"Elphaba, please help me!" Nessa cried desperately.

"Calm down, Nessa. I'm right here," Elphaba reassured her lovingly, while tying a pale salmon coloured shawl around her sister's dainty shoulders with careful fingers. Nessarose didn't like it when Elphaba accidentally grazed the spots where arms should have been. It seemed to resound as a different- and worse- kind of pity.

Nessarose took a deep breath. "I have to look absolutely dazzling tonight!"

Elphaba sighed. "It's Papa's meeting, not yours."

"Don't be cross, Elphaba, just because you weren't invited to the table."

"Nessa, Papa would have invited Shell, had he not been five years old."

"Can't you just be happy for me?" Nessa demanded. "Everyone of any social status will be there. We're receiving people from all across Oz. This is an enormous step for Papa!"

"It's just another opportunity for royals to gather and boast of their wealth!" Elphaba retorted and then caught herself. "But at least you'll be one of them, I suppose." She stepped back and surveyed her sister in the mirror. "Mama would be proud."

"As long as it pleases Papa," answered Nessa, tilting her head to the side to shift her hair slightly and seating herself on the edge of her bed. "Put my shoes on for me, Elphaba," she ordered.

Elphaba obliged, taking a box carefully off one of the shelves behind her. She slowly lifted the lid and pulled out blood red slippers, sliding them onto Nessa's bare feet. For a moment, her fingers lingered in their glow. Red like rubies. Red like poppies. Red like greeting cards on St. Glinda's Day.

Possessive by nature, Nessarose blurted, "Oh, Elphaba. I wish you wouldn't stare at my shoes so hungrily. It looks as if you might gobble them up." She paused and then added, "It's not as if they'd suit you anyhow."

Straightening up, Elphaba stayed silent.

"They were simply a gift from Papa," Nessa continued with a complete disregard for her sister's dignity. "It's not as if he hasn't given you anything."

"Please enlighten me," Elphaba choked out.

"Your eternal soul." The fierceness of Nessa's expression was laughable. The poor girl didn't realize she was a tool.

Elphaba looked at her sister irritably. "Nessa, do you know what the difference between your shoes and my eternal soul is?"

"No. And I don't particularly care."

"Your shoes are real, my soul is not."

Nessa shook her head violently. "Oh, if I had hands I would cover my ears! Don't you realize that every time you talk of a soul, it harms mine?"

Elphaba ignored Nessa's statement. "Are you ready for your grand entrance, Princess Nessarose?" she asked, carefully supporting her sister as she took cautious steps towards the door.

Tilting her head back, so she could whisper, Nessa hissed, "My goodness, do you think there will be boys?"

Elphaba chuckled. Her sister was at the age where the opposite gender was becoming more and more appealing. "If you prefer spoiled princelings who can't go for too long without access to a mirror, then I think you might be in luck."

"But everyone is always so disgusted by us."

Flinching at Nessa's choice of using 'us,' Elphaba replied, "Well we suffer from the curse of boys not being able to see through our exteriors."

Nessa observed her sister's sarcastic expression and moved down to the plain blue frock and sloppy braid. "Elphaba, are you not even going to attempt to look decent?"

"Why? All I have to do is make sure you're comfortably seated, and then I'm finished," Elphaba said defiantly. For her age of fourteen, she still hadn't lost her childish resistance, even to her most beloved family member.

"You say that now, but when people address you all you do is freeze." Finishing the sentence with a giggle, Nessa, once again, missed her mistake.

Elphaba flushed in embarrassment. "Maybe because they always ask me questions I can't answer!"

"I can't answer them either, but I still reply...and to think I'm younger than you!"

Pausing, Elphaba looked at Nessa thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should get Nanny to walk you and stay up here."

"Don't be a coward Elphaba!" Nessa exclaimed loudly. "I thought they were only spoiled princelings! What if I need you?"

An unfortunate consent followed and Elphaba led her sister to the stairs, which they took one step at a time. Stopping briefly at the bottom, Nessa wiggled her knees to straighten out her dress and tossed her head again, while Elphaba chewed her bottom lip. With a nod, Nessa moved forward again and into the parlor which was unusually crowded with very superior looking people, whose eyes were immediately on her. It was clear that most of them were caught between the need to express the burning questions on their tongues or to let the presence of the green girl lapse in a thick silence.

Shrinking in her spot, Elphaba made sure Nessa was comfortably seated near her father and retreated from the room as quickly as she had entered. Bolting up the stairs in her desperation to leave, Elphaba was sure she heard laughter trailing her the entire time; whether it was due to what she thought it was, she'd never know. On her way to her room, Elphaba tumbled into her nanny, nearly knocking the old woman over.

"My, my, my. Watch your clumsiness!" Nanny cried.

Elphaba stood before her, staring at the flooring and mumbled an apology.

