Chapter 5

I lead her to the low basement window in the backyard. "Get in there and don't move," I whispered. "I'll come fetch you from the inside." She hadn't responded all night. She was shaking like mad too, and just kept her head down, her arms all wrapped around herself. She followed my orders though, so it was all working, I guessed.

I went in the back. My pop was working in the study and my mama was at some lady's house or something, so the coast was clear. I lead her up to my room quietly, mindful of the help. I got a blanket. It swamped her. She was damn bony. She was tall, and had a face like an angry hawk or something, but she was bony and scared and shaking like a leaf. I felt so angry at Avaric.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked pointlessly. She shook her head, more than I had expected out of her. "Alright. Look, I'm gonna get you some warm milk and a change of clothes. Your dress is all dirty and ripped up." A thought came to me, and I felt like slapping myself silly for not thinking of it earlier. "Are you hurt? Should I bring up anything else?"

She hesitated and shook her head again. I think she was lying, but I wouldn't know the first thing about taking care of a wound anyway, so I decided to let her lie. I went and got her milk and a sleeping dress from the laundry. "Should fit," I said, passing it to her. "There's a walk in wardrobe there you can change in." She looked at me. Her eyes were wet and bloody and absolutely black. She went off.

She came back looking pretty self-conscious. I was already in bed. I eyed her warily. "The only thing we can do is share my bed, and I'm fine with that, so long as you promise me I'll be okay." She looked confused. "The skin. It's not… contagious or anything, is it?"

She looked like she was asked that all the time. She sighed and shook her head in this really exhausted way. I believed her, from her reaction. "Come in." She climbed in awkwardly, all lanky and private, and turned her back on me fast. She didn't touch me anyway. I couldn't sleep at all. I don't think she could either. Her breathing was weird and halting, and I felt her shudder every now and then, almost violently, curling in on herself more and more.

I almost thought I was imagining it when she did talk. "How could they?" I didn't know what to say to that. My impulse was to hug someone, tell them they would be okay, but I didn't think Elphaba would be okay, and I didn't want to touch her.

"It's the green," I said stupidly. She didn't dignify that with an answer. She just shook and curled up tight into herself. "That's obvious though, huh?"

"It's always the green."

The way she said that, I knew stuff like this had happened before. I was suddenly filled with a terrified curiosity. How had other people reacted? Had it been bad? Had it been worse than this? Had they come close to succeeding in whatever Avaric and his evil boys had planned? I wanted to know so bad. "Just part of your week, huh?"

"More or less." Elphaba seemed a little less spooked now. "This was almost mundane, compared to some times."

"Well, it was enough to shake you up some."

"It's not that simple," She muttered, as if to herself. I think, in the cover of darkness, that's how Elphaba was treating it, as if I weren't there, as if I were some faceless, curious voice that existed for her. She looked like she needed it. She turned half on her back, and I saw her cutting profile. "It's like… every time this happens, all the memories of all the other times burst out, like a jack in a box. So it's not really this that has me shaken up, but all of it. All of the times things like that happened."

"How many times has it happened?"

"I don't know. Ten times?" I was shocked. And this was mundane? "But they never got me." She trembled hard.

"What happened to you?"

She looked at me, and her face turned to stone. "Nothing." Then she turned over again, and didn't speak the rest of the night.

The next day was Sunday, so my parents were both out to Shiz, as usual. I knew the patterns of the help and slipped her out the back pretty easy, and walked her to South Dixxie. She said she would be fine there on. "Can I help anyhow else?" I asked. In the daytime her vulnerability had passed, and she was weird and stoic and so tall.

"Thank you for your help," She said dismissively, and left down the bridge. I couldn't settle down. I was really worried about her, if I'm to be honest.

That monday was pretty damn strange. Avaric and his lackeys were brazen as anything, as if they hadn't riled up a quarter of the student body into an unofficial witch burning at a party last night. I really wanted to talk about it, but Pfrannee and Shenshen refused to discuss it, irritating as usual. Biqqi wouldn't even look at me. I felt too ashamed and afraid to talk to Milla at all, let alone tell her about the party. She hadn't been there. She hadn't witnessed how much of a coward I had been, which was a relief, I guess.

