The Green Girl and the Good Girl

To Doctor Darel

Sorry I haven't been very good at updating. I never remember to update.

Alyssa POV
"Elphie?" I asked. It had been three days since Doctor Darel had passed. They were holding a viewing tonight and a funeral the next day.
"Yes?" Micaela responded, looking up from her book.
"I've decided to make you my new project!" I said excitedly.
By the look on her face, I knew Micaela knew where this was going.
"You REALLY....DON'T have to do that..." Micaela began.
"Too late! I am going to help you with...wait for it........YOUR PEOPLE SKILLS!" I shouted happily. Micaela groaned loudly.
"I've had to go to plenty of boring social events, so I know a thing or two about what to say and what not to say in front of people. First things first, eye contact. You have to look people in the eye when talking to them," I began.
"I HATE making eye contact!" Micaela grumbled.
"You also hate fancy dresses, social gatherings, queen bees, and improper grammar but sometimes those things pop into your life and you can't help it," I scolded. "Now, the next step is conversation topics and starters. 'So, how's life?' may work with friends, but that won't cut it out in the real world."
"And what do you suggest, your majesty?" Micaela mocked.
"It all depends on who you are talking to. If you are talking to people our age, you can talk about school or maybe the most popular band or something," I suggested.
"So you want me to talk about something like a boy band that I could care less about just so I can get on people's good side? Not happening," Micaela huffed.
"Fine. Just don't use 'So, how's life? Maybe you could ask that question in a different way. For example, 'how are you?' or 'What's been going on lately?'"
"Alright," Micaela muttered.
"Next step, keeping the conversation going. You can't just trail off and not continue talking. Also, if you feel the conversation is getting awkward, change the topic. The last step is to know when to stop the conversation. You need to figure out when the other person doesn't want to talk anymore. Now, let's try it!"
Micaela groaned again. "How has your day been?" She asked, staring at the floor.
"Step one!" I barked. She looked confused for a moment then looked me in the eye. I smiled encouragingly.
"My day has been good. Not too exciting. How about your day?" I responded.
"It's been good. I'm preparing for a viewing tonight," She grumbled.
"Oh. I'm sorry. Who's viewing is it?" I prompted.
"You know who-"
I glared at her as if to say "this is what would happen in the real world"
"One of my teachers. Speaking of school, how are your classes going?" Micaela asked, quickly changing the topic. I understood and continued on with the new topic change
"My classes are going great. Homework isn't too heavy and we haven't had any tests yet. How about you?"
"School is okay. I kind of want to go back and I kind of want to shut myself in here and stay as far from the outside world as I can," Micaela admitted sadly.
"Aw," I said and sat next to my best friend so I could give her as best a hug as I could manage.
"But what about the social lessons? This isn't what they would do in the outside world," Micaela told me in a mocking voice.
"Who cares about the outside world," I mumbled and continued hugging her. I heard-and felt-her sigh and awkwardly pat me on the back a couple of times before giving up and hugging me back.
"Let's go get ready for the viewing," I suggested, looking at the clock.
"Okay," She agreed.
We both went to our room and change our clothes. Once we were done, me in white pants and a striped gray shirt, her in black pants and a black shirt with the words "for good" written in green lettering, we walked down to the building where the viewing was held.
A good amount of people showed up, but there wasn't a single family member there. All the pictures showed Doctor Darel at school.
"Seriously?" Micaela said in a disbelieving voice.
"What?" I asked curiously.
"This school has tones of money. I mean, not many schools have more than one room in dorms for the students, but they can't even put much money into the death of one if their staff members!"
I glanced towards were Micaela was staring. The coffin in which Doctor Darel was lying in was considerably cheap. The clothes she wore looked like they were taken at random out of her closet. I had definitely seen Doctor Darel in nicer things than that. A small bouquet of yellow roses sat on top of the casket, and only a few extra pots if flowers given as gifts surrounded her. In fact, there were four total, and one of them was one that Micaela and I gave them.
Doctor Darel, on the other hand, looked well...prepared. She looked rater like herself.
Around 30 people were in the room. Half of them were in a line to see the body, and the rest were scattered around, talking to friends or other students. Some looked truly sad that Doctor Darel had passed, others looked like they had been dragged here by friends, and others still looked like they came out of respect.
Madame Mawful was in one corner talking to the principal. She looked sad, but I could tell it was an act. The principal bought it; she was the drama teacher after all. The man that Micaela had met the day Doctor Darel died, the Officer Crumly guy, was surveying the room. He caught my eye, so I quickly looked at away.
Micaela and I got in line to view Doctor Darel's body. When we got to the casket, we both looked at Doctor Darel with sadness and respect in our eyes. Of course, Micaela liked her more, but I still looked up to her. She left us with a task. A task that only we could lead out, and there was no stopping it. We had to live out Wicked, no matter the costs. It was now a part of us. Wicked was our life; it was how we were bound to spend our days. Doctor Darel understood that. She KNEW that. There was always the question of how she knew. How could she possibly figure that out, when we couldn't see what was before our own eyes? Micaela had a sister that she called Nessa for goodness sakes! How did we not see it, but she did?
Speaking of Nessa, Rose wheeled Nessa in just as we were walking away from the casket.
"Hello," Micaela greeted solemnly.
"Hi," Rose responded with sympathy in her voice.
"How are you holding up? Both of you, that is," Vanessa murmured.
"We're alright," I said, grabbing Micaela's hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. Micaela squeezed my hand back.
"We're going to go get in line," Rose told us.
"Okay."
The two of us walked around the room to look at all the pictures.
"She was so happy here," Micaela whispered.
In all of the pictures, Doctor Darel was either smiling or teaching or both. I looked at sign on the edge of the room.
"Maria. Her name was Maria," I mumbled.
"Maria Darel," Micaela said softly.
"Hello girls," A voice said from behind us. We turned to see Madame Mawful.
"Hello, Madame Mawful," Micaela greeted.
"This really is horrible, isn't it? Such a shame that she committed suicide," Madame Mawful sighed.
"Suicide?" Micaela exclaimed.
"Didn't you hear? The police decided that she committed suicide," Madame Mawful said calmly.
"Madame Mawful, this wasn't suicide," Micaela looked around before whispering, "I think that Officer Crumly guy murdered her."
Madame Mawful looked shocked. "Micaela, that is a huge accusation to make. The police have already decided that it is a suicide, and i don't want to hear anything else from you about it being otherwise," Madame Mawful scolded.
"But-" Micaela began.
"If you bring that up again, you will be punished," Madame Mawful chastised, and with that she was gone.
Micaela sighed. "Can we go? I don't like being in here."
"Yeah," I agreed.
"I'm going to say bye to Nessa," Micaela decided.
When she was back, the two of us hurried out of the building and to our dorm room.
"Well that was..." I began.
"Yeah," Micaela mumbled.
I went to the small fridge we had in the corner of the room and for two bottles of water. Micaela was sulking on the couch.
"Hey," I said, handing her her water bottle, "Doctor Darel wouldn't want us sitting around being sad. She would want us to celebrate her life."
"You're right," Micaela whispered.
"To Doctor Darel," I called, holding up my water bottle.
"To Doctor Darel," Micaela responded, tapping her water bottle against mine.
"Cheers."