Summary: When high school freshman Scarlett gets the role of Christine against all odds, she finds herself thrust into a position she never expected herself to be in. Boys start crushing on her, the seniors start talking to her, and the "prima-donna" of the high school theatre program suddenly wants to be friends with her. Scarlett's never had this many people wanting her friendship, and she shouldn't like it as much as she does. A sort of Mean Girls story with Phantom twists.

This story was inspired by the Masks We Hide Behind by Aralara (which you should totally check out, btw!) But this story has a completely different story. Please review whether you like it, and please give me criticism! I'm only in 8th grade but will be going into high school next year so I'll probably edit it later on. This is only my first version!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Phantom of the Opera and Love Never Dies or any of the lyrics

Ever since I was ten, my dream role was to be Christine Daae in Phantom. I didn't care if I was on Broadway, in a regional production, or in Love Never Dies. All I wanted was to be Christine.

I had a first soprano voice, and the range to easily pull off Christine. I was definitely short enough to play her… The day that I'd play Christine became just a silly dream, as I rolled into high school.

It was spring of freshman year, and the drama teacher was yet to announce this semester's musical. Most kids had thought they'd do Newsies, which seemed like a fun musical that might pull boys into the theatre program to audition for Jack. It seemed pretty obvious who'd get Katherine, Haley Miller, probably the cutest senior year with a huge belty voice. She was always the director's- and the boys', favorite girl in theatre.

I'd just taken my seat at a lunch table in the cafeteria, waiting for my friends to show up. "Oh my god, Scarlett, I've been looking all over for you!" my best friend Ella terrified me, popping out from nowhere. "Did you see what musical they're doing this time?" I cluelessly stared at Ella.

"What?"

"What'do ya mean, what?" Ella blinked at me, confused as to why I wasn't excited.

"They've announced it already?" I replied, more confused than excited at this point.

"Come on, come on!" Ella tugged on my arm, "we've got musical theatre after lunch, so let's go to the theatre!" I was pulled through the halls of our big school, our walking seemingly never ending. I didn't even get to finish my lunch. We approached the large theatre and went inside, taking a seat in the huge sea of chairs. A large banner hung over the curtains reading, SIGN UP TO AUDITION FOR THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA! I blinked. I blinked again. I stared at the banner, speechless.

"Well…?" Ella had a large smile.

"I… I…" I could barely get the words out. "They're doing Phantom?"

"I KNOW!" Ella practically shouted. I could see the excitement in her, it practically spilling out of that large smile which she bore. I'd never seen Ella so happy in the ten years I'd known her. We'd met when I was four and she was five, and immediately became friends. Our personalities and hobbies were so similar. Of course, though, Ella was a fantastic ballerina and I lacked that talent. If I went for Christine, I'd have to take minimal dance lessons. "You need to go for Christine!"

"Ella, you know I won't get it!" my voice was pained, I looked down as I spoke, "Haley's getting Christine, we all know that."

"Scarlett, girlfriend, you're getting this role! You scream Christine! Dark red hair, like Sierra Boggess! A voice which rivals Sierra's? And you're a freshman!" Ella grinned, "you have better chances than anyone to get this role."

I awkwardly brushed aside my hair, "just because it's red doesn't mean I'm Sierra."

"Yeah, you're not Sierra. You're Sierra Jr," Ella had a devious smirk on her face, she definitely knew she was annoying me. But at the same time, I could tell she was trying to help. I'd needed my confidence boosted quite a lot, and Ella was normally the master of confidence boosting.

"I just… it's hard to imagine me getting Christine! I mean, Sierra started out having one-liners in Les Mis! She didn't shoot straight to stardom, and…" I sighed, "neither will I."

"Ok, your lack of confidence is annoying," Ella rolled her eyes. "You can try out for Christine or not, what'do I care? I just think you'd be great. But that's just me."

"Thank you…" I mumbled, but contemplated what I'd be auditioning with in the back of my mind.

"Love never dies,
Love never falters,
Once it has spoken,

Love is yours…"

I paused the music. How was my audition ever going to live up to Sierra Boggess? The aria was beautiful, but my audition was in an hour- five o'clock tonight. It felt incomplete. I had the lyrics down, the song sounded perfect. Yet my performance lacked on so many points. Or was that just me? I performed it for my mom, and she got emotion just watching me sing. She told me it was beautiful.

I threw a jacket on over my shirt and jeans, before my mom drove me to the school. I waved to her as I exited the car and walked to the theatre. It was quarter-till when I took my seat in the audience. Ella was doing her singing audition, auditioning with Little Fall of Rain from Les Mis. She showed so much emotion in her words. I didn't know how she managed to make it into a solo, but it was beautiful. She was definitely going to be a runner-up for Meg. And as a sophomore, she had much better chances than any freshman at getting a callback. She had been chances than I.

Ella joined me in the audience, a smile on her face. "I can't believe I just did that!"

"You were amazing!" I loudly whispered.

"Girls," our director turned from her seat, "if you could be quiet so Miss Miller could perform."

Ella rolled her eyes, and settled into her seat, "sorry…"

Haley, onstage, took deep breaths. She gave the pianist a thumbs up, and he began to play. She was auditioning with In My Life. More Les Mis. Not the best choice for Haley, who had a belty voice. She showed off a bit of her range, but not enough for Christine. Three more people auditioned. A girl with a very weak voice, a guy who had an extremely off-key voice, and a girl who looked dead inside.

