"One, two, three, and THRUST!"

"One, two, three, and THRUST!"

"Fiyero, what in Ozma's name are you doing?" Elphaba asked, walking into Shiz's dance studio.

Now, many people would ask what the jigglypuff Elphaba was doing in a dance studio in the first place, but it's not what you think. The studio is right next to the library and has the best lighting of any building on campus. Oh, you thought it was going to be that she has a secret passion for dancing that helps her fight through the constant bullying and pain of her life? Nope, just good lighting.

"One, two, three, and THRUST!... Oh, Elphaba. I wasn't expecting you," Fiyero lied casually.

In truth, Fiyero knew from his creepily extensive research into Elphaba's everyday life that she visited the dance studio every Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday nights to read an incredibly large book that contained even larger words that Fiyero would never have the hopes to understand. His general idea to begin with, was to walk into the dance studio with his own ridiculously large book when Elphaba was there and "casually" run into her.

But on the Friday he set his plan into action, Elphaba had been dragged out to dinner with Galinda. So he ended up sitting in the dance studio by himself with some Darles Chickens book that had far too many large words. That night, it just so happened, was the first night that the males of the drama club were practicing for a specific number in the spring musical. Fiyero had tried to pretend he wasn't there for the most part, still hopeful Elphaba would show up. But as the night dragged on and he realized she wasn't coming, he began mimicking the group's dances out of boredom, staying at the back of the room.

But then something weird happened.

Fiyero turned away from the large mirror on the wall to the twenty-something other guys in the room "Take five, everyone." With that, he grabbed a small towel off one of the benches off to the side of the dance floor and pretended to wipe sweat from his forehead.

Elphaba repeatedly looked back and forth from Fiyero to the others in the room who were wiping real sweat from their foreheads and laughing at some weird theatre joke.

"And then, Julyan tried to convince me that they were supposed to be that voluminous but I didn't buy it for a second! What a crazy little monster!" one of the guys laughed to the others, who shared in the joy.

"Who... What… How… When…" Elphaba stuttered, trying to form words.

"The male half of the drama club, they made me their god, they realized I was the King of Dance, and it was last week," Fiyero answered easily. Elphaba raised an eyebrow at him, her face twitching in confusion. Not understanding things made Elphaba anxious.

"But you've always said you're too cool for the drama club," she pointed out.

"Excuse me?!" the drama nerds exclaimed at once. Now both Fiyero and Elphaba were raising their eyebrows.

"I changed my mind," Fiyero said simply, tossing the small rag away. "Turns out these guys do pretty much the same thing that I do all the time, except they get credits for it. And since I haven't shown up to any of my other classes this month, I figured I might join."

"You can't join the drama club, it's social suicide!" Elphaba shouted suddenly. The whole room turned to look at her.

"You're just as supportive of my dreams as ever, I see," Fiyero noted sarcastically, and the others turned away to adjust their hair in the mirrors. Elphaba snorted.

"Your dreams, Fiyero? Please, this is just a phase. You're not the drama club guy. You're the womanizing partier that everyone on campus worships," she replied without faltering.

"Maybe I don't want to be that guy anymore," he said softly. Elphaba narrowed her eyes at him.

"Too bad."

"You know, for someone who hates being marginalized based on stereotypes so much, you sure do marginalize based on stereotypes a lot," Fiyero pointed out to her.

"You don't even know what half of those words mean."

"I know that I love marginalize sauce on my pasta."

"That's marinara sauce, you moron," Elphaba corrected him with an eyeroll.

"Hey! Are we gonna go over the big chorus part of When the Glitter Won't Shine, or…?" one of many gorgeous drama boys asked Fiyero.

"Oh, right! Of course," Fiyero answered, his attention being brought back to the dance studio and out of Elphaba's dark, judging gaze. "Julyan will kill me if we don't get this number down."

"Julyan? You mean the junior guy with a raging theatre boner for you?" Elphaba asked, holding a hand out to stop Fiyero from rejoining the group.

Fiyero rolled his eyes as the others began lining up to prepare to rehearse what was apparently a very energetic number, judging from the way they were jogging in place and stretching to get psyched up. "He does not. He's that flirtatious with everyone. If he really had it bad for me, I'd be the lead in the spring musical now, wouldn't I?"

"No, because he's the lead. He's always the lead."

"Well, that's only because he writes them. I mean didn't you go see Les Mousseux? That thing was revolutionary," Fiyero reminded her.

"Literally!" someone in the crowd of stretching boys confirmed.

Elphaba was silent for a few moments, glaring at Fiyero from under her thick eyelashes. Fiyero wondered briefly if she'd gotten extensions. But then he clapped his hands together sharply. "Alright, let's get to it!" he yelled, turning away from Elphaba gracefully, prancing over to the others. "Music, please!" With that, music that sounded way too high quality to be for a university musical began blasting through the speakers, making Elphaba nearly jump out of her eyelash extensions. She watched Fiyero lead the drama group in the dance, interested as much as she was horrified by the upbeat theatre music and Julyan's voice ringing through the speakers:

"You see what I say, sir,
The glitter is here, sir,
If only you know where to look!
That may look like a homeless man-"

"Is he not homeless?" Fiyero asked in true talk/singing style on the track. Elphaba couldn't help but wonder how and where the two of them managed to record this.

"No, but that doesn't mean he's hopeless!
You see, he was once,
A rich diplomat!
He had women as far as his good eye could see!
But then one day,
It went away,
When the women went out for tea!"

"Wait, tea? What does that have to do with losing women and riches and respectful societal standards?"

"Darling, by women I meant Queens,
And by tea I meant murder."

"What?!"

"Now you may think, this man is a poor sight,
An unfortunate insight,
May tell you that this is all true.
And yet look at him smile and wave to the others,
As if they were all his sisters and brothers,
And if that's not sparkle…
Then I don't know what is."

"Okay, now turn, and turn, and jump, and turn!" Fiyero instructed as he and the gaggle of guys behind him continued on with the dance. "Jump, turn, thrust! Turn to your partner, touch the butt!"

Elphaba brought a hand to her mouth, too shocked to show any expression on her face. This was ridiculous. There's no way they got approval from the school board to perform this for the whole world. She opened her mouth, as if to say that she was out of here, but before she knew it, her hand was being grabbed and she was being pulled into the chaos that was this dance number.

"Hear me when I say, sir,
That glitter's in the air, sir,
Just look at all these people dancing by!"

"They're walking…"

"No, now look at that ugly man!"

"Hey!" a background voice yelled defensively and overdramatically.

"Actually, that's a woman…" Fiyero's character said as Fiyero himself lip-synced his parts to Elphaba through the dancing as though Elphaba were whoever Julyan's character was

"Fiyero, I don't feel like-" Elphaba started, but she was cut off by Julyan's voice in the speakers.

"The sparkle in him-!"

"Her!"

"-is her bravery!
Rather than waste away sadly in his-"

"Her!"

"-apartment building,
He's out here in the world just living,
As if he isn't different from us!
And that's his sparkle."

"Nope, I'm leaving." Elphaba finally said, turning away from Fiyero and walking towards the studio door, hoisting her book bag over her shoulders.

"Elphaba, wait!"

Elphaba turned to see Fiyero still acting out his scene with his backup dancers who were now parading around him like a Gay Pride Parade in the Emerald City. His hand was outstretched to her, his eyes asking her to stay.

What does he expect to happen? Elphaba asked herself. Is he expecting me to randomly join the drama club and dance with all of these insanely attractive guys? That doesn't sound like anything I would do!

But then something weird happened.