Note: This is supposed to be a little juvenile. It's present day at any
high school in the world. Use your imagination to what it looks like, or
make it out to look like yours... If you want. That's what I did, so I
tried to be broad on the description of the school. Also, everything
should fit into place later. It may seem confusing now but... It'll
smooth itself out in the end... I hope _^!
"Who is that?"
It was a bright and extremely hot afternoon in August and it also was the first day of school. The air was as heavy as the gossip as old friends gathered and recollected fond memories of their summer. Many were meeting for the first time since the last year, and one could tell by their hot and guilty faces that there wasn't much for them to say to friends they hadn't seen. But the simple sight of old friends and the thought of ice cream sundaes afterward seemed to soothe the heart, soul, and stomach.
Meg Giry was surveying all the commotion made about a strange boy while anxiously waving her new notebook to keep her face cool. She wanted so badly to be the social butterfly that she saw all the other girls being around her. To see her old friends, to talk and laugh. But she only had one friend she could really trust and who really trusted her in the entire world. This friend happened to be sitting right next to her under a sprawling willow tree.
Christine Daae was not at all aware of the hubbub going on about her. She was delved deep in the last pages of Murder on the Orient Express. Although she was unaware of it, she attracted a lot of attention. After all, she was the only girl reading on the first day back to school. But, besides that, she was very beautiful with her wide green eyes and wavy brunnette tresses and no one (excepting Meg) knew her. Her caretaker, Mama Valerius, insisted that she go to a Catholic school but it was mandatory in that district that even Catholic school students had to attend the public High School. So, aside from the excellent education she had received she also became very close to God.
Meg and Christine had lived across the street from one another since they could remember. Since they had met, their friendship grew even though they did not attend the same school and before they knew it, they were entering High School together.
Christine and Meg had been involved in a summer drama program in the community. That was where they established many of their relationships with other people. One good example would be Carlotta Rivera, who was approaching them at this instant.
"Well, goodie-two-shoes is already reading... Hmm, why doesn't that surprise me? You're the only one I know, Christine, that doesn't have anything better to do!" The hot Latin accent of Carlotta was enough to boil anyone on that day.
Meg, appearing more hurt than Christine on the comment, immediately shot up and said, "You just think you're better because you're older!"
Carlotta couldn't help herself, "And prettier, and wealthier, and more talented, and wittier..."
Christine, who, through all of this had been reading, looked up and said, very composed, "You didn't say intelligent..."
"Well!" Carlotta shot back, "You didn't let me finish!"
Christine sighed and looked around as Meg and Carlotta continued to fight. She finally noticed the boy that everyone had been talking about...
She put down her book and continued to look at him, almost entranced by his curious appearance. She saw that his shoes were very expensive and shiny in the morning sun, that his black dress pants were meticulously pressed, that he was wearing a long black cloak, and... "Oh!"
She jumped in surprise. She had analyzed him from the bottom up and finally got to the face. She could not see it, but she knew from the direction of the hood that he, or "it", was looking right at her!
"Meg, oh Meg!" Christine cried.
Finding it useless to argue any more with a commoner, Carlotta left in a huff. "Ha! I showed her!" Meg said. "I don't think it's right that just because she's one year older and got the lead in the play this summer means that she can take advantage of us!"
"Meg!"
"Why do I bother anyway? I mean, she's not worth the time!"
"MEG!!"
"What?!" "Look! Over there! Who is that?"
"I asked you that like five minutes ago! Why?"
"Because..." Christine shivered. "He looked at me."
"So? I don't remember looking at people being a crime but..." Meg looked over at the boy, who was still staring at Christine. "Maybe this is an exception..."
"Is he still looking at me?"
"Yep... Maybe we should find our class huh?"
"Yes, let's. And hurry!"
Christine and Meg gathered their things and went inside the school. Just to be safe, Christine glanced out the window to see if the boy was still there... But the boy, the cloak, the shoes, and the hood had all vanished...
"That was strange..." Christine thought to herself.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Meg and Christine walked down the dark corridor to their first class, Algebra. They were oblivious to what the time was, and entered the musty room right after the bell rang for class.
The teacher, who appeared to be as old as the musty room, welcomed them to their first day of school coldly.
"Ladies," the withered man snarled, "I hope you don't make a habit of this..."
"Please sir," Christine said, "we had no means to check the time!"
He retorted, "I should think the bell would be enough!"
