Chapter Text
Shiz Academy: building the society of tomorrow.
If anyone asked Elphaba, the sentiment was stupid. Shiz is just another boring boarding school catered to the upper crust of Oz. “Building the society of tomorrow”, more like creating the bullies of today. Unfortunately, no one asked Elphaba’s opinion when Frex decided his daughters would attend the same school their parents did, so here Elphaba was: stuck with a bunch of preppy rich kids who hated her just because she was different. Never mind the fact that she out-ranked most of them by a landslide. She was green; therefore, her actual status didn’t matter.
Despite that, though, Elphaba didn’t hate Shiz, at least not more than she hated anywhere else. It was undoubtedly better than Rush Margins or Colwen Grounds. After a few weeks of not giving the snobby rich kids the reaction they wanted about her skin color, they’d mostly gotten bored. Galinda still sent a few jabs her way, but it was mostly in retaliation for Elphaba annoying her, and they were more funny than hurtful at this point anyway. They had a rocky start, she and Galinda. Having already been at Shiz for a year when Elphaba started, the younger girl was less than thrilled to be sharing her previously private space, but they’d grown accustomed to each other quickly enough. Now they coexisted in mostly peaceful silence.
The one good thing about Shiz was that she and Nessa had been able to start together. Thanks to the school's unusual department rules, both girls qualified to start the same year: Elphaba in Theater Tech and Nessa on the main stage. Despite being only a few weeks into her freshman year, Nessa had already secured a supporting role in the upcoming Fall show, and Elphaba couldn't be prouder of her little sister. Elphaba had been assigned as the Assistant Stage Manager by Madame Morrible, the school's arts director. Morrible had said she would prefer having Elphaba as the Head Stage Manager because of her talent and experience in the Tech side of theater, and because she scared the misbehaving actors shitless, but the senior who was stage managing had started working on the project at the end of last term, and Morrible couldn't just kick her off. She had threatened it, though.
That was another thing Galinda hated about her: that she had Morribles' favor. As head of the Arts department, Morrible also oversaw the ballet program Galinda was a part of. Elphaba almost felt bad for the younger girl, watching how much she craved the woman's attention. Then Galinda would say something rude, and Elphaba would rethink her pity. She was just another spoiled princess who had never heard the word no. It's not Elphaba's fault that Morrible is smart enough to see through her act. Except, the longer Elphaba lives with the girl, the more she questions what the act is.
Elphaba rolls over and watches Galinda putter around their room, preparing herself for the day. She's an odd little thing, Galinda, and Elphaba hates how much it fascinates her. The way she always gets ready in a specific order: lay out clothes, then do makeup, then outfit, then hair, then perfume, then pack for classes. It takes over an hour, and Elphaba stopped fighting her about it on day three. She's also never still. Or quiet. Constantly tapping, fidgeting, or humming. It was annoying as fuck.
Elphaba rolled back over. She had three more minutes before she absolutely had to get up, and she would not waste them on pondering the idiosyncrasies of her roommate.
Six minutes later, Elphaba forced herself out of her warm bed and grabbed her uniform before trudging to the suite's bathroom. She was out the door 20 minutes later, leaving Galinda pinning her perfect princess curls and muttering about variations under her breath.
Breakfast was a quiet affair, most students preferring to sleep until the last possible second, so no one bothered Elphaba as she grabbed her yogurt and granola. She didn’t stay in the dining hall, though, just because people didn’t usually bother her didn’t mean they wouldn’t start. Instead, she made her way across campus to the History building, where her morning classes take place. The building didn’t officially open for another 20 minutes – opening 30 minutes before classes started – but Elphaba knew they never locked the side door, so she slipped inside regardless.
She wasn’t breaking the rules. Not really. She had blanket permission from the history head, Dr. Dilamond, to use the building whenever she wanted. He was the one who told her about the side door. It didn’t stop Elphaba's heart from spiking every time she slipped in early, though.
