I just want to thank everyone for reviewing so far! You guys are the absolute greatest! I never ever ever NEVER thought I would get FORTY-SIX reviews! It's amazing! It's even passed up "Red and Black" in the number of reviews!

I realized that SOME OF YOU weren't able to review last chappy because I had posted and taken down and reposted Ch 6! I should've written this and Ch. 8 already, but, REAL LIFE IS SOOOOO NOT BORING RIGHT NOW! It's BEYOND hectic! Stupid S.T.A.R testing…

That stands for Stupid Tests At Random, if ya don't know. lol.

I've decided that I don't like posting reviews at the end. But if YOU like it when I post 'em at the end of the chappy, then by all means, I will! But I've gotten so many reviews I just don't know if I'll be able to answer them all personally! Hoo-wee!

Maintenant, on avec le histoire! I don't know the French word for 'on' teehee -

-Alianne (Oh come ON, ya'll know my name, I just like to keep up mysterious appearances, ya know)

Icy Dunking

The redhead sighed resignedly and closed the balcony window doors. Slipping under the purple comforters, she turned off her bedside lamp and went to sleep.

Upon awaking in the morning, Christine found a pure white magnolia flower lying innocently beside the dark red rose.

Christine felt her stomach drop to the lowest point, her heart fluttered in her throat as she realized the full implications of what that magnolia meant. She clutched the purple coverlet to her chest tightly on her bed as she stared at the flowers.

He got in my room…again! And my doors were closed! How the heck did he get in…Oh my God, what if…if he's really the Phantom…

Crap.

Dread filled every part of the girl, and she cursed herself for her stupidity. How COULD she? She wasn't in her right mind the past two days; there was no other plausible explanation for her doing something so naïve, so, so, not her! Well, maybe it was her, but a full-grown man had been in her room! Twice!

Broke into it, is more like it, Christine thought to herself. What if he wasn't the Phantom? Oh God…this is NOT happening to me! I can't have a stalker! And I just allowed it, too…

And I can't even tell Mom…definitely not Dad, either.

"Ohhhhh shiitake mushrooms…" Christine moaned aloud.

What was she going to do about tonight? She actually invited they guy to come with them to see the Phantom of the Opera, what was she going to tell Anna? But there's no way on EARTH that she was EVER going to miss seeing the musical!

The pit in her stomach grew unbearable, and she slowly rose from the haven of her purple and gold LSU bed to go to her closet. She was about to grab a pair of khaki shorts and a light green polo t-shirt before her mom's voice rang out from the bottom of the stairs.

"Christine, dear, we've got Mass this morning so wear something decent!" Mrs. Chagny called.

Oh yeah, it was All Saints Day. How could she have forgotten? Every year the Chagny family checked out its children from school and took them to the first of November Mass.

Hey, now she had more time to think about what she was going to do with Erik. Mustn't complain about that!

Christine kept the light green polo shirt and grabbed a pair of khaki capris in place of the shorts. She decided that keeping her hair in two long braids would suffice for the rest of the day; until tonight, anyways. A pair of bright orange flip-flops would also do nicely.

She shuffled into her bathroom and came back out again a few minutes later, dabbing her face with a dry towel to wipe off any extra soap as she eyed every corner of her room, making sure nothing was out of place, just in case "Erik" had decided to mess around with her stuff.

The "Labyrinth" poster was nestled betwixt her world map and the Daniel Radcliffe one. Jareth and Harry stared out at her and she sighed dreamily. Nope, Erik didn't mess with these…

Her great purple and gold LSU Tiger roared back at her from its flag tacked to the wall. Nope, Mike's alright, too. The green and gold Fighting Irish flag with its feisty leprechaun hadn't been touched, either. Jack Sparrow and Aragorn faced her gaze unwaveringly; they too had not been messed with. A long sword hung over her bed placed along the wall directly across from the balcony window. It hadn't moved from its spot. The walls that weren't covered by movie posters were painted in deep purples, greens, and golds. Pictures taken from the year before dotted the rest of the spaces, she and her friends grinning madly at the camera. Her white computer desk had been scuffed during the move pretty badly, but other than that there was nothing wrong with it.

Her Phantom of the Opera movie screensaver flashed on her laptop screen and Christine rushed over to it. It was Erik! Erik… he looked exactly like Gerard Butler, but without the accent….his voice was much MUCH better than Gerry's. It still had the rock star sound to it, but it seemed…different somehow…and the golden eyes….those weren't the Gerard Erik's eyes…his were a shocking turquoise color-definitely not the warm, dark amber that seemed to...

Wait, weren't there other versions of "The Phantom of the Opera" other than the movie and the musical ones? Christine remembered Anna raving about the book by…who was it again? Leroux? Yes, it was by Leroux.

"I guess I'll have to do a little background check on my little…Opera Ghost," Christine drawled dryly.

Argh! That pit in her stomach wasn't going away! She pushed her dread down and headed to the living room and out the door where her mom and brother were waiting at the silver minivan.

"Took you long enough, Chris!" Brent complained as their mom started the ignition.

Christine ignored him and climbed into the passenger seat. "Hey Mom…where's Dad?"

Renee Chagny hesitated slightly before replying. "He's on TDY…"

"Okay…but where?" Christine asked.

Another pause, and then, "Beale," was all she said. Christine's eyes started to prickle and she turned to face out the window.

"Oh honey, I'm sorry we didn't tell you before, but—"

"But what? You guys kept it from me? You could have at least told me he was leaving!" Christine burst out. "Now he's going to be the one to see MY friends, not ME! I don't even have a yearbook! We LEFT before I could get one!" Not only do I have to deal with a masked stalker, but now this!