"Oh, lay off you old geezer! It's the first day of school!" Meg said, nonchalantly. Christine shook her head... They were in for it now! "What did you call me?" he asked Meg. It was almost comical to see him defensive, since he was so old.
"A geezer! It's what you call people who are so old that when they we in school, they didn't have history!"
The class, who was intently watching this little conversation, burst out laughing. All Christine could do was giggle as well, but her face was deep crimson.
"Well, ladies, you'll do well not to call me names again! I want you both in detention, this afternoon!"
"But sir!" Christine pleaded.
"No buts! Now take a seat!"
Christine, who was usually so easy going and likeable to everyone, could not help but have violent thoughts towards her new teacher.
They sat down, and the teacher made sure they were across the room from one another.
"Now," said the crackly voice addressing the class, "My name is Mr. Hurtinside. I will be your Algebra teacher for the year. Do not expect me to be pleasant, seeing as this is my last year till retirement and, to be perfectly honest, I wanted you all gone yesterday. But what's one more year of shining, young, fresh faces in my class eh?" His voice got more sinister as he finished the last sentence and the class, already deathly afraid of this teacher, nodded fervently in response.
"Your fate in this class is your decision. Don't thank me for the grades you get because they are the grades you earned. That also goes the other way; don't accost me for bad grades that you get either. I am a lazy man, and I will not be lenient on late assignments and such. But..." He smiled, which doesn't even deserve the title because the dentures in his mouth made him look as if he was scowling at them. "I'm not one to lecture. On with class!" He called.
The class, which was loaded with homework on at least twenty different pages, was finished. No one was doing the work, however, because they didn't feel like thinking about the amount of it. No one was working except Christine.
Christine, who was utterly miffed at Meg for getting her on bad terms with a teacher the rest of the year and detention on the first day, wrote very hard on her paper, to the point where she had to keep getting up to sharpen the broken end.
The next time Christine got up, Meg got up too. They conversed, under the hawk-eye of Mr. Hurtinside, and then Meg gave Christine a note. "Read it!" she whispered.
The note read as follows:
Dear Christine- I'm sorry about this morning. I should've kept my mouth shut. I wish he 'd punished me... I would've been much more fair... Next time, I will remember. And it's your first high school day too... Oh, I feel sooooo bad! Anyway, about this guy you saw this morning... I found out he's known as the Phantom and no one knows his real name, but that's about it. He's supposedly a senior (that is so gross because we're freshman), but he's new just like you are. No one knows a thing about him! But he seems like the type that doesn't associate with people like us. We'll probably never see him again; his outfit looks so popular! But you never judge by appearances, so that wouldn't matter huh? Anyway, I think we have Singing Arts next hour with my mom (ugh). I hope she doesn't make me look like a dork in front of everyone! Well, I got to go now. Mr. Hurtinside is reading this over my shoulder... C ya! Meg
Christine smiled. She couldn't stay mad at Meg; Meg wouldn't let her! But, since they were best friends, there was never a hard feeling that stayed silent for more than three days. Most of the time, they could read each other's thoughts!
She had totally forgotten about Ms. Giry's class. She couldn't begin to fathom the makings of Meg's humiliation. "It's not as if she's not nice or anything..." Christine thought, "She's just a little... Eccentric..."
The bell rang for the beginning of the next hour. Christine and Meg were both glad to be getting out of that place. "It smells like burnt rubber." Meg said, "And I've never smelt burnt rubber before..."
As they were walking down the hall, they saw the Phantom. He was stalking the halls, in his stark black attire. Christine tried to walk by with as little contact as possible. She couldn't believe that someone like him actually went to a high school. She still couldn't see his face, and it was against school policy to wear anything on your head. "Maybe he's a special case..." She thought.
The Phantom and Christine brushed up against one another in the hall, regardless of the utmost attempt to prevent that very thing from happening. She couldn't help but glance up at him, which wasn't easy because he was at least two feet taller than her.
Beneath the hood, she couldn't tell, but she saw a pair of extremely sad shining eyes. The voice beneath the hood said to her, "Excuse me mademoiselle."
The voice, from what she heard, was the most beautiful she had ever heard in her life. She almost wanted to entreat him to speak more, but pure curiosity prevented it. She could only stare at him with large green eyes.
He laughed and said, "I see that words defeat you my dear." He looked down at her and said, "If you'll let me by..."
"But of course!" She said, startled out of her daze. "I'm so sorry."
He walked by and she watched him, his black cloak billowing behind. She could only marvel in his majesty as he traipsed down the hall...