The green girl made her way through the lobby and up the far stairs. Tucked away in a forgotten corner of the third floor was a little nook, complete with a yellow couch and matching floral pillows. It’s Elphaba's own personal hideaway. She downed her breakfast like she was starved and promptly remembered she’d forgotten to eat dinner the night before. Oh well, nothing she could do about that now. After finishing her yogurt, Elphaba curled up on the couch and opened her book. She had another 40 minutes before classes started, and she only had to go 30 feet, so she let herself get lost in the yellowed pages in front of her.
The green girl was so lost in the book that she missed the quiet click-clack of hooves approaching. The goat waited a moment to see if he’d be acknowledged, then cleared his throat quietly. “Miss. Elphaba,” he asked, amused.
Elphaba jumped, slamming her book shut, and looked up like a kid caught with the cookie jar. “Dr. Dilamond,” she breathed, relaxing back into the couch, “I’m sorry, Professor, I didn’t hear you coming.”
The professor smiled, “It’s quite all right, my girl. However, class is going to start soon, so perhaps you want to come take your seat?”
Elphaba's eye went wide as she searched for the nearby clock. There were less than 10 minutes left until class. She hadn’t even noticed time passing. The green girl quickly gathered her things and followed Dr. Dilamond to class, mind still half-filled with knights and dragons and a princess that, unfortunately, reminded her of Galinda. The green girl was thankful Dr. Diamond didn't try to hold a conversation with her and let her just exist in her own world for a few more minutes.
Exactly 8 minutes later, her peace was ruined when Galinda's friends walked in. The blonde and her boyfriend are already seated a few seats away from Elphaba, but Phannee and ShenShen still find an excuse to walk past Elphaba and knock all of her stuff off the desk.
Typical.
For as annoying as her roommate could be, the girls' lap dogs were so much worse. They took pleasure in making sure Elphaba was miserable: name-calling, property damage, teasing, taunting – they hadn't escalated to physical violence yet, but Elphaba’s sure they'll get there before the end of first term. The pair continued to snicker to themselves as they took their seats on the other side of Fiyero, further away from Elphaba, thank goodness.
The green girl rolled her eyes, but picked up her things regardless. Crope and Tibbett helped her rearrange her stuff, and she was once again settled for class right as Dr. Dilamond got up to start his lecture.
The moment the professor starts speaking, he has Elphabas' full attention. They're covering the Gilkin war leading up to the great drought, and the green bookworm is enthralled. She spends the class hunched over her notebook, taking copious notes and ignoring the groans of other students when she asks questions.
When the snickering started behind her, Elphaba tried to ignore it. She really did, but they just wouldn't stop. She turned towards the group behind her and was immediately even more annoyed. Phanne, ShenShen, and Shenshen's roommate, Milla, were all laughing at whatever stupid jab they'd made, but that wasn't what pissed Elphaba off. Galinda Upland was asleep on her boyfriend's shoulder. She wasn't even pretending to pay attention to the lecture; instead, she was sleeping off whatever had kept her out of the dorm until after midnight. It was a wonder the young ballerina had managed to make it to her second year at Shiz. Elphaba’s sure that her teachers are just inflating her grades so the ballet program can keep their top student, after all, she's seen the grades she gets in Dr. Dilamond's history class. Maybe if she stayed awake, her essays would improve.
She rolled her eyes and turned back around. Galinda Upland is not worth her time, and she certainly isn't worth Elphaba's thoughts. If the girl wants to flunk out, let her. It'd be better for Elphaba, and maybe teach the blonde what actual hardships look like outside of a chipped nail. She clearly needs the lesson.
The rest of the class passed quickly, and when the bell rang, Elphaba gathered her things, hoping to ask Dr. Diamond one more question before heading to her next class – and also hoping to avoid the lovebirds that were also in her next class. As she walked towards Dr. Dilamond's desk, she saw Fiyero gently shake Galinda awake; Oz, the girl really had slept through the entire class. Elphaba rolled her eyes. What a waste of time.
