#ashmei

It was the final weeks of practice for Wicked, and oh, Ashleigh was going to be so sad to see it end. She would miss her beautiful pink dresses with their ridiculous teacup waistlines. She would miss the extravagant numbers, the silly warm-ups, her gossip seshes with Wilbur conducted from the wings. She’d miss bullying the youngest on set to get her black iced coffee, extra ice. 

She’d even miss Mei Qin, and all that bad fringe. Maybe she’d miss her most of all.

And so it was a parting gift that she intended to give to the dear, who had yet to truly pay for her crimes against not only Wilbur (the singing charm was genius but still out of line) but against the Ashleys too. She didn’t care that technically Mei and Ashley A had some kind of on-again-off-again truce; she didn’t care that Mei had graduated. Ashleigh wanted her comeuppance, and she had a brilliant plan. 

“You know, I have this amazing hair treatment I bought from Lana Triton that makes my hair sooooo soft and shiny. I mean, look at it--go ahead, touch it!” Ashleigh had said to Mei about a week or so ago. She’d been playing nice all month-- even got her coffee hamsters to bring Mei a coffee too. “If you want, we could do it before the big night! Like a Galinda-Elphaba spa day!”

That day was here. 

And so when Mei arrived, Ashleigh was already dressed for the part in one of her most luxurious silken robes, her hair tied up. “Hiiiii girl!” Ashleigh greeted, smiling. 

“Lemonade? Cucumber water?” said Ashleigh’s mother as she appeared behind her with a little tray. “Chocolate-covered strawberry?” 

@princess-mei​

Mr. Simba was working on blocking some of the larger numbers to today and so Ashleigh was being forced to run her lines with Mei Qin, the world’s worst excuse for an Elphaba in the entire town. Of course, at this point, it was over a month into rehearsals and so Ashleigh was, in the words of the ever iconic and generous Galinda, “rise above it.” 

Still, she needed something to help her bear the close proximity.

Luckily for her, she had a few little rumours. By now, most people had heard about the whispers of Mei totally pulling a Mei and slutting it up at prom, abandoning Phineas. What people didn’t know-- what only Ashleigh had the pleasure of knowing, since she took a peekaboo inside of Phineas’s head-- was that Phineas actually did like Mei. 

Oh yes. This was going to be fun. 

“Hey girl!” she greeted Mei, her script on her lap. She smiled a cherry-lipstick smile. “So great that we get this time to ourselves. I was really hoping to work on Galinda-and-Elphaba’s chemistry and all.”

@princess-mei

Mei Qin, aka Swynlake’s very own walking case of pink eye, had returned to civilization.

Perhaps Ashleigh would not have noticed or cared or whatever, if Mei had kept to the periphery of Swynlake Secondary where she belonged. Ashleigh ignored people all the time and if she concerned herself with the bacteria of her school’s ecosystem (and the extermination of it) then she’d not have enough time for mani-pedis with her girls and her scheduled five-minute snog-fest with her for-hire boyfriend. Sacrifices must be made.

But then she heard that Mei Qin approached Robbie Ryeo. Her. Boyfriend.

It came rushing back then-- Ashleigh’s boiling rage. It looked like Mei Qin had a social death wish. She must want to make Ashleigh her mortal nemesis. Well, that could certainly be arranged, and after turning her ear to the gossiping in the hall, she realized the girl had already set herself up for complete annihilation.

Because, right, she’d basically disappeared over the summer. Curious, huh? And since the waters were already rippling, Ashleigh was more than happy to stir the pot.

She spotted the girl at her lockers in between class, and decided to take her moment. With a purse of her lips, she stalked up to Mei, in her face right after the girl closed her locker door.

“Hey Mei,” said Ashleigh in a sickly sweet voice, loud enough for anyone to hear. “Look, I just wanted to say, I think what you did this summer was, like, so brave. It can be so hard to reach out for help.” She reached forward and squeezed the girl’s shoulder.