Finally, it was time for my audition. I passed the pianist and gave him the sheet music for Love Never Dies, before approaching the stage and slating.

"My name is Scarlett Martin, I'm in ninth grade, and I will be singing Love Never Dies from the musical Love Never Dies," I smiled sweetly, before remembering to take off my jacket. I quickly took it off, and put it at my feet. "Sorry…" I blushed. I gave the pianist a thumbs up. I immediately switched into character, managing to forget about the jacket incident and focus on what was important- the song.

"Who knows when love begins?
Who knows what makes it start?
One day it's simply there,
Alive inside in your heart.
I stared out at the soundbooth, mirroring Anna O'Byrne's performance in the recording. But I did it with so much more emotion, so much more heart. This time, as I sang it, it felt so much more complete. I finished up what I had prepared, and did a little bow, before going to grab my music. I realized I'd left my jacket, and quickly ran to get it, before embarrassedly waving goodbye to the Director.

Ella met me outside, practically radiating with happiness. "You were absolutely amazing!" She laughed, "not even Haley was that good, and she's Haley!"

"Well, Haley hasn't seen Love Never Dies and Phantom like I have," I humorously said, "and thank you, Ella!"

"Oh no!" Ella looked down at my phone, "I told my brother I'd meet him over at the Subway at 5:15! It's 5:10-"

"Ella, my mom can drive you," I offered, with a friendly smile.

"No… I better… I better go," Ella then ran off, at a brisk sprint. I confusedly shrugged, before mumbling goodbye and walking off towards my mom's car.

The next day at school passed slowly, until the dance auditions arrived. The girls, they announced, would be dancing the ballet number from Hannibal at the beginning of the show. I briefly cussed to myself, before going to find Ella who could probably teach me the dance better than the choreographers. She'd gone during lunch to learn and do the dance audition earlier than the rest of the group. She taught me the dance step by step. I wasn't the best at it, but I knew if I put on a smile that the Director would ignore my horrible lack of dance talent. I went to audition, and knew that the Director wouldn't be too impressed. I kept on a smile the whole time, and didn't make too much of a fool of myself.

Hours later, I was at home, panickedly attempting to finish my homework. I wanted to watch Phantom (the concert) before the callbacks were announced at ten o'clock. It was a late time, but that's how it'd been apparently since Ella's first show. It was like that the last show (where I, unfortunately, did not get called back) and so on. I finally finished up my last page of homework and was able to turn on Phantom.

It was about nine thirty when I finished watching Act One. Sierra was absolutely fantastic- but I wasn't surprised. I'd seen the concert hundreds of times. I began to watch Act Two, and was sobbing when Wishing came on. There were about ten minutes until ten. The clock was ticking so slowly it seemed, my mind more on the anticipation than on the concert. 9:50. 9:51. 9.52… I tried to focus on Phantom. 9:56… my eyes gazed back to the clock. 9:57. 9:58. 9:59. I pulled up the webpage, and reloaded right as the clock struck 10 o'clock.

The page loaded, but the first thing to catch my eye was the bolded writing at the top. "We've already casted our Christine, and the casting will be announced with the cast list." I sighed. That was either a good thing, or a bad thing. I scrolled through the names, and was horrified to find that my name was nowhere on the list. But Ella's name was under Meg, and Haley was down for La Carlotta. My brain started panicking, after the relief that Ella got a callback. And if Haley got the La Carlotta callback, then she didn't get Christine. So who did? I briefly considered the fact that I could be in the runnings for Christine, but just sighed. I absolutely was horrible at the dancing.

A notification popped up on my phone. Scarlett, did you see?

I quickly typed, Yeah. Congrats!

Aww, thanks! She replied. I bet you're the Christine!

I wouldn't count on it, I typed, I bet its some newbi senior.

I'd think not.

Ella!

Just trust me.

Ella told me that her callback went well. No matter what, though, she wouldn't tell me how anyone besides herself did. She acted like it was a secret or something, that I wasn't to know anyone's talents.

They were told that the cast list would come out two days after callbacks. Well, it was two days after. Sunday night. My mom and I were out at a restaurant, when I got a text from Ella.

ITS UP!

I quickly stopped what I was doing and loaded the page. Sure enough, the cast list was up.

PHANTOM

Jay Nighten

CHRISTINE

Scarlett Martin

I stared at my phone in shock. I didn't say a word. I didn't scroll down any further. All I managed to do was look up at my mom across from me.

"I… I'm Christine," I whispered. "I'm Christine," my voice raised so my mom could hear it. I looked back down at my phone.

RAOUL

Justin James

CARLOTTA

Haley Miller

MEG

Ella Graham

Those were the only roles I cared about at the moment. I was not surprised that Jay got the Phantom, he had a booming (beautiful) voice which fit the role perfectly. Justin as Raoul would be smart, he was sweet to his girlfriend as far as I could tell and had a soft voice. Haley as Carlotta didn't stump me, although her voice wasn't the best for the role. And I was so happy when I found out Ella got Meg!

I handed the list to my mom, who was just as happy if me, if not happier. Her daughter, a freshman, playing Christine Daae! She must be proud.

My grin was plastered on my face for the rest of the night. I got an early night's sleep, preparing for the next day. Rehearsal was going to be a blast.

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