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“Elphie, what is it? What’s wrong?” Galinda asked, hugging her roommate close and bringing their faces even closer together. She had tried innumerable times to catch brown eyes.
Elphaba remained dogged in her refusal to establish contact. The regret weighing heavy on her chest rose to her throat and choked her. So, she did what came naturally and reversed the situation on the other person. “Why did you give me that hat?”
A pretty face fell. “...O-oh. You… heard about that? I didn’t think…”
Humiliation ever quick to turn to fury, the green girl hissed, “Of course not! Thinking’s not your forte!”
But instead of getting angry in return, Galinda clapped her hands over her eyes and sobbed. “Elphie, I’m sorry!” she whimpered. “I’m so sorry!”
“Well, you should be!” Elphaba threw herself onto her bed and burrowed under her blanket. Inside, her mind pin-balled between confusion, denial, and desperation to know what was causing her friend’s outburst.
“Oh, Elphie; please don’t hate me!”
“Impossible” escaped without her intention. Luckily for her, it was muttered in such a way as to sound like a swear.
Galinda flung herself onto her own bed, weeping.
Elphaba became too stunned to move, let alone speak. She had never mattered enough to someone to make them cry from guilt over being unkind to her. And she didn’t quite know what Galinda had done wrong. Though, she could guess. She had been in similar situations with Nessarose, whenever her sister ridiculed her in public to avoid being lumped together with her and then felt sorry and wanted to reconnect in private. The girl sighed. Carrying her bundle with her, she got up and crossed the room. “Hey,” she grunted.
Galinda squealed her friend’s nickname before flipping over and throwing her arms wide.
The brunette, again taken aback by such a response, teetered at the edge of the bed until a pale hand yanked her off-balance with belied strength. Then she was being smothered with something like love.
“I’m sorry; I’m so sorry,” Galinda whispered incessantly into her ear.
Elphaba sighed once more. Her hand automatically released scrunched cloth to stroke golden locks. “Whatever it is, I already forgave you. You know that.” And yet, just as she had hoped, the blonde continued clinging to her but from a place of euphoria rather than remorse.
“I’m still really sorry. That’s my weakness, you know? Caring-”
“Too much what other people think?” she affirmed. She took a deep breath and shrugged with difficulty given the body twined tightly with her own. “Nessa’s the same way.”
“That- …I’ll work on it, okay?”
The discolored girl’s mouth twisted to the side. “It’s- I think it’s everyone’s weakness.”
Galinda squeezed her tighter, shaking her head. “Not yours.”
Elphaba smiled wryly. “Yes, mine.”
“Mm. That’s what I told Fiyero.” Slick lips passed over her pulse point, making her gasp. “He- What is it?”
The boy’s whispered name, and Elphaba’s shame took up the space in the room Galinda’s had just vacated. Her jaw locked, and she shook her head.
Her friend paused to see if she would change her mind before shrugging and continuing, “He really likes you, you know. You impress him.”
With an almighty wrench, Elphaba removed herself from Galinda’s bed and went back to her own. Her friend followed her, whining, until she settled herself in the bathtub. Such was a common punishment of old, and she felt it fit.
Galinda, withdrawing, didn’t understand. She would never understand.
Elphaba did nothing to change that.
#
Bright and cheery as the sunrise, at sunrise, Galinda knocked on the bathroom door. “Elphie, come out here! I have a surprise for you!”
If my mother’s bottle has a ribbon tied around it, I’ll kill her, was Elphaba’s waking thought. She chuckled to herself, soon wondering why she felt so stiff. Oh! Her eyes widened upon taking in her surroundings. Achingly arising from the tub, she went to open the door.
“I’ve been centering myself all night and really think this’ll work!” Galinda told her breathlessly the minute they were face-to-face.
“What will?” Warily, Elphaba eyed her side of the room. Nothing seemed amiss, so she returned her gaze to the girl before her. “Well?”
Said girl giggled, both pleased and nervous. “Come sit down at the vanity.”
Elphaba groaned but followed her roommate without further query.
“Close your eyes!” Galinda’s hands made her exhortation unnecessary, but she covered her friend’s face anyway. Oh, please let this work, she prayed. Her cupped palms begin to warm and glow. Thus, she cried, “Yes!”, then “Wait!” Leaving her hands where they were, she dragged Elphaba up from the stool and led her outside. She bit her lip to keep in her excitement before counting to three and whipping her hands away. “Open; open!” she squealed, jumping up and down.
She pouted when Elphaba jokingly grumbled, “Nuh-uh.”
“Pleeease?”
Elphaba blinked in the dazzling daylight.
The pair stood in the private garden outside their room.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was the small courtyard the Uplands’ money had reserved for their daughter, the picket fence, cement path, tree, rocking chair, bushes, bench, and flower beds.
“What am I looking at?” Elphaba wondered after a moment. She frowned at Galinda who was practically vibrating.
“You tell me!” the younger girl gushed, confusing her friend even more. “Do you see it?”
Elphaba stared into sparkling eyes, then followed their hinting glances at a bluebird up in the tree. A few seconds passed before she froze solid. She could see every feather of the creature in perfect detail. Simultaneously absently and disbelievingly, her fingertips went to tap the glass that separated her from the rest of the world. She laughed when she felt only her eyelids. In her own state of rapture, Elphaba gasped, “What did you do?”
“Made up for stupid mistakes?” Galinda asked back, hopefulness bordering on elation.
“H-how?”
She shrugged, uncharacteristically humble and pink-cheeked for multiple reasons. “It’s something I’ve always been able to do but could never control. It only happens at really special times.” She sniffled with joy rather than despair. “For really special people.”
Still in shock, Elphaba stuttered, “You healed my eyes.” But she soon had a question. “Can you degreenify me too?” she asked, vacillating between reckless hope and careful apathy.
