The Wizard of Oz - Male OC Insert

Chapter 1 - Just Another Day

Wamego, KS

A young girl was running down the country road with her brown Cairn terrier dog, books held tightly in one arm, towards her family's farm in Wamego, Kansas. She wore a light blue gingham dress over her white shirt, sporting two braided auburn pigtails and black shoes.

The girl's name was Dorothy Gale. She was seventeen years old and stood just under five feet tall.

She looked behind her before stopping to catch her breath, crouching down in the dirt.

"She isn't coming yet, Toto." Dorothy said to the dog in a worried voice. "Did she hurt you? She tried to, didn't she? Come on, we'll go tell Uncle Henry and Auntie Em. Come on, Toto."

She rushed home as fast as her legs would go.

"Aunt Em!" She called. "Aunt Em!"

Her aunt, a tough old lady named Emily, stood with her husband Henry at a wooden incubator counting chicks that had hatched prior.

Dorothy ran up. "Aunt Em, just listen to what Miss Gulch did to Toto!"

Aunt Em turned around. "Dorothy, please, we're trying to count."

"Oh, but Aunt Em, she hit him over the–"

"Don't bother us now, honey." Uncle Henry interrupted. "This old incubator's gone bad and we're likely to lose some of our chicks."

Dorothy softened slightly. "Oh, the poor little things." She said sympathetically, grabbing one of the eggs, before quickly returning to the previous topic. "Oh, but Aunt Em, Miss Gulch hit Toto right over the back with a rake just because she says he gets in her garden and chases her nasty old cat every day!"

Aunt Em took the egg from Dorothy's hand. "Seventy... Dorothy, please!"

"Oh, but he doesn't do it every day!" Dorothy persisted. "Just once or twice a week, and he can't catch her old cat anyway. And now she says she's gonna get the sheriff–"

"Dorothy, we're busy!" Aunt Em said to her in a firm but caring voice.

Dorothy finally understood and calmed down. "Oh, all right."

Elsewhere, four farm workers had just finished fixing a wooden wagon in the farmyard and were now lowering the wagon bed into its proper position on its frame. Hickory and Zeke were holding one end of the wagon bed while Elliott was holding the other end. Hunk sat underneath, screwing something into place with a wrench.

Elliott McDonald was the youngest out of the four of them. He was a tall, lanky youth with sandy blond hair who was the same age as Dorothy. He and his father John lived just down the road from the Gales' farm, and had been close friends with Dorothy ever since they were little.

"How's she coming?" Zeke asked.

"All fine here Zeke, you just take it easy." Elliott instructed.

"Ow!" Just after Hunk finished tightening down the bolt, his finger got pinched between the bottom of the wagon and the frame. He grunted in pain as he moved out of his spot underneath the wagon. "You got my finger!"

"Why don't you get your finger out of the way?" Zeke retorted in response as Dorothy approached.

"Okay gentlemen." Hickory said, and they all dropped the wagon bed into position. "There we are."

"Right on my finger." Hunk complained as he stood up.

"It's a lucky thing it wasn't your head." Zeke said as he grabbed a pail off the ground near the wagon, before Dorothy stopped him.