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“I can’t believe you talked me into this!” Galinda complained huffily.
She was perched on her bed, sheer adorned legs dangling freely over the edge, her fidgety wriggles causing the mattress to spring beneath her. But even as she bounced up and down in what was quite a childishly amusing spectacle, her pout remained in place.
“Oh, hush up.” Elphaba waved a dismissive hand, still skimming a passage of her leather bound spell book. “I know what I’m doing. Don’t worry.”
And in any other case, she would have believed her. Her ingenious, magically inclined roommate could fix anything, couldn’t she?
Well, as much as she tried not to outwardly panic, (stress lines, you see.) Galinda could not overlook the fact that her skin was currently turning yellow!
And it was Elphie’s fault. Maybe if she really did know what she was doing, she would have reversed the spell already!
“Galinda Arduenna Upland is not a guinea pig, you know.”
Elphie slammed her book shut, the blonde nearly toppling over in fright.
“Elphaba Thropp does not give a toss!” She declared, jaw locked and steel in her gaze.
A long, spindly finger pointed threateningly in Galinda’s direction.“Now, you will keep those glossy lips buttoned and let me concentrate or so help me-”
“Yes, Miss, sorry Miss!” Galinda squeaked despite herself, clutching a frilled, decorative pillow tight against her chest.
Her dear, sweet Elphie, gentle in soul and lovely in nature could be quite...domineering sometimes. That authoritarian tone of hers would bring even an unofficial princess like Galinda to obey without question.
The glare dropped suddenly from Elphaba’s expression, eyes widening in shock.
Her crisscrossed legs untangled in haste and before Galinda could brace herself, in a screech of aching bed springs, the green girl had stumbled ungracefully across the room, spell book in arms and flung herself down on the silken, fuschia bedding.
Long, raven hair spilled like ink trails down her shoulders as she scrabbled in like an animal, leaning into the blonde with a scrutinizing look.
Galinda was frozen under such an intense gaze, eyelids in a rapid flutter and bottom lip unhinged stupidly. Her heart did those silly, skipping stone palpitations.
Elphaba’s final verdict came in the form of an observational mutter. “Yellow.”
A stunned pause.
“W-...Y-yes, Elphie!” Galinda finally exclaimed once she recovered, breathlessness rending her sarcasm ineffective. “We have established that I am yellow!”
“No,no, no it’s...it’s gotten more....fluorescent.”
Oh dear.
Galinda shakily took hold of the silvery, handheld mirror Elphie was offering, promptly yelping at the sight. “I look like a blasted lemon!” She said shrilly.
A shade like this clashed terribly with her golden hair.
“I noticed it became brighter while I was shouting at you.” Said Elphaba, a fingertip sliding down a page of her book. “Yellow, yellow, yellow…” She mouthed, eyes snapping through sentences at a lightning rate.
Good Oz, she wished Elphie wouldn’t do that.
You see, when someone spoke, they would clearly see the way your gaze would linger on their moving lips. But when they read to themselves, they were none the wiser. Leaving Galinda to fall distracted to every curl, pop and pucker of letters through Elphaba’s mouth, fuzzying up the world around them.
“Ah, found it! Yellow!”
After a moment of thorough reading, Galinda was addressed with a single, deadpan word.
“Fear.”
........Now, this was just ridiculous.
“Ohhhhh, really now?!” Galinda dramatized, features stretching exaggeratedly with a whirl of arms. “Yes, well, being threatened by an overtly powerful, sleep deprived green woman has a tendency to provoke fear in people! Goodness, Miss Elphaba, you are a bright one!”
“You’re being a bit over the top, don’t you think?” Elphie droned.
“I am yellow, I will be as over the top as I please, thank you!”
She backed down at that, shrugging agreeably as she flipped the page. “I’m just saying that your colouring seems to depend on your current emotions.”
“Oh, so I’m a human mood ring now? Well, that is just excellent.”
There was a brief silence, filled only by the rustling of spell book paper.
Elphaba exhaled to herself, awkwardly re-adjusting her sitting position. She turned to the blonde with a small smile.