Galinda’s eyebrows jumped in surprise. “Oh!” She pouted, uncertain. “I don’t know.”
Elphaba grabbed her hands. “Can you try?” she asked, suddenly breathless.
Hesitant and unconfident, quickly sending her emotions careening in the other direction so as not to rob her spell of its power, the blonde closed her eyes.
Moments passed until both girls began to slump their shoulders in defeat.
But, Galinda began to light up again, a hidden truth forming in her mind that she couldn’t wait to share. “Elphie, I can’t do it!” She squeezed deft fingers before they could be taken from her. “You know why? Because it’s not an injury, illness, or disability.” Blue eyes locked on brown. “There’s nothing wrong with you.” Belatedly, she added, as she had before, “You’re beautiful.”
Elphaba’s expression twisted into something between a smile, frown, and grimace. She nodded. “Thank you, Galinda.”
#
The blonde chewed her lip while brushing Elphaba’s hair, as was fast becoming their morning and nightly routine. “I’m sorry I disappointed you,” she mumbled. Tinges of embarrassment, frustration, and hurt colored her tone. “But you could at least be grateful—no, happy—that you don’t need glasses anymore, right?”
Dark eyes blinked themselves out of a distant daze. “What?”
Galinda frowned and lightly tapped her friend’s back with her hairbrush. “Why is it that you tune me out so often?” she whined.
“Why is it that you’re always talking?” Elphaba volleyed back in jest.
Galinda hung her head. “I don’t know. Sorry.”
Turning and flicking her roommate in the shoulder, Elphaba wondered, “What’s with you lately? Why so-”
“I could ask you the same thing! Fiyero too,” Galinda muttered the second part under her breath. “No one focuses on anything anymore!”
The green girl bit back a smirk and pretended to stare out into space for a moment before feigning a jump. “Sorry. Did you say something?”
Then Galinda really did hit her with the hairbrush. Though, not too hard of course. “Elphie!”
In the same voice her roommate used, the older girl teased, “Lindy!”
Galinda gasped, beaming. “Did you just say what I think you said?”
Long, wavy hair rippled as Elphaba shook her head.
“Elphie!”
“L- Galinda!”
Her friend crossed her arms. “Hmph!”
Elphaba released her smirk. After a moment, her demeanor turned serious. “So, you’ve always been able to heal?”
Galinda grinned in warring pride and self-consciousness. “Yes. But rarely when I want to. Usually, it just happens. And when I try to force it, especially”—the blonde stared into her roommate’s eyes for a long moment—“whenever I try to show off, it doesn’t work. Which is why I never bothered bringing it up to Madame Morrible. She already- Well, I don’t need her to have an even lower opinion of me, do I?” A small gasp left glossy lips at Elphaba lightly shucking her chin and then tilting it up.
“She’s wrong.” The green girl’s gaze turned inward. “She doesn’t recognize”—her breath puffed in amusement—“your talent. Though she thinks that’s her talent.” Elphaba almost added the part about their headmistress’s ability to control the weather but realized that she didn’t want to explain how she knew that. Her jaw dropped a nanosecond later. How could I have forgotten? “Oh, Lindy, look!” she exclaimed before bounding up and retrieving the envelope she had shoved in her bag to shield more from her inner skeptic than the rain, then forgot all about in the buildup to facing Galinda after sharing such a romantic encounter with her friend’s lover.
“Oh, Elphie! Why didn’t you tell me before? And why- Huh? Why were you so upset about it?” Bewilderment bloomed behind azure orbs.
“I wasn’t! I- But the Wizard! Can you believe it?” Elphaba dove full-force into the diversion of her momentous invitation and then the true jubilation of its existence.
#
“Can you help me with something?” Elphaba murmured sleepily.
The two friends sat side-by-side on an extravagant bed, arms entwined and heads stacked on the younger’s shoulder.
Galinda laughed. “Haven’t I done enough? Why don’t you-”
“You’re right; never mind.”
“No, I’m not.” She gasped dramatically. “Don’t ever tell anyone said that, okay?” Her elbow nudged Elphaba’s ribs until the older girl at least smiled. “Anyway, ask away. I wanna know now.”
Elphaba hesitated before directing her eyes and fingers to the new bow set in golden hair. “Do. …Would you use your makeup on me on Monday?”
Mild confusion spread across Galinda’s face. “Again? You mean, like, something else?” Her chin quivered. “You didn’t like-”
“No. I mean, yes! I mean. Ugh.” Elphaba took a steadying breath. “I think you called it foundation. You wouldn’t have to use it all! Or, even, too much; I hope. Just my face. I’ll wear gloves and a turtleneck. I just… Well-”
“Want to try it out?” Galinda supplied, understanding but a bit wary.
A hopeful face nodded hard in relief. “Yes. To practice for when I meet the Wizard. Please?”
Galinda’s mouth became a perfect ‘O’ as she beheld her roommate. “I don’t think I ever heard you use that word before,” she noted in bemusement. “But, of course, Elphie!” Naughtiness began to contort her features. “Wait. I’ll only do it if you promise to pay really good attention so you can learn to do makeup for yourself. I’ll test you on Tuesday!”
Elphaba nodded even more earnestly rather than respond in similar play. “Okay.” She pouted at being poked in the nose.
“Aw, you are so cute sometimes!”
Then she was lying flat on her back with Galinda glommed halfway on top of her, halfway beside her.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this!” the younger girl teased.
At last, Elphaba chuckled. “Tell me about it.” She almost said that she’d tell Fiyero but quickly pushed all thought of the playboy away. Not for weeks, until on the train platform to Oz, would she speak his name again. She would even pretend that the real reason she wanted to be Galinda-colored was not to better appeal to him.