I must preface this story with an author's note, as this story will be terribly confusing. It is was originally written as an exercise in deceiving an audience, however that has changed some and instead the intent is to slowly introduce the four characters this story is about bit by bit. No names involved because, while they are shown on-screen as though their motives and agendas are in total conflict, I believe that they are in fact quite similar in circumstance... and that is my intention, to display that these four characters are far more intertwined than shown. So for your information, the point of views will vary. The timing will shift between past, present and future, without warning (though each chapter will be a single point in time) and I will get more and specific as this story goes on, but for the moment I wanted to let the ideas settle, and for the reader to think a little.

She flicks through the file. It reads just as all the others do. A nameless faceless kid who isn't showing up to classes. The standard markers are there high intelligence, good grades, a lot of participation in extra-curricular activities, a high – close to perfect attendance and then a free fall. There is no date. No named issue. Just a kid who has stopped going to classes.

She'd been doing this job a while now, long enough to notice the patterns, good kids were good kids, even when they were having their tantrums. Sometimes school wasn't the place for some children to excel and sometime that mean poor grades and even poorer attendance. For most kids she was assigned there was something that she could fix, something she could help make good, in the same way that she always wanted someone to do for her when she was at school.

She made a few notes in the file. The girls main activities centered around music. The girl grew up in small town Ohio and her dream was to get out. Pretty standard story. Her grades were great up until the second year of her high school career, an almost perfect GPA that plummeted somewhere after the beginning of the second semester.

She knew this girls story by wrote, it was common enough. Today she needed to change the path of this young woman.

Her thoughts interrupted by the very object of their attention.

The girl walks in and brushes down her skirt with both her hands. A nervous trait. She smiles a small quick smile directed at the older woman before looking at her shoes. The young girl looks as though she is in trouble. The small girl's brown eyes look a little watery, holding all of the soulful hurt she has been carrying around with her.

"Right on time I see." The older woman stands offering a warm genuine smile and gestures for the younger girl to take a seat on the couch in front of her. The young girl shrugs her backpack off her shoulders and leaves it by the door. There's a moment of silence as they both sit. The older woman looks over the young girl, noticing a few features they shared as the girl begins to speak.

"Punctuality is showing your respect for the person you are meeting. You have a whole lot of letters after your name, it's polite to show respect."

"Finally! My years studying psychology at Columbia have paid off. Some respect at last!" She gestures to the sky dramatically. It's not much, but the girl lets out a small giggle.

"You lived in New York?"

"Yes I did."

"I've always wanted to live there. The lights. The music. The life. I'd be someone there. I'm told my Mother lived there once too, she wasn't enough though. But I will be. One Day." In those few phrases she'd picked out several issues that may be that crux of the matter and so she scribbled a few quick notes before trying to continue the conversation.

"Your Mom?" The older woman watches as the brown eyes glaze over and the young face turns emotionless. An obvious sore point for the young girl and she didn't need multiple degrees to tell her that. Instead of waiting for an answer that probably will never come she continues on.

"Ok, well before we continue this chat. We have to go over the rules. I know that your guidance counsellor has been through this with you already but we'll do it again, to fill this session – it's only a short one - and then next week we'll get right into things with the standard half hour of questions and answers.

This is an anonymous government program to help reduce truancy. Your attendance has dropped, as have your grades and this program is designed to help you and work with you to ensure that this situation is reversed.

As this is anonymous, your name for the sessions, should I need to get your attention is Jane. The anonymity goes both ways. You may address me as Jane also.

This room is a safe room. Anything you say in here whether it's hurtful, painful, incriminating or just incredibly boring – none of it can nor will leave this room. I am bound by law to hold to that.

Do you understand?"

Young 'Jane' nods her head. Before giving a cheeky smile.

"So 'Jane', does our shared Alias stem from use of the name 'Jane Doe' when referring to unidentified dead bodies?"

The older 'Jane' winces a little.

"Yes, unfortunately it does. But I think you will find that even though it is meant to be popular in the United States the name 'Jane' has not ranked higher that 300 since 1975, so it's a fairly safe name – Smart Ass."

"Maybe you should just call me that."

"Ok, how about this. I pick a name for you and you pick a name for me."

The younger girl chewed her lip in thought.

"Evita"

The older woman now named Evita let out a laugh. Ok, two could play that game.

"Ok, I'm Evita – you can be Elphaba." When the young girl beamed at her she knew she'd struck gold. "You like Wicked?"

"Yes. I liked the book, but the show… it was – It made me want to be up there."

'Evita' smiled. She had had the same reaction. The message, the emotion, the power of the vocals. It gave her cold shivers when she heard the last moments Defying Gravity and she wanted so badly to be that woman on stage belting out the song.

"Ok, so Elphie… Our appointment is for every Thursday afternoon at 5pm until you are back to your original attendance, which the government has deemed in your case… 100 per cent…" Evita stopped and made a face at the younger girl. "Basically that would mean you would be seeing me until you graduate. I'll talk to the department head, we will work out a more reasonable number, but you will be coming here for a while, so you need to get comfortable. What type of drink do you like best? Hot Chocolate? Soda?"

"Water is great."

"Are you sure, I mean the department is pretty tight about most things but I could get you any type of drink – well not any"

"No it's fine. Water is – Water comforts me. Just a glass of water."

The older woman looks up suddenly to meet the girls eyes. She spoke with such sadness. The girls brown eyes again look entirely too sad for her liking. 'Evita' says nothing and shakes off the feeling of her skin crawling. This girl would be helped.

"Ok Elphie, I think it's time to wrap this up. I know the session today is short, but this was more a get to know you session and as I said before – we'll get into everything next week."

She young girl picks herself up off the couch, she walks over to her bag and shrugs it back on her shoulders.

"I guess I will see you next week."

"Same time, same place. Take Care Elphie!"

"Goodbye Ms Peron."

Elphaba smiled a sincere smile and left the room, leaving the older woman sitting the going over her notes. Unfortunately the anonymity of this job meant that nowhere in the files were there notes on family, friends, background information just data. Days missed. Grades. Subjects studied. Extra Curricular Activities. They created this one-dimensional image and when the child came in they usually shattered the image completely.

Elphaba (or number 24601 as she was (amusingly) known to social services) was no exception. Her sad brown eyes twisted something in her. This was a case where she needed to succeed. She had been ambitious and driven her whole life. She had tunnel vision and shut everything else out. She had got to such heights only to realize what she truly wanted and what she had attained were two entirely different things.

She'd noticed the similarities. The traits, the markers, the grades. All of it was so stunningly familiar that it made her want to change this child's life. To make it better. To help her see what took her an extra 10 years to see.

These sessions were going to be very interesting.