The Rise of The Animal Defense Force

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Both girls were sitting on their beds, and Elphaba hugged her pillow as Galinda gossiped about the night at the Ozdust.
'Your very first party ever?' she giggled.
"Do funerals count?" Elphaba replied glibly, and Galinda blinked twice as it sunk in that it really was the first party that her friend ever experienced.

"Your very first party!" she declared proudly. "I know, let's tell each other something we've never told anyone! I'll go first. I'm heir to the throne of the Upper Uplands!"  The squeal that followed her announcement was so typically Galinda that Elphaba had to hide her wince. She couldn't believe they were sitting there chatting amiably, it was like what she guessed friends would do. There was no scornful looks or hurtful insults, just the two of them having fun and getting to know each other.

"Your father asked you already?" Elphaba said with some surprise.

'No, he said he'd wait," she said dismissively as she sat down next to me, 'Now you tell me a secret.'
"Uh, like what?" She was unfamiliar with how to conduct a conversation of 'girl-talk'.

"Like..." Galinda rummaged under the other pillow at the head of her roommate's bed. "Like why do you sleep with this funny little green bottle underneath your pillow?"

"Give it back!" Elphaba pleaded, jumping to her feet in alarm.

"Come on, tell me!" Galinda drew back from her and held the bottle out of her reach, which was surprising since her roommate was quite a bit taller than her.

"No! Give it back!" She demanded, raising her voice and unable to hide the tension in her words.
"Tell me!" Galinda could be just as stubborn as she was, and yet she gave in.
"It was my mother's. That's all." Galinda pouted at the admission.

"That's not fair, I told you a really good one!" Elphaba decided to share with her her darkest secret, the secret that had weighed on her all my life, and with it all the guilt and shame she felt at what she was responsible for.

"My father hates me." She began, and Galinda gasped in shock.

"That's not the secret. The secret is he has a good reason. It's my fault." Elphaba explained.

"What? What is?" Galinda asked.

"The reason my sister is the way she is. You see, when our mother was carrying Nessa, my father began to worry that the new baby might come out..."...green." they said in unison.

"He was so worried he made our mother chew milk flowers day and night. Only it made Nessa come too soon, with her little legs all tangled. And our mother never woke up. None of which would have never happened if not for me." She concluded.

"But that was the milk flower's fault, not yours."Galinda reasoned. 'That may be your secret, Elphaba, but it doesn't make it true."
Galinda looked to the window where the sun was beginning to rise from its nighttime hiding place.

"Look, it's tomorrow! And Elphie, is it alright if I call you Elphie?"

Well, it's a little perky.' She said wryly, but Galinda was set on calling her Elphie.
"And you can call me...Galinda." she said generously. 'You see Elphie, now that we're friends, I've decided to make you my new project."

"You really don't have to do that." Elphaba responded flatly.

"I know! That's what makes me so nice!' she gushed, jumping onto Elphaba's bed. "Whenever I see someone less fortunate than I, and let's face it who isn't less fortunate than I? My tender heart tends to start to bleed." She leapt up again in a flourish of pink skirts and blonde hair.

"And when someone needs a makeover, I simply have to take over. I know, I know exactly what they need." she declared confidently as she stepped up to where she was sitting.