Chapter 1

"Hey Quasimodo!" came the sound of Esmeralda's cheery voice on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, hi Esmeralda! How are you?" spoke Quasimodo in a tone that was equally as jolly.

"Good thanks but enough about me. Ok, basically, what are you doing this Friday?"

Quasimodo laughed at her cheerfulness before a frown suddenly grew upon his face, having just taken in what Esmeralda had said. What am I doing this Friday? Though he had been home-schooled for all his life so he didn't have a clue how other teenagers usually talked, Quasimodo knew instantly what Esmeralda wanted him to do with her question- go outside. Of course Quasimodo had been outside before but he still always tried to avoid going out as best as he could. Occasionally he would walk to the local park and back for some fresh air but the walk was always no more than five-ten minutes and usually took place well into the evening so hardly anyone was out too. He did, however, go out every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday to ring the extremely heavy bells at the Cathedral not too far from his house but he always went by car which lessened the chance of him being seen by anyone since he always ducked in the back seat for the entire journey.

He wouldn't even have anyone calling him at all had he not wondered down from the Cathedral's bell tower one day a couple of weeks ago to listen to a particular interesting sermon. He had been listening from a safe distance as to not be seen by the church-goers when he spotted a beautiful tanned-skinned teenage girl suddenly glide past him, wearing white and red robes which implied that she was part of the church choir. Her separation from the other choir singers also meant that she was late. She had stopped abruptly from noticing something out of the corner of her eye when she saw Quasimodo hiding in an eave in the wall. She, of course, was a little shocked by his appearance at first but soon relaxed and grew intrigued by the Cathedral's bell ringer. He, too, felt grew more relaxed from being around another human being. After chatting for a very long time for the extent of the entire sermon and a bit after, the two grew very fond of each other and became very good friends. Before Esmeralda left to sing in her choir, they promised they'd keep in contact.

Quasimodo was immensely ashamed of his appearance. He had looked the way he did ever since birth. He considered himself very ugly. His 'father', Claude Frollo, even called him ugly on a day to day basis which, of course, did not boost the lad's self-esteem one bit. He would never look at himself in the mirror but on the off chance that he did was by force from accidently looking down as he crossed a particularly large puddle on his occasional walks to the park or from catching a glimpse of himself in the rear-view mirror of the car on his way to the Cathedral. The bulbous, tetrahedron nose, the large growth over his left eye, the crooked teeth and the great camel-like hump on his back never changed with these rare glimpses.

After spending a few seconds looking away from the receiver in thought, Quasimodo was brought back to reality when he heard the voice from the other end say his name several times before now resorting to shouting it.

"Um... w-what's happening on Friday?" asked Quasimodo at last in a quiet tone.

"Welcome back to earth. Well, it's just I'm thinking of trying out this new class at my gym and don't really want to start it alone soooo I was wondering if you would want to maybe come along with me."

Quasimodo closed his eyes slowly. He was right. A gym class. People. Lots and lots of people. What really got him thinking was why Esmeralda was asking him to go with her. Though he had never told Esmeralda how his mission in life was to avoid being around people at all times, he still would have thought she'd had guessed that he hated public company from knowing what he looked like. But, in a way, Quasimodo was quite glad that she seemed to look past his unfortunate appearance and view him as just any other 16 year old. She really was a true friend if she was able to do that. But he still remained unconvinced about Friday.

"Err... Esmeralda, I...don't think that's such a good idea, I..." continued Quasimodo in a quiet voice.

"Oh come on! You can't seriously think that I didn't notice your arms when we first met, Quasimodo, please! You must go to the gym PLENTY to look the way you look- ripped that is!"

Quasimodo couldn't help laughing out loud at this. She obviously hadn't seen the bells at the Cathedral. A gym wouldn't get you nearly enough of a work out as ringing those insanely heavy bells four times a week would. Quasimodo now sat down on the living room sofa that he had been standing next to for all this time. He would have to put some serious thought into this. Of course he would get stares and of course he would feel unbelievably uncomfortable but the fact that Esmeralda had asked for him personally to come along with her to her class suddenly made all those things not matter to him anymore. He had decided.

"Well...oh... alright, I'll come along" declared Quasimodo at last.

"Yes! Ah, brill, brill, brill. Awesome! Ok, do you know where Northshore Leisure Centre is?"

Quasimodo considered for a moment before remembering that he had briefly noticed a sign that read that exact name when in the car to the Cathedral one morning.

"Yeah, I think I do. Is it quite near the Cathedral?"

"Yep, literally like two roads away. Great! Meet me at the entrance. There are two entrances but one's being refurbished so everyone's using the car park one at the moment so meet there. The class is at six o'clock so meet, say...ten minutes before. Thank you so much again, Quasi. See you on Friday!"

"Great, see you then" spoke Quasimodo before waiting for the click sound at the other end to signal she had put the phone down. He took some time to place it back into its holster before staring at the now disconnected phone, playing back the last five minutes in his head. Should he really have said yes to that? It was a pretty big step, after all. He shook his head slightly, telling himself that he was doing it for the one and only true friend he had.