinion verbally.”
“You are infuriating, do you know that?”
“Shockingly I am reminded of it quite frequently. Most often by you until recently, my dear.”
“I thought we weren’t going to hold those things against each other?” protested Galinda.
“I believe the agreement was that we were going to forgive lapses of memory that result in actions similar to those of before our friendship. In any case, I was not ‘holding it against you’ I was simply pointing out the facts.”
“Oh, well I suppose that’s alright then.”
“I’m thrilled to hear it. Now, what was it you were going to study?”
“It’s really not important, the test isn’t until first Day next week!”
“Please tell me you’ve done some study for the Law and Politics test,” said Elphaba with a sigh, knowing that the answer was probably ‘no’.
“When you say ‘study’…”
“Opening a book, reading the required chapters, and making notes to memorise.”
“Right…”
“Well?”
“I sort of hmm…how do I put this?” wondered Galinda.
“As succinctly as possible if you could.”
Galinda muttered something completely unintelligible and even looked slightly embarrassed, despite the fact she was trying to tell herself she had no reason to be, she just knew Elphaba was going to laugh at her.
“Your pardon?” said Elphaba, restraining her amusement quite well. “I didn’t quite catch that.”
“I said,” replied Galinda, in a deliberately exaggerated Gillikinese accent because now she realised the situation was funny. “I lost my Law and Politics book in the first week here.”
Elphaba stared at her blankly for a moment then started laughing.
“I knew you’d laugh!”
“How can I not? Great Mother, dare I ask how you’ve managed to keep up in class since then?”
“I share with the other girls in class and just sort of muddle through the tests by rereading my notes, she shrugged. “I thought I’d get an early start for this one, the Professor said that if I don’t pass this test he’ll have me removed from the class.”
Elphaba looked shocked by Galinda’s matter of fact tone and apparent lack of concern.
“And that doesn’t bother you?”
“Of course not, it’s only one class, I’m only in that class because I had to enrol for a certain number to come here. But it would be dreadfully embarrassing to be sent out, I suppose, I didn’t think of that before!”
“Why don’t you study this afternoon with me,” suggested Elphaba quickly, to head off the impending hysterics.
“What a fantastical idea!”
Galinda smiled at Elphaba in genuine gratitude.
“I wasn’t going to ask, I mean I didn’t want you thinking I only wanted you to help me study or anything like that!”
“Of course not,” agreed Elphaba. “It makes much more sense than studying on your own, if you have someone to study with. Though perhaps you would prefer to find one of our other classmates?"
“I don’t want them to know I could fail the class,” said Galinda instantly. In fact that was only part of her reason but she didn’t want to say that it was also because Elphaba was smarter than them in case it came out wrong and sounded like she wanted Elphaba’s help just for that reason.
“That’s fine then, just let me put my things away and we can study.”
Galinda and Elphaba were sitting, side-by-side, on the sofa of the sitting room to study. They had been working for over an hour and Elphaba was greatly surprised to find that Galinda hadn’t managed to annoy her yet. In fact the blonde girl was being so reasonable about the whole thing that Elphaba had to wonder what was wrong with her. She was about to ask that very question when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in!” called Galinda, without looking up from Elphaba’s book. She expected the person at the door to be Fiyero or one of her friends.
“Good evening, Miss Upland, Miss Elphaba.”
“Madame Morrible!” exclaimed both of them. They scrambled to their feet, dropping their books and notes on the floor in the process.
“It’s good to see that you are hard at work, my dear young ladies. I have just come to inform you that I have been called away unexpectedly and can not teach our Sorcery class tomorrow.” She raised a hand to forestall the inevitable protest from Galinda. “I know you must be very disappointed not to have had a class yet, dearie, which is why I have come here to request that Miss Elphaba tutor you while I’m away.”
