Disclaimer: I do not own Phantom of the Opera or any of the characters in it. Gaston Leroux does or partially Andrew Lloyd Webber…I honestly am not sure…let's just stick to Gaston Leroux because he thought of it first.

Forever and For Always

AN Okay people I just finished watching Phantom of the Opera for the 50th time since I got it. I think that its beginning to wear out, because when it gets to All I Ask of You it skips. (Only for that part) But I cleaned the CD and its working again. I am not sure how long it is going to be. Don't worry…there is no fluff in this chapter. There is a little cute babyish fluff, but I don't think so. Review pretty please with sugar on top.

One last thing…The school that they go to is K-12, so they will stay in that school for the rest of the story….until they graduate that is.

Chapter 2-Old Fears, New Friends

As Erik Destler, Christine Daáe, and Raoul de Chagny entered PS 118…they knew they were going to school. What they didn't know was that the next thirteen years of their lives were going to be the most important ones. In that school of course.

For Christine…school was exactly what she had dreaded it would be. No one would talk to her, probably because she was too shy to talk to anyone else. It was one of the worst days of her life.

As for Erik, he was getting attention all right, just not the type that he wanted. Just as he feared, people commented him about his mask. By about midday, Erik wanted to sit in the corner and cry.

Raoul was feeling quite the opposite of the two. Because of Raoul's outgoing and friendly attitude toward people, most kids took an immediate liking to him.

At lunchtime all the kids gathered onto the playground to eat their lunches. Some sat in the grass, others sat on the blacktop, and others sat at tables.

Christine spotted a tree that was far away from everyone else. She sat there and ate in silence. In the distance she saw a boy, wandering around. He had probably been rejected by everyone else, just as she did. Christine decided she could at least invite the boy to sit with her. So Christine walked up to him.

"Hi!"

The boy looked up. Christine noticed he was wearing a mask. It didn't really bother her that much. The whole day Erik had stuck to being as silent and unnoticeable as humanly achievable. But he couldn't possibly ignore this girl, who was actually was attempting to be nice. So he answered.

"Hi."

"My name is Christine Daáe. What's yours?"

"My name is Erik. Erik Destler."

"Erik, would you like to join me for lunch?"

Erik couldn't refuse the offer. This was the first time all day that someone was actually trying to be nice to him.

"Sure."

Christine led him back to the tree. They sat there for a good five minutes in silence before Christine began to start a conversation.

"What's you're favorite color?" Christine knew that her questions were very cross. She just wanted to get to know this boy.

"Blue."

After a couple of minutes, Erik started asking her questions. They were learning more and more about each other with each passing minute. They even shared a few laughs. It was turning out to be a not-so-bad day for both of them.

In the distance, Christine could see a couple of people coming over to their tree. It was Raoul de Chagny and his band of friends.

"Well looky here you guys, the masked kid finally got a friend…a girlfriend!"

One of the other kids spoke up,

"Hey Christine, I'd be careful…there might be a monster under there!"

Erik's face begun to turn red with humiliation as the other kids had begun laughing at him. Christine had enough of this. She stood up and started yelling at them.

"Just leave him alone! Just because you guys have nothing better to do doesn't mean you have to pick on him. So leave my friend alone! Or else!"

Erik cleaned out his ears just to see if he was hearing correctly. If he understood correctly, then Christine had just called him her friend. Erik just grinned. He was having the best day of his life.

Raoul and his friends quickly shuffled away. Christine was laughing. She didn't mean to scare them. She just wanted them to stop being so cruel to Erik.

"Umm…Christine?"

"Yes?"

"Did you just say that we were friends?"

"Yes, is there something wrong with that?"

"No, it's just no one really likes me."

"Oh. Well I do. I am your friend. I like you."

"Really?"

"Really."

And that my friends, was the beginning of a great, great friendship.

Opinions Please! I have a really good idea for a couple of chapters ahead. Your reviews give me so much inspiration to write! Constructive criticism is allowed. I am not a baby. I can handle it.