"Ladies, quiet down. Please!" Mr. Villefort was standing at the front of the room. Finally he went to the piano keyboard and beat out a few chords. "Ladies, if you don't quiet down, we'll never get to start rehearsals." The girls quieted down. Mia and Cassandra were sitting in the back of the room in their customary seats. Davette was sitting towards the front. "Now, the girls who made roles in the play were notified upon their return from break. However, it has not been formally announced." Villefort's eyes drifted up to where Cassandra sat.

"Josephine, Angela, Michelle and Colleen are going to be ballerina's in the chorus, along with four girls who are not in the choir, but are rather accomplished dancers." The four girls smiled as the rest clapped. "Davette, will be playing Carlotta." Davette smiled broadly and stood.

"I'm honored. Carlotta is a difficult role to play…the accent and all."

"Yes, Davette." Villefort continued on. "Mr. Giles' wife will be playing Madame Giry. She's a dance instructor and will be choreographing the ballets….rather fortunate actually. Meg Giry will be played by Amelia Cartwright." Mia nodded as the girls turned to her.

"And Christine? Is she an accomplished singer from outside the school? Or some talent that's not in the choir?" Davette interrupted. She was obviously jealous to not get the lead role.

"Actually, Cassandra Davagé will be our Christine." Everyone turned and cheered. Davette fumed, but applauded politely. "Now, our rehearsals will begin on Wednesday at St. Marks. Any young ladies wishing to help with the production, you're more than welcome to. I want all of you to participate; this is a complicated production after all. We'll need people to help with costumes, hair and make up. We'll need people to help with set design, set up, and transition. Mr. Giles and I intend to run this as any production on or off Broadway. We want this to be very professional ladies." Several girls went down to sign up to work as the crew. "Any of you with parts; I need you to stay after for a few moments." The bell rang and the seven girls in the performance went down to the piano. "Ladies, this is your music for the performance." He handed each of them a large, leather volume with the sheet music bound into it. "These are your lines. I'd like you to read through this material and make yourselves familiar with it by Wednesday. On Wednesday we will be going over to St. Marks and meeting our Male counterparts. Any questions?"

"No sir." They all echoed. They filed out the door and into the hall.

Mia, Cassandra and two of their friends, Maria and Elizabeth were up in the North Hall late that night playing ERS and drinking IBC root beer.

"So you're both going to be in the play? That's so awesome." Maria said picking up a pile of cards.

"Yeah, it's amazing. I can't wait to see who's playing Raoul." Mia said, sighing. "He's been REALLY hot in all the other productions."

"Wouldn't it be great if he looked like---what's his name from the movie?" Beth giggled.

"Patrick Wilson? I'd hope he's a little younger than that." Cassandra said sipping at her Cream Soda.

"Do you get to kiss him?"

"Uh—"

"Yep, right here—roof top scene before intermission. And then again after intermission—and then again at the end of the play—oh, and she kisses the Phantom too!"

"Damn, Cassie, that's more action in one play than we get---ever!" Maria tried to slap at a double but missed to Mia.

Cassie was nervous. She'd only ever kissed one boy and it had been at a birthday party in middle school during spin the bottle. It had been a very chaste kiss on the lips, but nothing further.

Wednesday was a cold gray day and the girls bundled up and loaded onto the buses for St. Marks. They were led by Mr. Villefort into a music room much like their own. They sat in the front row, even though Mia and Cassandra desperately wanted to sit in the back. It was several minutes before the boys filed in. All wearing the St. Marks uniforms.

"Ladies, welcome to St. Marks." The girls weren't really paying attention to Mr. Giles' welcome speech. They were staring at the young men sitting across from them. "Jonathan, Michael Corlinder, Michael Thompson, Alexander, Tom, David, Jason and Andy, please stand." Eight very slim and athletic looking men stood. "These are our principle male dancers." Giles announced.

"Angela, Josephine, Michelle, Colleen and Nicole, Stacy, Sara, Mary—our lady dancers." Their eyes glittered as they looked on their dance partners.

"My wife, Meredith, will be here to start working with you shortly. She's stuck in traffic, Christian and Henry will be playing André and Firmin." Two rather older looking boys stood. "Matt—This is our Piangi." The boy was bigger than the more athletic dancers, but still rather slim. "We're going to fit him with a body suit to give him the appropriate bulk for the role." Matt had a cute smile.

"I'm pleased to present Carlotta---Miss Davette Owens." Villefort nodded as Davette stood.

"Nice to meet you boys." She said, her false smile trying to dazzle them.

"And Amelia Cartwright will be playing Meg." Mia stood up.

"I prefer to be called Mia—if you all don't mind."

"Not at all, sorry Mia." Villefort said. The door suddenly opened and in rushed another boy.

