It was a cold January morning when I got to school on the day I found out. We were less than a week away from opening night for Hannibal and we were scrambling around trying to get everything ready.

"Okay Emma, let's take it from the top of 'Think of Me.'" Said our director, Mr. Firmin.

"A one, and a two, and a three!" He said.

"Think of me, think of me fondly, when we said goodbye." Emma sang, her lilting soprano powering through the high notes of the song.

It wasn't easy, my vocal coach used to train with Emma when Emma was just starting out, and knew her style of singing well and had passed it on to me.

"Charlotte, can you grab me my water bottle out of my dressing room?" Asked Emma. I turned to look at her to make sure and she just gave me this look that said 'what are you still doing here.'

I trundled my way backstage to the dressing rooms, mindful of the old and creaking walls. Winslow's theater was... weird. It actually predates the school, having been built at the turn of the century as an opera house, before it was abandoned and fell into disrepair. When Brockton Bay needed to build a new school in the docks, they built Winslow around the old theater. The Anders Conservancy had then, in turn, raised the money to restore the theater to its former glory.

The result was that while the rest of Winslow was a dilapidated shithole, the theater was surprisingly ornate, with golden cherubim statues lining the proscenium, an elaborately painted fire curtain, and an elaborate chandelier hanging up in the house.

As I walked through the winding labyrinthine backstage corridors, I finally made it to Emma's dressing room.

"You're better than her you know..."

I don't know why Emma thought I would be content to be her little errand girl. Actually, I did, she wanted me to waste my time doing everything except rehearsing during rehearsals, so that I couldn't take her place.

As I sifted through the mess that was Emma's dressing room, looking for her stupid water bottle, I knocked over Emma's backpack. It wasn't a huge mess, just some papers and books from her schoolwork. I went to put them back in when I saw something else had slipped out of her backpack.

A stack of photographs.

To this day, I don't know what possessed me to look through them, maybe it was the temptation to see who could stand being around Emma long enough to actually be her friend.

On the top of the stack was a picture of Emma along with Sophia Hess and Madison Clements. I knew Sophia from my Math class, but I didn't realize that she had been friends with Emma as some point. Madison was somebody I had seen in the hallways a couple of times and had been in the same English class freshmen year. Yet I couldn't tell you a thing more about her.

I continued to flip through the stack of photos, photos of Emma with Madison and Sophia, photos of Sophia running track, a blurry photo of Shadow Stalker, pictures of Emma with her family, and then at the bottom of the stack was the one that caught my attention.

It was a much younger Emma next to another girl. This other girl had long curly hair that was nearly black, a pair of glasses framed her face. Both girls were grinning from ear to ear. It was hard to believe that somebody like Emma could actually be that carefree and happy. It was only then that I noticed that the dark haired girl's face in the photo had been partially scratched out.

"What the hell are you doing in here Daaé?" Shouted Emma.

I turned around and Emma Barnes was there, standing in the doorway. "Emma!" I nearly yelped. "I was just grabbing your water bottle for you."

Emma scowled. "I didn't ask you to go through my things Charlotte." She sneered.

"I'm sorry Emma." I apologized. "Your purse fell over and the photos fell out and I was going to put them back in."

"Uh huh." She replied. "And that's why you were pawing through my photos?"

"N-no Emma." I replied. Flustered.

"You should be in the lead role"

I didn't know why I was letting Emma boss me around like that. We were both actresses in this play, just because she has the bigger part didn't mean that she could just boss me around like that. Who did that girl think she is?!

"Finally!" Said Mr. Firmin. "What were you two doing back there?"

"Nothing Mr. Firmin!" Said Emma. "I just asked Charlotte to get me something from my dressing room and when she couldn't find it, she texted me and asked me for help."

"Okay, let's take it from the bridge of 'Think of Me.' Greg, can you cue the CD?" Firmin asked.

Over in the sound booth, I look and saw Greg Veder holding a set of headphones up to his ear, listening intently, before pausing the CD player and then giving Mr. Firmin a thumbs up.

As the music started to swell over the speakers, I started mentally counting the beats in my head, waiting for the cue.

"Remember me, once in a while. Please, promise me you'll try." Emma sang.

"And you'll find that once again you-" Emma's singing was cut off by one of the painted backdrops that hung from the Cyc fell down. I could only watch in horror as the backdrop depicting the alps tumbled towards the stage.

"Watch out!" Yelled Cecily. Emma tried to jump out of the way, but her foot got caught on the stage floor and she stumbled onto the round, paimfully twisting her ankle.

"Emma!" Said one of the background dancers. "Are you okay?"

"Miss Clements, please take Miss Barnes to the nurse, with luck it's nothing that some ibprofen can't fix." Said Mr. Firmin.

"Please everyone, don't worry, we'll get the backdrop re-hung in just a moment." Said Mr. Firmin. "In the meantime, Miss Daaé, if you would. Let's take it from the chorus."

I watched the sound booth as Greg re-cued the CD to the chorus for this song, watching for his cue.

Once again, the sounds of the orchestra swelled through the speakers and I counted along to the beats until my cue.

"Think of me, think of me fondly, when we've said goodbye!" I sang, following my vocal coach's advice.

"Remember me, once in a while. Please promise me you'll try!" I continued, feeling the words come out of me as if I'd written them myself.

"When you find that, once again, you long to take your heart back and be free, If you ever find a moment. Spare a thought for me." As I finished the chorus, I looked around the theater to shocked faces from everyone.

"Charlotte..." Said Megan. "Where in the world did you learn to sing like that?"

"That was incredible, Charlotte!" Said Mr. Firmin.

"You guys...". I said. "You liked that?"

"Liked it?" Said Megan's mom. "I loved it! You blew us all away!"

I was stunned. I know my voice coach was always praising my singing, but I just thought they were being nice. To have everyone in the drama club singing those same praises, it was putting me on cloud nine.

I almost hoped Emma wouldn't be okay if it meant that I had the chance to perform on stage as the lead.

"Bravo, Bravo, Bravissimo..."