After working together for a few days, they had already become close friends. Christine was never one for friends and usually kept to herself, but Meg always seemed to lighten the mood, not to mention talk nonstop. From what Meg had said, there were only 3 other employees; a short, fat red-haired man named Fred, a pretty middle-aged Asian woman named Susan, and a Latina teenager trying to earn enough money to buy a car named Lillian. It was rounding 9:20 and Meg said it was Christine's turn to take a break.

"You've done a great job so far. Go take a nap or something. Your break is 30 minutes."

She had gladly obliged. Before she got the job, she often imagined herself sneaking eating ice cream on her free time, but now Christine would rather think about anything else than ice cream. She decided to just take a nice little walk and returned seven minutes before her break was over, not having much else to do. When she walked in, she saw Meg talking to a costumer. Not that it was wrong, but she seemed to be deeply in conversation with him. Not just chatting.

She made her way up to the front and went around the side door. Meg glanced at her and smiled. "Oh, Christine come here!" Meg waved her arm towards her.

"Hello." She said quietly and the man laughed. He seemed around either late 20s or early 30s. His eyes were a greyish-blue and he had longer, darker hair that almost reached his chin.

"This is Philip. Philip, this is Christine."

He waved his hand and she waved back. "Hey."

"Philip is one of our most frequent costumers. He comes in here every Tuesday and orders the same thing."

"Which is?"

"Peanut butter chocolate with rainbow sprinkles." He said proudly.

Meg leaned in. "What'd I tell you about people and their decorations?"

"Hey!" he laughed. He seemed to be a fellow with a positive spirit but there was something incredibly familiar about him.

"I'm sorry." Christine started. "Have we… met before? You seem so familiar."

"Yeah, I could say the same. But I can't pinpoint it." Right at that moment, the door's bells jingled, letting them know someone entered. A man with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes made his way to Philip. Christine felt something tug at her heart strings.

"Phil, come on dude. You're taking forever. You know Dad's been waiting for-" He began than stopped when his eyes met Christine's. "Hi." He usually only saw Phillip conversing with the blonde… he had no clue who the brunette was but she seemed incredibly familiar.

"I'm almost done." He slapped his friend on the back. "Raoul, this is Meg's friend, Christine. This is my brother, Raoul."

The name instantly rang bells in Christine's head and she had a small flashback of her and a little boy when she was younger. Raoul…

"Christine… Daae?" He suddenly asked in awe.

"Yeah… Raoul… Changy? From grade school?" she thought really hard. Yes. She remembered him.

"Oh my God… oh my God! It's been years. Oh my God, I can't believe it's you." he exclaimed.

She remembered him.

It was the first day of third grade and she was still dealing with her mother's illness. It had been hard on the whole family to hear it was terminal and there was nothing they could do. Could have happened to anyone. The doctors had said. Just somewhere in the gene pool she happened to carry the cancer gene. Another nurse was less sympathetic. Did she miss a day of church or something? Ha. I'm just joshin' ya.

After hearing that, Christine had made it to go to church every Sunday.

But she remembered Raoul on the first day of third grade. It was during lunch. Her father had packed her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, some apple slices, a pack of peanut butter cookies, and a chocolate milk carton. She remembered it all distinctly. She wasn't hungry though, and only sipped on her drink. A little boy, just a little taller than her came by her and played with his fingers.

"Hi. Um, could I have one of your cookies? If you don't want to it's okay." He quickly muttered out in his small voice.

"No, you can have it all." She shoved her lunch pack to him and rested her head in her arms.

"Thanks!" he grabbed them excitedly and began to leave but noticed her quite attitude. "Um, are… are you okay?"

Without a reply, Christine bursted into tears.

The boy sat down next to her and shifted uncomfortably. "What's wrong?"

"My mom. She…" she sucked in a breath, "she is really, really sick. She might die." She whispered then wiped a tear off her cheek.

"Oh… I'm sorry. Mine died a year ago. In April." He spoke low and she looked up at him through her tears. "The doctors said she had diabetes."

Wiping her cheek she whispered, "What's a diabetes?"

