This will be different from my usual writing, but this plot bunny wouldn't go away. This will be a Phantom version of Wicked, where different as necessary and set in the modern world. Any ooc- ness is to keep with their Wicked counteparts, so they will act in ways they wouldn't normally at times. Of, and Erik doesn't wear a mask for two reasons in this. One, as a plot device and second because in these times most deformed people don't hide their faces anymore.
"What are you staring at?" Erik growled. It was his first day at Shiz Academy in New York as an exchange student. He'd known it wouldn't be easy, especially with his deformity which made him look like a corpse. He groaned as he faced down a mob of other students.
"All right, let's get this over with. No I'm not suffering from a disease. Yes I was born this way. No I wasn't run over by a truck as a child..." He ran through the usual list of things he was asked when people first saw his face.
"Erik," Giovani warned gently. "Don't make a scene, please. And look after Lucianna."
Nodding, Erik sighed. He owed Giovani so much for helping him get this chance. And it was his fault Lucianna was in a wheelchair, he thought sadly.
"Yes, sir."
The elderly man wished both his daughter and adoptive son well before leaving Erik and Lucianna to get their room asignments. When Erik approached Mr. Andre, the vice principal, the older man jumped back with a start.
"I'm Erik, a living tradgedy," he introduced himself.
"Oh, yes, Erik. Well, I'm sure you're very bright."
"Looks like a DEAD head to me," a good looking boy laughed. Erik rolled up his sleeves ready to punch him, but Lucianna held his arm and he restrained himself.
"Mr. Raoul de Chagny, do you have your room assignment?" Andre asked the handsome boy.
"I have my own private suite."
The group of jocks he's been with groaned and complained until Raoul reasured them they could visit anytime.
"All right. Erik...I don't seem to see you listed. Would anyone volunteer to have Erik as their room mate?"
Raoul de Chagny had been talking with the others and hadn't heard, and was in for a shock when he went to ask about when football tryouts were.
"Thank you Mr. de Chagny."
'What?"
"I'm sure you and Erik will get along well as room mates."
"No!" both boys shouted at once.
"No chance," Raoul shouted.
"No choice," Andre answered. And that settled that.
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The next day both boys lay on their beds writing letters home, neither happy.
"My dear brother, Philippe," Raoul began as Erik wrote "My dear father," to Giovani.
Though unaware of it, both were writing very similar letters.
"There's been some confusion over rooming here at Shiz," both began.
"But of course, I'll care for Lucianna," Erik wrote.
"But of course I'll rise above it," Raoul wrote.
"For I know that's how you'd want me to respond. Yes, there's been some confusion,
for you see, my room-mate is.." the letters overlapped again.
Raoul debated how to describe Erik before finally writing "Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe."
Erik summed Raoul up in two words "A fop."
The two boys glared at each other with pure hate.
"What is this feeling, so sudden and new?" Raoul asked. Erik knew just what he meant.
"I felt it the moment I laid eyes on YOU."
"My pulse is rushing," Raoul said.
"My head is reeling," Erik complained.
"My face is flushing," Raoul added.
"What is this feeling? Fervid as a flame, does it have a name?" Both wondered.
"Yes!" They agreed. "Loathing! Unadulterated loathing!"
"For your face!" Raoul shouted knowing that would hurt Erik worst.
"Your voice!" Erik shouted back, pushing him.
"Your clothing!" Raoul pushed him back. Honestly did Erik always have to wear formal suits?
The two circled each other like two wolves about to tear each other's throats out.
"Let's just say - I loathe it all!" They continued to talk at once, looking like they'd love nothing better than strangling each other. "Every little trait, however small makes my very flesh begin to crawl with simple utter loathing!"
It was almost energizing, they had to admit.
"There's a strange exhilaration in such total detestation. It's so pure and strong!" Strange how they'd hated each other from the start.
"Though I do admit it came on fast, still I do believe that it can last." No doubt of that. They'd certainly never be friends.
"And I will be loathing! Loathing you my whole life long!" They each vowed as Raoul knocked over Erik's violin and Erik threw Raoul's mirror
Later that day at lunch Raoul's friends gathered around him
"Poor de Chagny, you are just too good," one said sympathetically.
"How do you stand it?" another asked.
"I don't think I could," a third said, shaking his head.
"He's a terror!"
"He's a Tartar!"
The other students were joining in now.
"We don't mean to show a bias, but de Chagny, you're a martyr."
"Well," he said with dignity (he was a de Chagny after all) "These things are sent to try us."
From his place at a table alone drinking some tea while he worked on a composition, Erik was listening.
"Poor de Chagny, forced to reside with someone so- disgusticified."
Erik laughed. That was the best insult they could come up with? Was that even a word? He wasn't going to be insulted by something so stupid.
"We all just want to tell you: we're all on your side."
Again, nothing Erik hadn't expected.
"We share your loathing. Unadultereated loathing for his face," they began to whisper among themselves now, but Erik's sharp ears picked it all up
"His voice," one said. Erik knew he had the best voice in the school, but jealousy added in didn't help the other think highly of him.
" His clothing." So he liked to dress formally.
"let's just say - we loathe it all!" The students all agreed.
As the day went on, Erik was the victim of every prank a student could pull. Having things chucked at him, books knocked out of his hands, spitballs aimed at him...One kid had tried putting his head in the toilet, but that hadn't ended well for the other student. The whispers continued.
"Ev'ry little trait however small makes our very flesh being to crawl."
He took it in stride. He knew he was repulsive, after all.
Spurred on by the new sport of making Erik's life hell the other continued doing their best to get a reaction out of him. He never showed that being hated so bothered him, but that didn't end their fun.
"There's a strange exhilaration in such total detestation. It's so pure and strong!"
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That evening Raoul came in to find Erik recopying some homework that one of the jocks had torn up on him, and he had to admit he'd judged Erik before getting to know him.
"Though I do admit it came on fast..." No, loathing Erik was too much fun. "Still I do believe that it can last."
The look in Erik's yellow eyes told him he wouldn't have it any other way.
"And I will be loathing forever! Loathing you my whole life long!" Erik shot back, then grinned and made a sudden move at Raoul and shouted "Boo!"
The other boy jumped back, making a cross with his fingers as if Erik were a vampire, and Erik laughed. Haveing Raoul as a room mate might prove entertaining.