Elphaba didn't come to school, of course.

Nobody talked about the party. Nobody, except Crope, one of the handsome boys. Crope was Gillikin, fair and golden blonde and always a clean dresser. A little too clean. His family were kind of rich and he was an okay guy, but what really got him popular was Tibbett. Everyone loved Tibbett, so everyone knew Crope. Their friendship sometimes felt like a little too much, but Tibbett made up for it by being such a flirt with the girls.

I overheard them talking all hushed up in the cafeteria during lunch. They were right behind me. Crope was slipping into his seat when he murmured, "Wasn't it barbaric, though? I mean, completely vicious. She was just one damn girl, even if she is green as the damn spring grass. It was goddamn vicious!"

"You joined in," Tibbett reminded him offhandedly.

"You know I had to. I'm only a word away from a public lashing." I felt a great lurch in my stomach. So he was like that. "Tibbett, she's just one goddamn girl."

"Keep your voice down!"

"I'm just saying."

They finished their lunches quickly and left, and I saw them head out to the trees lining the oval, I suspected. I excused myself - to fix my make up - and went after them.

I saw them as they moved just off the oval and slipped behind a thick pine tree. I made my way over. They heard me coming I think, because they were position a little awkwardly and apart, with Crope against a tree and Tibett floating in front of him. They seemed very surprised to see me. We had never really talked. I smiled.

"Hey. I'm Galinda Arduenna."

"Oh, we know you," Tibbett said, flashing a charming smile. He moved forward for a handshake. "Tibbett Rosewood. This is Crope. Your friends…?"

"Are in the cafeteria." They exchanged looks. It was very strange for a girl to talk to a boy - let alone several boys - without some kind of female company. Lunch was only so long, so I cut the pleasantries. "Look, I wanted to talk to you about last night."

Crope got all tense, though I might have been imagining it. "Oh. Okay."

"It's just, nobody seems to really be discussing it, not even my friends - I tried to bring it up, but it's like they're scared to or something. I heard you guys talking about it in the caf, so I thought…" This time I definitely didn't imagine the tension. Tibbett glanced at Crope and crossed his arms.

"What'd you hear?"

"That you thought it was bad." They stared at me impassively. "I think so too. That's why nobody is talking about it, I guess, but I really want to. So I'm talking to you."

Tibbett and Crope looked at each other again, and then Tibbett nodded. "Yeah. Okay." He leaned against the tree next to Crope. I moved behind the tree, out of sight from the oval. Tibbett smiled wearily and said, "It was pretty crazy, huh?"

"That's one way to put it," Crope muttered. "It was goddamn barbaric, is what it was."

"You said so."

"Because it was!"

Tibbett huffed and said, "What would they have done to her, really? Did Avaric even say?"

"I think they were gonna burn her," I said quietly. Crope was chewing on his nails. He stopped himself and flicked his hair distractedly.

"It was tense right from the start."

"It escalated fast though," Tibbett said. "The stupid insults weren't violent or anything."

"It was violent when he tried to fucking brand her." Crope glanced at me. "'Scuse me." I flashed a tight smile as Tibbett rolled his eyes.

"I know Crope, but I mean… it just happened very fast. Marshmallows to hunting someone."

"Avaric's boys got everyone worked up."

"I'm sure half of us didn't even want to do it though, right?"

Crope looked away. "Well, it's hard to say no when all your friends are doing the same thing…"

"It still happened," I said. They glanced at me. "I mean, those boys still did it."

Tibbett became defensive. "Well, what were we meant to do? Stand up to Avaric's group and all the year twelves?"

"Maybe," I said unsurely.

Crope held his arm. "Steady on, man." Tibbett backed off. "We get enough said about us," Crope said to me kindly. "Speaking up is good for those who can afford to."

