Chapter 2
Galinda was a busy busy woman today.
She typically kept her schedule packed on a regular basis- after all, being popular meant being perceived by the public very often and staying fresh on everyone’s minds. There are days when the constant attention gets to her, of course, but nothing some alone time with Elphaba can’t fix. Speaking of…
“Oh Elphie,” Galinda exclaims, stopping them both at the entrance of the lunchroom.
“Could you be a dear and grab my sorcery book from our room?” She brings their joined hands to her heart, pouting at her roommate (not that she needed to). Without hesitation, Elphaba easily agrees. Galinda puts a hand on her cheek, whispering a soft thank you with a smile as her companion starts to their dorm room. When she’s no longer in sight, Galinda is met with Pfannee and ShenShen, who link their arms with hers as they enter the lunchroom together.
“Sooo, what’s your plan here?” ShenShen asks, leaning in and looking around the room.
You see, Galinda’s first task of the day was to get her Elphie out of the cafeteria for a while, just to get her announcement across without embarrassing the poor girl. Her interaction with… with…. Ozzy? Ozdemunt? Oh whatever, whoever he was, opened her eyes to the startling realization that the rumors she had created weren’t as effective as she believed them to be, with many doubters still questioning the validity of them.
So, Galinda is going to rectify that today.
Clapping her hands, she makes her way to the front of the lunchroom.
“Come come, everyone, I have an announcement!”
ShenShen and Pfannee push their way towards the front, followed by a good portion of the student body. Galinda smiles blindingly at the crowd, hands clasped together still, a beacon drawing in the attention of the masses. Once everyone’s settled down, she clears her throat.
“I’d like to formally address the rumors about Elphie and I,” she starts, and she sees the interest of the crowd has piqued. Interestingly, a small group of students sit on the outside of the gathering, leaning against the wall. Galinda locks eyes with one of them for a split second before they turn away, disinterested. How odd, she thinks, before her eyes catch a glimpse of her own reflection in one of the steel beams to the side.
Oh hello. She quickly straightens up and poses, just a little, just to make sure she continues to look as dazzling as per usual. Pfannee coughs pointedly, and Galinda is brought back to the room. Quickly glancing around, she sees all eyes on her, waiting with bated breath.
Galinda stares back, and then does her signature hair flip.
She smiles as everyone claps, hands going to her chest in gratitude.
“Thank you, thank you, I appreciate you all,” Galinda says sweetly as the cheering dies down. “Now I’ve heard what you’ve all been saying about me. And Elphaba. And I just wanted to say…” she pauses, hands in front of her for a dramatic flair. The entirety of the student body seems to lean in closer, eager to hear what she has to say.
“Galinda! Is it true you’re still in love with Fiyero? How can the rumors be true of you and Elphaba then?”
The shout comes from the side, and Galinda feels her eyes narrow, just a little, when she sees a familiar red head boy shrinking away from all the eyes landing on him and his friend. The boy next to him, another Munchkin perhaps judging by the orange hair, has his arm raised in the air, seemingly the one who asked the ridiculous question. This has apparently emboldened the idiots in the room to speak up.
“Are you and Elphaba really dating, Galinda!?”
“You and Fiyero are always spotted together if not with Elphaba! Are you back on again?”
“Galinda Galinda! Do you know who could’ve started these rumors about you and Elphaba?”
Closing her eyes in annoyance, Galinda takes a deep breath before recomposing herself and facing the crowd once more. Stupid boys.
“Alright, I’m gay, Shiz,” Galinda says, and there’s an immediate gasp of shock across the crowd, followed immediately by more clapping.
“Such braverism,” ShenShen calls out, hand over his heart. More cheering comes from the crowd, and Galinda is more touched than she thought she would be, heart pounding faster than she remembered it to be going moments before. She puts both hands on her chest, thanking those calling out encouragements and congratulating her.
“Thank you thank you,” she calls out after a few moments, hands moving down in a silence gesture. “I may be gay, Shiz, but I don’t want that to be the most interesting thing about me.” Her tone takes a lightly teasing one, as if casually sharing with her closest friends. The crowd eats it up, and their grins are just as bright as the one on Galinda’s.
Well this has been fun.
“Now with that revelation, take what you must from the rumors of Elphie and I,” she calls out, “And do remember what we do in our shared room is ours alone to know, so please show discretion about this around Elphaba,” Galinda puts a finger over her lips and winks at the crowd, and the rambunctious cheers follow her as she makes her way back to her friends.
“Gorgeously done, as always,” ShenShen says from her right.
“Magnificent, you’ve left no doubters now for sure,” Pfannee says from her left.
Grinning smugly, Galinda flips her hair. “I love being loved,” she says, finding a table to leave her things on.
Outside the lunchroom, Elphaba leans with her back against the doorframe, Galinda’s book clutched to her chest. Pushing off the wall, she makes her way across the courtyard, head bent down. So lost in thought is she that she doesn’t notice the eyes that settle on her, nor the steps of multiple who begin to follow her path.
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Elphaba is taking far longer than she should be.
Galinda stretches her neck up, looking around for any flashes of green. Her fingers are twitchy- she hates not having physical contact with Elphaba for this long. By now their ankles would’ve been wrapped together under the table as they ate and blathered on about their days, or Galinda’s head tucked into the crook of Elphaba’s neck after a strong bout of laughter. Oz, if Elphaba doesn’t get here soon she might be crabby the rest of the day. A few clock ticks before she was ready to leave and search for her roommate, she sees that familiar green skin through the lunchroom entrance. Galinda’s eyebrows furrow in concern.
Something was wrong with Elphaba.