"Christine! Do you want to be late for your next class! Come on!" Meg said.
And Meg literally dragged her to the classroom. Christine thought to herself, "I wonder who he is? He's wonderful."
"Who is that?"
It was a bright and extremely hot afternoon in August and it also was the first day of school. The air was as heavy as the gossip as old friends gathered and recollected fond memories of their summer. Many were meeting for the first time since the last year, and one could tell by their hot and guilty faces that there wasn't much for them to say to friends they hadn't seen. But the simple sight of old friends and the thought of ice cream sundaes afterward seemed to soothe the heart, soul, and stomach.
Meg Giry was surveying all the commotion made about a strange boy while anxiously waving her new notebook to keep her face cool. She wanted so badly to be the social butterfly that she saw all the other girls being around her. To see her old friends, to talk and laugh. But she only had one friend she could really trust and who really trusted her in the entire world. This friend happened to be sitting right next to her under a sprawling willow tree.
Christine Daae was not at all aware of the hubbub going on about her. She was delved deep in the last pages of Murder on the Orient Express. Although she was unaware of it, she attracted a lot of attention. After all, she was the only girl reading on the first day back to school. But, besides that, she was very beautiful with her wide green eyes and wavy brunnette tresses and no one (excepting Meg) knew her. Her caretaker, Mama Valerius, insisted that she go to a Catholic school but it was mandatory in that district that even Catholic school students had to attend the public High School. So, aside from the excellent education she had received she also became very close to God.
Meg and Christine had lived across the street from one another since they could remember. Since they had met, their friendship grew even though they did not attend the same school and before they knew it, they were entering High School together.
Christine and Meg had been involved in a summer drama program in the community. That was where they established many of their relationships with other people. One good example would be Carlotta Rivera, who was approaching them at this instant.
"Well, goodie-two-shoes is already reading... Hmm, why doesn't that surprise me? You're the only one I know, Christine, that doesn't have anything better to do!" The hot Latin accent of Carlotta was enough to boil anyone on that day.
Meg, appearing more hurt than Christine on the comment, immediately shot up and said, "You just think you're better because you're older!"
Carlotta couldn't help herself, "And prettier, and wealthier, and more talented, and wittier..."
Christine, who, through all of this had been reading, looked up and said, very composed, "You didn't say intelligent..."
"Well!" Carlotta shot back, "You didn't let me finish!"
Christine sighed and looked around as Meg and Carlotta continued to fight. She finally noticed the boy that everyone had been talking about...
She put down her book and continued to look at him, almost entranced by his curious appearance. She saw that his shoes were very expensive and shiny in the morning sun, that his black dress pants were meticulously pressed, that he was wearing a long black cloak, and... "Oh!"
She jumped in surprise. She had analyzed him from the bottom up and finally got to the face. She could not see it, but she knew from the direction of the hood that he, or "it", was looking right at her!
"Meg, oh Meg!" Christine cried.
Finding it useless to argue any more with a commoner, Carlotta left in a huff. "Ha! I showed her!" Meg said. "I don't think it's right that just because she's one year older and got the lead in the play this summer means that she can take advantage of us!"
"Meg!"
"Why do I bother anyway? I mean, she's not worth the time!"
"MEG!!"
"What?!" "Look! Over there! Who is that?"
"I asked you that like five minutes ago! Why?"
"Because..." Christine shivered. "He looked at me."
"So? I don't remember looking at people being a crime but..." Meg looked over at the boy, who was still staring at Christine. "Maybe this is an exception..."
"Is he still looking at me?"
"Yep... Maybe we should find our class huh?"
"Yes, let's. And hurry!"
Christine and Meg gathered their things and went inside the school. Just to be safe, Christine glanced out the window to see if the boy was still there... But the boy, the cloak, the shoes, and the hood had all vanished...
"That was strange..." Christine thought to herself.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Meg and Christine walked down the dark corridor to their first class, Algebra. They were oblivious to what the time was, and entered the musty room right after the bell rang for class.
The teacher, who appeared to be as old as the musty room, welcomed them to their first day of school coldly.
"Ladies," the withered man snarled, "I hope you don't make a habit of this..."
"Please sir," Christine said, "we had no means to check the time!"
He retorted, "I should think the bell would be enough!"
"Oh, lay off you old geezer! It's the first day of school!" Meg said, nonchalantly. Christine shook her head... They were in for it now! "What did you call me?" he asked Meg. It was almost comical to see him defensive, since he was so old.
