Chapter Text
The bell rang and students and teachers alike crossed each other down the hallways to get to different classes.
Pfannee walked into the room first and instantly was at Crope’s desk. “Mister Crope, did you -”
“Yes, Pfannee, I have finished grading your midterms. We’ll be discussing them today, alright? And please no ‘mister-ing’ it makes me feel old.”
“How did I do?”
“You’ll see in a minute. Just sit down.”
Pfannee looked pleased and sat down centre front row. Elphaba rolled their eyes at the exchange and sat as far away from Pfannee as possible. She was so fucking annoying when it came to test results. Who even gave a shit? As long as you had a 5,5 average at the end of the year you’d pass.
Boq entered the classroom and looked around for Elphaba. They waved him over and he sat down next to them.
“How was computer science?” Elphaba asked.
“Pretty cool. We’re supposed to make a functioning maze game by the end of the month. It’s really challenging.”
“Sounds nerdy,” they replied vaguely. Elphaba’s attention was already claimed by Glinda who walked into the room chatting with Shenshen. Surprisingly, Glinda sat down behind Pfannee and Shenshen, alone. It was something small Elphaba had been noticing the past few weeks. From the outside it looked as if the three girls were thick as thieves. All of them best friends doing everything together. But on closer inspection, Glinda was always on the outskirts. The weird thing was that it wasn’t because Shenshen and Pfannee wanted her there. If anything, they seemed to look up to Glinda the most. No, for some reason Glinda kept her distance voluntarily.
Boq nudged them. “What is it?”
“Huh?”
“You’re staring.”
“It’s Pfannee,” the lie came easily. “She’s always so annoying when we get our results back.”
Boq’s entire face paled. “Crope finished grading?”
“It’s gonna be fine, Boqqie,” Elphaba smacked him on his back.
The bell rang and Crope closed the door to start the lesson.
“Stop calling me that, Elphie,” Boq hissed through gritted teeth.
“Good day, my shining sunflowers. Last night I finished grading your midterms so we shall walk through them together, alright?” Crope grabbed a stack of papers and walked around the class handing out everyone’s exams.
Elphaba wasn’t afraid of their mark, English was one of their best subjects. Boq on the other hand, had shrunk into the collar of his shirt.
Crope approached their tables. “Not bad, Boq! I definitely see a curve upwards. Let’s keep up this momentum, hm?” Crope handed over Boq’s grade, and in the corner of their eye Elphaba saw he got a 5,6.
“Oh thank Oz. Thank Lurline. Thank the Unnamed God. Praise Preenella herself,” Boq wept and slided down his chair in relief.
Crope made another round around the room before handing over Elphaba’s grade. They had a 7,8 which was about what they’d expected.
They went through the exam and afterwards students could come by Crope’s desk if he had made a mistake during grading. Pfannee, pretty much on cue, was standing first in line nitpicking about some of her answers to try and get a higher grade. Meanwhile the rest of the class could start working on their homework in silence.
After a while Crope clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Listen up, my beautiful mentor children. We have -” he checked the clock hanging at the back wall, “ - a few more minutes before the bell rings. And since you’re my first and therefore favoritest mentor class I thought we should end the year with a fun activity. Anyone suggestions?”
Pfannee’s hand shot straight up. “We should draw lootjes for surprises.”
“Oh, hell no!” The words slipped out of Elphaba’s mouth.
Crope looked at them with raised eyebrows. “Something wrong with that, Elphaba?”
“Just that Sinterklaas is a racist tradition. C’mon we seriously cannot ignore this any longer! The Arjikis and Scrow have been protesting this for years. I will not support a holiday that has people dress in blackface!”
A collective groan went through the room.
“Those Winkies need to mind their own business. It’s not like we’re trying to abolish their holidays! What if we went–”
“Avaric!” Crope warned him in a dangerous tone.
Glinda raised her hand.
“Yes?”
“If I may,” Glinda said and looked over her shoulder straight into Elphaba’s eyes. “I agree that blackface is unacceptable and Sinterklaas’ helpers have racist elements to them, but–”
Elphaba huffed, “Anything after this but is going to be garbage.”
“But,” Glinda said nevertheless. “Surprises have nothing to do with the helpers. It’s a present and a poem with some craft work. We can celebrate one part of a holiday while condemning another.”
“Very convenient, don’t you agree? Enjoying a holiday while ignoring the problematic elements.”
“Even the Arjikis and Scrow don’t want to abolish Sinterklaas. They do want to strip it off its racist elements.”
“If I may interrupt this back-and-forth,” Crope said, clearly entertained by it and annoyed he had to act as the adult in the situation. “This is a worthwhile discussion to be having... during break or in social studies. I’m certain Sarima Tigelaar has plenty of excellent arguments. But for now, I do think doing surprises early December is a fun idea. As long as everyone wants to participate.”
The class silently side-eyed Elphaba.
Elphaba threw their hands up in surrender. “Fine. Whatever.”
“Fantastic!” The bell rang and everybody scrambled to gather their stuff together. “Alright, we’ll draw lootjes at our next lesson tomorrow,” Crope raised his voice to try and gain everyone’s attention. “Don’t forget your homework, assignment 15 till 21!”
Elphaba rushed out of the classroom towards the chemistry lab. They were the first one there and had to wait till the previous class had left the room.
“Hey.”
Elphaba was startled to see Glinda. They had so few classes together Elphaba had forgotten she also took chemistry. Part of them wanted to ignore her, but she looked so guilty. “Back there, I didn’t mean to embarrass–”
Their stomach lurched. “It’s fine, Glinda.”
“But I—you’re right though. We shouldn’t ignore it and you were brave to speak up about it.”
