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“Where did you go?” Galinda asked the moment Elphaba returned to their dormitory.
It took several repetitions and tones to get the brunette to answer.
“I just needed some fresh air.”
The frown lines set in an alabaster forehead deepened. “I didn’t mean to upset you…”
Eyebrows shooting up, Elphaba rushed to say, “Oh, you didn’t! It- I just.” Her body lowered itself onto her bed and kept going until she was almost folded over in half. “I saw something I didn’t want to see,” she mumbled to her knees, sliding her arms over her head.
Galinda sighed. Ever so gently, she began to unpin cocoa-colored hair. “You don’t really have to- Whoa!”
Elphaba gave her a bashful smile to compensate for sitting up so quickly. Her hand covered the clip to keep Galinda from taking it. “No, don’t. I-I like it.” Then she all but ripped the accessory from her hair. “Unless, of course, you want it back…” Her breath trembled as she held the flower out to the younger girl.
Golden curls bobbed when Galinda shook her head. And once more did her warm hands enclose Elphaba’s. “No, you keep it. It looks nice on you.”
The green girl tucked her chin to her chest too late to conceal a small smile directed at the carpet. “Thank you.”
“Aw, you’re welcome!”
Elphaba jolted at being embraced wholeheartedly yet again.
#
“Why do you keep doing that?” she grumbled the next morning, writhing to avoid the random pokes assailing her as she tried to get ready for the day.
The culprit giggled. “Because you love it.”
“Do not,” Elphaba muttered though she was again unsuccessful at hiding her grin.
She nearly got sent through the ceiling at Galinda suddenly shrieking, “Elphie!”
Spinning around so fast she got dizzy, Elphaba sputtered, “What; what? What is it?”
Galinda whined. “Don’t wear that old get-up again! Try-”
“You! You- Wh- Ugh!” Hand to her chest, the older girl had trouble calming her heart and lungs. “Are you trying to kill me?”
A chuckle and hip-bump made the response, “Only a little!” unnecessary. But all play soon melted away in favor of puppy eyes. “Please, Elphie? I’ve been up since dawn trying to decide what you’ll wear today and finally settled on the perfect look for you!”
Chocolate eyes slit suspiciously. Annoyance and confusion dwelt there too. Since when do I need someone to pick out my clothes for me? Those eyes rolled. Oh, of course. The “popular project.” Right. She gritted her teeth in a distortion of a smile. “Well, let’s see it, then.”
Pleasurable surprise suffused her bloodstream when, instead of a frilly gown, Galinda apprehensively pulled a pretty, white blouse with navy trimming and a matching skirt from her closet. “What do you think?”
“I think you must have stolen those from someone with far more sense than you have,” was not what Elphaba meant to say but left her lips automatically.
Sassy once more, Galinda struck back with, “Is the artichoke steamed again?”
But it only took their eyes meeting for the pair to laugh.
Galinda thrust the outfit at Elphaba and then swatted her through the doorway to their ensuite bathroom. “Go wash up and put this on!”
The brunette conceded without further struggle.
#
Galinda squealed upon Elphaba’s return. “Ooh, I knew it! Just darling!”
Wide, dark eyes did not believe squinted blues. “You’re messing with me.”
“No, really, Elphie!” An earnest nod backed up the statement before Galinda took Elphaba by the elbow and sat her down at the vanity. “Let me do your hair, okay?” she pressed without waiting for an answer. “You won’t believe what a little oil and a good hairbrush can do!”
Elphaba merely sighed and put her elbows on the vanity’s surface. Not wanting to argue and the slightest bit hopeful, though still afraid, she set her cheeks on her fists and closed her eyes.
“You know, you’ve got really pretty hair when you let it down!” Galinda told her sometime later.
Noncommittal, the brunette hummed. “Mmhmm.”
But Galinda wanted to engage in girl talk. “Have you always kept it long like this?”
“Mmhmm.”
“Did your mother have long hair?”
“Mmhmm.”
Galinda groaned under her breath. Then she smirked. “Was she green too?”
“Mm- Hmm?”
“Ha! A-”
“No, she wasn’t.” Elphaba pulled back slightly from her hands so that she could cross her arms flat and rest her forehead on them that way. “Only I got cursed this way. As I deserve.”
