I have posted a common, slightly-cheesy time-travel fic. Okay, so shoot me. Or rather, don't. (That feels like a quote from somewhere, but I'm not sure from where... It might be Artemis Fowl.)

Anyway, unlike many others of this kind, this one has a plot! Not that you can tell yet, or maybe you can, but it does! I'm not good at just straight ridiculousness.

I don't own Phantom of the Opera.

Christabelle got her makeup done quickly, despite the incredible amount, and looked herself in the mirror.

She looked ridiculous. But of course she looked ridiculous, she was playing Mrs. Potts. If she didn't look stupid, she'd be dressed wrong.

Still, even though this was only a dress rehearsal, Chris wasn't excited about appearing on stage as a teapot. Brandon would never see her as anything more than a giant, nerdy teapot until they graduated college and went their separate ways.

And she really wanted the super hot, super smart theater major to see her as more than that. Her obsession for Brandon, who was playing the Beast, was rivaled only by her obsession for her music. It had even managed to beat her obsessions for some of her favorite musicals, which was saying something.

"Ready?" Mel asked. Her roommate and best friend was playing Belle, and was extremely excited about it because she got to play opposite Brandon. The music major thought it was weird that both she and her roommate were crushing on the same guy. Wicked, anyone?

But Chris knew that it wouldn't work like that. For one thing, neither one of them was a Galinda type. Mel was beautiful, but if she were to be compared to a musical character, Chris would compare her to Christine, from the Phantom of the Opera.

Chris herself was always compared to the Little Mermaid, because she was short, had blue eyes and flaming red hair that always managed to look wavy and tousled, like she'd been singing on a rock on a windy day in the middle of the ocean.

Neither one of them had green skin or black hair, anyway.

"Yeah, I guess so," Chris said. Mel nodded and dragged her out while they waited back stage for the time when they had to go on stage. Mel, of course had to go out before Chris, and as soon as Brandon had been changed from a Prince to a Beast, Mel went on and got accosted by Gaston.

Brandon stopped and stood next to her. "Well, Melanie is really talented, isn't she?" he asked.

Chris felt her face heat, but she kept her wits. It helped that she didn't consider herself having even half a chance with him. And he was much easier to talk to in his Beast costume. "Please don't call her that. We all call her Mel." We being the Chris and the two girls who were attached to them by their shared bathroom.

"Mel," he said, as if testing out the sound of it on his tongue. His tone gave the distinct impression that he liked Melanie better.

"Well, it's not Maria, but I like it," Chris murmured.

"Maria?" Brandon asked, confused.

"You know. West SideStory." She sang a few bars, though her version was about an octave higher than Tony's. "All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word, Maria, Maria."

"No singing backstage!" the director, Mr. Higgins, hissed. He was affectionately known as Higgles behind his back.

"Sorry Higgles," Chris whispered. Okay, maybe not so much behind his back.

"You're pretty good too, Chris," Brandon said, as if in an afterthought.

"Would I get to sing the most important song in this play if I wasn't?" she asked him. Though her costume was terrible, Chris just loved playing Mrs. Potts. She was a really kick ass character.

He smiled, Chris's heart flipped. "Good point. "

Chris smiled back. Maybe she did stand snowballs chance in hell with this man!

And that's when it all went wrong.

There was a crash on stage and the fire curtain came crashing down. "Mel!" Chris yelled, and came instantly running out onstage. She heard heavy

"Chris! Brandon!" Mel shouted running over to them, apparently unharmed. "What's going on?"

"You tell us," Chris said, looking around. She had a sinking feeling...

"Are you okay?" Brandon said, taking Mel's hands and looking her over. Mel nodded, slightly dazed.

"I don't know. I don't know what happened. The fire curtain! It just fell!"

Chris said. "It's the Opera Ghost."

"Shut up, Chris," Mel said, glaring at her. "Someone could have been hurt!"

"Someone might still be," Brandon said, looking past the girls.

Chris turned around but didn't see anything. "What?"

"What if there's a fire in the auditorium?" Brandon asked.

"The fire alarm would be going off," Chris replied. She started to walk away. There was a good chance that she had caused the accident, even if it wasn't intentional.

Though a falling fire curtain didn't exactly fit with her previous mishaps…

"Practice is over for today, guys!" shouted a shaken Higgles. "Come back tomorrow."

Chris and Mel were both getting out of their costumes when they heard the bang. Chris, who changed much faster than Mel, despite the costume being more complex, ran outside. "What the hell?" That sounded like a gunshot.

Chris was no sooner outside in the lobby of the arts center when she was grabbed by someone. All she knew about him was that he was large, until she felt the barrel of a gun at her temple. Okay, so he was large and had a gun.

"I'm sorry dear," a voice murmured in her ear. "It looks like I've finally found you." He smelled of rich earth and animal musk. Odd, but extremely familiar. Chris didn't have time to place it. "Good bye," he said, and fired.

There was a flash of light and a burst of warmth throughout her veins and the man behind her disappeared. Chris fell forward on her hands and knees. That was exactly like her previous mishaps. She hoped the guy who'd tired to kill her was blasted into smithereens, and damned be the consequences! He'd just tried to kill her!

She looked around and realized she wasn't in the lobby of the performing arts center anymore. It looked like she was in the lobby of the… Opera Populaire?