It's like I never left. Yeah, no. Okay, here's the thing. I'm updating and revising most of this story, so many updates or whatever are going to be from that. There are going to be some new chapters, but I don't know how many I've cut or combined, so right now this fic is a bit of a mess (I think 3 got blended into 7..? and I'm not really sure what happened to the ones inbetween). It'll get better when I'm not freaking out about internet usage and download. In the mean time though, the earlier chapters (such as these) are the only ones being revised. The new chapters will be posted as soon as I get the mess all worked out again.

ALSO- if anyone could tell me where stuff is overlapping, not making sense, etc., that will make my life a thousand times easier. Thanks!


De Chagny blood-line from 1864-2013 (Comte Philippe de Changy to Melissa Isse-Moncharmin de Changy)

Philippe de Chagny~ Born 1863. Died 1948

SAdeline Tremont~ Born 1870. Died 1915

Raoul de Chagny~ Born 1869. Died 1935

SChristine Daae~ Born 1871. Died 1918

Gustave (Daae) de Chagny~ Born 1899. Died 1976

SVictoria Clarisse~ Born 1898. Died 1976

Christian (Clarisse) de Chagny~ Born 1920. Died 1939

Maria (Clarisse) de Chagny~ Born 1924. Died 2012

S1Mark White~ Born 1920. Died 1962

S2Patrick Quillis~ Born 1922. Died

Philippe (Quillis) de Chagny~ Born 1942. Died 2008

SMay-Anne Husk~ Born 1940. Died

Christine (Quillis) de Chagny~ Born 1965. Died 2006

SPaul Isse~ Born 1967. Died

Adeline (Isse) de Chagny~ Born 1999. Died

Victoria (Isse) de Chagny~ Born 1993. Died

SNico d'Ange~ Born 1988. Died

Richard (d'Ange) de Chagny~ Born 2013

Maria (Isse-Quillis) de Chagny~ Born 1982. Died

Raoul (Isse-Quillis) de Chagny~ Born 1980. Died 2013

SElizabeth Moncharmin~ Born 1979. Died

Melissa (Moncharmin) de Chagny~Born 2014. Died

Maria flipped through the pages of the old book with respect. Only Comte Philippe knew how old exactly this book was. After all, as her great-great-great-great-great-uncle (or something like that) he knew everything there was to know at the time. Or was that Christopher? She rolled her eyes. For her family, she was always getting who did what and who changed the world when mixed up a lot. She could never seem to quite remember anything correctly. Except for her lessons as a little girl growing up in France. Those she could remember, down to the last sharp scolding of Great grandfather Philippe Quillis.

'No, no, no! Vicomte Raoul married Christine Daae, the famous soprano diva of the Opera Populair! Raoul did not marry Adeline! His brother, Comte Phillipe married her while running the family businesses. Both were patrons of Madame Daae's opera house! Get this right Maria Isse, or no cake for you!'

She smiled at the memory, which also reminded her to pull the cake that she was baking from the oven. If there was one thing she could get straight about her family, it was Great-great (and possibly a lot more greats) aunt Victoria's chocolate cake. Or was Victoria Clarisse her grandmother? Maria Isse groaned aloud. It would do her no good to get her mind muddled like this before meeting her new housemate for the first time ever.

She set the cake down on the counter to let it cool and turned off the oven. Trying as hard as she could to ignore the tempting smell, she went into the living and plopped onto the couch. The chocolate aroma was still drifting towards her, and she forced herself to walk the other way when she stood, though she originally had the intent of following the smell back into the kitchen. After walking to the far end of the house and down two flights of stairs, she gave up and forced herself to think of anything except for the cake. Naturally, her mind drifted towards her unknown housemate.

As a teacher at the prestigious Arxs school in Pennsylvania, she was required to live on campus. She just so happened to have been assigned to this dorm, Ferenbach, her first year. And, being reluctant to change houses for the next year, in Ferenbach she remained. Her previous housemate had gotten married last year, and she moved into his house at the end of that year, leaving Maria alone. Well, alone until the faculty housing management person realized that she had to find a place to put a new teacher on campus. The de Chagny had offered the spare room in Ferenbach immediately when she heard about the new guy, not even caring about what was known about him. Very simply, Isse did not like living alone during the summer. She found it uninteresting, un-educational, and even scary at times. Not that she would have been alone during the school year anyway. After all, Ferenbach was a dorm house, and there would be at least twelve teenage girls running around with her acting like mom.

Her thoughts snapped to the thin file she had been given about her new housemate. His name was Erik Destler, and he was from Paris, France, though it said that he was not born there. It actually didn't mention where he was born. Anyway, he was born a year after her, so 1983. She had smiled when she read that. Something about rooming with a guy younger than her had amused her, though for the life of her she couldn't recall what. The file continued on to mention basic facts about him, such as hair color (black), height (6'6), and first language (French, obviously). Oddly, the file didn't mention such things as where he went to school for both high school and college, or how he found Arxs. It also neglected to mention his eye-color, which she found a bit strange. She imagined blue. A really pretty blue. As blue as her great-whatever-grandfather Raoul's were said to be. The blue that runs in her family. But that would be crazy, meeting someone with the same eye color as you. Not to mention very unlikely.

She began pacing back and forth across the basement of her house. There was her version of him, based off of the file's facts and her imagination, and then there were the rumors. If she thought that teachers didn't gossip like the teenagers they taught before coming here, then she was certainly shocked. Arxs school teachers nearly gossip more than their students. Of course, most of what they gossip about tends to be true. In fact, she had never been able to prove one piece of teacher gossip wrong yet. Which is why she had suddenly become apprehensive.

According to the others, Erik was incredibly smart, which she thought was not surprising given that they must teach really, really smart kids. But they took it a step further, saying he had a perfect memory, and could figure any problem out. Any. They also said that he was an inventor and some musical genius on top of it. The next one that came to her mind was about his languages. The modern language department head had mentioned something to the English department head about how he was apparently fluent in over twelve languages. Fifteen the English department said to the Math department. Eighteen the math department had said to the classics department, who had said twenty to her. Finally, there was something going around about a mask. Rumor has it that he wears a mask to cover half of his face for some reason. Maria wasn't sure where this rumor started though. After all, some departments, such as the Science department, was more reliable than other departments, take the Classics department, for example.

Maria stopped pacing and looked at the clock hanging on the wall. Noon exactly. He would be here soon. Anytime, in fact. His file had said anywhere from noon to one. She would have to trust those papers for the time being. And even more so, she would need to be ready to accept living with him, no matter if he was a genius or wore a mask on half his face. Hopefully, he wouldn't mind living with her. After all, she had just made a cake for him.

Speaking of... Maria hiked back up the two flights of stairs to where she had put the cake to cool. Putting her hand over it, she bobbed her head in satisfaction. It was finally cool enough to put Grandfather or so Whites frosting on it. About time too!