Based on a Connect Four/Four-in-a-Row game tournament I had with a friend. And it's true, I beat her once out of I don't know how many games. Anyway, some of the things she said inspired me to write this fic, and consequently, much of what she said wound up directly in Galinda's dialogue during the game. Enjoy :)

Elphaba knew she was in trouble the moment her roommate entered their suite in a huff. Galinda Upland dumped her purse on her desk and flopped down onto her bed in a way that made Elphaba cringe and burrow herself protectively in her Life Sciences book. For a few blessed moments, the green girl thought she might actually get away with remaining inconspicuous to the blonde judging from the lingering silence, but of course, all good things must come to an end.

"Elllphieeee," came the teeth tingling whine, "aren't you going to ask me how my day was?"

A sigh. "How did your day go, Galinda?"

The petite girl snapped upright, "It was horrendible! First we had a surprise quiz in Linguistics. Then I forgot about the test we had in that old Goat's class. I haven't seen Fiyero all day, and I couldn't find a thing in the Ozdream Boutique! And to top it all off, the Ice Cream lady didn't have any Cherrylicious-Fudgiewudgiecicles! My day was the most awfulest, horribliodious day in Oz history!"

"That sounds pretty bad," Elphaba muttered, still trying to ignore the blonde, which, as always, only made things worse. The book was snatched out of emerald hands and tossed angrily away. Galinda glared down at her, "You don't even care! You're supposed to be my best friend, Elphaba Thropp, but do I get any sympathy? No!"

"I'm sorry, Galinda," the green girl consoled. "I really am, but I also really need to read for tomorrow's lab."

"Is a stupid science lab more important than me?" the blonde shrieked. Elphaba had really backed herself into a corner, and she was going to pay. Dearly.

"No. I'm sorry, Galinda," she repeated. She suggested, hoping to distract her distraught roommate, "Do you want to go down to the cafeteria for an ice cream?"

Galinda plopped down on her bed again, "No."

"Are you sure?"

A nod of golden curls.

There was a pause, and Elphaba knew the dreaded inevitable was coming. The blonde's face lit up as she got an idea, "But I know what would make me feel better!"

Here it comes. Just thinking of her fate for the evening made her skin crawl.

"Elphie, would you like to play a game of Make It Four with me?"

'A game.' Ha! There was no such thing as playing a game of Make It Four with Galinda.

"I would love to," Elphaba replied through her teeth, trying to hold back the urge to vomit. The blonde squealed and leapt up to hug her roomie, then dove under her bed for the game box. When she surfaced with her quarry, she chucked the box onto her bed, tore open the lid, and dumped out the contents. For about twenty seconds, she struggled to pop two of the plastic pieces together, then handed them off to her green roommate. While Elphaba assembled the torture device, Galinda began to divide the white and green playing chips between the two players, taking white for herself and of course giving the green to her friend.

It was a strategy game. Elphaba was good at strategy games. She excelled at strategy games. Chess was her idea of a fun and challenging strategy game. Galinda did not understand chess. It was too complex. Make It Four was simple. Like her brain. And Elphaba had beaten Galinda at Make It Four nine times. Out of the total 273 games they had played. Galinda kept an accurate record just to prove that, for once, she was actually smarter than the smartest student at Shiz University.

The piece Elphaba was assembling was a square grid that stood vertically on two supporting legs between the two players. It had seven rows and columns. The object of the game was to be the first player to make a line of four chips either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. This was done by the players taking turns dropping a chip down one of the seven columns, blocking each other as necessary, and trying to create as many starts to rows of four as possible. A truly simple game that Elphaba could not master against Galinda try as she might.

"So," the perky girl started cheerily, "do you wanna go first?"

***

"So, do you wanna go first?"

Elphaba glanced wearily at the clock. They had been playing for three hours. Three hours! Elphaba had made one of her rare wins, making the grand total for her ten wins out of 301 games. What was driving her to continue playing game after game, she wasn't even sure. She took another look at the clock.

"I like how it's not an 'Are you getting tired?' or a 'Do you want to play another round?' It's a 'Do you want to go first?'"

The blonde shrugged, legs swinging off the side of the bed. "Well, do you?"

The green girl sighed and dropped her first chip.

"Oh yes, she does want to go first," Galinda immediately began her commentary of the game, which she started about ten games back. The blonde dropped a white chip in the column next to Elphaba's. A green chip was dropped on top of the white one.

"Oh! I see her strategy... yes, very good move."

"Galinda, one, we just started this game. Two, we've started this way for the last four games. Three, the only strategy I have at this time of night is to block you from winning. I don't care if we end up in a draw."

The petite girl merely smirked and dropped a white piece on top of Elphaba's first chip. Elphaba dropped a third chip.

"Okay, she's going to go there. And I'm going to goooo... here."

Drop. Drop.

"Uhn-huh. Good move, but not good enough."

