CHAPTER FIVE

Galinda couldn't believe her good fortune as she walked down the hall towards the room that she shared with Elphaba. A devilish smile played upon perfect features as she recalled the events that had led her up to this point. Despite a few minor hitches, her plan was going exactly as she had hoped. Her biggest accomplishment, by far, had been convincing Nanny that she was perfectly fine and wouldn't need any assistance. The little lie she told about having cramps had suited perfectly, and, with a little bit of reassurance from Galinda, Nanny hadn't even bothered to escort the blonde back to her room. She reached her destination and paused outside the door, taking a minute to recollect her thoughts. As she reached for the handle, she took a deep breath and prayed that the green girl was inside or else all of her hard work (not to mention a perfectly good night out) would all be for nothing.

The heavy door creaked a little as it was forced open, and startled Elphaba from her studies. She glanced up and was surprised to see her perky roommate standing in the doorway with a smug grin plastered on her face. She took a quick peek at the clock in the corner of their room, and noticed that it wasn't even quarter to eleven yet. She hadn't expected Galinda to be back until the wee hours of the morning, and had planned to be asleep (or at least pretending to be asleep) when that event occurred. "You are home early." Elphaba stated the obvious as she struggled to figure out the curious look on the blonde's face.

"It worked! Sweet Oz, I can't believe it worked!" Galinda exclaimed as she shut the door and burst into a fit of ecstatic laughter. She couldn't get over how well her scheme had turned out. She had set everything up perfectly, and now she was rewarded with the rest of the night to spend with Elphaba and sort out what was troubling her emerald roomie.

Elphaba watched her roommate with growing confusion. The petite blonde had entered the room, emitted several incoherent cries, and then crumpled to the floor directly in front of the door in what appeared to be a giggling spell. Having grown up in the more reserved home of a missionary, Elphaba was unused to such displays, especially ones of such caliber, and was immediately concerned for the mental health of her small companion. "Galinda are you alright?" she asked as she knelt before her fallen friend.

"Of course, I'm alright!" Galinda gleefully proclaimed as she regained her footing and beamed up at her green friend. Then, her face morphed into a more somber expression as she recalled the reason for all of her planning: to find out what was wrong with Elphaba. She set off on her second practiced dialogue of the evening determined to not be interrupted. "It's you that I've been worried about. You're never around any more. You never spend time in the room, like you used to. You're always off at the library or the lab or busy with your school work. You're never at any of the common meals. Are you even eating? You've gotten so thin and pale. And even though you try to deny it, I know that you aren't sleeping well! Elphie what's wrong? You can tell me. I just want to help you. You're my friend and I care about you very much."

Elphaba was taken aback by her roommate's sudden proclamation. She was surprised that Galinda had noticed her recent behavior, and stunned that the short blonde cared enough to confront her about it. But, as the shock wore off, Elphaba started to ponder the extent of Galinda's determination. Her roommate certainly wanted to know the truth behind her troubles, but Elphaba wasn't ready to open up about her unusual dreams, especially not to the main attraction in them. She was going to have to make up a good story quickly and hope, for Oz's sake, that Galinda wouldn't be able to tell that she was lying. She took a deep breath to prepare herself and started spinning her excuse. "Galinda, I'm touched that you're so concerned for me and my health, but really, I am fine. You know perfectly well that it's none of your business, but since you asked, I just haven't been sleeping well these past few days due to my monthly cycle."

Elphaba had been avoiding looking at Galinda while she was talking for fear that the blonde would see right through her façade. She had distracted herself by tidying the books on her desk, but she glanced up at her roomie as she finished speaking and was surprised to discover that her roommate was laughing. "What's so funny?" she demanded, a little upset that her ruse seemed to not only have failed, but was so bad that the blonde found it humorous.

"It's just that I just used that same exact excuse on Nanny in order to get back to the room without a side trip to the nurse's office!" Galinda managed to state between giggles.

Elphaba's eyebrow rose slightly as she digested this new information. 'Galinda does not appear to be ill, so why did Nanny want to send her to the infirmary?' she pondered. There was some missing information that Galinda was still hiding, and Elphaba was going to take full advantage of her roommate's slip to figure out what she was concealing. "Why were you going to be sent to the nurse's office?" the green girl asked as a smug smile formed on her lips.

The color drained from the blonde's face and her laughter immediately ceased. Elphaba was never supposed to figure out the full extent of Galinda's scheming. This was the biggest mistake she had made so far, and she mentally slapped herself for letting her big mouth get ahead of her mind. She tried to think of a way to avoid the question, but one look at Elphaba told her that the truth was going to have to be unveiled. "Well, I was worried about you!" the blonde started out defensively. "You were acting weird, and I wanted to try and help you, but you were avoiding me. So, I sort of came up with a plan to confront you when we were alone in our room. And, well, here we both are! So, how about telling me what's been going on in that big, green, head of yours?" She gave her roommate a sheepish grin as she finished hoping that Elphaba would understand.

Elphaba was unsure of how to progress in this new situation, and decided that her best bet was to distract the blonde with some questions of her own. "I thought that you were supposed to be attending a big, important party tonight? Wasn't Fiyero escorting you? Weren't you overcome by a squealing fit when he asked you to be his partner at lunch two days ago? And how did you know that I'd be here, in our room, at this time and not at the library or something?"

