A/N This is a WIP fanfiction I started for a friend, I know that it's a little messy, I am not much of a writer, but I do my best. No, this is not technically crossover with Phantom of the Opera or any other Phantom show or movie, the title is Phantomstuck because it is basically an AU where Dave is like the phantom from phantom of the opera where he's a loner, sticks to the shadows and hides behind this 'mask' and Jade is the girl that he falls in love with and she tries to figure him out but like, the high school version, sorry if this fact disappoints you. Please no Flaming, but I would be happy to hear any of the suggestions you might have to make this story better.

The girl, she had long waist length black hair which looked silky like satin, wore dorky circular glasses that hid very majestic green eyes, and had buck teeth. The first time Dave noticed her was at the fall formal of their freshmen year. She had worn a lovely dress with a slight green shimmer to it that seemed to hold stars in the black fabric, the sight of that girl captivated him. That whole night he watched her from behind his dark shades, hiding away in a corner of the large room. That was three years ago, now they were seniors in high school and she was still as gorgeous as ever and he had yet to approach her. They had every class together, well all but one, a biology class she took, he had music class that hour.

He loved music, it was the escape he needed, a place where he wasn't flawed, where he was the cool kid and everyone wanted to be his friend. The only friend Dave really has is his older brother, Dirk, who he thought was almost as monstrous as him with his orange eyes. Whenever he brought it up though his bro would say something like, 'Nah, little man, my eyes don't make me a monster. They make me unique and awesome, embrace it, can't love anyone or let anyone love you till you love yourself,' and then Dirk would usually attack him with a katana or some other weapon for training. The training had started as soon as he could properly defend himself, so at about seven years old. His bro honestly did not make it easy but he had to admit he has gotten stronger from it, he even had a little muscle. He wondered if she would be impressed if she saw his muscles; maybe he would start wearing short sleeves like his bro?

Dave was instantly snapped from his day dreaming and memories past when a book slammed down on his desk by the teacher, Dr. Scratch. The guy has a degree in almost everything Dave could think of and was probably as old as a dinosaur, yet here he was teaching a bunch of hormonal teenagers history. He also taught the Health Education slash Sex ED class and English, Dave was like sixty-percent sure the guy was some kind of weirdo.

"Mr. Strider, if you do not start paying attention your brother gave me permission to use your full name, so I suggest you stop whatever this," he pauses and motions to the rap Dave was working on before he'd drifted off into thought, "is, and think more about studying for the upcoming test." Dr. Scratch stated before he went back to teaching his class.

'Just great.' He thought 'A fucking test, at this rate I'll fail my senior year and have to go with a bunch of thumb-sucking diaper wearing babies for the next few years.'
Twenty-some minutes later the bell rang and they were excused to the next class before lunch and to Dave's surprise she walked over to him.

"Hi there Dave!" She said happily, giving him a wide buck toothed smile, her eyes almost closed when she smiled that wide.

'Oh my god, she's talking to me! Be cool Dave, be cool.' He thought as she continued,

"I'm Jade Harley, we have most our classes together." She said, Dave nodded and began to stutter, so he cleared his throat before speaking,

"I know." He stated simply, mentally kicking himself as soon as it came out, 'I know?! It makes me sound like I'm stalking her or something! God damn it Dave, you're blowing it!'

"I mean... I know, I've seen you in class, you're really smart." He corrected himself, trying to keep cool.

"Oh good! So I guess you know I've tutored some people in the past and I was wondering if you'd like to come over sometime? I've noticed your grades are really lacking and I could help you out. I would hate not to graduate with one of my class mates!" Jade exclaimed, touching his arm gently with her slender fingers.
Dave just nodded dumbly, barely even registering what she had just said; her touch was making him a bit dizzy. Jade smiles at the blonde boy before writing down her address and phone number, handing it to him before running to get to her next class as the warning bell rang. He stared after her until he was jolted by the sound of the late bell and he ran like hell to get to his next class. If he was late to music class one more time he would get detention, but the class was on the other side of the school so he ended up being late, as usual. It wasn't his fault the class was so far away, he couldn't run because he would get in trouble, and even fast walking he couldn't make it before the late bell rang, so he was pretty much doomed to be late. It's too bad he doesn't have some kind of time control powers to help him get places on time.

-Cut to Jade-

Jade had barely made it to her biology class before the late bell had rung, she walked over to her desk and took her seat next to a blonde girl with purple eyes. Jade was pretty sure they were just contacts, but she could be wrong. Rose Lalonde has been one of Jade's closest friends since freshman year after Jade had moved into town with her Grandfather. Rose wasn't really the most popular girl in school, she has this obsession with wizards and magic and was kind of... Goth? That's one way to put it. Jade wasn't the most popular either but she was likable enough and the few friends she had were enough for her.

"Hello Jade." Rose greeted her friend, tapping her purple pencil on her notebook page, looking a bit bored; Jade guessed she was eagerly waiting for her English class, which was right after this one before the end of the day.

Rose was more of a writer then a science person like her mother, who was a pretty smart scientist and computer tech. Other than the fact she usually smelled like vodka, Jade liked her.

"Hi Rose!" Jade replied, taking her note-book and pencil out and then setting her bag on the floor at her feet as she sat by her friend.

"So why were you talking to Strider?" She asked, then added, "You know, the guy who never really talks to anyone, being all aloof and wearing shades all the time.."

"Dave? He's doing really bad in his classes so I invited him over for tutoring." She stated.

"What if he's a sick murderer and he kills you and then rape your corpse?" Rose asked rhetorically, more to scare her friend then warn her, it made Jade frown and look back up from the notes she had been looking through.

"You don't really think he could be a murderer or something do you?" She asked in response, now having doubts about inviting someone she knew nothing about over to her house. Rose had just shrugged in response as their teacher began the class.