Her normally perfect posture was a little slouched, head bent down a little more than usual. Her clothes, usually pristine and ironed out, were now lightly crumbled and unkempt, dirt lining the cuffs of her sleeves. Strange, seeing as it had been normal before her trek to the dorm room. And, and….
It clicks, and Galinda squeezes her utensils tight.
Elphaba’s glasses, snapped in half, sat on top of the sorcery book she was carrying. It was pressed tight to her chest, as if attempting to conceal the damaged lenses, but Galinda caught glimpses of the cracked glass before Elphaba could shift it further into her clothing.
Galinda knows she’s staring, can feel the sadness and disbelief in her own eyes as she slowly shifts her gaze up to Elphaba’s face. She can see it in her eyes as well, can see the humiliation buried behind a mask of nonchalance she’s mastered after years of torment.
Galinda feels her heart break for her roommate before rage fills her chest, sharp and heavy, and she can feel her hands start to tremble with anger. No one else at the table has noticed Elphaba approaching just yet, nor do they notice the switch in Galinda’s demeanor.
The blonde stands up, smiling weakly at the table before murmuring a quick be right back to her friends. Without making eye contact with Elphaba, she turns the girl around by the shoulders, and leaves an arm around her as she navigates them out of the room as conspicuously as she can. She can hear the rapid beating of her heart in her ears, can feel how red her cheeks are. Her hands still tremble, she can feel them, but she can’t stop it.
She wordlessly navigates them to an empty area, and after quickly checking up and down the hallway, pushes Elphaba against the wall gently. She leans her forehead on her chest, hands clenched into fists at her side as she finally lets the anger and rage crash over her. She vaguely feels arms circle around her, and normally she’d bask in this moment, treasuring it like gold, but she can’t think straight, can’t think about anything other than how she wasn’t able to protect Elphaba again.
It hits much harder than she thought it would, not that she ever imagined a situation like this in the first place. Galinda thought the popularity she’d helped Elphaba obtain would be enough to keep her away from the trivial, intolerant leapers at Shiz, or at least provide enough protection so that Galinda would catch wind of these wretched voices first and squash it immediately. That’s why she had been so insistent on making her popular in the first place, but apparently Galinda miscalculated her own abilities.
Closing her eyes, she lets the comfort of Elphaba’s arms relax her, lets herself calm down before she spirals down a dark path of thinking. Taking a sharp breath, she forces herself to pull back, gaze intense as she stares at Elphaba, whose worried look softens Galinda just a little more.
Hands unclenching, she brings them both to Elphaba’s face softly, as if touching a wounded animal, tilting her head to the side, eyes interlocking.
“Now who would do such a thing to you, Miss Elphaba?” Galinda asks softly, never breaking eye contact.
Elphaba’s eyes shift away and down, but Galinda moves her own head to keep their eyes connected. “And don’t you lie to me. Don’t you ever lie to me, Elphie. Not about something like this.”
There’s a moment where she feels Elphaba hesitate, eyes searching hers for something, Galinda doesn’t know what. She goes to speak, mouth opened slightly.
“I…”
“Well, looks like the rumors are true.”
Their heads snap to the side where a group of students are standing, with a brown haired girl at the forefront, arms crossed with a bored expression. Elphaba tenses in her hands, and she feels herself getting pushed behind her roommate, who has instinctively stood in front of her. Hands falling to Elphaba’s back, Galinda is hit with a realization.
Elphie’s trembling.
“Leave her alone,” Elphaba practically snarls at the group. “I’m the one you want.”
“Elphie…” Galinda whispers, hand on her shoulder.
“Wow,” the brunette in front of them whistles. Hands in her pocket, she walks closer to them lazily. “Things have changed since she’s gotten here, huh Galinda?”
Elphaba moves back, pressing Galinda tighter behind her.
“Well, well,” the girl says, posing her hands up in a surrender motion. “If you’re upset about your glasses still, don’t be. It’s all in the past. You would know all about that, right Galinda?” She raises an eyebrow at the blonde, as if expecting her to take her side against Elphaba.
It’s them, Galinda realizes. They did this to Elphie. She scrunches her nose. So ugly.
“Galinda,” Elphaba says through gritted teeth. “Leave. They want me, not you.”
“Oh no,” the girl says. She leans forward, grin smug as she locks eyes with Galinda. “Looks like the artichoke is steamed.”
In one quick motion, Galinda ducks under Elphaba’s arm and stands in front of the girl.
Slap.
It’s a crisp sound that echoes down the hall, and for a moment no one knows how to react. Then the girl snaps out of it, and her hands fly to her face, where a sea of red is beginning to spread all over.
Galinda stares, unfazed at the girl’s exclamations, unfazed at the sharp stinging in her palm. She moves closer to the girl, whose eyes are wide with disbelief. She stops mere inches away from her, and the girl flinches away from her steel gaze.
“Don’t you ever say that again,” Galinda whispers, and the conviction behind her voice makes it sound like a threat.
“You hit me,” the girl says back in a daze, looking down. “You’re… you’re supposed to be kind, not-“
“I’m not kind,” Galinda interrupts softly, “at least, not like you think I am. I’m kind because I want to be, because I need to be. For her.” And with that she slowly backs away, turning to face Elphaba, who has an unreadable expression on her face. Galinda smiles apologetically at her, shrugging in a I couldn’t help it motion.
Galinda looks back at the girl over her shoulder. “If I see you in the halls or hear you making noise about Elphie again, trust I won’t be as kind as I am now.”
With that, she wraps her arm around Elphaba, and the two walk back to their dorm room together.
“Elphie, I hope you don’t mind terribly but we’re clearing our schedule for the rest of the day.”