"Jane Christine Chagny, do be quiet already! We'll call your father and see if he can pick one up for you, all right?" her mom said, pulling into the church parking lot. "Hurry up, or we'll be late!" The trio hastily made their way into one of the middle pews on the left side of the church. Abstract stained glass windows adorned the walls, and in the spaces between them, long plain green and white tapestries hung. It was simple, but at the same time conveyed a deep sense of power emanating from all around. The redhead instantly became relaxed, and began praying on her knees before the priest and acolytes processed in. They still had about twenty minutes before the Mass even started, geez, Mom!

Christine closed her eyes and breathed in and out softly. Well, let's get everything straight here and now. Suppose Erik is the Phantom of the Opera--he hasn't done anything to hurt me in the past few days, has he? No, if he wanted to hurt me, he would have done it by now. Or he could be waiting to hurt me…he waited for Christine, didn't he?

No…I still think he would have done that by now. Besides, he helped me get away from those creeps night before last. He left me a rose, and then he showed up at school yesterday. All right, so I didn't see him, but he was there, I heard him! That was so cool, hearing him call softly "Brava, Brava, Bravissima…"

Hey, he did it to Christine Daae too! How many girls will EVER hear THAT in their lifetime? Except for the time in the movie, of course-can't forget that. He's more of a Gerard Butler Phantom, but there're the other versions, too…I know for a fact that in the Leroux version he has a mask covering his WHOLE face except for his lips, and he's got a wig, and hardly any nose…but the Gerard Phantom doesn't! His hair is all glossy, like Erik's! It's thick and so black…And he doesn't have Gerard Phantom's eyes…Erik's eyes are all amber-y colored, not blue. And he's not wearing the dress suit like he did in the movie…he seemed all modernized, somehow. Can someone like him be immortal or something? I mean, come ON, the whole thing happened two hundred years ago! Or really, since it was 1881 when it all started…AHH! Math! Noooooooo…

All right, about a hundred and twenty five years ago. Not exactly two hundred like I thought, but still, that's a LONG time! He doesn't even look a day older than thirty!

Whoa…thirty? GOSH, I'm fifteen! He's fifteen years older than me! What does he WANT with me? He doesn't SEEM like a perv…so maybe he's just curious…yes, he's just curious, that's all!

Maybe it's got something to do with my last name…if he's really the Phantom; he's got to be interested in the Chagny's. DARN YOU CHRISTINE DAAÉ! CURSE YOU!

Now I've got a stalker guy coming after me! But he hasn't DONE anything! Grrr…I think too much for my own good. I'm just gonna go up to him tonight and we'll get everything straightened out. No kidnapping, no breaking into my room and no punjabbing my friends!

Yeah, that's what I'll do! Now all I have to do is check out that book by Leroux…just to see exactly who I'm dealing with…

"Christine!" someone hissed. "Get up! Mass is over!" Everyone began processing out of the church, and the redhead rose up dazedly from her spot in the pew. Her knees almost buckled on her, jeez! She had knelt during the whole entire service!

"Oww…" she moaned as her family walked to the car. It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, so they had time to rush back home to get backpacks and rush back to school in time for lunch.

"Now where is that blasted book…" Christine murmured aloud as her fingers traced the spines of the numerous books on the shelves in the school library. Hardly anyone was in there during lunch, so she had the place to herself; even the librarian wasn't in the room.

"Ah-hah! There you are…" the redhead grabbed the book and settled down in a cushioned window seat overlooking the forest. She flipped through the introduction quickly, her eyes skimming over the pages, looking for any information that might pop out at her. She learned that the Opera House was seventeen stories tall, and was the largest theatre in the world, and of the underground lake, which she obviously knew of from the movie. She came to the author's note and gasped as she read it, how Leroux knew that the Opera "Ghost" was real! He was! How could anyone think that he WASN'T real? And who was the Persian?

The redhead closed the book and stared out the window. She saw the same stick from before jutting above the trees, and she peered closer, trying to see it better. Then she realized that it wasn't a stick, it was a spire!

There was a house in those woods! She saw through the gaps in the trees that the house wasn't a house—it was a mansion! An old one too, by the looks of it.

Was it the same mansion she saw on her way to school every morning? She tore her gaze away from the old building and stared at the cover of the book. It showed a figure with a white mask shouting, with a gaudy red plumed feather stuck jauntily in his fedora, and a black cape swirling around the white title.

Christine flipped to the first chapter and began devouring it. Meg had black hair? But it was blonde in the movie…YES! A description of the Phantom! Wait, Buquet wasn't a drunk? He wasn't leery and scary and crazy like he was in the movie!

BUQUET WAS SOBER!

ERIK HAD A DEATH'S HEAD! No he didn't! In fact, he was very handsome in real life!

CARLOTTA WAS SICK! But… didn't Erik—no, he's the Opera Ghost right now; they haven't even given him a real name yet! I thought she quit after Eri—the Opera Ghost—dropped the set thing on her!

Andrew Lloyd Webber sure did a number on the book. But this version was just as interesting as the movie…

Whoa. It even made the fop sound even foppier than he already was!

What a truly awesome novel…

RING!

"Durn bell," Christine grumbled as she shut the book closed. The redhead gently placed it in her green backpack and left the library.

She needed to talk to Erik before the play tonight—but when?

SEE!

Isn't it good?

Lol!

Sorry it took so long!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!

Love ya guys!

-Laura (Alianne, if you need to be told once more!)