I thought they could afford to. Maybe they did have some bad things said about them, but they were boys, and they were liked. I didn't say so. I just said, "She doesn't care about that."

"Who?"

"The green girl, Elphaba. She doesn't care if she can afford to."

"She's pretty strong then," Crope said. Some unspoken shame fell over us.

I went back to the caf right after that. Shenshen was eyeing me all critically. "You took a while."

"There was a line," I said. What a joke. It was too late into lunch, and I could cut any line easy. Shenshen knew that.

Pfannee saved me. "Where's Milla? Galinda, you didn't cut her off, did you?"

"No," I said as I sat down. My voice was all low and funny. I cleared my throat and sipped at my carton of orange juice. "You two probably scared her off."

"How rude!"

"Oh, you know I'm just pokin' you."

Pfannee played up getting all huffy. Shenshen was staring so much it made me anxious. Where was Milla? With the friends she had before us, I guess. It had only been a week or so. So much had happened, though.

That night, I worked myself up into one of my states. I was really restless. I felt bored by everything, I couldn't focus, I wanted something but I didn't know what. I couldn't sleep. I lay in bed and thought about kissing Milla. Not in a fun, private sort of way, but in horror or embarrassment or both. I couldn't believe I had done it. I had barely realised till she was running off. I had cut her off, I guess. I never felt this guilty in my life.

When I was nine or ten, there was this real smart girl that I was making to be best friends with. We played and had sleepovers and parties almost every day. One time she brought over a book meant strictly for adults, if you know what I mean, and we had a peek together. Kids are pretty curious and too stupid to be shy, and get wild ideas in their head. Anyway, later I told my ma about the book.

The first thing she did was ask me how I got the book. I said I found it. She probably didn't believe me, but she went right on, and asked me what I thought of it. She didn't yell at me or anything. My mama is smart like that. I said I thought it was interesting, because I didn't want to sound like I hadn't understood it. She decided to make me up some lunch, and while she did it she said, "You've gotta be careful, dear. The things we want can hurt us. Candy ruins your teeth. Chances are, what you most want is bad for you, you know. Nine times out of ten." That stuck with me.

I felt bad, but I hoped Milla would keep her distance.

Elphaba didn't come to school for six days. I was sick of everyone talking about it all the time, sick of being reminded. I felt queasy every time I heard her name. I decided to take the situation into my own hands, and talk to Biqqi.

I found her in the library. I sometimes came to study in the library, on rare days when I was held back in school for something or another, and could take a little time for myself and go over my notes. Biqqi was where I usually studied, right by the only windows in the library that opened, the window lifted just enough to let in a cool breeze. I went over to her. She looked at me all big eyed.

"Good day... Boq."I remembered belatedly. Boq. Boq blinked. "I know I'm interrupting, but I wanted to ask about your funny friend, Elphaba."

"Oh." Boq closed her book quickly, keeping her finger jammed on her page, and sat straight and self consciously. "Yes, Elphaba. She's been away."

"I noticed! Is she sick?"

Boq gave me a slanting look. "Something like that."

I realised there was no use or need in talking around a thing with this girl. She was a practical kind of girl, very down to earth and serious. She gave it to you straight, and liked to have it straight back. I didn't have any friends much like that, except Milla, who I had well scared off. I suddenly appreciated them, somewhat. Maybe it was a Munchkin thing. Anyway, I decided to be straight with her.

"I know what happened was barbaric. Nobody wants to talk about it, the cowards. I'm a coward too, I guess. I just want to make sure she's okay. Do you know where she lives, or anywhere I might catch her? I just need to have a few words with her."

Boq looked at me very strangely. She twisted over by the side of the table and rummaged in an old leather satchel she carried everywhere. The thing was falling apart. I thought it was charming, in a rustic sort of way, like tap-shoes or waistless dresses with fringes on the bottom.

She reemerged with a neat little stack of papers clipped together. "I was going to deliver these to her. Homework and notes from the classes we have together. You can come with me, if you like." She cast me another strange look, a warm, low kind of one. "If you don't mind us going together."

