Chapter Text
The peace of the dorm room had once again been shattered by another silly argument, although the tense energy hung heavier than usual on this chilly morning. Elphaba was at her wits end already and classes hadn't even begun. It was going to be a long day indeed. Things started off poorly that morning. She was currently mid-argument with Galinda over a minor incident that was the final straw.
Earlier that morning, Galinda had been up with the birds and fluttering around the space without a care in the world, waking Elphaba in the process. This wasn't entirely out of the ordinary; however, on this occasion Elphaba had a very late night trying to understand her most recent homework from her last lesson with Madame Morrible. Not wanting to admit during the class that she hadn't quite wrapped her head around the information provided for fear of disappointing her mentor. Galinda on the other hand, having seen the sorcery book, had gone to bed very early muttering inaudible nonsense, clearly sulking about the one thing in existence that wasn't hers.
An early night for the blonde became a ridiculously early start for both when she slammed one of her trunks closed after collecting her clothes for the day. Elphaba swore she did it on purpose, as she caught the end of a glare from Galinda when she looked up. She pulled the pillow over her head to drown out the incessant humming that followed, Galinda clearly pleased with herself.
She seemed excessively perky, dancing around in their maze of a room, packed to the brim with all her colourful luggage. The chaos of the items perfectly matching the persona of their owner. It became clear to Elphaba she would not be getting any more sleep when her roommate took care to make extra noise whilst preparing her vanity, sipping a glass of water from the night before and placing it down harshly on the wood.
With a huff Elphaba had gotten ready herself in record time, eager to sit out on the balcony with her sorcery homework and hopefully finish the assignment. She passed the blonde with a light scowl on her way to the door, ensuring to express her dissatisfaction with her behaviour. Although the effect seemed minimal as Galinda smirked to herself in the mirror, gently applying her layer of unnecessary fake beauty.
Over an hour had passed and Elphaba had managed to complete her work, feeling extremely relieved, even if it wasn’t due until next week. She now had time to go through it with Madame Morrible before the next lesson to ensure it was done correctly, allowing time for any mistakes to be corrected. Looking out to the sky one more time, the clouds a wondrous golden hue, she made her way back inside, preparing herself for the blonde hurricane that lay beyond the door.
A hurricane indeed had been awaiting when she opened the door as Galinda rushed past her, almost running into the green witch. This usually happened five minutes before they had to leave as the younger woman realised she had lost something she deemed important, like a hair pin, her favourite lipstick or goodness forbid, her treasured hairbrush. Wanting to avoid the hassle that would inevitably follow when Galinda stopped swirling around long enough to realise Elphaba was in the room and ask for her help, she put her book down to quickly search for her bag and make a break for the door.
Upon locating her bag, hidden at the end of her bed, she threw it over her shoulder and turned to grab her sorcery work. The sooner she escaped, the better. She heard a squeak come from behind her and spun around just in time to see Galinda push the edge of the vanity before falling to the ground in a pink lump, knocking the glass of water all over Elphaba’s book. Her bag dropped to the ground as she rushed to try and save her work. It seemed the damage had already been done as she watched the ink spread across the pages and water droplets fall from the spine. This is how she ended up in the middle of her current argument with her pink tornado of a roommate.
“I cannot believe you!” she yelled at the younger girl who had since stood up and taken a defensive stance.
Galinda argued “It. Was. An. Accident” Each word punctuated with a finger poke to Elphaba’s chest.
Elphaba didn’t believe her for one second and pushed the fair hand away “No, it wasn’t, you did it on purpose as part of your pathetic vendetta”.
“I fell!”
She pointed accusingly at Galinda “You pushed it over; I saw you do it”. The older witch assumed she tried to cover her tracks by making it seem like a fall. Having been under the impression they had moved past their mindless pranks; she was fairly surprised and disappointed by this childlike behaviour.
After a beat, Galinda questioned “Why was it on my desk anyway hmm?”
“I put it down for 2 seconds to find my bag”. She couldn’t believe the blonde was trying to defend herself by turning the tables on Elphaba as though this were somehow her fault.
Galinda countered pointing to the vanity and stomping her foot in an angered rhythm. “You put it there to irritate me”.
Is she being serious right now? She questioned “Why would I do that?” The girl is just pulling strings at this point, clearly out of retorts.
Her royal pinkness responded with a huff “Because you’re insufferable”
Oh no. If anyone in the room could wear that title, it would be the person who threw the term out in the first place. “I’m insufferable? Have you met yourself?”
