Chapter Text
Elphaba must have rolled over in bed upward of fifty times tonight, and when she chanced a glance at the clock on the wall—perfectly visible thanks to the bright pink light on the other side of the room—it read nearly half past four.
Wonderful. Three hours before she had to get up and prepare for her first classes, and she hadn’t yet managed to get a wink of sleep. All because her spoiled, stuck-up roommate refused to keep her light off.
It was ridiculous. Galinda had been sound asleep—Elphaba could hear her snoring from across the room—and couldn’t have known the light had been turned off. But within ten minutes, that violent pinkness cut through Elphaba’s eyelids again, and she clenched her jaw so tightly that she wouldn’t have been surprised if her teeth had shattered.
They were going to have to talk about this. The opportunity to study at Shiz was a gift Elphaba wasn’t willing to squander, and that meant she was going to need enough sleep to properly engage in her schoolwork. Somehow, she would need to get it through Galinda’s thick, glittery skull that light is meant for waking hours…but she couldn’t imagine that conversation would go well. Talking to Galinda was like talking to a brick wall, especially if—Oz forbid—she was being asked to change something for someone else.
Selfish. Elphaba had already called Galinda as much, but the word hadn’t seemed to have much impact. After all, how could one be selfish if, in their mind, they were the only person in the world who mattered?
It was going to be a long semester.
Elphaba had only just managed to drift off out of pure exhaustion when her alarm clock sounded. She groaned, silenced it, and buried her face in her pillow for a moment as she resisted the urge to scream.
“Um, excuse me.”
Elphaba heaved a sigh and picked her head up to see her roommate still in her own bed, propped up on an elbow and lifting half of her sleep mask off to stare at her.
“What?”
Galinda cleared her throat, somehow even making that action seem forcibly delicate. That’s all Galinda seemed to be: delicate and graceful, but in a practiced, mechanical way. Even Elphaba could tell it didn’t come naturally, and she couldn’t help but feel she’d be able to use that fact to knock her roommate down a peg if needed.
“It’s just—your alarm clock,” Galinda said. “It woke me up. You should get a quieter one.”
Elphaba scoffed. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I am,” Galinda said. “I need my beauty sleep. It’s very important.”
A prickling sensation rose in Elphaba’s chest, and she forced it back down. She couldn’t magically manslaughter her roommate—yet. Thank Oz Madame Morrible would be helping her to control her power; she was going to need it if this was what she would be challenged with every single day.
“Your lamp kept me up all night,” Elphaba said carefully. “But I suppose my beauty sleep doesn’t matter to you.”
“It’s restorative,” Galinda argued. “The color is healing. Maybe it would help you, too, if you weren’t so bent on hating everything I own.”
“You know what?” Elphaba shook her head. “I don’t have time for this. I’ll get a new clock when you turn off the damn light.”
She plucked an outfit from her clothing rack without looking (her single clothing rack surrounded by a sea of pink ones) and stormed into the bathroom to change.
One day. One day she’d had the displeasure of knowing Galinda, and she already felt as if it were one day too many. At least she knew she’d have some peace during her first class—Galinda, who had humphed airily and turned over in bed, clearly didn’t have anything early in her schedule.
And, as Elphaba left the dormitory and stepped into the morning light bathing the campus, she felt some of the tension dissipate from her shoulders and her excitement returned from the previous day.
She’d be majoring in sorcery, of course; it was Madame Morrible’s condition for her enrollment. Her mentor’s lessons weren’t the only things she looked forward to, though: history, linguification, and all manner of liberal arts and sciences awaited her here at Shiz. It was a dream come true, and Elphaba wasn’t about to let a blonde airhead bring her down.
Her first class of the day, economics, wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but it was pleasant enough. The professor reviewed their syllabus, began their first lecture, assigned reading for the night, and then Elphaba was off to her history class.
This was going to be fun. Elphaba had always adored learning the history of Oz, of its provinces and ancient cultures, of its people. Not to mention, the course was taught by Dr. Dillamond, one of the few remaining Animal professors at Shiz. She was sure he’d bring new perspectives to the class, and with his tenure, he must be vastly knowledgeable on the subject.
Elphaba took a seat and readied her papers to take notes. Dr. Dillamond would have his own syllabus to review, of course, but she wanted to be prepared to jot down anything of importance if it came up.
She had her pen poised in her hand when the door opened, and shrill, raucous laughter echoed through the lecture hall. Elphaba’s shoulders tensed, knowing who was entering before the crown of blonde hair shone through the doorway. Galinda’s friends held the door open for her and all but bowed as she breezed inside as if she were royalty.
Of all the one o’clock classes, how in Oz had Galinda managed to be scheduled for the this one? True, they were both first-years required to take particular gen-eds, but Elphaba couldn’t believe her misfortune to share a class that she so looked forward to with someone who would doubtlessly detract from the lessons with her incessant need to be the center of attention.
Elphaba gripped her pen tighter and resolved to completely ignore her roommate’s presence, reminding herself again that she was not going to let it dampen her experience.