“I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear that last part, missy! Because there’s- ugh!” Galinda huffed as she fought to tease out a particularly difficult knot without causing the older girl any discomfort. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Elphie! You didn’t do anything wrong, and you don’t deserve to be punished.”
Elphaba looked up at her roommate, bemused. She then rolled her shoulders back. “I’m sick of talking about me. Let’s talk about you.”
“Ooh, my favorite subject!”
The girls shared another chuckle.
“You know, I’ve been thinking-”
“Uh-oh!”
It was said so dramatically that the two fell into a fit of laughter.
“Will you hear me out?” Elphaba panted moments later. “I-”
Galinda smiled sweetly. “Always, Elphie.”
Her friend snorted. “Good start. Anyway- Anyway!”—she circumvented the impending interruption—“I want you to tell me a real secret. Your fantasies of marriage don’t count.” The smile tugging at her lips widened. “It’s not fair. I told you a really good one!”
“Tut. …I don’t know what to say,” Galinda admitted, attention mostly redirected to Elphaba’s silky locks.
Before she could chicken out, the older girl asked something that had been niggling at the back of her mind for weeks, “What’s with you and Roquat? He-”
Startled blue eyes met searching brown via reflection for only half a second. “He’s-”
“Someone to you, so don’t you dare say ‘no one!’” Elphaba completed her roommate’s thought, suddenly deadly serious.
“Elphie…” The blonde remained unable to hold their gaze. So, she hitched her grin back in place. “He’s just someone I knew from back home.”
“Did you date him?” Unrelenting and undeterred, Elphaba answered her own question, “No. But he… did something to you.” She was on her feet in an instant. “He did, didn’t he? I’ll kill him!”
“Waaait!” Galinda wailed, immediately grabbing Elphaba around the waist to prevent her from going anywhere. “He- just- …He-”
“He?”
“He took some liberties; that’s all!”
“He touched you? In ways- Against-”
Galinda compulsively giggled and petted her friend’s hair. “He just misunderstood our relationship one night and got carried away. We were both buzzed.”
“That’s not an excuse!” Elphaba flung Galinda’s arms from her middle, whirled around, cupped her face, and lifted it to force eye contact. “Did he hurt you?”
“H-heehee. Nooo…”
Fire sparked behind blown pupils. “Tell me! Did. He. Hurt. You?”
“No! No, nothing like that. He just gave me a bit of a fright. But it all turned out okay!”
Elphaba released Galinda only to crack her own knuckles. “It will,” she swore.
A second unconvincing chortle did nothing to ease Elphaba’s rage. “Wh-whoa, there, sister-bear. I’m not Nessa.”
“No, but you’re-” someone I’ve come to care for, and…
Bright and teasing, eager to return to normalcy, Galinda quipped, “Someone you looooove?”
“Ugh!” Elphaba turned and plunked herself back down on the stool. Too, she reburied her face in her crossed arms with a scoff. “Whatever you have to tell yourself, princess.”
“Whee! Okay! Elphie adores me and worships the ground I walk on! Let it be known throughout all of Oz!”
One side of her mouth curled, the brunette shook her head but did not lift it. After a while, the soothing sensation of gentle care, which had eluded her her whole life, nearly lulled her back to sleep. But that is when she felt the hairbrush tremor. “What is it?” she asked blearily, though her drowsiness began fading fast. A gasp swept from her throat at the quaver in Galinda’s voice.
“I just.”
Unblinking brown orbs again locked on reflected blue. You just?
“I wanted to thank you, Elphaba. Nobody ever… believed? No, took seriously? Yes. No one else has ever really cared about what Roquat did to me, certainly never got upset about it on my behalf. They blamed me and told me to get over it, to consider myself lucky because that could’ve gone so much worse. Which it could, of course.” Galinda sniffled. “Even Momsie and Popsicle encouraged me to simply rise above what happened and never mention it again,” she whispered almost too softly to be heard. “It was a secret shame.”
Much more carefully though just as sure the second time, the brunette reached out for the blonde. Her hand squeezed the one gripping her shoulder. “They’re wrong. All of them. Like I and everyone else are wrong about me, according to you. And, anytime. Every time! If anyone ever tries to do that to you again-”
Galinda beamed through her tears. “I know. I will.”
“Good.”