"My dad said it means she ate too many sweets." The boy shrugged.

Christine glanced at her chocolate milk with sudden disgust. "My mom has cancer. My dad said it was just bad luck."

"Here." The little boy said and reached into his pocket. After searching around, handed her a piece of lint and a penny. "On the TV, she always are saying they need money for cancer. And I found this penny facing up. It's a sign of good luck."

"Thank you." she whispered with tears in her eyes. "You can have my apples too if you want."

He made a face. "No thanks."

"I'm Christine."

"I'm Raoul."

"You don't like apples?"

"Nope. But anytime I have an apple, I'll save it for you."

And they were friends ever since. They didn't have the same class in third grade but they saw each other at recess. Christine had one other friend but she kept to herself and was very quiet. Raoul, on the other hand, had his 6th grade brother, Philip, and no one messed with him. Raoul had a bunch of friends though, but he found himself liking Christine's company. Maybe it was because she had cried on their first meaning, but he always felt very close to her.

"Christine!" Raoul yelled one nice winter day in fourth grade.

"Yeah?" she called back.

"Guess what?"

'What?"

"No, you have to guess!"

"Oh, I don't know."

"No, you gotta guess!"

"Just tell me!"

"My dad said you can stay with us for winter vacation!"

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah! Did you ask your dad?"

"I will. Hold on!" She ran to her dad's old beat up Ford, where he had been waiting to pick her up. She begged and pleaded to go with Raoul and he finally gave in. That winter, they went up to a snow lodge. Apparently his family owned one side of the slopes. They went ice skating, fishing, and told scary stories at the fire. One day, Christine had made the mistake of walking on thin ice. She didn't fall through but her red scarf had slid off and into the water.

"No! No!" she cried. It was her fathers and she knew he would be very upset with her.

"Christine! What's wrong?" Raoul shouted across the yard.

"My scarf! It fell into the water." She sobbed. Without a second thought, he ran over to her, dug his fists down in the ice, and grabbed her scarf. It disturbed the ice and caused it to break resulting in them falling in. They both screeched at the cold water but were able to make it out. Once they were warmed up, she started to cry, mourning the loss of her scarf, when Raoul presented it to her. She had then cried with joy and kissed him on the shoulder. She wore it for the rest of winter. As the years passed, Christine made a few other friends and so did Raoul, but they remained close. Until the end of sixth grade came.

"Raoul? What's wrong?" she said at his drab appearance. His hair was messy and his eyes were red.

"I have to leave this town."

"What?" she gasped. "Why?"

"My dad married another chick and now we have to move because she wants to live at the beach."

"But you can't live at the beach! It'll get cold and wet."

"That's what I said but no one listens to me."

"I listen to you."

"I know you do. I'll miss you."

"You'll be back… right?"

"No…" He shook his head, "I'll be gone forever."

"But you can't go! I'll miss you so much, Raoul."

"I miss you already, Christine."

"Please, Raoul. Don't go." She sobbed.

"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." And they cried together.

And then he was gone. And he had been nothing but a memory until today.

"Okay, since now I'm just chopped liver and since you have like…" she glanced at the clock, "five minutes left, go enjoy the rest of your break, Chris." Meg broke Christine out of her thoughts. Christine went back out the door and ran into Raoul, a mix of emotions on his face mirroring her own.

"Raoul… I can't believe it's actually you." She actually couldn't. She cleared her throat. "Now I remember. Philip's your brother."

"Yeah. I didn't know you were working at a Dairy Queen."

"Actually, it's Baskin Robins." She shifted her weight on her feet.

"Oh. Heh. Phil likes the stuff more than me. It's just crazy that we ran into each other after like, what? Eleven years?"

"Around that. Yeah. Maybe even twelve. It was sixth grade." Then it was awkward. She wanted to hug him, but she didn't know if that's what he wanted too. So instead they both just stood there doing odd grins. When suddenly Raoul broke the silence:

"How's your father?"

Christine felt her body involuntarily twitch. "He passed away three years ago."

"Oh! I'm so, so sorry, Christine."

