I get to update every day! Yay! (is happy) Okay, reviewer time!

Kianra: I love your fic, I almost stole your singing in the elevator thing, but figured I should stick to my own ideas. I can totally see Erik singing the title song over the elevator music. And when Hilary is outside his door singing and he goes, "Sing my angel of music!" That was awesome. Anyway, you shall be in it. Thanks for the description. A cyberhug for you! (hugs) Heheh…Sprite…I wish I had known that – I would have put it in chapter two.

Lazy.kender19: I thought I only called you poor Hilary once? It was because I felt bad about being so harsh on you for hanging around the door. And my friend Kat's trademark is…throwing potatoes. It's a long story…e-mail me if you'd like to hear it! (grin) And I'm honored that you'd risk getting in trouble to read my little fic. You know, since you gave me your description in the first place, you deserve one too. (hugs)

JessicaDwyer: You sent me a lovely little descrition…I already have ideas of what to do with you…Cyberhug! (hugs)

SummerSong: Heheh…maypole… I love that last idea of what to do with the fop, I'm totally going to use it… Another description! (hugs)

Faithoftheforsaken: Thanks! And last but not least, one for you. (hugs)

Yay! Cyberhugs all around! Anyway, here's the next chapter – one of you guys! As I don't know most of you personally, I'm going to invent your personalities as I go along. And this one's a little…OOC.

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Erik looked awful when he got back upstairs. Aislin pulled open the door to see him staring angrily back at her with half his face. "So…how did it go?"

"She threw a potato at me."

Aislin laughed. "Yeah, well, that's Kat for you. Well, your next date was scheduled for tomorrow, but that one was so short, we could probably fit it in today. And before Erik could protest, she had picked up the phone.

"Hello? Yeah, we've got a load of time left…go ahead and send up the next girl…Yeah, send her up here." She hung up.

"And why can't we wait until tomorrow?" Erik had retrieved one of his spare masks and fitted it to his face.

"Think if it this way – if we fit as many together as possible, the phangirls get to see you sooner, and you get finished with the dates sooner. Everybody wins!" She grinned.

Erik had to agree with this, even if it meant him more pain and embarrassment at the moment. Then before he could even comment on it, there was an excited knock at the door.

"Already?" he said incredulously.

"Well, the phans want nothing more than to see you, so chances are they're all hanging around really close by. Like that girl this morning." Aislin pulled open the door.

Behind it stood a rather short girl, the height difference magnified by the fact that Erik was so tall. The striking thing about her was that she had curly, red hair. Not the reddish color Kat had had, but really red hair. Erik was put in mind of the girl from Charlie Brown, with the naturally curly hair. She looked…extremely happy to see him. It was understandable, but it looked like her smile might be hurting her a bit.

"Erik, this is Summer. Signed up over the Internet as SummerSong. Let's assume that Song is her last name."

Erik studied this new girl. "She doesn't look Asian."

"Not that kind of Song. Song as in, 'Sing my angel of music.' You ought to get along really well."

Summer tilted her head to one side and asked, "Where are we going?"

"It's still Erik's first day of this, so you aren't going far. I've arranged a visit to the pool on the fifth floor. I even got you both swimsuits." Aislin happily held out a plastic bag to Summer's face lit up. Swimming…with Erik…

The Opera Ghost, however, was less than pleased. True, he'd planned on going to the pool, but not on one of his dates. "I'm not changing into a swimsuit with this girl. Or any girl for that matter. Do you think I'm stupid enough to dare to take my shirt off around these crazy phangirls?"

"I was kind of hoping you were." Summer looked rather crestfallen.

"It's no problem," said Aislin. "Erik, change in the bathroom. I'll leave, Summer, you can go ahead and change in here." She exited the room to give them both some privacy.

Erik took his suit out of the bag and went into the bathroom, locking the door. It wasn't as if she had gotten him a Speedo or something. He shuddered. (A/N: I shuddered. Speedos scare me.) It was a pair of ordinary trunks. They were even black. He tried them on.