"A geezer! It's what you call people who are so old that when they we in school, they didn't have history!"
The class, who was intently watching this little conversation, burst out laughing. All Christine could do was giggle as well, but her face was deep crimson.
"Well, ladies, you'll do well not to call me names again! I want you both in detention, this afternoon!"
"But sir!" Christine pleaded.
"No buts! Now take a seat!"
Christine, who was usually so easy going and likeable to everyone, could not help but have violent thoughts towards her new teacher.
They sat down, and the teacher made sure they were across the room from one another.
"Now," said the crackly voice addressing the class, "My name is Mr. Hurtinside. I will be your Algebra teacher for the year. Do not expect me to be pleasant, seeing as this is my last year till retirement and, to be perfectly honest, I wanted you all gone yesterday. But what's one more year of shining, young, fresh faces in my class eh?" His voice got more sinister as he finished the last sentence and the class, already deathly afraid of this teacher, nodded fervently in response.
"Your fate in this class is your decision. Don't thank me for the grades you get because they are the grades you earned. That also goes the other way; don't accost me for bad grades that you get either. I am a lazy man, and I will not be lenient on late assignments and such. But..." He smiled, which doesn't even deserve the title because the dentures in his mouth made him look as if he was scowling at them. "I'm not one to lecture. On with class!" He called.
The class, which was loaded with homework on at least twenty different pages, was finished. No one was doing the work, however, because they didn't feel like thinking about the amount of it. No one was working except Christine.
Christine, who was utterly miffed at Meg for getting her on bad terms with a teacher the rest of the year and detention on the first day, wrote very hard on her paper, to the point where she had to keep getting up to sharpen the broken end.
The next time Christine got up, Meg got up too. They conversed, under the hawk-eye of Mr. Hurtinside, and then Meg gave Christine a note. "Read it!" she whispered.
The note read as follows:
Dear Christine- I'm sorry about this morning. I should've kept my mouth shut. I wish he 'd punished me... I would've been much more fair... Next time, I will remember. And it's your first high school day too... Oh, I feel sooooo bad! Anyway, about this guy you saw this morning... I found out he's known as the Phantom and no one knows his real name, but that's about it. He's supposedly a senior (that is so gross because we're freshman), but he's new just like you are. No one knows a thing about him! But he seems like the type that doesn't associate with people like us. We'll probably never see him again; his outfit looks so popular! But you never judge by appearances, so that wouldn't matter huh? Anyway, I think we have Singing Arts next hour with my mom (ugh). I hope she doesn't make me look like a dork in front of everyone! Well, I got to go now. Mr. Hurtinside is reading this over my shoulder... C ya! Meg
Christine smiled. She couldn't stay mad at Meg; Meg wouldn't let her! But, since they were best friends, there was never a hard feeling that stayed silent for more than three days. Most of the time, they could read each other's thoughts!
She had totally forgotten about Ms. Giry's class. She couldn't begin to fathom the makings of Meg's humiliation. "It's not as if she's not nice or anything..." Christine thought, "She's just a little... Eccentric..."
The bell rang for the beginning of the next hour. Christine and Meg were both glad to be getting out of that place. "It smells like burnt rubber." Meg said, "And I've never smelt burnt rubber before..."
As they were walking down the hall, they saw the Phantom. He was stalking the halls, in his stark black attire. Christine tried to walk by with as little contact as possible. She couldn't believe that someone like him actually went to a high school. She still couldn't see his face, and it was against school policy to wear anything on your head. "Maybe he's a special case..." She thought.
The Phantom and Christine brushed up against one another in the hall, regardless of the utmost attempt to prevent that very thing from happening. She couldn't help but glance up at him, which wasn't easy because he was at least two feet taller than her.
Beneath the hood, she couldn't tell, but she saw a pair of extremely sad shining eyes. The voice beneath the hood said to her, "Excuse me mademoiselle."
The voice, from what she heard, was the most beautiful she had ever heard in her life. She almost wanted to entreat him to speak more, but pure curiosity prevented it. She could only stare at him with large green eyes.
He laughed and said, "I see that words defeat you my dear." He looked down at her and said, "If you'll let me by..."
"But of course!" She said, startled out of her daze. "I'm so sorry."
He walked by and she watched him, his black cloak billowing behind. She could only marvel in his majesty as he traipsed down the hall...
"Christine! Do you want to be late for your next class! Come on!" Meg said.
And Meg literally dragged her to the classroom. Christine thought to herself, "I wonder who he is? He's wonderful."