"Yeah, it's fine. How's yours?"

"He's fine." Raoul leaned in. "I can't tell you yet but he's the reason we are back in town."

"Oh. There are only so many possibilities." She giggled and he laughed. She had missed his laugh, even though now it was more deep and… nicer. "Gosh, it's so great to see you again."

"Ditto. We need to hang out. When are you off?"

"Actually, this is my first day of working here. I think I'm off at 2:00 today."

"Congrats! That's awesome. Now you get to help Phil indulge in his frozen fantasies. Would you like to go out?"

She blushed. "I'd love to. Perhaps not Applebee's though, huh?"

"You will never let me live that down."

"Do you still not like them?"

"They're okay." He shrugged. "You still have my penny?"

"I have no idea. I might but I don't know how I'd know it was yours if I found it. After my… father passed, I moved into his old co-workers house."

He frowned. "Who?"

"Ms. Valerius. Remember her? She used to give us those gross butterscotch candies."

"Kind of. I don't think she liked me."

"Whatever. I'm sure she thought you were a nice young boy."

"I think I spit in her coffee one time."

She laughed. They continued talking for a bit and exchanged numbers. Raoul said he'd call her in a bit so then they could hang out.

"Christine! Break's over!" Meg interrupted.

"It's my first week." She shrugged. "I better go."

"It was really nice seeing you again, Christine."

"You too, Raoul." She grinned and went back into the shop. Meg gave Philip a smile and then winked at Christine.

"Raoul Changy, huh? Who knew?"

She ignored her. "It's your turn for a break."

"Susan won't be here for another hour… Think you can handle it by yourself for thirty minutes?"

"I'll be fine."

"Alright. I'll be back." And then she left Christine alone with her thoughts.

Seeing Raoul had sparkled a bunch of old feelings but it also sparked a new one she wasn't very familiar with. She didn't want to name it. He had changed so much. He was so handsome now… and she could tell he was confident by the way he carried himself. She was snapped out of her thoughts when the door jingled again. She shot her head up, hoping it was Raoul for some weird reason, but it wasn't.

Instead, an unfamiliar handsome man with messy hair walked up to the counter. He shot her a half-grin. "Hey."

She forced a weird smile. "How may I help you today, sir?"

"You could help me by giving me your number." He continued after seeing her shocked face. "Hey. I'm kidding. Is Meg here?"

She felt herself slowly shake her head. "No, she's on her break."

He tsked. "Do you know when she'll be back?"

"Um." Christine glanced at her watch. "She left like three minutes ago so she should be back in about a half-hour." She rubbed her arm as he just gazed at her. "Do you want me to give her a message or something?"

"No. No. I just didn't know they had hired a new employee."

She blushed insanely and couldn't meet his eyes. "Sir, is there, uh, something you would like from here?"

"Call me Simon. And yeah, I'll have a hot fudge sundae. Extra fudge." He said, the words seemingly falling off his tongue. She wordlessly nodded and went about getting it for him. She set his sundae on the counter but when he handed her the money, their hands brushed. She shivered. He gave off a different vibe than Raoul did. Raoul had a sweet, playful energy, Simon's energy was playful but more… seductive and sneaky. Like a fox from Aesop's Tales. She didn't trust him.

"Thanks…" he looked at her nametag "…Christine." He said when he grabbed his cup. "I'll be back."

She shuddered when he left and she shook her arms. That guy creeped her out. She jumped when Meg came back 35 minutes later.

"You were supposed to be here eight minutes ago."

"Whoa. Sorry. I was on the phone-"

"There was this creepy guy asking for you."

"A creepy guy? What? What'd he look like? What was his name?"

"Simon."

"Oh! He's not a creepy guy, Christine. He's my boyfriend."

"What?" she gasped. "Meg, he flirted with me the entire time!"

"Oh, he flirts with everyone. He's funny like that."

"It didn't seem funny to me. It made me uncomfortable."

"I'm sorry. I'll tell him to leave you alone then. But… didn't you see how hot he is?"

"No, I-"

"You didn't find him the least bit attractive?"