Ozman Law was in the same building as history, so Elphaba spent most of her 15-minute break lingering in Dr. Dilamond's room – the less time she had to spend in Galinda's presence, the better.
Despite being annoyed at the blonde's presence – she was nearly asleep for the entirety of Ozman Law, too – Elphaba still enjoyed her morning classes, and after finishing her test in Rhetorical Sciences early, she made her way to the theater early. She still has an hour before her theater tech class starts, but it won't be long before people start trickling in. After Elphaba's less-than-stellar start to the school year, it quickly became tradition for the theater tech group to eat in the theater rather than in the cafe. It was more fun this way, too.
In all honesty, Elphaba still wasn't really friends with any of the theater tech people, but she wasn't openly hostile to them either. She kept to the edges, even when she was in charge, and watched them interact. Occasionally, she intervenes if whatever stupid idea Crope and TIbbet had roped everyone else into was about to turn dangerous, but usually she just lets them be.
As such, Elphaba watches on as Boq and Tibbet spot Crope while he climbs the rickety fly system to fix another broken line. For as much as this school charges for tuition, it's still shit.
The bell rings.
“Thank Oz,” Elphaba mutters, closing her book. “Alright, you three,” she called up to them, “you can risk your lives during lighting and design, for now, get out of my theater.”
As Crope climbs down, Tibbet saunters over to Elphaba, “Oh, your theater is it now, Fabala?” he teases.
“I've told you not to call me that,” Elphaba grumbled. It's bad enough that Nessa still calls her that; there was no need for her to tell the boys her childhood nickname.
“Ah, but Fabala,” Crope calls as his feet finally land back on solid ground, “It fits you so well!”
Not giving the boys the satisfaction of seeing her glare at them, Elphaba turns and walks out of the theater the moment Crope’s feet hit the ground, and if she flips them off on her way out, well, they'll never know there was a smirk on her face as she did it. And if she smiles the entire way to Screenwriting, well, that's her business.
Her smile doesn't falter as she gets to her next class, even as Miss Lance pulls her aside before she gets into the room. Whatever Miss Lance has to say, it can't be too bad, right?
“Miss Elphaba,” the young teacher stopped Elphaba with a light hand on her shoulder, “a word?” She inclined her head towards her office, right across the hall, and the green student dutifully followed her.
Now, Elphaba is fairly confident in her academic abilities, and she knew she hadn't done anything wrong, so she wasn’t worried about this spontaneous meeting. Not really, at least. That didn't mean she loved being called into a teacher's office, though. As if sensing her thoughts, Miss Lance smiled, “Now, Miss Elphaba, have you ever been in trouble before?” She laughed when Elphaba smiled at her sheepishly and shook her head. “Then why would that start now? No, I was hoping to talk to you about your upcoming assignment. Am I correct in assuming you've already finished it?”
“Yes ma'am,” Elphaba nodded, “but I can redo it or change it if I need to,” she tacked on quickly.
Miss Lance chuckled again, “There'll be no need for that, my dear, I'm sure whatever you've written is perfect. However, I was hoping I could recruit you to help one of your other classmates with his screenplay?”
Here's the thing about Elphaba Thropp: she's always happy to help another student out– despite what people assume, because of the green- she does enjoy helping others, especially with schoolwork. The problem comes in who Miss Lance needs her to help. There are only two students in the class that Miss Lance might be steering her towards. And one is her roommate's moronic boyfriend. Elphaba really does not want to deal with helping Fiyero Tigulaar with his screenplay. It's not that she hates Fiyero; she doesn't even think he's a bad person, despite his choice of girlfriend. Fiyero's been nothing but pleasant to both her and her sister since the school year started. It's Galinda whom Elphaba doesn't want to deal with. The girl is weirdly territorial about her boyfriend. Always clinging to him, never willing to be apart too long, she even makes him walk her to most of her classes, whether they're going the same way or not. Elphaba doesn't want to imagine the tantrum Galinda will throw if Elphaba has to spend time with Fiyero in order to help him. The girls might be more civil than they used to be, but it still wouldn't be pretty.