"I don't mind a bit."

"Very well." She stood and smiled a little. "Meet me at the bridge to South Dixxie after school."

I told my friends mama and pop were having a dinner party I just had to attend. They took it easy, and I made my way to the bridge to South Dixxie. Boq had clearly rushed home to freshen up. Her hair was back in a tight little pony tail, a tweed bakers-boy hat on her head and a spiffy jacket folded over her arm. When I got closer I smelled cologne. There was something thrilling about it - a girl with a man's jacket and a man's hat and a man's smells. I brushed my hair behind my ear when she noticed me. She straightened. "Miss Galinda."

"Hello again. Lead the way." She positioned herself on her bike awkwardly. Her legs were a little short, on account of her Munchkin blood. She made a gesture at the little grate on the back wheel.

"Hop on, Miss Galinda."

"Oh, I couldn't."

"I'll ride careful. We don't want to linger in such a place, miss."

I caught Boq's drift. "That is very sensible. Well, alright." I perched on, gripping the grate unsurely. She saw it and smiled.

"You can hold my waist."

"Are you sure?"

"Munchkinlanders are solid."

I held her waist. She was solid. She had always been thick about the waist and we thought she was just fat, but she was very firm. She rode just carefully enough that my hair didn't get too messed up.

South Dixxie was and wasn't what I expected. The trees grew just as high and wide and cast warm summer shade over the road, and had tire swings and wood ladders on them. The smell was the same. There was the sound of the steady river always in the background, and the cicadas, and wind chimes, which everyone in Dixxie House had strung up on outside their door. Only it was different, in that the fences were all old peeling wood, and the road was just dirt and had holes that were never filled, and there wasn't any pavement walking path, and there were Animals and signs of Animals. Animals liked to be outside. We passed a bunch out in their front gardens and walking along the road. Loitering and watching us. I wondered what they thought, seeing two clean humans riding through on a good bike.

Elphaba's house was big and collapsed. It was bigger than many of the younger homes on the street, which were one story and had iron fly-doors and did not have knockers. Elphaba's house was a wide two-story house that stood imposingly and was built of rose-maple, I guessed, from the design and the age of it.

We went up to the door. Boq had taken off her hat and was using it to fan herself. She knocked on the door and refit her cap. She kept fanning herself with her hand. She cast me a look. "Hot day, isn't it?"

"It is."

"Hope Elphie has a glass of something cool."

Elphie. How cute. "Does this place even have running water?"

"It is a pretty dead house," Boq said. I had meant South Dixxie, but did not say so. Elphaba opened the door. She looked at me sharply.

"Why, hallo." She looked to Boq accusingly. "What's this?"

"Don't be rude," Boq said, stepping in past Elphaba. "She asked for you."

"I'm being rude? When you're the one bringing uninvited guests to my house?" Elphaba looked at me with a troubled kind of frown and stepped aside. "Come in."

The front room was barely decorated. A patchy, faded Ixian rug lay in the middle of the room, and a coat rack to the side of the door, and a single table with a broken glass-cover lamp on it. It seemed to once been quite a grand house. Opposite the front door was a flight of stairs with ornate bannisters; or more like half a flight of stairs, since about five steps in there was a collapsed pile of wood and plaster. The same pile also blocked off the hall to the side of the stairs. On either side of the rooms were doorways. Elphaba and Boq went to the left; I peered into the right to find the door closed. I tried it, but while the handle turned, the door didn't budge. I followed the others. "Where's that other door lead?"

"No idea. Thing is boarded up or locked or something." The next room was once a living room, but had been made Elphaba's bedroom. There was an old bare mattress, a chair with funny legs, and a saucer and cup of fine porcelain by the bed. They were so clean and white that everything else seemed even grimier in comparison.

Boq sat on the floor with her legs all open like a boy. She gestured to the chair. "Have a seat, Miss Galinda." Elphaba had went off into the next room, which looked to be a kitchen. I sat hesitantly on the little wooden seat. It held. Elphaba came back with two cups of milk. The cup seemed clean enough, and the milk wasn't sour, so I smiled politely. Boq pressed hers to her cheek and sighed. "That's the stuff. Why is your bed in here Elphie?"