The blonde cocked an eyebrow in response to the flow of questions streaming out of her roommate's mouth. Had she ever heard the olive-skinned girl talk for this long about something other than class material? She smirked as she decided to return the rapid-fire inquisition in kind. The fact that Elphaba already knew about the plan made it seem silly for Galinda to hide intimate details of it from her. Besides, if Galinda was honest with the green girl, it might even help convince her to open up and confide in her. She took a deep breath and started her rebuttal. "One, I am supposed to be at a party right now, but I only made a big deal about it to get your attention; so that you would assume that you would have the room to yourself for the whole evening. Two, Fiyero did escort me about halfway to the party, before I feigned an illness, which was part of my plan to return back to the room and talk to you. Third, the squealing was another method of getting your attention, and reconfirming your belief that I would be out of the room all night. Fourth, I had hoped to run into you retiring to the room before leaving with Fiyero; so that I would be sure of your location upon my return. However, that did not happen, and I had to rely on my intuition. And finally, I knew you would not be in the library. It closes at nine on Friday. I checked." As she finished her response, the petit blonde crossed her arms over her chest and directed a smug, satisfied smile towards her companion.

Elphaba had been surprised when Galinda had returned early. She had been shocked when she had expressed concern for her well-being. But now that she knew that Galinda had gone to what appeared to be a lot of trouble to confront her about it, the olive-skinned girl was dumbfounded. Elphaba had never felt so cared for in her entire life. Sure, Nanny had tended to her when the need arose, but that was Nanny's job. It was her duty to ensure that the Thropp girls remained healthy; and she received pay for it. The Eminent Thropp himself awarded her a small stipend for her labors. Conversely, Galinda's concerns were unwarranted, and the blonde didn't stand to gain anything from them. 'Why does she care?' Elphaba wondered. 'Is it because we were becoming friends? Is this what it's like to have a friend care about you? Maybe it's something more than friendship?' That last thought made her heart leap as a small ray of hope resonated throughout her body, but she mentally pushed it away. 'No! What you've been feeling is wrong. It's not what friends should feel. Not that you've ever had any friends, but that's not the point! It's wrong to feel this way, period! Besides, there's no way that Galinda would ever feel anything like that, especially for a scrawny, little, green nobody like you.'

Galinda watched as the emerald girl withdrew into herself. She desperately wanted to reach out to her friend, but was scared of what kind of reaction she would receive. Instead, Galinda racked her mind trying to figure out what was troubling her roommate without disturbing the girl. 'When does a person have troubled dreams, start avoiding people, and stop eating?' she asked herself. She repeated the question over and over in her mind, but couldn't come up with an answer. Elphaba's symptoms were common of most illnesses or problems. Galinda decided to change her analytical strategy and focus on each of Elphie's symptoms individually.

She found that she had to immediately discount Elphaba's avoidance of people because that was typical of the girl no matter what her state. Galinda also had to admit that she didn't technically know if the green girl was eating or not. Just because she had not seen her roommate in the dinning halls did not necessarily mean that the green girl was not actually eating. That meant that the only really solid proof Galinda had of her friend's dilemma was her troubled sleep.

The blonde clung onto the one shred of evidence that she had, and honed in on the dreams. She tried to think in the logical and analytical manner that Elphaba tended to, which lead her to attempt to compare her roommate's dreams to her own nightmares. This was another dead end. How could she compare her nightmares to Elphaba's? All she could remember of her nightmares was their terrifying subject matter. She didn't even know what she herself sounded or looked like when she was having a nightmare! She also had no idea what was bothering her roommate in her sleep.

She redirected her thoughts again, and started to think of how other people acted when they had nightmares. Being an only child, she did not have many such memories to recall. However, she had always been close to her cousin, Analinda, and they had spent numerous summers together as children. She dug deeper into her memory and recollected that when Ana would wake her up with nightmares, it was always with cries and shrieks. But Elphaba's noises were different. They weren't as panicked and fear driven as Ana's screams had been, but were low and more guttural. Galinda knew that she had heard these kinds of sounds somewhere else, but could not remember where or when. She closed her eyes, slowed her breathing and focused on locating the identifying memory. For some strange reason, her parents popped into her head, and she took a minute to smile fondly as she pictured her happy mother and father beaming right back. She pushed away the thoughts of her parents, and attempted to return her thoughts to Elphie's plight, but for some inexplicable reason, visions of her parents kept revisiting her.

She was young, about five, and had just finished helping Cook make Gillikin Ginger Snap cookies. She wanted to find her parents and get them to taste the freshly baked treats, but daddy wasn't in his office, and mommy wasn't in the library. None of the help knew where her parents were. She wandered all around the large house making sure to check all of the rooms she passed. She finally heard her father's voice when she neared her parents' bedroom. It was unusually low and soft in contrast to his normal robust speaking voice, but it was undoubtedly her father. She heard her mother too, but she was not speaking words. Instead, she was making long moaning sounds, which were remarkably similar to Elphaba's nocturnal noises.

Galinda could envision her small hand turn the golden knob and open the bedroom door wide. She could still remember the sight that lay before the child. Clothes were strewn about the floor. Her father's business suit trailed in awkward pieces across the room. Her mother's beautiful blue dress, one of Galinda's favorites, lay crumpled by the bed. In the bed, her parents were entangled with each other and the silk sheets. Young Galinda watched fascinated while they nosily shifted, rocking back and forth. It wasn't long before her mother noticed her standing in the doorway. That was the day that little Galinda learned the word sex.

This memory confused present Galinda for a second. Why had that particular memory surfaced, and why was Elphaba making sexual sounds in her sleep? Then, a wave of enlightenment washed over her. "Of course!' the answer to all of her questions lit up her mind! 'I should have seen it before! Why didn't I piece together the puzzle until just now? Elphaba has been making sexual noises during her sleep because she's been having romantic dreams! It all makes sense!' "Elphaba," she whispered softly in amazement, "you are in love."