Chapter Text
Elphaba Thropp stared at gates of Shiz, the college for everyone that wanted to be anyone in the world of politics.
The last words her “father” Governor Thropp said before her departure echoed in her mind. “I only need one reason.”
As she walked through the halls, she felt the eyes of the other college students upon her. They were staring at her, and the color of her skin. Their eyes whispered the words she had heard so many times before. “You’re different. You don’t belong here. You’re a bastard.”
And the worst thing is, it was true. No matter what her birth certificate said or what any feeble, lie filled, press conferences tried to convince the general public of, Elphaba was not the governer of New York’s daughter. One only needed to take a brief look at her to know, because at the end of the day neither her mother or the governor had an ounce of pigment in their skin and she definitely did.
Elphaba finally arrived at the dorms. She was in room 401, the first room on the fourth floor. She keyed in to the building with her student id, and lugged her bag to the elevator. And stared in confusion. Because there were only three floors.
“Fuck.”
Galinda lied sprawled out on her bed and allowed herself one long groan before she threw a smile back on her face. “Why is my life so hard.” She mumbled to no one in particular.
When Galinda arrived with her parents and chauffeur at the dorms, they had been astounded to find her student id key card wasn’t working and they were locked out. It was easy enough to convince one of the fellow students to let her in, she was an Upland of course, and had been lucky enough that the door to her room had been ajar. However, if she wanted to be able to close her door when she left her dorm she needed a working key card to get back in.
It wouldn’t be a problem if she had a roommate, but her parents had pulled some strings to make sure she had her own room. Her years at Shiz would make or break her career, and the last thing she needed was bad rumors floating around from some desperate roommate tainting her networking opportunities. So down to the administration office she goes, shutting her dorm door behind her as she goes out.
There’s a group of people waiting in line at the front desk, and a couple of familiar faces. Galinda takes a spot in line behind a Massachusetts senator’s daughter.
“Hey Lisa!” Galinda set a small smile on her face, and acted like she considered the other girl a close friend. “I’m so glad I ran into you, how are you doing?”
“Galinda! Oh my god it’s great to see you! I’m doing great,” Lisa blabbered on and on as the line went way too slow for what the tuition cost. There was no way in hell Lisa was getting elected to any position, but it was very likely her future husband would be in Congress or something and it was never a bad thing to have more connections in this industry.
“I don’t know!” A loud voice split through the room, and both her and Lisa turned towards it. The source of the commotion was a girl with pretty enough features but horrendous clothes. She looked slightly familiar and Galinda started running through the list of mixed race couple politicians she knew before snapping her head up as she finally placed the face.
“Is that?” She asked Lisa.
“The eldest Thropp daughter, yeah.” Lisa said, as the subject of their conversation looked like she was getting told to wait in one of the chairs. “Except for everyone knows she’s not actually governor Thropps daughter cause he’s not, you know, black.”
Galinda started inching away from Lisa and in front of her in the line because the girl was talking way too loud in a way too quiet room and the subject of her gossip was way too close. Oh and here comes the gossip with a pissed off look on her face making a beeline for Lisa, shit.
“Let’s get some things straight.” The Thropp daughter stated, thankfully looking at Lisa and not Galinda. “Yes I’m Elphaba Thropp. Yes it’s that Thropp. And yes the governor is listed as my father on my birth certificate so he is legally my father so if you could shut the fuck up that would be greatly appreciated.”
Galinda saw her escape route as the front desk lady asked for the next person in line.
“Great to see you again Lisa, pleasure to meet you Elphaba, but I have to go. Have fun with your conversation though!”
Elphaba shot her a mean glare (rude!), and Lisa was too shell shocked to mention anything about Galinda cutting her in line. Galinda made a mental note to stay far, far, away from the ticking time bomb named Elphaba Thropp.
“Hello ma'am, what’s your name.” Galinda shot the lady a charming smile.
“Nancy,” the woman responded looking more bored than anything.
“Well Nancy I’m sorry to bother you but the key card to my dorm just isn’t working.” Galinda smiled again, and handed her card to the lady.
“What’s your name.” Nancy responded.
“I’m Galinda Upland,” Nancy’s face showed a startling lack of recognition to the name.
“Of the Upland Uplands.” Galinda clarified.
“I gathered.” Nancy responded, apparently just not caring.
“Ok you’ll get a new card in two weeks.” Nancy started to shoo Galinda away.
“Two weeks!” Galinda exclaimed. “How am I supposed to get into my room?”
“Have your roommate open the door for you.” Nancy responded. “I can take next!”
“Wait,” Galinda didn’t move from her spot. “I don’t have a roommate.”
“I guess we’ll kill two birds with one stone then.” Nancy stated, a terribly horrid metaphor. “Elphaba doesn’t have a room so she can be your roommate and you can use her key card.”
“What!” Galinda exclaims. “I don’t want a roommate.”
“Then wait two weeks for a new card.” Nancy shrugged.
“My door is locked right now.” Nancy just stated blankly at Galinda. “Can’t you do whatever you were going to do to her card to mine? How come she could get a new card that fast?”
“She wouldn’t, this is entirely different.” Nancy responded. “She has a working key card, we’d just changed what she’s authorized for. You need a new physical card.”
Galinda came to the cold realization she was really going to have to share a room with the girl she wanted so desperately to avoid. Galinda schooled her face into a smile as she started to walk over to Elphaba, but on the inside she was feeling anything but cheery.
“Fuck.”