#
Again pacified into lethargy what seemed like hours later, Elphaba wondered, “Aren’t you finished yet? Geez.”
“Wait!” Galinda cried a second time. “Don’t move!” She ran to retrieve the flower clip Elphaba had left on the bathroom sink. Fussily replacing it to its proper spot, she pressed a real kiss to her friend’s crown and then pulled it back. “Taaa-daaa!”
Elphaba only got to bask in the sight for a second.
Galinda burst her bubble with an exclamation of, “Now for makeup!”
The older girl groaned and went to bang her head against the vanity but got pulled up short by a chummy chokehold. She grimaced another smile. “Great.”
#
But it wasn’t so bad. Galinda only gave her a bit of eyeliner, eyeshadow, and lip gloss.
“Perfect!” The younger girl stepped back to admire her work. “You really don’t need much by way of makeup, you know. No blemishes at all! And you’ve got quite a pretty face behind those old glasses!”
Elphaba smiled wryly both at her reflection and her friend’s. “Sure. Too bad I’ll be in them forever, eh?”
Galinda hesitated before saying, “You never know… Don’t wear ’em today, okay? Please?”
The brunette easily agreed. “Okay.” She could stand to go a day without having to see horror, scorn, and disgust in perfect clarity.
#
“What are you doing?” Galinda asked, righting Elphaba from hunching over her legs.
Her friend crinkled her brow. “Um, putting on my stockings?”
“But… the skirt looks nice on its own, doesn't it?”
Fearing that she was hurting Galinda’s feelings, Elphaba gave yet another weary smile. “It’s not that. Trust me. The less people see of my skin, the better.”
“Oh, Elphie…” The blonde sighed, paced, and then made another decision. “Would you like gloves too? Would that help you feel more comfortable?”
Elphaba smiled. “No, it’s alright. Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Galinda chirped in reply. “Now, put on these flats, then do like me!” She would not let either of them leave the room until Elphaba could passably pull off a few popularity-enhancing techniques.
#
But they were waylaid partway to Dr. Dillamond’s class.
“Babe! You looked incredible last night!” Roquat leered at Galinda. “Got the old juices flowing, if you know what I m- Excuse me, freak show!”
Shooting daggers from her eyes, Elphaba planted herself directly in front of her friend. “You’re not excused,” she hissed. “And if you ever come near Galinda again-”
The boy ignored her in favor of his prey—“Come on, babe. Let’s-”—who shrieked when he reached around their buffer to vise-grip her forearm.
“Aah! Let go of me!”
“Get off her, you- Stop!”
Roquat refused to abandon his intent of reeling in the object of his desire. He even used his struggle with Elphaba to further his plan, pouring the drink in his other hand down the front of Galinda’s outfit.
“My blazer!” she keened as she stared at the iced coffee that had stained it and the ground between them. Subconsciously, she shivered as drops of the liquid traveled the paths her assailant’s hands had forged not so long ago, entirely unwelcome.
“Oops!” The fiend grinned devilishly while the two girls stood stunned. “Why don’t you let me help you out of those wet clothes?”
“Why don’t you-” But Elphaba had had enough with words and instead charged her adversary, shoving him off his feet and then going to punch him in the nose before Galinda stayed her hand.
“Don’t! He’s not worth it!”
“But-”
Roquat jumped up, red-faced and rumpled. “Stupid witch!” hung in the air behind him as he fled.
The brunette’s instinct to chase him down got overridden by a frenzied plea. “Don’t! Don’t let him win!” In a reversal of their earlier moment, Galinda grabbed her friend’s face between her palms and tilted it back. “Look at me! Do you want to be kicked out of school? Just ignore him. I’ll go change and then meet you in class.” Azure eyes hardened. “I’ll meet you in class!”
Elphaba hesitated a moment longer before drooping with yet another sigh. “Alright. If you’re sure…”
“I’m sure. I don’t want you wasting your time on that boy, and I don’t want you missing out on your education. …That’s no way to be popular! Remember: toss, toss!” Galinda joked weakly, miming the action. “Now get.” Putting a hand to her stomach, she added, “I suddenly have this dreadful feeling…”
Elphaba nodded tersely. “I feel it too. Dr. Dillamond is in trouble.”
The girls gave each other one last meaningful glance and bracing shoulder-squeeze before parting ways.