Galinda crossed her arms, her foot still tapping. “I happen to think I’m quite sufferable thank you“
What? “That doesn’t even make sense, you know what I can’t…”
Elphaba was interrupted before she could even finish her thought “Can’t what? Can’t wait to find something else to blame me for because that’s what you do best, blame your misfortunes on others”
There comes a time during most of their arguments where Elphaba realises you can’t reason with stupid. That’s all Galinda was to her, an empty brained prissy princess, too wrapped up in her appearance and reputation to even share a shred of compassion for the work she just destroyed in her whirlwind. Clearly there’s far too much happening on the outside for anything meaningful to be happening on the inside of that pretty little head. But if this is the game she wants to play then so be it.
Elphaba sees one of Galinda’s many letters received from home towards the centre of the vanity. If Galinda couldn’t see what she did was wrong, then she would show her how it feels and hopefully gain an understanding. She dropped her book to the floor and quickly grabbed the letter before the younger girl had a chance to react.
“Give that back this instance” She yelled, trying to grab the letter currently being held far behind Elphaba’s back, whilst being pushed in the opposite direction by the green girl’s other hand.
“Or what? You’ll throw your water at me instead?” She responded, keeping her palm against Galinda’s chest to keep her from reaching the letter before she made her point.
“This isn’t funny, give it back, it’s mine”. Galinda looked close to tears at this point, clearly worried about her precious letter as if they didn’t come in floods every other day from her doting parents. When she still offered no apology, Elphaba decided to up the stakes and took note of the open flamed candle resting on one of the girls’ trunks. She took a careful step back, with Galinda still reaching for the paper, and hovered the edge over the burning flame.
“No! Please!” Clearly frightened for the fate of her letter, the blonde backed down and took a step back herself, seemingly hoping the action would cause Elphaba to put the paper down. Maybe she was getting somewhere. Any minute now she would have her apology.
“Admit that you knocked it over on purpose”
Like a child throwing a tantrum she stomped her foot and yelled “I tripped!”
Not this again. “Admit it!”
“No, I won’t tell a lie to satisfy your ego!”
Screw this. Elphaba lowered the letter into the flame until the edge caught fire. The horrified look on Galinda’s face almost made her regret the decision, but she was tired of the girl acting without thinking of the consequences and if this is what it took to make her see the error of her ways then it had to be done.
The tears streaming down Galinda’s face did have her confidence faltering long enough for Galinda to blow out the candle and grab the letter, running back to the vanity and holding the burning edge into the puddle of water. With a sniffle she said “I can’t believe you did that”.
She picked up her book and held it out in emphasis as she responded “Likewise”
The other girl practically growled “You are absolutely disgustifying, this is a letter from my parents for Oz sakes”
Why did she care so much about the letter? Granted this one is unopened but they all pretty much say the same thing from what she’s read. Having glanced through some of them out of curiosity when Galinda had been out of the room, intrigued to see what loving parents would write to their children. She found variations of the same thing ‘We love you’ ‘We miss you’ ‘We hope you’re having a good time’. It’s all a bit sappy for Elphaba to understand why they would be considered important. “What does it even matter? They’ll write again”
Galinda looked shocked as she responded “Just because your parents don’t care enough to write to you doesn’t mean you can take away my…”
“What did you just say?”
“I said just because…”
Wow, she thought that was an actual question. She placed her hand up to silence the girl “I heard what you said!“
Looking confused Galinda queried “Then why ask?”
She was absolutely ready to throw the book at the blithering bubblehead right now. Of all the people in this school, of all the people in Oz, how did she end up with the most infuriating idiot of a roommate. Either way she responded to the girls non rhetorical question “Because I can’t believe you would stoop so low”.
“I wouldn’t have to if you’d leave me be, but instead you barge over here, throwing your pent-up aggression at me and steal my personal letters because you're jealous that your family don’t…”
Elphaba saw red and found herself out of control of her own body as she watched her hand hit the blonde across the face with as much power as it could pass. Galinda held her cheek, mouth agape in shock at what just happened. That’s one way to get the girl to stop talking. She had taken it a step too far by mentioning Elphaba’s parents and she wouldn’t stand for it.
She looked the blonde straight in the eye and said “You are the most appalling excuse of a being to ever exist in this world. You’re a self-absorbed, over the top, spoiled, dramatic work of art, who always has to be the centre of attention because Oz forbid you’d die without it and wither away into nothingness, swallowed by your own insecurities you try so hard to mask behind your fake confident persona that news flash, I can see straight through. You’re not as ‘perfect’ as you make out you are, and I can’t wait for everyone else to see you for the phony you are when you eventually slip up…”
Suddenly mustering a never-before-seen strength, Galinda pushed Elphaba back with a big heave as she yelled “Get out!” before pointing to the door.
Elphaba took one last look at Galinda who was now openly sobbing and began to feel a slight bit of regret at her words. Maybe she herself had taken it too far, but right now the tensions were too high for her to think straight. This would have to be settled later. She picked up her bag and made her way to the door, and didn’t look back before closing it behind her.