Wonderful | wicked | book 2/3

Elphie

Harley is odd.
Nessa seems to have taken a liking to her so I guess that's a good sign, I'm waiting in Nessas bedroom for a chance to talk with Harley on her own.
I feel it's a good idea to tell her about my experience with looking after my sister,if she's going to be her primary caretaker then she has to be prepared.
I can hear them all laughing in the office, Harley's laughter booms above the rest.
I hope she doesn't immediately think I'm going to hurt her.
That's what everyone else thinks, Glinda has tried to convince everyone that the wicked witch of the west was an exaggeration and everything got out of hand but I know not everyone sees it like that.

I see a shadow of the wall in the hallways, the silhouette grows nearer and Harley steps daintily into the room.
I'm perched awkwardly on Nessas bed, Harley pulls a chair away from the wall and sits in front of me.
"You wanted to speak with me?" She asks politely, winding one of her curls round her finger.
I nod my head wildly,
"Yes, I thought I'd tell you a bit about Ness since she can be a bit of a handful," I say bluntly.
Harley chuckles, she turns her head to the side and listens intently.
"All those horrible rumours really did get to her," I say calmly "she acts like she doesn't care but deep down she does."
Harley nods, taking in the information.
"She can be quite stubborn, she doesn't like feeling that she's incapable of something" I look around the room, trying desperately so that Harley and I don't make eye contact, it feels wrong taking about Nessa like this.
After a while harley puts a hand on my knee, I flinch when she does this and she swiftly retracts her hand.
"Anything else I should know?" Harley asks quietly,
"She's a lovely person" I say sadly "I know she can be awful at times but she means well."

I'm back at the manor, Nessa practically begged me to leave.
I was a bit hurt at first but now I realise that it's just because she's exited about meeting Harley.
At least that's what I'm telling myself, I've been so scared that Nessa would grow tired of me but now that it's happening I think I'm going to be okay about it.
I'm reading through the Grimmere, reading up on spells I could use if Madame Morrible makes an appearance.
I'm looking at the page of the protection spell I cast on Nessa all those years ago, around four to be exact.
Nessa was sixteen but she hasn't seemed to have aged a day,
Fiyero just seemed to chalk it up to her being pretty and just not really ageing.
But I'm starting to think it's something else.
Though surely after I disenchanted Boc the spell should have left.
I've been reading for a while now, that spell can stand the test of time, Nessa isn't immortal or anything like that, her ageing has just been slowed downfrom the moment I cast the spell.

There's the sound of footsteps approaching me, I whip my head up.
Glinda's standing there awkwardly, she's wearing a light blue dress, the sleeves miss her shoulders but go all the way down her arms.
There's a large matching bow at the back of her head, two strands of hair have been pulled back with it to frame her face.
"What are you reading?" Glinda asks.
I tilt the Grimmere up so she can se wits dusty cover.
I'm not in the mood to talk to anyone but Glinda sits down beside me anyways.
"Did Nessa like her new assistant?" She asks, I try not to show that I'm irritated by the question.
"She seems nice, her and Ness got in fairly well"
Glinda smiles widely and crosses one leg over the over.
"Oh good, I was worried that you might get a bit jealous since someone else was going to be taking care of Nessa."
Great.
Another reminder that I can't always be there for my sister.
"Well I'm not the slightest bit bitter" I grumble.
"I never said you were" Glinda protests, noticing she's offended me.

We sit in silence for a while, silently hating each other for being so blunt with our words.
"I was always jealous of Nessa" Glinda says abruptly "she always had you to protect her, I always wanted a big sister."
Glinda turns to me and puts her hand on my lap.
"It must be hard that she's growing up,"
I nod my head and fumble around in my coat pocket.
I gently pull out a photograph.
A young girl sat propped up against a book shelf, a string of paper people in her hands.
"Nessa?" Glinda whispers, pointing at the picture.
I stroke it carefully with my thumb,
"I stole this from her bedroom at Shiz, the pictures were mine but Dr Dillamomd gave them to her" I mutter, gazing lovingly at the image.
The paper people are coloured in poorly, all accept one.
The best paper person has beautiful brown hair and a lovely pink dress, I coloured her in myself, it was supposed to look like Nessa.
There's three others, one just has some simple yet frantic green scribbles on it, it doesn't take long for me to work out who that was meant to be.
One is father and the other was meant to be Till, our maid at the time.
"How old was she?" Glinda asks.
I think for a moment, staring down a the beautifully joyous expression on my sisters face.
"Five," I say confidently, that was the last day she ever screamed at her legs.

I made the paper people and we stuck them to the ceiling above her bed and instead of screaming she spoke to them, being only five her words were slurred and made few sense but it was an improvement none the less.
A few days after that, father noticed an improvement in Nessas mood, then he had the ceiling painted.
All thanks to me.