Her thoughts went back to his messy hair and strong jawline. She blushed remembering how their fingers touches. "I mean… maybe a bit. But he came off very strong."

Meg shrugged. "He's an extrovert. From what I can tell, you're an introvert. I've heard the two don't mix well."

"I guess not." Another costumer came up. "He said he'd be back. What does that mean?"

"It means he'll be back. What else?" she walked up to the counter. "Hi. How may I help you today, Ma'am?"

"I know. I know. But he could call or text you, but instead he said he would come back here. Doesn't that sound a bit… sketchy?"

"I don't know, Chris." She said as she grabbed the cup as the costumer requested. "He's a handsome sneaky creepy bastard. There's no telling what he'll do. Did you want whipped cream?"

And while Meg seemed to ignore it, there was a chill that followed Christine for the rest of the day.


She arrived home late that night. Raoul hadn't called and she couldn't get her mind off of that guy who came in earlier. When she walked in she was greeted with Ms. Valerius's worried face.

"Christine! You worried me. But I have news for you!"

It was a lot. "Okay, okay hold on. Let me come in." she came in and shut the door behind her, locking it. Ms. Valerius held up a newspaper. They must have gotten their newspapers back.

"Go to page 6B." Christine took the paper and looked through it.

"What about it?"

"Look." She pointed down at the left corner. Hospital makes new donation solely through music at the Mercedes Edwards Theatre.

"What about it?" she repeated.

"You play the keyboard, don't you?"

Christine shook her head. "I mean, I know how to play the piano."

"Ha! That's the same thing! Look" she pointed at the page, "They are going to be making bands to make profit. You could join one and do this!"

"But why would I want to…" She stopped when she saw who was in charge of the whole thing. The Changy's… "Is this today's paper?"

"No. It's from yesterday, but the option is still up."

"Why… why would you think I'd want to do this?"

"I know you like music. Your father used to go on and go about how much you loved music, until he died of course."

Christine felt her stomach squeeze.

She continued. "And I know you liked to sing. So whether you were using the keyboard or singing, I thought maybe you'd be interested."

"Thanks." Christine sniffed.

The woman grabbed Christine hand. "You need to let him go."

That caught her off guard. "What? My father?"

"You can never forget, but you can forgive. None of it was your fault. You had no part of it yet it still holds you back even three years later."

"I… don't know what to say." Everything was spinning. She hadn't spoken about this in months.

"I'm just saying you must move on. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. You can't let this one thing keep you from doing it."

"Thank you… Ms. Valerius."

"I mean it. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Now," she hobbled over to the kitchen. "What would you like for dinner? We've got some leftovers from Sunday but we've also got some burritos you can warm up in the oven."

"It's okay. I'm not that hungry." She said shakily.

"Speak up, dear."

"I said, I'm fine. Not hungry." She repeated in a louder voice.

"Alright. You know what to do when you are."

"Yes." And then she ran to her room, tears threatening to fall. The second her door shut, Christine ran to her bed and threw down the dumb newspaper. She grabbed her favorite green blanket and shoved her face into it, in deep thought. She knew it was childish to have a blanket, but it was only for comfort. Her father had gotten it for her.

She remembered how much she loved music. But she didn't want to remember. It triggered other memories she had and it all came crashing down. She had shoved it all in the back of her head, but now it was all flooding back. She had opened the window of a submarine.

And she was sinking.

Again.

She shuddered again, remembering her college years. It was all too much at once sprung up on her. She grabbed a glass of water that had been sitting on her dresser near her bed. It was warm but she needed something. After a few deep breathes, Christine held up her decisions.

Either she could try out for this theatre band thing, see Raoul more often, and pursue music as her father would have wanted with a high possibility of having a really good time… or, she could continue her poor excuse of a job at Baskin Robins and keep seeing that weird guy. With a sigh, she opened up her laptop and looked up "Virtual Keyboard Online Free."

After hitting a few keys and hearing the music resonate in the air, she grabbed her phone, seeing Raoul never called, and dialed 1-800-METBAND.