Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, I am just borrowing them to make my life better. The story I'm about to write does not relate in any way to the writings by Gregory Maguire, Stephen Schwartz or L. Frank Baum. It does not carry on from any events that happened in the books, I am simply using the characters to build up my own events. I may add one or two new characters in along the way so if you don't recognise them from the original novels, worry not! And enjoy. Or try to, at least. This is my first time posting online. Ever. I'm sorry the chapter is short, but since it's my first time, I thought I'd keep it short and sweet just in case I bore you.

LIVING IN RESENTMENT

Galinda Upland sat upright on a bench in the grounds of Shiz University. It was a balmy, early October evening and her first week at Shiz had not improved liked she had hoped it would. Sure, she had made two good friends who were fun to talk to over lunch, but Pfannee and Shenshen weren't exactly being supportive of her awful situation. The jokes had been fun at first. The fact that she had rose above Madame Morrible's terrible confusion and been held in high admiration by her fellow classmates had been even better. But all of that was getting old now, for who was there to make jokes with her when the sun went down? Who was there to admire her courage at 2am when she was sleeping opposite the monster? While Pfannee and Shenshen were rooming together down the hall, Galinda was stuck with a roommate who was a shade of... well, a shade of off. Galinda's roommate was green. She, Galinda Arduenna Upland, was rooming with a frog. With a lettuce. And Elphaba was just as damp as a limp lettuce, too.

Galinda leant forward and cupped her chin in her palms. Shiz was supposed to be fun. She was supposed to be kissing boys and painting her friend's nails and eating ice cream, wasn't she? Isn't that what happened on TV? Elphaba didn't do any of that stuff - she ate apples and read books and studied. Galinda wasn't even sure that Elphaba had ever been with a boy. Well of course, because what boy would want to be with something that looked persistently seasick? She tossed back her blonde hair and groaned. The sun was setting and that meant she and all of the other students in the grounds had to go back indoors to their rooms; which was fine for all of those who had normal roommates. But Galinda wasn't one of those students. She stood up, stretched her legs and waited for the last person in the grounds to go indoors before she followed in quiet annoyance. This wasn't fair! Why was she the one being made to feel uncomfortable and threatened? Why couldn't Pfannee be the unfortunate soul to have been chosen to live with Elphaba? Or Shenshen? Word had gotten around that Shenshen had a younger brother with a disability back home, so surely she would cope better with the diseased green girl?

The hallways were still and almost tranquil when Galinda entered the building. There were distant footsteps running down another corridor and the sound of two girl's laughing from behind one of the closed doors to her right.

She turned her head towards the door and muttered, "I am almost green with envy," before realising what she had said and putting her hands over her mouth.

Decorating every corner of the halls were a pair of loudspeakers donned in brown leather and tarnished wood and through each speaker, a compilation of lulling hymns would play all day until 10pm. Presently, Galinda thought she recognised the tune coming through the speakers, although she wasn't sure why.

Endearment darling for me, you see

Whether differentiate or dissimilar to me

There will come a morn, one day, you see

The eye will become indistinguishable to thee.

Galinda frowned. The words were not familiar to her ears, only the tune. Still, as she took a flight of stairs and the corridor to her room, she couldn't place where she'd heard such music before. She stood outside of her door for a moment, sure that she could hear murmuring coming from inside. As Galinda stuck her ear against the wood, she found that she had not been mistaken. The voice of Elphaba, her green-skinned roommate, sounded clearly through the doors.

"I told you, for the seventeenth time, I will not be responsible for what happens if I am made to stay here," the girl was saying, "You cannot expect me to —"

Here she was cut off. Galinda pressed her ear closer to the door.

"Wait a minute," Elphaba's voice was saying.

And then the door opened. Galinda fell clumsily onto her roommate who at first cupped her arms around the blonde before letting her fall to the floor.

"What are you doing?" Elphaba hissed, cutting off whoever was on the other end of the telephone by punching a large, red button, "Are you spying on me?"

"Excuse me?" Galinda was mortified. She pulled down her yellow skirt to cover her legs and brushed her fingers through her hair before looking up at her roommate. "I live here, too!"

