Avaric didn’t look it, but he was nervous. Last night in his dorm, Boq accidentally found out that he had a crush on a girl. He was thankful Boq didn’t learn who, or else he would laugh out loud.

“You should tell her,” Boq said calmly. “Even if she doesn’t like you, it’s best to say it. If she doesn’t reciprocate… Well, at least it would help with getting over the pain.”

“You act like you know this too well,” Avaric replied. “How do you?”

“Remember when we escorted Miss Elphie to Lake Chorge?”

Avaric hid his quickly reddening face at the memory of being so close to the thin, though gawky, green girl. He managed a nod.

“Well, I let Glinda know. She turned me down and I’m fine with it.”

Avaric sensed he wasn’t completely fine with it, but it wasn’t what Boq had said. Boq helped him write a letter inviting the girl to meet a mystery admirer by suicide canal during the time when the Circle usually went to one of the cafés, eating the fresh fruits of the season or some cheese from Gillikin with a nice bottle of wine.

Now it was about fourteen hours later, and he was very careful to hide the letter as he slipped it into Elphaba’s ever-present schoolbag, a very plain canvas bag with barely enough room for one or two books. He hoped that she opened her bag more often than just at the beginning of each day, but he doubted that she would be like that. After he did all he could he ran off to get ready.

Boq was surprised that evening when Glinda came to the café without Elphaba. Despite the fact that she usually spent a good portion of the time complaining about being there, most of the people said that she wasn’t being forced to stay.

“Where is she?” He asked Glinda nervously.

Glinda tilted her head a bit. “Where is who? I know not who you speak of, Master Boq.”

Boq shook his head. “You know very well who I speak of. Where is your roomie, Miss Elphie? Has she finally taken our words to heart and decided to not come?”

“I would hope not,” said one of the other boys. It sounded like Fiyero “She is always interesting.”

“Yeah,” Crope added. “Once she stops complaining about being dragged here by Miss Glinda.”

“For your information,” Glinda said calmly. “Miss Elphie is off to ask a secret admirer when he was dropped on his head to find a gawky green Munchkinlander like her attractive. Those would be her words, not mine, though I do certainly agree with the sentiment.”

Boq blanched a bit at the news. “Um, where did it say she’s meeting this confused admirer?”

“Suicide canal. Wait, where’s Master Avaric?”

“Suicide canal,” Boq said. “Oh dear, I had no idea he was talking about Miss Elphie.”

“She positively loathes the poor boy,” Glinda said. “We must try to get there before it’s too late.”

“And if not,” Tibbett said. “Then at least we’d get an amazing show.”

“Definitely,” Crope added.

The whole group ran to the location that Boq said that Avaric was meeting the girl. Unfortunately for Boq, both Elphaba and Avaric had gotten there, but Elphaba had just arrived. Boq was surprised that she even had a decent dress like the one she was wearing in her modest closet.

“This is a joke,” She said. “A highly-orchestrated joke, isn’t it?”

Avaric shook his head. “Elphaba, I really do care for you.”

“Any time now you’re going to reveal this as a joke. No, not any time, once I start to believe you. I’m not buying this.” Elphaba was shaking her head furiously. “I mean, you of all people. We fight with each other over stupid things.”

“I always thought of it as being like a married couple.” He started walking towards her.

She moved backwards with every one of his forwards. “You seriously don’t believe that, do you? You’re crazy if you do. Hell, you’re crazy. End of story.”

“For someone in complete denial that I like them, you surely dressed your best to show up here.”

“Glinda insisted on making me look nice to let down whatever boy it was. I would have just come as I was.” She surprised him by letting out a nervous laugh.

Unfortunately, Elphaba found herself backed up to a nearby building, an indoor dock for some boats. “Listen Avaric,” She tried saying. “I don’t care for you. I don’t particularly care for anyone in the way you say you care for…”

Avaric cut her off with a kiss. She slapped him. In his momentary shock, she started to run off, noticing the onlookers. “You all knew about this sick prank? You disgust me!” With those words she ran off.

It really upset Avaric that she didn’t care for him the way he did for her, or even at all. He could get over her. He got over all the other girls he liked in the past. He saw the rest of the circle standing there, he was surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“I told him that Miss Elphie was going to let down a secret admirer. Boq figured it out and realized how stupid you were. We were hoping to stop at least one of you from making the mistake of being here.”

Boq crossed his arms. “Had you told me who you liked, I would have given you better advice.”

Glinda looked at him. “You were the one that told him to tell my roomie he likes her? Ick!”

Perhaps Glinda was right in that the choice to tell a crush was a bad one. No she was right. Boq was wrong. Letting Elphaba know his feelings only made things worse for him in the end. He could only hope that Elphaba would pretend he never said what he did. The next time he saw her, she acted just like she did normally, so he decided to try and act the same and never let anyone ever again know that he was in love with Elphaba the Thropp Third Descending.