“I really am familiar with this spell, you know. I wouldn’t just go around experimenting on you if I didn’t. Relax. You’ll be back to your pretty little self in no time.”
Galinda’s shoulders drooped in exasperation. She assumed this was Elphaba trying to apologize for snapping. For a girl so academically gifted, she was remarkably terrible at saying something as simple as “I’m sorry.”
“My meeting with The Wizard is in a couple days,” She continued, flicking absentmindedly at the book’s dog-eared edges. “And I’m a bit...I’m nervous. I’ve been trying to go over all my spells at least once. Just to...you know....remind myself of how proficient I am.”
“And how many times have you practiced this skin colouring spell?”
“Oh,” Elphaba shook her head with a faint chuckle. “Too many times to count.”
Galinda grinned, teasingly bumping their shoulders together. “Hoping to add more green people to your life, Elphie?”
“Obviously not!” She scoffed, gently thwacking her friend with the book. “Imagine going around cursing people to look as hideous as me. That would be outright wicked.”
“Hideous?” Galinda asked. Her smile dissolved.
Elphaba gave her an almost pretentiously, knowing look. “Yes, Miss Galinda. Hideous. Why do you think I’m so accustomed with this spell?”
“You’ve been trying to....de-greenify yourself.” She murmured in a quiet realization. “Oh El-”
“It’s not for my benefit!” Elphaba her cut off with a tightened brow, looking appalled at the very notion that she would be self conscious.
“You see, folks around here tend to be absurdly fixated on my-....” Her nose wrinkled in thought. “-Vertigris. They’re such babies about it. Everywhere I go, I get a hoard of horrifed faces. It gets tiring. Of course, I wish I could de-greenify myself. Maybe then, they would focus on what I have to say for a change.”
Galinda, ever the chatter box, wisely clamped her mouth shut before she let her thoughts slip.
Elphaba wasn’t nearly the enigma she fancied herself as. And while her wishes to be normal were insisted as strictly professional, Galinda could easily call her bluff.
The fact of the matter was that Elphie cared a lot about what other people thought of her. She just pretended not to.
Galinda’s tender heart began to bleed.
“Aw, Elphie,” She tucked her legs up under her skirt and and scooched into Elphaba’s personal bubble, gently winding her arms around her friend’s shoulders and hugged her tight.
The green girl was unsurprised, having become accustomed to the blonde’s touchy-feely nature. She gazed ahead at nothing in particular, unresponsive until the seconds ticked away and a sweet smile spread slowly across her angular face.
Galinda felt fingertips brush across her knuckles, finding their grasp before squeezing tight.
They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, content to swim in their own thoughts. As long as their skin contacted, all was well.
Another secret about Elphaba. While it was likely to assume she scarcely received human touch, it led one to believe she didn’t crave it.
But in their short period of being roommates/besties, Galinda soon came to understand that it was quite the opposite. She had never felt a more positive aura wafting off that girl than those moments she held her close.
“Did you ever stop to think-....” Galinda began, her chin propped on Elphaba’s shoulder. “-that maybe you attract so much attention because you’re too beautiful for them to comprehend?”
The green of her prominent cheekbones darkened. Feeling her bony frame stiffen, Galinda tilted her head to rest affectionately in the crook of Elphie’s neck.
“That is the most improbable thing you have ever said.”
“Oh, I highly doubt that. I spout a lot of nonsense.”
But it was true, she thought to herself.
All those love poems from Boq had gotten her into a pondering mood. She realized every girl could be compared to something lovely. Every girl but Elphaba.
Galinda was the perfect example. The traditional, polished beauty, akin to so many girls adored by the masses. Hair like sunlight and eyes of sapphire. She walked with the fragrance of flowery meadows and spoke with the melody of the sweetest songbird.
But there had never been anyone quite like Elphaba. She existed as a stark separation from this world and its concepts of what makes a pretty face pretty. Laying eyes on her was like seeing colours you never knew existed.
And how could you possibly determine the beauty of something you have never seen before? If only to tear your eyes away and deem it ugly because the newness of it all was too overwhelming to process.