But it was difficult to ignore someone so loud. Not necessarily in speech, though Galinda’s voice did seem to cut easily through the air, but in appearance. Her bright golden hair, her too-colorful clothing, and even her energy naturally drew the eye, much to Elphaba’s chagrin. She listened keenly as Dr. Dillamond spoke, but couldn’t seem to keep a steady flow of notes with Galinda’s movement drawing her attention every few minutes.
Elphaba left the classroom followed by a dark cloud of frustration, giving her peers even more of a reason to jump out of her path than the usual verdancy. But she was relieved to find that Galinda didn’t share her next class, nor her first one the next day. She did, however, appear in both her physical education and alchemy classes. Tragic, but at least Elphaba’s philosophy and law classes would be blissfully free of haughty blonde socialites.
They did fall into a sort of routine before long: Elphaba would spent her time between classes around campus while Galinda slept in or took breaks in their room, and by the time Elphaba returned after their last classes, Galinda would be elsewhere with her friends. The only time they really spent together were their nights, which were still a source of contention for them several weeks later.
Then came the night that Galinda didn’t return to their room.
Elphaba sat in bed, using the precious little private time she had to practice her latest lesson from Madame Morrible without much success. She knew Galinda would be back soon, and just that fact set her on edge enough that she couldn’t focus. The coin sat lifelessly before her without so much of a quiver no matter how forcibly she directed her power into it, all because the voice in the back of her head told her Galinda would walk in at any moment with a snide remark about her abilities.
But twenty minutes passed, and Galinda still hadn’t come back at her usual time. Elphaba wondered if she had gone to some late-night party with her friends and allowed the idea to soothe her a bit. Perhaps she’d even manage to get some peaceful sleep in the dark at last, at least until Galinda inevitably returned and lit that horrific lamp of hers.
And by the time Elphaba had showered and bedded down for the night, Galinda’s side of the room was still dark and quiet. With all of the lights out, Elphaba could even pretend it was her own room back home.
She stretched out and hummed contentedly. One night of restful sleep wouldn’t make up for the rest of them, but it was a start.
Any moment now, she’d fall asleep and stay asleep for longer than a few minutes.
Any moment now…
Elphaba groaned and rubbed her temples. What was wrong with her? She’d spent weeks wishing for a night like this, and now that she had one, she couldn’t even fall asleep. Had she actually grown used to that horrendible pink light? She supposed she had been sleeping better the last few nights.
Or perhaps it was something else bothering her. She loathed to admit it, but she couldn’t deny to herself the fact that a small, wriggling thing in her gut felt something akin to worry for Galinda. She’d never stayed out this late before, and even when she did intend to stay out into the night, she would tell Elphaba she’d be back late. As if Elphaba cared; as if they were friends.
Elphaba squashed the concern and turned her thoughts to better things. She’d written a brilliant essay for Dr. Dillamond, so she had his feedback to look forward to. And while she felt she wasn’t making much progress in sorcery, Madame Morrible seemed to think otherwise. She’d said as much, that she could already see a difference in just a few weeks, and that should have been enough to soothe Elphaba to sleep.
But it wasn’t. She stayed awake, tossing and turning and pretending Galinda’s absence had nothing to do with it until finally, hours later, she fell into an uneasy sleep.
The dawn light had just begun to filter over the horizon and creep in through the windows when the telltale click of an opening door roused Elphaba. She was immediately alert, but didn’t jolt out of bed the way her instincts told her to. Instead, she opened her eyes just enough to ensure it was only her roommate returning, perhaps from a night spent with a boy.
The figure creeping into the room was Galinda, all right—the pale-gold shade of her hair was unmistakable—but something was wrong. The usual poise she walked with was nowhere to be seen, and though Elphaba could only see the back of her, she looked…unkempt. Hair dull and tangled and dirty, it seemed. Was that a leaf caught up in the limp curls? And, though it was hard to tell in the low light, it almost looked as if Galinda were walking with a slight limp.
Elphaba moved before she could think long enough to stop herself. She reached across to her lamp and flicked it on, bathing the room in soft yellow light.
Galinda froze where she stood. In the light, Elphaba could tell that yes, that was a leaf in her hair, and it was even dirtier than it had initially looked. She wasn’t even wearing shoes; her heels dangled from their straps in her hand.
“Are—you okay?” Elphaba asked haltingly. She wasn’t sure what exactly one should say to their live-in enemy in a situation like this, but the concern that had lingered with her overnight won over the urge to come up with one teasing remark or another.
“Perfectly fine,” Galinda replied without turning to face her, her voice carrying its usual musical lilt. “Go back to sleep.”
“Galinda—” Elphaba sat up. “Look, I know we don’t really see eye to eye, but if something happened—”
“I said I’m fine.” Galinda’s tone fell flat into what sounded more like a warning than anything else.
Elphaba stared after her, taken aback, as she dropped her shoes beside her bed, flipped her lamp on, and headed into the bathroom without a single glance back.
Well. If that was how Galinda felt about her showing real concern, then Elphaba wouldn’t waste her energy. Whatever she was dealing with, she clearly wanted to deal with it alone.
Elphaba turned her own light off and rolled over to face the wall, hoping to get another few winks of sleep and expecting none. But with the muffled sound of quiet humming from the shower and the roseate light reflecting off the window, she found herself drifting off for once without issue.