Green with envy | Wicked | Book 1/3

Elphie

The family has already started pouring through the doors, Nessa is sat in her chair, like a queen on her throne, she looks stunning.
I look green.
I've been told by father that aunt Sophia is coming, I know that she will have a mouthful to say about nessas broken arm.
I'm glad that it's healed up perfectly, but it has made nessa quite impatient.

I hear the cousins asking where Nessa is, my day begins.
One of our maids leads them into our ballroom, Nessa is parked by one of the walls, in stood next to her.
A couple of our cousins and one of our aunts comes over.
Nessa rolls her eyes and puts on a fake smile.
She's very good at faking them.
"Nessa!" One of them shouts,
Our aunt comes over, luckily it's not aunt Sophia,
"Charlie isn't going to bother you is he Nessie?" She asks.
Nessa shakes her head.
She hates being called Nessie.
Charlie is the slightest bit shorter than Nessa in her chair, despite being around seven years old
"Nessa can you play with me" he whines.
Nessa smiles and agrees.
I offer to go with her, but she declines.
After a while of watching Nessa play catch with our cousins, I wonder around a bit.
I'm sure to stay away from my fathers table and to keep my head held low so I don't attract too much attention.

All of a sudden I feel someone tap me on the head.
It's aunt Sophia.
"Elphie" she says cheerfully "how are you?" She asks?
I smile up at her,
"Alright" I say trying to keep an eye out for Nessa.
"You look wonderful" she says holding onto me kindly "here" Sophia hands me a small box.
I open it, inside is a necklace with a small moon on it, I smile up at her.
Suddenly Aunt Sophia gets a familiar look on her face, she's about to ask about Nessa.
"I hear that your sister hasn't been very well lately, broke her arm didn't she?"
This has been the quickest that she has ever turned the conversation over to Nessa.
"How did she do it again?" She asks, making a circular motion with the drink in her hand.
"She was upstairs alone and she fell down the stairs"
Aunt Sophia snorts slightly,
"Stupid girl" she mutters, "how did a paralysed girl managed to fall down the stairs?" She asks sarcastically.
I feel uncomfortable, I hate it when people talk bad about Nessa behind her back because people do that to me all the time and I know how rotten it can be.
Suddenly I hear Nessa squeal.
"Nessa!" I call out quietly.
"Don't you worry about her" Sophia says angrily "she can take care of herself."

She's wrong, Nessa can't take care of herself.
I spin round to find Nessa, our cousins are pushing her alarmingly fast.
"Stop!" I say rushing towards them,
"stay here with me" I hear Sophia call out after me.
But I can't think about that, all I can think about is Nessa and the abuse that I will get if I don't help her.
I feel the sensation building up.
"Leave her alone!" I shout, the sensation escapes my fingertips and nessas chair starts spinning faster than the boys where pushing it.
She screams, everyone turns to stare at me and her.
Our cousins are pushed away from her, and she stops spinning and the chair topples over onto its side.
Nessa falls out of it onto the floor.

I see her eyes flicker around the room at the staring guests, she tries to lift herself up slightly but it doesn't work and she falls Flat on her chest.
father rushes forward pushing me out the way.
"Nessa!" He cries, "Nessa are you alright?"
I see the parents of the boys rush forwards and drag there sons away.
Father turns to me,
"Elphaba get out of my sight, I'll speak with you later" I do just that and run out the room, upstairs into our workroom.
I say our, it's the room that Nessa does her schoolwork in and the room I go into to read peacefully.
I sit for ages, waiting for father to come up and chew my ear off about hurting Nessa and embarrassing both of them.

I wait for hours, until finally though the open door I see father carrying Nessa up the stairs into bed, she looks like she's asleep.
I hope she is, that way she won't tell me off when I go inside.
I creep out into the hallway unfortunately it's the same time as fathers leaving our room.
"Elphaba" he whispers coldly "I'm not going to shout since your sister is asleep"
I nod,
"I'm sorry father"
He scowls
"Sorry isn't good enough Elphaba, you need to learn to control this... this, thing" father barks, Nessa stirs in our room, he glances in and then walks back downstairs.

I go inside of our bedroom, Nessa is still asleep.
I creep over to my own bed and close my eyes, but I can't seem to relax enough to fall asleep.
Father's right.
I need to be able to control it.
I've always wanted that loving relationship with my sister, I don't care about father anymore, I know he will never respect me, but maybe when Nessa becomes the governess and I become her permanent caretaker (not that I'm not already) father will see what a good job I've done all these years.
I hope so.
I do love my house, despite how big it is.
Maybe Nessa will be a better governor than father, maybe once she is an adult she won't complain as much.
Everyone seems to adore her now so being a governess should come easy to her.
She treats everyone but me with kindness, regardless of whether she's faking it or not.

You see when I was born the only thing wrong with me was the fact that I was green.
An issue that continues to plague me to this day.
Nessa was born perfectly heathy, but her legs where limp and tangled, she spent so much time being ferried around to different doctors, none of them could heal her.
Our mother didn't survive the birth, the only person who had shown me unconditional kindness until aunt Sophia.
Nessas kindness comes with the price of helping her to live.
I mean, that's what good big sisters do, they help there younger ones.
Nessa hates that she can't do anything for herself, I know that she loves the positive attention that comes from it.
But I completely understand hating being stared at.
What she hates most of all is that I have to help her get dressed, I know how embarrassing that is for her, she's ten years old and still can't put on her own trousers.
But I love my sister, I really do.
Sometimes.