Drop. Drop. Drop. Drop.

"Smart! But I'm smarter! Now... how do I want to win...?"

Drop. Drop. Drop. Drop. Drop. Elphaba saw that Galinda had three vertically in a row and blocked the fourth spot, an obvious move the green girl had missed the last two games because of overly concentrating on her roommate's other options.

"Very good! I was afraid you were going to miss that!" the blonde taunted. Then she stared at the game. Examining all of the possibilities, calculating in her usually obtuse brain another brilliant way to trap her opponent. With each passing and agonizing minute, Elphaba felt more and more like a little fly stuck in her roomie's web as she, too, tried to piece together what Galinda was figuring.

Finally, the blonde made her move. Elphaba's hand raised her chip, when the blonde grinned a malicious, "I win!"

The chip slid out of green fingers and bounced off the top of the game piece, falling to the floor.

"What?" Elphaba's eyes scoured the game board. She didn't know why she was surprised. Galinda had done this to her multiple times already. There were two slots she dare not use lest she give Galinda her win, but other than that, she'd be safe. The brilliant student started to count the open slots she had left to see if there was still some hope of gaining the upper hand -

"Elphie, I already counted, I win. But let's keep playing! I like games," she smiled. Her smile grew when her roomie looked at her with tired hopeless eyes that could not see what she saw. Elphaba didn't understand how Galinda could calculate things so quickly with this stupid, stupid game!

"Should I even bother?"

"Of course! Take as long as you want to try to figure it out," the blonde encouraged generously, then added the barb, "But I still win!"

The green girl let out a long sigh and attempted once again to see how her roommate would outmaneuver Elphaba's every option. Nothing. "I don't know."

"Oh come on, Elphie," the blonde whined. "Just pick one."

Elphaba picked up another chip and moved to the first slot.

"Uh!"

The green girl started at Galinda's crisp outburst, losing her grip once again on her chip. She retrieved the game piece and moved to a second slot. Galinda shook her head.

"Is there any safe place to move?"

The blonde took in the board again silently for a moment. "No."

"Then does it matter where I move?"

"I guess not."

"May I take my turn then?"

"Of course!"

Elphaba glowered at the obnoxiously grinning girl sitting across from her and dropped her green chip into the first slot. Galinda said nothing, still showing her pearly whites, and took her turn. The green girl went to move again, then saw that in those two simple moves, she had once again been successfully outmaneuvered. Galinda's pretty face came into view as she leaned closer to the game, "Come on, Elphie! It's time for me to win!"

Elphaba decided she was not going to let the blonde girl's win play out and promptly slid the latch at the bottom of the grid releasing all of the played chips.

"I'm going to bed!" the lanky girl cried and made her escape for her own bed before her roommate could snag her into another game. Galinda merely laughed, "I guess it is kind of late." She began to box the pieces once more. "Thanks for playing with me, Elphie. It really did make me feel better."

The green girl smiled at the blonde as she got under the covers, "You're welcome. Just don't make it a habitual weeknight ordeal, all right?"

"All right," Galinda smiled back. The smile grew a little more wicked, "But we can play every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night, right?"

Elphaba's expression soured a bit, "That would be asking me to kill you."

Galinda giggled, stowed the box away under her frilly bed once more, and crawled under the pink fluff of blankets. "You couldn't hurt the most creepy-crawliest critter alive, Miss Elphaba, much less kill it. And even if you tried to kill me, all I have to do is pull out my lipstick or mascara brush and you cower and cringe like a cat being attacked with a watering pail."

"You are evil, Miss Upland."

"I know!" came the cheery reply. " So! When do you want to play again?"

"Not for a long while. Goodnight, Galinda," and with that, the green girl rolled over with every intention of going to sleep, but instead she heard the rustle of fabric as her roommate got out of bed once more and pitter-pattered her way across their suite. Curious, Elphaba shifted again only to come face to face with a pad of bright pink powder and a makeup brush. She jumped, startled at how quickly the blonde had made it to her cosmetic bag and back to Elphaba's bed.

"When do you want to play again, Elphie?" The question was nothing short of a threat.

"Friday! We'll play again Friday evening! Okay?"

The implements of torture were withdrawn and Galinda flashed a more genuine smile once more, "Thanks, Elphie! You're the bestest besty ever! I'm so glad your my friend!"

"Yeah me too, despite the dangers involved," Elphaba muttered, heart rate beginning to slow to its natural rhythm. "Oz, I'd hate to be on your bad side ever again."

The pretty girl threw a grin over her shoulder as she returned her makeup to its proper place, "Well, that'll never happen. You're stuck with me for the rest of our lives!"

She prance back to her bed and resituated herself, then reached for the lamp. "Goodnight, Elphie."

"Goodnight, O Terrifying One."

The blonde laughed, "Oh, Elphie, you're so silly."

The light went out, and then all was quiet in room twenty-two.