Despite all that, Elphaba can't bear the thought of letting Miss Lance down – aside from Dr. Dillamond, Miss Lance is the best teacher at Shiz. So she agrees.
“Oh, that's wonderful, I'm sure you're familiar with Mr Fiyero, correct? You and Miss Galinda room together, and I've never seen the pair of them that far apart.”
Elphaba stifled her groan. “Yes, ma'am, we're familiar.” She says with a forced smile.
Miss Lance either doesn't notice or politely ignores the strain, “good, good. I'm going to talk to him after class if that's alright with you, and then I can send you both on your way.”
All Elphaba can do is nod as she follows the red-headed teacher back to her classroom. They’re brainstorming ideas for their semester project today, and despite usually loving that she lets Nessa do most of the talking for their group, she hums agreement as necessary. The green girl is more focused on figuring out how to avoid her roommate once she learns who will be tutoring her boyfriend. Oh well, hopefully the girl will just stay out until an obscenely late time like usual, and Elphaba can just pretend to be asleep again. Finally, after an hour and fifteen minutes stuck in her head, the bell rings and class is over. Now for the worst part, telling Fiyreo she was his tutor.
Elphaba waited until she heard Miss Lance ask Fiyero to stay behind a moment before she began to pack her things. She purposely took as much time as possible so that she finished just as Miss Lance told Fiyero the plan.
“Now, Mr. Tiggelaar,” the teacher began kindly, “I know you've been struggling with some of the assignments, and asked me if there was someone who could help you.” Elphaba’s head shot up at that. Fiyero asked for a tutor? She never would've guessed. Maybe he was more committed to this than she thought. Miss Lance continued. “And lucky for you, I've found someone who's happy to help.” She gestured for Elphaba to come forward. “I’m sure you know Miss Elphaba?”
Fiyero looked at her with a sheepish smile, “Should've known you'd be the one to get saddled with me.” He muttered, rubbing his neck, “Sorry about that.”
What? Elphaba was so confused. “No, it's fine,” she hoped it didn't sound too fake, but really, what was going on? “I'm happy to help.” Apparently, that was the right thing to say because Fiyeros' smile turned more genuine.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
The bell rang and broke them out of whatever weird trance they were in. Right, they still had class. At least Miss Lance also seemed startled by the intrusion.
“Well, I’m glad that's settled, Fiyero let me write you a pass. What class are you headed to?” The redhead began flitting around the room, looking for a pen and paper as Fiyero listed off the information she needed — scene study with Mr Kants, luckily in the complete opposite direction of Elphaba's next class. Speaking of direction, Elphaba couldn't help but spare a thought for how sweet little Galinda had made it to class without her personal escort. Oh well, that was the blonde's problem, not hers.
After a bit more back and forth between the trio, they finally split, Fiyero one way and Elphaba and Miss Lance the other. As they entered the theater, Elphaba rolled her eyes. Crope and Tibbett were already back in the rafters. Had they actually left or just pretended to when she walked out? Gods, that couple was going to be what sent her to an early grave. She's only 17, she's too young to have a heart attack. She rubs at her temple and flops into a seat. Right now, they're Miss Lance's problem, not hers. Thank Oz.
Elphaba hides her chuckle as Miss Lance begins yelling at the boys about proper theater safety. They look a bit like owls with how wide their eyes are. Elphaba turns back to her notes from her last suggestion, tuning the rest of the class out entirely.
Her revision is interrupted not even ten minutes later when the gay menaces decide they need to sit directly next to her. She didn't look up.
“Really Fabala? You had to tattle on us to Lance?” Crope whined.
She raised her eyebrow at the boy, “Tattle?” she questioned flatly.
“Well, of course,” Tibbett jumped in, “how else would she know we were doing something dangerous?” He batted his eyes at her.