"You do? I would never have known, since you're never here."

"Oh, I—" Galinda huffed, "I have nothing to say to you."

She stood up and tossed her curls behind her shoulder, standing with her head held high so she was almost looking Elphaba in the eyes. This mutant would not make a fool of her.

Elphaba raised an eyebrow and folded her arms, a grin painted on her lips.

"What are you smirking at?"

"Nothing."

"I should hope not!" Galinda scowled and walked over to her side of the room. She sat down on the edge of her bed and looked at the strange, green girl stood in the centre of the room. Elphaba was tall - taller than most, actually. She was a beanpole. A greenbeanpole. Galinda had to stop herself from laughing out loud at her own joke. There had been a crowd of rumours behind Elphaba's background, of course. On the third day of the first week, one of the girls, whom Galinda was almost certain could be placed as Pfannee, had sent out the tittle-tattle tale that Elphaba had been the spawn inbred by two munchkins in a town West of Central Oz made only for munchkin fellows who couldn't find anybody to mate with and so mated with their family members.

Somebody had suggested that she had quite obviously been brought up on a boat and was suffering from a long-term, internal seasickness, explaining her green skin.

And in one of the stalls in the public bathrooms, somebody had declared on the wall that Elphaba Thropp was the Devil of Oz.

Looking up at her roommate, Galinda knew then that Elphaba was neither of those things. She was simply an irritating specimen whom had been put in her path to try and throw her off course. And she would rise above it, just like she had been taught.

"You will not drag me down, Elphaba Thropp."

Elphaba lay down on her own bed and picked up the open book which lay rested on the cabinet beside her bed. "I don't intend to, Ms. Upland."

"To you, it's Ms. Arduenna Upland."

"I apologise, Ms. Glinda Arduenna Upland."

Galinda stared open-mouthed at her roommate. Did the girl have a speech impediment or was she simply getting her joys out of frustrating her?

"It is GAlinda."

Elphaba turned her back towards Galinda.

"Quit ignoring me!"

"Would you stop it?" Elphaba flipped back around and snapped her book shut, "All you ever do is complain when I talk to you, avoid me in the corridors and leave this room first thing in the morning and come back last thing at night. Do not now start to complain that I am ignoring you."

"You, you are —" Galinda narrowed her eyes, "You are insolent."

"Well," Elphaba said, "It beats being inbred munchkin spawn."

Galinda crossed her legs and watched Elphaba turn back to face the wall. She picked up her book and began to read again, almost instantly forgetting their confrontation. Galinda rolled her eyes and made her way to the bathroom to shower and change into her nightgown. The room was of ample size but the shower temperature varied only between being burnt or being frozen.

Sharing a bathroom, to Galinda, was torture. Sharing a bathroom with a green girl who was apt to bring her down? Well that was even worse. She shut the door and sifted through the face creams and makeup in the cabinet, all of which were hers. She wondered what Elphaba used to primp herself in the morning and immediately sniggered. Elphaba did nothing to primp herself, of course. The only thing of hers in the bathroom was a toothbrush which she kept, oddly, bathing downwards in a glass of milk. Galinda didn't comment on this, it was the only thing in the bathroom to claim Elphaba's living there. Of course, she would laugh about it over lunch with Pfannee and Shenshen tomorrow.

Elphaba's wardrobe was very similar to her bathroom belongings. Weird and not much of it. She always had her black hair tied to the side in a single, long braid which matched the black gown and blazer she wore every day. Sometimes, she would wear a flat-cap on the top of her head but that was about as exciting as Elphaba's outfits got.

Galinda undressed, tied back her own hair and donned the frilled shower-cap hanging from the side of the bathroom rail. There was a soft snoring coming from the main bedroom. She wrapped a towel around her body and opened the door to the bedroom to peak in on Elphaba who was curled up, knees tucked beneath her chin, snoring gently. Her thumb was in-between the pages of the book she had just been reading and every time a puff of air left her mouth, the tops of the pages would flutter. Galinda looked at her sleeping roommate for a moment before shutting the door and getting into the shower.