"Infestation in the other room."

"Rats?"

"White-tails," She said casually. Boq looked almost as shocked as I felt.

"White-tails, Elphie? The deadly, white-tailed spiders, with the bites that eat your flesh?"

"You can't stay here with that going on!" I said. She looked pretty exasperated.

"I don't have much of a choice. And anyway, they have just as much of a right to be here as I do." Elphaba sat on her bed, all folded up like a pocket knife. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"To give you your coursework," Boq said. She passed the papers over. Elphaba had meant why I was there, but she didn't mention it, she only gave Boq an annoyed little look.

"I asked to come because I was awful worried about you after all that happened last weekend," I said. Elphaba glanced up at me and away quickly.

"I'm fine."

"I find that pretty hard to believe." I hesitated. "I remember how you were that night."

Boq looked between them with confusion. "What's this now?"

Elphaba scowled. "It's nothing."

"I didn't know it was a secret," I said. Boq looked very confused. Elphaba was working her jaw all angrily.

"It's not."

"Does Boq even know what happened?"

"Elphie refuses to give me any real details," Boq said. "But I can guess, really. I can guess. I'm just glad she wasn't too injured." I frowned at that.

"She was injured?"

"Her hand was all burned."

"Shut up!" Elphaba stood abruptly. "Shut up, the both of you! I'm still here. Don't talk about me like that." Elphaba began pacing around the place like someone possessed. "Don't you see I don't want to talk about it? Thank you very much for your misplaced concern, your entirely unwarranted concern, but it isn't your issue to be worrying about."

"You told me you weren't injured! And I went to a lot of trouble to get you safe, so- so just deal with it! You got me concerned!" I put aside my glass and stood and put myself in front of her so she would run right into me if she kept blazing around like that. "Now, look. You haven't been to school in ages. I know you don't like the people there, and that's all fine, but I know you like your classes." Elphaba's brow furrowed, her eyes met mine and seemed all confused and wary. "So what are you doing, hiding here?" It came out more gentle than I'd meant.

She began to ease a bit. She sighed. "I'm concerned about my safety. It's not as simple as not liking it. I've never liked it. I still went. But now it's different." Elphaba glanced away - at Boq - and back to me, and said, "They tried to burn me. They tried to kill me!" A shiver ran through her, so strong I saw it on her. "I can't go back there."

I didn't know what to say to that. She sounded right, but it frustrated me. It really got to me. I forced myself to say what I was thinking. "Miss Elphaba… there's no one at that school like you. I know that makes you feel like you're alone, though you and Boq seem to be getting on mighty well." I shook my head at myself. "What I'm trying to say is, after what happened, I'm not against you. I'm gonna protect you."

Elphaba looked at me when I said that. She probably looked as surprised as I did - I hadn't really meant to say that. I wouldn't take it back, though, when she looked so close to giving in.

"I'll protect you too." We looked at Boq. She came over and gave Elphaba a solid pat on the back.

Elphaba grinned lopsidedly at her. "My knight in shining armour," She said very snarkily, then said, "Thank you, Boq. You're a good man."

I looked between them. "Man?"

Both of them stared at me, then each other. Something passed between them. Boq squared her jaw and faced me. "Listen Miss Galinda. There's something you oughta know about me."

"Alright," I said, pretty unsurely. Honestly, I knew a bit what she was going to say. Or, he.

"I think I'm a boy." Elphaba nudged him. He blushed. "I am. I am a boy. Nature did me wrong, but I know what I am." He glanced at Elphaba. She was smiling at him.

"Nature did you wrong," I repeated to myself. Boq nodded. I looked at Elphaba. She was giving me a real hard look. I understood if I said anything that offended him, Elphaba wouldn't trust me, now or ever. I took a breath. "Well! Alright."

Elphaba smiled, just as careful and hard. "And there you have it."