Chapter Text
Glinda Upland ran into the pink and white bedroom of her home with a squeal, jumping onto her bed and kicking her legs into the air. She had received correspondence today that she had been accepted into Shiz University's sorcery program, and she was over the moon with excitement. She flipped through the acceptance letter and pulled out the student housing request form from the back of the neatly folded papers. She rolled onto her stomach and stretched her arm over to her desk to retrieve a pen and began to fill out the form without reading it. She neatly printed her full name and all of her personal information in the spaces provided along the top, selected the check box for "private room", and signed her name with a flourish at the bottom. Grinning, she slid off of her bed and made her way to her father's office to have him mail the form off to her future school with a noticeable bounce in her step.
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Glinda was the pride and joy of her parents and all of the household staff that she had grown up with. As a toddler it was confirmed that she carried the sorcery powers from her mother's bloodline, powers that her mother had personally chosen to cultivate while most other women in the family didn't acknowledge it. The seventeen year old was an only child and belonged to one of the wealthiest families in Gillikin, and as a result she grew up with extensive privilege. Throughout her life she was given the opportunity to study under great mentors many different skills like music, dance, art, acting, and every sport that she could think of from swimming to bowling.
Some activities were one and done; in her first gymnastics lesson when she was 6 she cut her hand on a piece of equipment and got blood on her brand new white leotard. She was taken home by her nanny in a screaming fit and never set foot in that building again, despite begging for gymnastics lessons for an entire year before her parents agreed to it. Some she stayed with for a few months to a year, like art and dance. She was a talented in both, but was frustrated at how subjective the activities seemed to be and got bored of not being the best.
As the blonde hit puberty, her inherent powers became stronger and Glinda had a serious discussion with her parents about her intentions to follow in her mother's footsteps and pursue a career that would let her use her powers to help her stand out among her peers. She worked only with her mother at first, and then one of her mother's trusted mentors for most of her formative years. Glinda was indeed a very powerful sorceress, and as she continued to take control of these powers she set her mind on attending the sorcery program at Shiz University. Now that she had been accepted, she had the summer months between leaving her finishing school and beginning university life to spend with her beloved friends that she had grown up with.
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Elphaba Thropp sat on the ground with her back against the door of her bedroom, her father's angry voice still booming from across their large home. Her hands were trembling, holding a ripped up folder full of documents that she had intended to hide from her father. She took a deep breath to calm herself and opened the folder, not believing what she had heard her father say. She looked down at the pages in front of her and she had to use the fabric of her dress to dry her tears before they fell. She had been accepted to Shiz University.
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Elphaba was considered a disgrace to her father from the moment she was born. The girl was born with green skin, black hair, and incredibly sharp teeth. Her father had tried on numerous occasions to starve or even abandon the abomination, but her mother had been so excited to have a child that she couldn't help but feel a connection to her. It was discovered early on that she had an aversion to water, and even the slightest drop on her skin would cause it to bubble up and turn an angry red color.
She grew up mostly in hiding, only allowed to go outside in the early mornings or after nightfall. When she was three, her mother gave birth to her little sister Nessarose, who her father was thrilled was more normal. Nessa was loved deeply but as she grew she did not reach the expected developmental milestones. Their father accused Elphaba of harming the child and demanded that she be left to rot, and her mother admitted to using substances during the pregnancy in hopes that their newest child would not be green like Elphaba.
Their father continued to work as a preacher and dote on his beautiful Nessarose, and their mother quickly fell into a depression and formed an addiction to mind altering drinks that she secured from a man who lived nearby. When she found that she was tiring quickly of caring for her youngest child who seemed to have no function in her legs, she called upon her own childhood nanny to help her care for her girls. Only a year after Nessarose was born, their mother fell pregnant once again, this time with a boy who would be named Shell. The boy had normal colored skin and seemed to have full function of his limbs but during his birth their mother passed away, leaving his father angry at him for taking his wife.
As the children grew up, their Nanny was primarily the one taking care of them. When Shell was able to walk he often escaped out of the house, and one fateful day Elphaba ran out to retrieve him and was spotted by a family living nearby. Suddenly her father was threatened and the family moved to a more remote location where people hadn't heard of the green menace that he had been hiding. Her siblings grew up and were able to go to school, and Nanny spent some secret time with Elphaba during those school days to help teach her things that she would need to know if she could survive. After living in this home for over five years, she was eventually spotted again. The family expected the worst, but this time rumors had been going around and people were just waiting for confirmation that she existed. The people in her community figured that if she had not brought harm to them yet that she couldn't be as wicked as people had feared. She still stayed at home, but her siblings were mercilessly teased for it at school.
She was incredibly smart, and by the time she was a teenager had taught herself to read and write several languages and play the piano. She was very skilled at navigating with maps that her little brother would draw, and she frequently did homework for her siblings.
Months ago, Nanny had come to her in the night with a stack of papers that she had been secretly retrieving from a friend. Nanny knew that Elphaba was incredibly intelligent and had gotten help to have an application to Shiz University brought to the girl. She had no formal education to fall back on, but her Nanny revealed to her that she had a birthright to a higher education because her mother was a member of the most powerful family in Munchkinland. Elphaba was still unsure – mostly because the deadline for submitting that was printed at the top of the first page had passed months ago - but had Nanny help her fill out the admissions forms and let her send them off.
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Elphaba was still in shock as she read the paper in front of her. The fall term was set to start just a few days from now, and she felt completely unprepared. Before she had time to worry there was a powerful kick to the door that she was leaning against and she was pushed forward, wincing in pain. Her father loomed over her menacingly, more angry than she had ever seen him. Although the correspondence from Shiz was addressed to Nanny, her father had opened it expecting it to be a request for her younger sister to go off to University early. He was appalled at the thought of his oldest daughter applying to a renowned school and ripped up the acceptance folder, throwing it across the table at the green girl and directing his rage at Nanny.
"How dare you disrespect me like this. You have no right to anything this world has to offer. You're repulsive. You're nothing more than an abomination. You're getting the hell out of this house. Tonight!" He punctuated his last word with a kick to Elphaba's side that made her cry out. He made a point to scatter the papers on the floor before slamming her door and stomping down the hall. Elphaba cried silently on the floor, her own tears burning her skin. After things sounded like they had settled down she heard her door open again and held her breath, expecting the worst.
"Child, get up off of the floor!" she heard her Nanny whisper. Elphaba struggled to sit up and pulled herself onto a chair. Nanny was holding a pouch of money and looking around the room for something to pack the green girl's clothes in. She explained as she walked around the room collecting essentials that there was a train station not too far away and that she could use the money to travel to Shiz and find her way to the school. Her little brother came to help, sacrificing one of his book bags for his favorite sister to pack up her clothes and personal items. He gave her a map that he had drawn of the area where they lived, and quickly penciled in a route that she could take to the train station. He also gave her a map of Shiz that he had traced out of a textbook years ago, making her promise that he could come visit her one day and map it out himself.
Within an hour she had collected everything that meant something to her and most of her clothes into the black bag that her brother wore on his back when he walked to school. He helped her put it on her back and she quietly made her way to her sister's room to kiss her goodbye. She walked outside with Nanny and Shell, and gave them warm hugs as she felt a pit begin to form in her stomach. She wasn't sure that she would ever be able to see her family again, but Nanny assured her that they would find a way to stay in contact. Nanny put the money pouch in a pocket of the bag closest to the green girl's body and gave her one last firm hug before sending her off to find her way to school.