Unlimited- A Modern Retelling of "Wicked"

Chapter 1

[Hey, everyone! This is a modern retelling of Wicked. It's musicalverse all the way, and please don't harp on details because I have not read Maguire's Wicked or any of the Baum books and I have only seen the musical once. It will have a few major plot deviations, and gratuitous abuse of a few beloved characters. Bwahaha.

Dedicated to my little sister, who landed herself the part of Dorothy in her school production of Wizard of Oz because she used "The Wizard and I" as her audition song and channeled her inner Idina Menzel. I'm so proud of you! As well as to Brittany, my best friend, who loudly sang "One Short Day" and "Merry Old Land Of Oz" with me as we wandered through the streets of NYC with my poor dad in tow. Good times…]

***

"Are we there yet?" Nessarose whined.

"You asked me that thirty seconds ago, Nessa. What was the answer thirty seconds ago?"

"We're an hour away," Nessa grumbled."Yeah, yeah, I know. But can you believe it?" she squealed. "College!"

"College," I muttered. "Woohoo."

"Come on, Elphaba. You might actually enjoy yourself if you'd stop being so..."

"What?"

"You know...gloomy."

I snorted and stared out the train window, down at the busy highway running parallel to the tracks, and beyond, over the endless stretch of corn stalks and blue sky. Gloomy. Hmph. I would have said "introverted". Or at the very least, "melancholy".

Something more poetic than "gloomy".

Nessa drummed her fingers restlessly against the armrest of her wheelchair, her eyes wandering around the cabin. Eventually, they came to rest on me.

"You could've picked something more cheerful to wear on our first day," she said, eyeing my outfit with distaste.

I looked down at myself. Black sweatshirt, jeans, black sneakers. The usual. "What's wrong with my clothes?"

"Nothing," she rolled her eyes. "Except they're black. But what else is new?"

I looked my younger sister over. She had chosen her clothes carefully as ever, and of course she looked breathtaking. Her auburn hair, held back with a white headband, spilled over her shoulders. A yellow tank top perfectly accented her creamy skin, paired with a skirt of white eyelet lace. And to top it all off, she was wearing those shoes.

The shoes that Dad had given her. They were lovely, really. Silver slippers dusted with crystal beads. Heaven knows how much they had cost, but for a Thropp money was no object.

Dad loved Nessa. He doted on her, and had been worried sick at the prospect of her leaving home. He had given her the shoes as a farewell present.

He did not love me. My use and value unto him was to keep Nessa safe, because it was, after all, my fault that Nessa was born crippled and sickly. My fault, at least in his eyes.

I sighed. "Okay, Nessa. Find me a non-black outfit that I don't clash with, and then we'll talk."

She grimaced. We had had this argument many times before. But she had long since given up on trying to control my wardrobe, conceding to my conclusion that black really was the only color that didn't look completely nauseating on me.

It's difficult to pick flattering clothes when your skin is green.

Bored, Nessa pulled out her phone, her thumbs flying over the sleek keypad as she texted whichever of her friends happened to be free at the moment. Nessa had a real gift for text messaging: I had even seen her texting her friends while holding her phone under the table at several of Dad's televised press conferences, all the while sucessfully pretending to give her undivided attention to the speaker at the podium.

A few minutes passed. "I heard one of the Tiggulars goes to Shiz," Nessa remarked idly, her eyes still glued to her phone.
"Which one?" I asked. There were three Tiggular children, as far as I knew. Two princes and a princess.

"The oldest boy, I think. The blond one. I don't remember his name. His brother's still in high school."

I shrugged, not particularly interested.

"Dang, what is his name? I've seen him on TV before. He's hot."

I laughed. "You two should hook up, then. Nessarose Thropp Tiggular, daughter to Governor Thropp of Munchkinland and Princess of the Vinkus. What a splendid title." Nessa giggled.

To be honest, dating a prince was well within Nessa's capabilities. I knew she would have no trouble getting a boyfriend at Shiz: in addition to being the wealthy daughter of the governor of Munchkinland, she was an expert at combining sympathy with sex appeal in a way no man could resist. The only reason she had broken it off with her previous boyfriend was because they were going to different universities.

It was a different story for me, of course. I was the type that preferred to stay home on Friday nights curled up with a good book. Of course, it didn't really matter whether I preferred it or not. Nineteen years, and nobody had ever bothered to ask me out.

I doubted things would improve at Shiz. If it weren't for Nessa, I wouldn't be going to Shiz at all, and to be frank, I would've been fine with that. I had spent my freshman year taking online community college courses. I had been well on my way to my Associate's Degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences, all without setting foot on an actual college campus. It had been wonderful. No one staring, laughing, whispering, or just plain ignoring me. Just me and my books and my laptop, in my room. A little boring at times, but still much better than what was sure to come at Shiz.

Shiz. My next stint in purgatory.