Wonderful | wicked | book 2/3

Nessa

Family.
I'm not sure what that even means anymore.
A younger me would have said, a family is who your blood related too; your mother and your father and any siblings or extended family you happen to have.
But now family means so much more to me, I have a brother in law and I'm pretty sure I count Glinda as a sort of sister.
And now Albert, I don't know where I stand with him, though I don't know where anyone stands with him, but I do know that I'm determined to make this work between us.
I know I can be difficult and awfully stubborn but at this point I'm welcoming any changes with semi open arms.

There's a knock at my office door, I'm sure it's Elphaba and Albert since no one else is here.
A second knock.
"Come in," I call, pushing myself away from my desk and placing all remaining papers I have to mark into a separate drawer from the ones I've completed.
The door opens slowly and Elphaba and Albert both step inside, Elphaba, spell book in hand, grinning brightly, Albert looking rather anxious.
Elphaba gently sets the Grimmere down on my desk and I point them in the direction of the lounge and I follow closely behind.

Albert takes a seat on the edge of the sofa, Elphaba sits on an armchair.
Elphie scans the room, her eyes gazing over every tiny detail.
"I've never seen you play the piano in here." She says, gesturing towards it.
"That's because Glinda used the stool as a seat and didn't move it again." I chuckle to myself.
Though funny at the time, it does annoy me when people move things without telling me, I'm not the strongest person so people moving things like my piano stool mean that I'm unable to use certain things.
Irritatingly the stool is directly in front of the piano.
"You wouldn't believe what we had for dinner yesterday," Elphaba says, starring at Albert, I can tell she's desperately trying to make conversation. "Boc has decided to take up baking!"
Elphaba smiles cheerfully and claps her hands.
"Boc can bake?" I exclaim,
Elphaba nods excitedly.
I smile back at her, looking at Albert I can see he's not smiling, in fact he doesn't look like he's even following the conversation.
His gaze is turned towards the open door, into my office, in too far back to see quite what he's looking at.

"Have you seen my doorstops?" I ask exaggerating my tone to try and interest Albert.
Regardless of his response I do love my doorstops, I had Harley place heavy text books by all my doors, but they were just too inconvenient.
I know Albert has seen them, since they aren't that new and I can remember shouting at him for moving one.
But they are beautiful, tiny gold sparrows.
Harley says that really brighten up the place, but I just think they're doorstops.
"They're lovely Ness," Elphaba says, sounding gradually more and more uncomfortable as the limp conversation progresses.
Albert tilts his head further back, in even more curious as to what he's looking at.
He seems to mouth some incoherent words to himself, I do that too sometimes, if I'm thinking really hard I'll whisper my thoughts out loud.
No idea if it helps with thinking or not but I do it none the less.

This room is awfully cold, most rooms in my section of the school are, since I keep all the doors open, I just make sure to always wear a dress with sleeves.
As a child, in the winter, father would always make sure there was a blanket at least covering my legs because if my arms were covered I couldn't move myself around.
But I feel now that a blanket makes me look too frail so I try not to have one.
There's a sudden creaking of leather, as Elphaba gets up from her chair and sits beside Albert, who barley even flinches.
I flicker my gaze between my sister and Albert, he's still looking out the door.
It's starting to irritate me but I don't say anything.
Elphaba shuffles around awkwardly in her seat.
I look towards the piano and think about playing, I didn't really learn much, other than simply nursery rhymes and a couple old classical pieces.
Though I loved playing, piano is one of the few physical activities that I don't lack in, in fact I learnt to read music perfectly very quickly.
Father was rather impressed, constantly making me play the piano at family gatherings.

All of a sudden Albert stands up and without saying a single words, he walks out into my office.
Elphaba looks at me rather concerned, I slowly mouth to her.
"Is he okay?"
To which Elphaba reply's  by shrugging.
I'm anxious as to where he's gone, I'm anxious as to what's wrong.
Have I done something?
Did my reluctancy to bonding with my sort of father deter him from having a good time?
Oh, I hope I haven't ruined Elphabas chance at a family.

Albert walks back in, a solemn expression pasted across his face, Elphabas spell book in his arms.
I grip the arms of my chair tightly, almost frozen with fear, the last time someone pulled a spell book on me I didn't end well.
Elphabas demeanour has completely changed since Albert reentered the room, she's sat bolt upright and I can see the cogs turning in her brain.
"spirituum ardenti" Albert says coldly holding the Grimmere our towards Elphaba "I've marked the page, it let's you speak to a spirit."
A spirit?
Elphaba takes hold of the book and stands up suddenly,
"A spirit, you mean like..."
Albert cuts her off.
"Like your mother, Nessarose could get a chance to see her," The words seem to slow down time, my mother, the woman I've longed to know and have been told so much about.
I could see her.
"But it only works once."