“What?” exclaimed Elphaba. “Begging your pardon, Madame, but I hardly think I am qualified…”
“Nonsense. You have been having lessons for several months now, I brought another copy of our text with me, and all I would like you to do is go over the most basic first lessons with Miss Galinda. You may use the Sorcery classroom in case of accidents and you will only follow the text so there should not be any accidents.”
“But Madame surely I am not the best person to show Miss Galinda how to use a wand,” pleaded Elphaba in reference to the fact that she still hadn’t mastered the practice (she knew the theory extremely well) of basic wand use.
“It won’t be necessary for you to demonstrate, Miss Elphaba, if you do not feel up to the task. Just make sure that Miss Upland is using the correct technique.”
“Yes, Madame Morrible,” agreed Elphaba very reluctantly.
“This is so exciting!” gushed Galinda, completely missing the undertones of Elphaba’s suggestion that she wasn’t the best person to show her how to use her training wand – she took it as a compliment to Madame Morrible’s teaching skills.
“Yes, yes. Before I depart, it has come to my attention that some of the young ladies were planning an excursion this evening. I do not know if you two were involved in those plans but I have issued a general order for all excursions to be cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions that are expected tonight. It will make my journey a misery I have no doubt.”
“Thank you for informing us, Madame Morrible,” replied Elphaba when it became clear that Galinda, who had planned to go out that night, wasn’t going to say anything. “I hope your journey to…where did you say you were going? Anyway I hope it is not too unpleasant.”
“I didn’t say,” replied Morrible, raising an eyebrow at Elphaba’s rather obvious attempt to probe her for information.
Really, if the girl is going to try and manipulate someone she should be a little subtler about it! Not that any amount of subtlety would fool someone such as myself of course.
“I thank you for your well wishes, Miss Elphaba, I hope to be back in time for our Second Day class next week. Inside the textbook you will find a list of what I expect Miss Upland to have accomplished by then. If I am not back by then you may continue on to the next chapter after what I have written but no further.”
Madame Morrible was certain she would be back by the next rest day in fact but she wanted to have a contingency plan in place in case she did need to stay longer in the city.
“Very well, Madame,” replied Elphaba in a faintly ironic tone “We shall certainly anticipate your swift return.”
“Your anticipation of my future company is most gratifying, Miss Elphaba,” replied Madame Morrible very formally. “If you will excuse me, young ladies, I have a few more things to attend to before I depart for the Emerald City.”
“The Emerald City?” repeated Elphaba, with badly feigned disinterest.
“I’ve always wanted to see the Emerald City!” exclaimed Galinda. “I do hope I shall be able to go one day!”
“If you work hard, both of you, you may get your wish. Now I must be away, good day,” said Madame Morrible, showing herself out of the room without waiting to hear I the girls would bid her good day.
Elphaba took one look at the expression on Galinda’s face and knew she wouldn’t get any sensible conversation out of the blonde girl, let alone any more study.
“Oh Elphie! Wouldn’t it be lovely to see the Emerald City?”
“And the Wizard?” exclaimed Elphaba – it seemed Galinda’s enthusiasm was contagious she couldn’t help joining in.
“Well of course! That’s why Madame Morrible wanted to teach you, remember? And now she’s teaching me as well so maybe I can go too!”
Of course, remembered Elphaba. She was there when Madame was talking about telling the Wizard about me.
“I promise that if I do get invited to meet the Wizard you can come with me to the Emerald City, Gaia. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Galinda clapped her hands together and flopped down on the sofa.
“I hear that the Emerald City is one of the most fantastical places in all of Oz!”
“I read a book about it,” replied Elphaba. “All the famous museums and the best libraries in Oz.”
“Don’t forget the best, and most exclusive, shops in Oz!” added Galinda.
“And do you know what I think the best thing about it will be?” said Elphaba rhetorically.
“What’s that Elphie?”
“It’s all green!”
AN: If anyone's wondering what happens when Morrible goes to the Emerald City you can click back to Elphie's second dream in chapter 7, it happens exactly the way she saw it. I might put it in chapter 14 as a refresher for you all but I haven't decided yet.
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