A/N: Hi guys, long time no see. Remember,please,that this is bookverse. Gregory Maguire left so much to the imagination..So,another "fill in the gap".This part, timelinewise, actually takes place before the first part, if you desire any order,that is. Don't drive while reading this . Happy New Year.
Glinda saw her.
She didn't tell Elphaba,of course, but she did.
See her.
Her friends were fickle little things.
Bubbly and pink and sweet as sticky candy,just like herself.
They would have noticed.
They would have called her out, on it,of course, told her she was watching, screamed insults at her.
Only half in jest.
Giggled.
And not meant it.
Like sugared,sticky candy canes all of them.
A little uneven, full here, drawn out there.
Round,fleshy little things.
Not at all like the green insect in her rooms.
Elphaba who was tall and gawky and angly.
Full of jags and edges.
The praying mantis without a soul.
As she claimed.
There was a silent grace about her, a grace of one who never looked at her body in the mirror.
Who saw it as a tool, a means of serving her sister, aiding her father in blasted,wicked servitude.
A curse in its skin, no reason to worry about anything else.
No reason to worry or fret.
Elphaba did not spend hours powdering herself up,perfuming smelly parts, plucking at hairy ones, pinching, tweaking,pushing,squeezing.
Elphaba was just as she was.
There was nothing superfluous about her,nothing altered,nothing embellished or false.
And she was used to people watching her.
She did not tell Glinda not to.
It was only natural.
One had to look at the green skin.
And if there was ever any doubt whether it covered Elphaba's entire body, it was soon erased when the two girls started rooming together.
Elphaba dressed and undressed unbashful, unapologetically and matter of factly.
No flourishes, no hours of long indecision, no second opinions.
And Glinda could not help but watch.
Over time, the green skin became a thing of no importance.
The harsh imprint it left on the eyes gave way to a slender back that was cleft with valleys and mountains.
Arms and legs where muscles twisted like rivers with each movement,strung out over bones that moved like clockworks.
Smoothly.
Elphaba's skin in itself, aside from its greenness,was flawless.
She bathed solely with oils.
Of course Glinda could never be jealous of a girl with skin like that, green.
She wondered about its softness instead.
Elphaba, probably more out of habit than consideration washed her hair in the room,sitting on her bed.
It took a long time, and she had probably been told not to occupy the bathroom for that particular exercise, as it seemingly took forever and required no water whatsoever.
She would begin by unloosening her braid, and rubbing the oil slowly into her scalp.
Her fingers, usually given to clawing and grasping and slapping and writing,using only their tips,would make gentle,lazy circles on her head.
Elphaba would then continue working the lotion into her long,long hair, from its base, down to the tips.
She would tilt her head,close her eyes, and draw the mass of darkness out next to her, soothing it down its length.
Glinda could not believe Elphaba's hair.
It was even more incredible to her than the verdigris.
Full and soft.
No split ends, no curls or swirls or errant strands.
Perfection.
She longed to touch it, she longed to have it, she longed for Elphaba the Third Thropp Descending's hair lotion.
Glinda was sure, that she could have talked even Elphaba out of it, but,alas, in one of her spying sprees, it turned out, that the oils were rather specific,and this brand was featured for black and the darkest of dark shades only.
What a shame.
It smelled of the woods back home, in a good way.
Their bathroom was broken one day.
Too much water.
A leak.
Elphaba would not set a foot in there.
That day Glinda found her,as she returned from her classes.
The green girl, in their room, bathing.
Elphaba.
Shining golden with the thin sheen of oil about her.
The blonde closed the door behind herself.
Something twitched in her jaw.
She leaned against the wood in her back, and watched.
Elphaba, who worked the oils into her calves, her feet propped onto the mattress of her bed.
She then used a towel to take up the extra oil that carried the sweat and dirt of the day.
Glinda did not move, until her green roommate was done.
All done.
Shaking herself as if from an unwanted vision, the young Arduenna walked stiffly over to her desk, littering it with the remains of the classes of the day.
Her hands flew over the papers and pens.
Her fingers shaking.
"Would you help with my hair?"
They did talk,sometimes. But never in class,or outside of the room.
But they weren't anywhere else but here.
Just the two of them.
"Ama Clutch is going to bring tea soon." Glinda answered matter of factly.
Her voice dry and hollow.
She could not concentrate on the books lying before her anymore.
Books that begged for order on the shelves.
Wished to be returned.
Or read and studied from.
But Glinda of the upper Uplands could not see the books anymore.
Her vision had grown blurry.
An animal twisted in her chest.
Green and golden.
"Lock the door,then." Elphaba's voice rang quietly through the room.
And Glinda did.