Elphaba blinked, and felt their shoulders relax. They hadn’t even realized they were holding tension there. “Thanks. I guess.”
They shifted their eyes. Without waiting for the last students to leave, Elphaba quickly wormed their way into the classroom and avoided looking at Glinda for the rest of the day.
--
Weeks went by and before the exam stress began 5 December had reached upon them. Elphaba had drawn Milla and considered themself lucky; Milla was one of the few classmates they didn’t actively despise. To carry the surprise with them on the bike they went for the simple and classic cardboard box that they could strap on easily. Elphaba had made a festival stage out of it with Milla’s favorite band playing. They had bought her an obscure punk rock CD Milla had put on her wish list. They just hoped it was the right one.
Luckily, their first period was English so Elphaba didn’t have to carry it around school all day long. Everyone came in one by one with garbage bags covering their surprise and trying to read faces to see who got who.
“Alright lovelies,” Crope said as soon as everyone was present. “Since we only got fifty minutes I’m afraid we can’t watch everyone’s creations. Try to keep the surprises in tact as much as possible so we can all admire it afterwards. I suggest we’ll start with two people giving their gifts. Afterwards those people give away their gifts, etcetera. If the person’s not at their desk just leave it there. Sounds good?”
The plan was bound to end up in chaos but they all agreed to it anyway. They kept to Crope’s system for about three minutes before people grew impatient and just started walking around and handing over their surprises. Elphaba saw Milla hadn’t left her desk yet and took the opportunity to go to her. Milla accepted her surprise with a big smile and the present with a squeal.
Elphaba went back to their seat and found great amusement in seeing Boq unravel his surprise. Boq was the unfortunate soul to get drawn by Avaric (Elphaba felt for him, they really did) and was currently digging blindly in a black box filled with a nasty squishy green substance. Of course Avaric had bought six small and useless presents so Boq had to keep digging.
“Excuse me, Elphaba?”
Glinda was standing before them and placed a surprise in front of them. “I got you for Sinterklaas.”
Elphaba instantly cracked up as soon as they saw it. Glinda had made a road with on top a detailed mini-Elphaba grumpily holding a bike with a flat tire. They could tell by the wooden material Glinda had used she had put quite some hours into it. “This is amazing!”
“You should read the poem.”
Glinda pointed to the letter on the edge and Elphaba rolled it open and started to read.
Dear Elphaba,
Whatever did Sint overhear?
Have my Petes seen it clear?
You bike to school and back each day,
But for once you had a big delay.
Although none of this is your fault,
A flat tire brought you to a halt.
Perhaps the world wanted both your feet on the ground,
You don’t always have to hasten so look around.
Be safe whenever and wherever you travel,
And new adventures will always unravel.
Before I leave my child just one more thing,
Of course Sint has a present to bring.
Upon me this wisdom was once bestowed:
Often what you seek is on the road.
Sinterklaas
“On the road,” Elphaba repeated, and poked at the crafted road. “Is my present in here?”
Glinda smiled teasingly. “I’m not Sinterklaas, so I have no idea.”
“But I don’t want to ruin the surprise. It’s really well done.”
“Just lift it up.”
So Elphaba picked it up and lifted the surprise in its entirety above their head and saw a wrapped present craftingly hidden under the road. “Damn, clever.”
Carefully, they separated the two and by the size and weight of the gift Elphaba guessed it was a book. Not surprisingly, because that was pretty much all they had asked for. They loosened the wrapping paper and it was indeed a book: it was the most recent published research on life sciences by Dr. Dillamond, a highly respected scholar at Shiz University.
“Did I put this on my wish list?”
“No, you didn’t,” Glinda jumped in nervously. “I still got the receipt if you already have it, I knew it was a gamble…”
Elphaba could not suppress their impressed grin. “You gambled right. I haven’t read this yet.”
Glinda looked relieved. “So you like it?”
“For sure! How did you know I’m interested in Dillamond’s work?”
“Last year, we had this Dutch presentation assignment? You argued so passionately why Dr. Dillamond’s research should be included in the literary canon. It really left an impression.”
“Oh…” Elphaba’s cheeks turned dark green. “I didn’t suspect anyone would remember that.”
“Are you kidding?” Boq chimed in, who apparently had finished digging for his presents and was chewing on a mouth full of pepernoten. “That talk was amazing! You didn’t get a 8,7 for nothing, Elphie.”
“Ev, you remembered my grade?”
Boq shrugged. “Like I said, it was a good talk.”
“You nerd.”
Glinda looked between them to see when she could break into the conversation. “Anyway, I should probably head back to my desk. Let me know what you think of the book, Elphaba.”
“Yes and thank you,” Elphaba gestured to the entire mess of wrapping paper and presents on their desk, “For all of it, really. This is probably the best surprise I’ve ever had.”
Glinda smiled and as soon as she had walked away Boq poked them in the ribs. “What do you mean ‘best surprise you ever had’? What about that time I made you that tiny bookcase for Sinterklaas?”
Elphaba dipped a finger in the box of green squish and rubbed it over Boq’s cheek. “I said what I said.”
Boq pulled a disgusted face and Elphaba cackled. He cleaned off the goo and said in a hushed tone. “But seriously, a bike? That’s hardly original.”
“Out of context, maybe.” Elphaba looked over to Glinda’s desk, she was folding up the wrapping paper from the gifts she had gotten earlier.
“You mean there is context?”
Elphaba met Boq’s gaze, “Aren’t we nosy today.”
“I’m your best friend!” Boq objected. He crossed his arms and mumbled, “I tell you everything.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
And it wasn’t, or at least it shouldn’t have been. It was just a conversation in a bus. It happened months ago. This was just a quirky reference to it. But it meant Glinda remembered too, that it had made an impact. And without them wanting it to, that felt significant.