Unbelievable. “Maybe,” Elphaba drawled, “She knew you were doing something studio because she walked in and watched you do it.”
“Nope, that's impossible,” Crope spouted, crossing his arms, “We were being perfect angles when she came in.”
Elphaba couldn't stop the laugh that came out, even if she wanted to, and seeing the proud look on the boys' faces, she definitely wished she could have.
“I knew it!” Crope shouted, “I knew you liked us.” he turned to his boyfriend and pulled him up to jump around in circles with him. “Tibbett Elphaba loves us! She loves us! We've made it.”
Tibbett was equally overjoyed at this development.
Elphaba was wondering if it was too late to transfer schools. “Nope,” She inserted quickly, but it was too late; the damage was done. “No, I do not like you. I just think your stupidity is occasionally entertaining/. That's it.”
The boys ignored her and continued their dance.
“Unbelievable.” She muttered, pushed past them, and headed to the booth. Hopefully, there it'd be quiet enough for her to actually get her work done.
The booth was a blessing as usual. The rest of the class passed so quickly that Elphaba didn't even hear the bell ring. By the time she finished her assignments, it was past seven. Elphaba quickly gathered her things and headed back down to the theater proper. There were no after-school rehearsals today, so Elphaba would have to lock up; Miss Lance had left nearly an hour ago. As Elphaba exited the stairs at the back of the theater, she heard the backstage door open. Who could possibly be sneaking into the theater now? If it’s Crope and Tibbett again, she was actually going to kill them regardless of how fond she may or may not be of them. She quietly crept closer, intent on scaring the boys into next week for this stunt, but it wasn't the boys. Elphaba froze.
Even in the low light of the theater, it was easy to make out the golden blonde hair of her roommate. What is she doing here? Was she here to harass Elphaba some more? Except the younger girl seemed to have no idea she was here, so what was she doing? Before Elphaba could decide what she was going to do about the intrusion, Galinda began to dance.
There was no music playing; just the soft rhythm of her pointe shoes as they brushed the floor. As much as Elphaba hated it, Galinda was an incredible dancer, and she couldn't seem to bring herself to look away from her. It was captivating. And strangely heartbreaking.
Elphaba crept closer.
The problem with Elphaba is she's always been too observant for her own good, so the closer she got to the ballerina, the more she realized something was wrong. The girl was trembling, badly. It felt like the only reason she hadn't collapsed was that she was moving too quickly for the tremor to catch up. Galinda was so lost in her head that she didn't notice Elphaba quietly sit in the front row. Whatever this was, Elphaba wasn't going to interrupt. It seemed like she needed it, and Elphaba wasn't enough of a monster to take that away from her.
So she watched.
She watches the ballerina. The sixteen-year-old, clad in pink tights, a blue leo, and a matching flora wrap skirt. She looked so much younger here. Not the queen bee the school worshiped, not the future heiress of one of the largest business empires in Gilkin, not the future Lady Arduenna of the Uplands. She was just a girl. Just a sixteen-year-old with far too much on her shoulders. Maybe they weren't so different after all.
Tears slowly began sliding down Galinda's face. Her eyes were still closed, but the tears kept coming faster. Elphaba should leave. She shouldn't keep watching. This was clearly a personal moment that Galinda wouldn't want to share; why else would she be in an empty theater after hours? But as much as Elphaba knew all of that, she couldn't bring herself to turn away. She couldn't bring herself to leave this girl alone. Not right now. Not in whatever this was. So she stayed.
Elphaba was drawn out of her thoughts when the backstage door slammed open once more. She watched as the loud noise threw the dancer out of her head in the middle of a series of turns. Galinda was on the floor before Elphaba could even understand what was happening, and Avaric was standing over her.
What the fuck was going on?
“There you are, Princess,” Avaric purred, reaching down to pull Galinda to her feet. The football player towered over Galinda, his hands gripping her waist. “I've been looking everywhere for you.” He leaned down to press his lips to Galinda's.
Absolutely not.