Raised in a Barn

"LOOK OUT BELOOOOOOWWWW!" Elphaba bellowed as she lunged forward, freefalling from the rafters and down towards Glinda.

"Gah! Sweet Oz, Elphie!" Glinda shrieked as she lunged to the side so that Elphaba wouldn't slam into her. Right at the last second, however, Elphaba revealed that she had been holding onto a rope during her little freefall. A few inches away from Glinda's head, the rope pulled tight and Elphaba went swinging forward, defying gravity and sailing through the air. A few seconds later, then, she released the rope and went slamming headfirst into a large pile of hay waiting at the opposite side of the barn in which they were currently in.

The force with which Elphaba hit the hay was so great that she disappeared completely into the giant heap of straw. A few seconds later, then, her green face came popping back up out of the hay, quite a bit of the straw getting stuck in her long, thick, dark hair.

"Woo hoo!" she cheered with a giant grin as she swam back out of the hay pile, crawling to her feet at last.

"Sweet Oz, Elphie!" Glinda repeated, but this time with tired and amused exasperation instead of outright terror.

"Oh what? Come on! Like you've never done that before!" Elphaba snorted as she brushed off some of the hay clinging to her black cloak.

"No!" Glinda cried defensively, crossing her arms. "Where I'm from, we rode around on horses and oversaw the farmhands as they tended to the crops! We most certainly did not body-slam into hay bales after jumping from the barn rafters!" the little blond turned up her nose in disgust, but Elphaba shook her head with a disbelieving little smile.

As haughty as Glinda liked to pretend to be, she could be just as spirited and immature as anyone else. And Elphaba was certain that Glinda had "hay dived" before because she knew the little Upland was a farm girl at heart. Maybe she never worked out in the fields, but she had been raised in a barn just as much as Elphaba had. Neither of them were strangers to the world of farmland and agriculture. Even if Glinda's farm had been nicer and larger than Elphaba's, she had still been raised around crops and animals. There was no way a girl like that never once engaged in any sort of shenanigans like jumping into enormous haystacks. It was impossible for Glinda to not have!

"Pertha Hills is a distinguished agricultural community!" Glinda continued to huff indignantly, nose in the air as she gave a prideful toss of her golden curls. They inexplicably reminded Elphaba of the straw that she was still covered in. Elphaba laughed a little at Glinda's showy defenses. Although she was correct that Pertha Hills had the reputation of being a beautiful pastoral community, that really was just a fancy way of saying "farm", so to hear her ramble on and on about the farm's famous and acclaimed history and value to Oz made Elphaba smirk knowingly.

"C'mon Glinda, a farm's a farm, no matter what you call it!" the green girl insisted.

"Is not!" Glinda shot back. "Pertha-"

"Oh, Pertha, Pertha, Pertha!" Elphaba cut the little blond off. "I'm starting to get jealous, you know? Maybe the Thropp's farms in Munchkinland are a bit... shoddy, but we still have quite a lot to offer!" she insisted. "Now come on!" and before Glinda could protest any further, Elphaba took her by the hand and led her outside into the vast, sprawling green of the fields that surrounded Elphaba's home.

Despite herself, Glinda was amazed by what she saw. Fresh produce, hearty crops, a bountiful and beautiful harvest, rich and rolling fields. The farms in Munchkinland really were beautiful and iconic. Maybe they lacked Pertha Hills' elegance, but Munchkindland still had a very rustic and lovely appearance. Though that was to be expected. The east did produce the most (and best) of Oz's crops, so of course the Munchkins would know how to create gorgeous and efficient farms. Even though there were agricultural areas across the country, the east was the heart of it all. It was the crown jewel in Oz's agriculture industry. And now Glinda stood in the heart of it too, with Elphaba at her side, taking her on a grand tour!