Green with envy | Wicked | Book 1/3

Elphie

There's a scream.
I jolt out of bed, nessas crying again.
I walk hastily over to her,
"What's wrong ness?" I ask lovingly.
She sniffs and stops crying when she sees me,
"I had a bad dream" she whines, "get me out of this bed"
I'm obligated to do what she says, I walk over to where father has brought up her chair and carry Nessa into it.
She sits in it sadly, she looks down at her sling.
Nessa looks so unhappy, she scratches the back of her neck where the sling is tied.
I can't help but feel bad for her.
She really can't to anything for herself anymore.
I have no choice but to wait hand and foot on her.
And she's not grateful, I understand though.
I can be like that too, when a child that called me a rude name allows me to borrow some of there school equipment I don't usually say thanks.
I guess it's nessas way of being sad.
she isn't really angry at you, I tell myself, she is just angry at her situation.
I've told myself this so many times that I barley believe it anymore, perhaps Nessa does hate me?
I can't think like that, Nessa needs me, she has to love me.

"Elphie!" I hear Nessa call,
I scamper over to her,
"Yes ness" I say politely
She looks around, she doesn't know what she wants,
Her eyes fixate on her hairbrush.
"Can you do my hair?" She asks,
I love doing nessas hair, it's so smooth and beautiful, unlike mine.
My hair is stringy and black.
"Oh yes!" I gush and retrieve nessas golden hairbrush.
I've always loved that hairbrush.

I start to brush her hair, it's never knotty for some annoying reason,
"Do you want me to braid it?" I ask gently.
Nessa nods in excitement.
I start to make two braids in nessas hair, making sure not to pull to hard.
I finally finish and pass Nessa her golden mirror to view my work.
The mirror and brush was a matching set from father.

Nessa stares at herself in the mirror for a while, then uses her arm to spin herself round towards her makeup table.
Nessa has always been great at makeup.
It's always so perfect but she's so beautiful you wouldn't even know that she was  wearing any.
I push Nessa towards the table slightly.
I go and sit on my bed and watch her cover up her red eyes.

Father walks in, he goes over to Nessa and examines her hair.
"You look beautiful today nessarose" he says merrily, he then turns to me,
"Elphaba"
I'm not expecting a compliment.
"I'm going out for a short while, look after you sister" he commands.
He leaves the room.

Nessa finishes her makeup and just stares into the mirror, she hasn't spoken in a while.
I know this is killing her inside.
She wanted to be independent and now she has to depend on me more than ever.
It reminds me of when she was younger.
I'm three years older than Nessa and when she was six she she was so miserable.
I think then she had finally worked out that she was different and that her difference was permanent, like mine.
I was nine at the time, one year younger than Nessa is now, she used to just lie in bed and scream.
She would cry more than she does now and she wouldn't do anything at all.
When she finally realised that she didn't like that type of attention she switched to trying to be independent.
She's still quite bossy but she does care about me.
I miss being a kid, when Nessa was three and I was five things weren't that bad between us, she used to sit between my legs on the floor and we would play dolls.
Ness started talking really quickly, probably because I always read to her, but once she got past the age of three she didn't enjoy sitting with me anymore.
She stropped that she couldn't get her dolls from her shelf, that's when father got her a wheelchair.
I've never had a strop about anything, at least no a visible one.
Because Nessa is more important than me, she's more fragile.
She's the favourite.

As much as I complain about her, I truly do love her and she loves me.
She just had a hard time showing it.
She's still not spoken, I start to worry.
What if Nessa doesn't talk to me until her arm gets better?
I hear her sniffle, quietly but I've come to recognise nessas crying over any other sounds.
"Ness are you alright?" I ask cautiously.
"Im fine" she snaps, turning her chair away from me.

I feel helpless.
I know why she's sad and there's nothing I can do about it.
Maybe this is a good things, maybe once her arm gets better she won't be as sad anymore because she will realise all the things she can do.
I've always wanted to trade places with Nessa for a day.
I kid myself and say that it because I want to understand her better but it's really because I want to be the favourite.
If I was in nessas position I'd never complain.
"Elphie" Nessa whispers,
"Yes ness" I reply politely,
"Never mind, it's stupid" she says suddenly.
I turn Nessa round to look at me.
She's crying silently, I don't know what to do, father isn't home and there's no one here that knows her like I do.
All our staff think she's delightful, they rarely every see her strop and even when they do they just pity her.
Our whole family adores her.
No one adores me, the only family member I can stand to be around is aunt Sophia.
Aunt Sophia is strange though, she's very kind to me, but she constantly says horrible stuff about Nessa to me.
She's our fathers sister in law and she hates Nessa for some reason.
I really don't like her saying nasty things about Nessa, she can't help being like she is.
"No good ever comes from spoiling a child." Aunt Sophia will always say, then she will usually make a kind remark about how well behaved I am.

"Elphie" Nessa says again "This is going to sound stupid, so don't make fun of me!"
I'm shocked, she's never said anything like that before, I'm scared of what she's going to say next.
"I'd never make fun of you" I say solemnly.
"Elphie, will you hug me?" She asks.
My face glows as I lunge forward.
I hold her for a long time, she wraps her good hand around me.
I can still hear her sniffing but she stays holding onto me.
"Thank you Elphie"