He was almost sorry to say that he was a little proud of how he looked. The swim trunks didn't exactly go well with the mask, but his body looked…well…sexy. Aislin's word was the only one that came to mind. And he had great muscles in his arms – he'd never noticed. Probably from all the rowing in the boat on the lake. Still, a little self-conscious, he put on a white bathrobe before he left the bathroom.

Summer's suit was a simple one piece, black as well. Apparently Aislin hadn't wanted to presume too much when she bought them. She took two towels and opened the door. Erik went out first.

Aislin was nowhere to be seen, so Summer pulled Erik to the elevators down the hall. They got in one, and stood waiting as it descended to the fifth floor.

Summer stood quietly next to him. Erik watched her warily. At least she seemed sane enough so far. No potatoes.

The elevator stopped, and they went up to the pool. There was one large pool, with the usual shallow and deep ends, and four small hot tubs. Kids splashed in the shallow ends, while older people paddled in the deep end, or floated on inflatable mattresses. A little lost, Erik simply took a seat on a large reclining chair. He didn't even remove his robe.

Summer stood disconsolately beside his chair. "Aren't you going to swim?"

"I don't swim publicly."

"For the record, you don't do anything publicly." And she walked away.

Erik couldn't believe it. Was he so lucky? Did one date actually leave of her own accord? Still wondering, he leaned back in his chair.

There was a large splash, and Erik was suddenly very wet.

And there stood Summer, a large bucket in her hands, and Erik dripping with the water she'd dumped on him. "There. You're wet. Now let's go swimming."

Erik stood up, his sopping hair in his eyes. He opened his mouth, raising his hand as if to get extremely angry.

And Summer pushed him into the pool.

He wasn't exactly sure what had happened, except that he was now in seven feet of water, his robe weighing heavily in the water, and a ten-year-old boy had just careened into his leg underwater. Grinning proudly now, Summer leaped into the pool beside him. "CANNONBALL!!!"

So much for being sane.

A very wet Summer clung to the wall next to Erik. "Race you across the pool!" And she took off toward the shallows.

He didn't know if he wanted to swim or if he was just mad out his head. All he knew was that he was removing his floundering robe and letting it sink to the bottom of the water, chasing Summer down to the other end of the pool.

He crashed into her.

"Ow…" He rubbed his shoulder, which he'd driven into her back. "Why…?"

He realized why.

He'd actually fallen for all her trickery! No, I won't get in the pool, and he let himself be pushed in. No, I won't take the robe off, and he'd left it in the other end. No, I won't swim with you, and he'd let her lead him into it!

Was she smart, or was he stupid?

Triumphantly, Summer pounced on him in the water. And Erik learned that day what it is all phangirls wish to do – jump on a half-naked, wet Erik in the middle of a swimming pool. It wasn't much of a learning experience then, however, as he was underwater and couldn't breathe.

One hand on the mask, and the other pushing Summer away as best he could, he struggled to reach the surface. Only when Summer felt that she needed air did Erik find the opportunity to splash out of the water. He gasped for breath, and turned to Summer.

"Are you trying to kill me?"

She stood innocently in the three feet of water. "Not really, no."

Exasperated, he climbed out of the pool. Then, on a second thought, he turned around and backed away slowly, so he could still see Summer waving goodbye from the pool.

"It was fun! Call me!"

Like heck he'd call her.

He grabbed another towel from the guy at the gate of the pool, wrapping it around him as he walked. The first one nailed him with a potato, and this one tried to drown him. This could only end badly.

He slumped weakly against the wall of the elevator on the way up, and, as Aislin still hadn't returned from wherever she'd gone, he changed out of his suit into the previous, wrinkled one and all but fell onto his bed, crashing after the morning's ordeal. It was barely two o'clock, and he was completely drained. But then, near death by phangirl-induced drowning could take a lot out of an Opera Ghost.

He dreamed fitfully of his cozy little house by the lake, with the coffin and the piano and little dancing girls in the Opera just waiting to be terrified.

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Hm. I'm not too proud of that one. Well, I hope you liked it! Oh, and if The Flying Breadstick is still out there, I'd like to know your real name, or at least a functionable (hey, that's not a word, I could have sworn it was) nickname. I'd feel weird having Erik date the…flying breadstick. Of DOOM! Sorry. Anyway, read and review!