"Not staying for the party?" Nanny asked happily, bustling around with linens and fabrics that she was collecting from each room. "I'm sure there are some nice boys down there. Isn't it time to start looking for a suitable husband?"

"I'm fourteen, Nanny."

"No shame in starting early," Nanny chuckled. "Don't settle like your mother did."

"Nanny!"

"Let's keep that a secret between us," Nanny whispered. "Now back to my first question."

"I don't need to be courted to thrive in life," Elphaba decided.

"Just like your old Nanny then," she responded fondly. "Although I did have my share of suitors at one time or another."

Elphaba laughed. "I'm sure you did Nanny."

"Then whatever could your plans be for tonight, dearie?" Nanny asked. The old woman never seemed to stop.

"I'll read, I suppose."

Nanny placed two fingers under Elphaba's sharp chin and forced her face up, so she could survey her closely. "You must learn how to laugh at yourself."

"I don't think that's a good solution for anything," Elphaba countered.

"One day, my dear, one day you'll grow into your skin." And with that, Nanny moved off, leaving Elphaba behind.

A wonderful thing about the mostly dark and dreary Nest Hardings had to be the private nooks and corners spaced throughout the grounds. Of course, Elphaba, in all her spare time, had located all of them and chosen favourites.

Curled up in a small alcove by a bay window, Elphaba flipped a page in her book, carefully enunciating each word through her mind and sometimes out loud to herself. Some of the words echoed so nicely that they brought about a smirk of curiosity.

"You do know there's a party, right?"

Elphaba startled at the sound of the voice and looked toward the direction it echoed from.

"This is your house, is it not?" said a boy, approximately her age with the significant olive skin of the Winkies and pleasant markings tracing down his chest that disappeared under his shirt. He even had the attractive ring of a western Ozian accent on some of his words.

"Technically it's my father's," Elphaba replied curtly.

"And was that your armless sister talking to those boring Gillikinese girls?"

"My sister has more qualities than being without arms!"

He smirked at her. "I'm sure she does. Not that I'm very concerned. Now tell me...is there anything interesting to do in Munchkinland?"

"You're always welcome to leave," Elphaba sneered.

"I'm considering it," he shrugged. "It's rainy, foggy. There's no terrain- unless you enjoy that small cluster you call a forest out back. The people aren't very friendly either," he finished pointedly.

Elphaba tried to dissolve back into her book, but the boy did not leave, so she looked up at him and threw out, "I'm sorry. Was I supposed to care?" Out of the corner of her eye she noticed him moving closer.

He puffed out his chest. "Back in the Vinkus we're very hospitable. We treat our guests with respect. Tribal rituals...the whole works. We have interesting sights: Kumbricia's Pass, the Lesser Kells, Kiamo Ko...and it's decent weather too." His tone was condescending and Elphaba noticed.

"If you're trying to impress me, you should know that I have already heard of those landmarks."

"I happen to live in Kiamo Ko," he replied proudly, puffing out his chest like an arrogant peacock.

For the first time, Elphaba looked up involuntarily. "You're a prince?"

He nodded. "Impressed yet?"

"No. I am, however, worried for Oz if you should one day rule."

"I'll have you know that my father, King Marillot, has groomed me into being as good a king as he is. I suppose you know my name now." The boy wiggled his thick eyebrows so suggestively that Elphaba would have felt bad for not knowing his name if she weren't so agitated.

"I'm afraid I don't," Elphaba replied flatly.

"I don't seem to know yours either," he retorted, "although I'm sure there was a curse on the day you were born. You should be famous!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Elphaba asked coldly.

Tap, tap, tap went his shoes against the wood flooring. "It means that I'm waiting for you to explain your strange predicament."

"There is more than one peculiar thing about me." There was no sputtering from Elphaba; no waver or crack in her airtight voice.

"Why don't you explain it to me?" he demanded.

"Uh oh. The prince is upset. Don't call your guards on me in my own house," Elphaba cackled sarcastically.

"I thought this was your father's house."

Elphaba surveyed him for a moment and turned away. "Are you an idiot or do you just act like one?"

"Are you green all over?"

"Why are you wearing those strange markings?"

"I earned them."

Elphaba snorted. "Oh yes. I'm sure you're very hardworking."

"For your information, I spent a month on my own in the Thousand Year Grasslands," the prince scoffed. "Much more than you'll ever hope to do."

"Shouldn't you be bragging about that to some Gillikinese girls?"

"The crowd was boring me." By the expression on his face, Elphaba could tell he was being truthful. Arguing with her seemed to be the highlight of the past few hours.

And who was she to deny a stranger a good time? "So you took it upon yourself to explore a house that doesn't belong to you?" she said irritably.

"Do you have many friends?" he asked angrily.

"Tell me what you think."

"I think that I'd be sorry to ever meet you again." he said and stomped off, while Elphaba turned heatedly back to her book.