That was what Elphie was. New. Otherworldly. Something one of a kind and all her own. And in Galinda’s honest opinion, absolutely and utterly mesmerising.
Although, it was a pity that she, herself, would never see it that way.
“You’re blue.“ Said Elphaba.
Galinda blinked out of her daze, unfurling from their embrace. “Excuse me?”
She gestured with her eyes to the blonde’s arms, urging her to glance down for herself. And indeed, there it was. Full body tinged in powder blue.
“Oh, I see.” said Galinda, clenching and unclenching her fingers in her lap as she examined her current skin shade. She shrugged, with a chipper smile. “Well, my stylist did say that blue was one of my best colours! It brings out my-”
The faintest touch. Incomparable to the hug shared not minutes prior but this touch was not Galinda-initiated and as such, not Galinda-anticipated. This in turn led to a Galinda-malfunction.
Elphaba had cupped her cheek, gazing in admiration at the lovely hue. Fingers ran tickly down her side portrait until it tipped her chin upwards to catch the light.
Galinda’s heart racked and battered against her tiny, all too weak ribcage.
“I take it blue means sadness.” She commented, her tone suspiciously breezy. But even in Galinda’s dizzy state, she spotted that split second in which Elphie caught her eye. “Are you sad about something, Galinda?”
“Well, my best friend didn’t believe me when I called her beautiful.“
Though still a tad flustered, she recovered nicely. This retort of hers was easy to blurt out as it was apparently on the tip of her tongue and bothering her quite a bit.
“And of course, for someone as sensitive and empathetic as me, that leaves me quite put out.”
Elphie’s lips split into a wide grin. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Tell me that there’s hope you’ll believe me one day.”
Her left hand joined the other, cradling Galinda’s face like an untarnished treasure. She pressed against her cheeks ever so slightly, causing pink lips to pucker.
“I’ll do my best. Wouldn’t want you feeling down after all.”
They leaned into eachother, foreheads resting together, Galinda’s eyes shut and a content smile in place.
It was nice, this realm they slipped into, encased between the private walls of their shared dormitory.
Only here in their secret confines, would the cold and cankerous Elphaba Thropp burst into a smile that could melt hearts.
Only here would the eager-to-please Galinda Upland feel no obligation to perform her pleasantries nor be as delightfully charming as The Wizard himself.
Actresses beyond the curtain, existing unfiltered and happy.
“You should let me do your makeup, Elphie. If anyone knows how to enunciate your loveliness, it’s me.”
“I assumed you would only know how to paint one kind of face. Is your own not your speciality?”
Galinda raised a critical brow, tearing away from her gentle hold. “Miss Elphaba, you underestimate my range as an artist and that offends me. But more importantly, you’re exaggerating my vanity. You really believe I only care about my own face looking beautiful?”
“I’m sorry. Do you not?”
“Well....mine and yours.”
Elphaba smirked. “What about this colouring spell of mine? I still have to figure that out.”
“Oh, we’ll be here all night!” Galinda airily twirled a wrist. “Now my fixation is on what shade would look best with your skintone.”
“Your lack of an attention span is fascinating.”
A sigh that was all too forced and not nearly as frustrated as Elphie attempted to make it. “Fine.”
Galinda squealed, tugging Elphaba closer by the arm and planting a cheerful kiss to her cheek, alighting the green girl’s broadest beam.
“Wait, pink?!” Elphaba asked incredulously, pointing to Galinda. “What’s pink?”
“What do you mean what’s-....” The blonde glanced down to her hands again. “Oh. I’m pink now.“
The colour practically bled through her skin, like a blush that caught fire. It was glowing.
But as a realization dawned like a sleepy morning, Galinda’s neutral response burned into a sudden panic.
“Hang on, I have to-” Elphie latched on to her spell book, whipping through the chapter for any signs of the word ‘Pink.’
But to her utter astonishment, the book was promptly snapped to a startling close by Galinda, who sat there with her palm on the cover and wide eyes almost crazed.
“You know, now that I think about it.” She spat out, struggling to regain her composure, her breaths coming a little to quick for her liking. “I happen to have a lipstick shade that I think will look superb on you.”