"Sorry I'm late Mr. Giles—oh." The boy stood up straight and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry to interrupt."

"Just in time, Ryan." Mr. Giles said. "Ryan Alexander, our Raoul ladies and gentlemen." Mia had sat down and elbowed Cassie furiously. "And our Phantom will be played by Mark Howard." The dark haired boy stood up and bowed to the ladies.

"Cassandra?" Mr. Villefort called. Cassandra's eyes were still on Ryan. "Cassandra Davagé, gentlemen. Our Christine Daaé." Cassandra stood and pushed her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Let me tell you boys, she's got a set of pipes on her like you wouldn't believe." Giles said. "You'll have to work pretty hard to match her."

"No doubt of it." Ryan said taking a seat, but still staring at Cassie. She sat down.

"Now, here's how rehearsals are going to run down." Giles said taking a seat behind the piano. "Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays we'll practice here. Tuesdays we'll practice in separate groups. Dancers will be spending time with my wife on those Tuesdays. Mia, you'll be going every other Tuesday, but Meredith wants you to make time to come and see her if you're having problems."

"OK."

"Practices will last for an hour and a half each night to begin with. But they will get longer in a few weeks as we start to piece together the actual performance."

There were more announcements and questions on all sides. When they were dismissed Villefort and Giles went down the hall to check something on the stage. Everyone started talking to everyone.

Davette was talking to two of the male dancers, obviously twins—or at least brothers, and flirting shamelessly with them.

Ryan walked shyly over to where Cassie and Mia were talking by the door.

"Uh—Hi, Cassandra. I'm Ryan—" The boy winced as he realized the foolishness.

"Call me Cassie." Cassie said extending her hand. Mia ducked out of the conversation to go talk to Matt.

"Cassie." Ryan nodded and smiled. It was dazzling to Cassandra. Matt and Mia were talking to Mark. "Well, I really do look forward to working with you on this production. I'm sorry I've got to run, but--I guess I'll—see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, definitely." He nodded and smiled as he left the room with some of the other boys. Cassie went over to where Matt and Mia were laughing at a joke, but Mark seemed left out.

"Hi—" Cassie said pushing more of her hair back out of her face.

"Hello." Mark said gazing at her dully. "I hope you know how to act—that's really the only reason I'm in this production—it's an opening into an acting career." Mark walked away.

"Don't mind him—he's as dull as a dishrag in person, but he acts and sings like no bodies business." Matt said.

"Wow…I hope so."

"I'm Matt Andrews—You're Cassandra, right."

"Cassie." Mia interrupted. "Only teachers call her Cassandra."

"Cassie—I think this is going to be a great performance…especially if you're as good as Mr. Giles says you are. He doesn't throw praise around lightly."

"Ladies, it's time to go." Mr. Villefort said poking his head in the door. The girls filed out slowly.

Later that night Mia and Cassandra were in the library studying.

"Oh, Cassie…Ryan is just a dream!"

"So is Matt." Cassie smiled knowingly at her friend. "You two certainly seemed to hit it off."

"Oh gosh Cassie…you have no idea." Mia leaned against her hand and stared at Cassie. "He's such a sweetie…let's hope it stays that way." Cassie laughed.

"Hey, tomorrow is going to be busy—we better go." It was well past ten thirty and they both had to be up early.

For the first few weeks of practice they did nothing but go over the music. Ryan had a perfect voice—mellow and sweet and it seemed to melt into Cassandra's soul as she listened to him sing at practices. Mark was indeed a very accomplished singer and he could falsetto the notes the way they were done in the Broadway production. It was an amazing talent in a young man.

"Cassandra, could you please sing 'Phantom' for us?" Giles asked. "Don't worry about those high notes, I just want you to run through the main verses with Mark.

Cassandra and Mark dropped right into 'Phantom' and stunned the room to silence. Ryan looked at Cassandra as she was about to start into the run, but Giles cut her off. "That will do just fine Cassandra, thank you."

At five o'clock they got ready to leave. It was Friday and they were well into their third week of practices. They had all the music and most of the lines memorized…it would soon be time to start the acting parts. Cassandra and Mia were walking down the hall with Matt when Ryan ran to catch up to them.

"Cassie, wait!"

"Yeah?" Mia and Matt walked hurriedly down the hall farther.

"Uh—I was wondering…um…are you doing anything tomorrow?"

"No…just some homework…rehearsals have put me a little behind."

"Oh…cuz, I was going to go see that new movie that's out…I won tickets on the radio and was hoping you'd want to go with me."

"Ryan, are you asking me out?"

"Well—yeah." Ryan smiled at her and took her hand into his. "So, do you wanna go?"

"Sure."

"Great…I'd say I'd pick you up, but my car is in the shop."

"You have a car?"

"Yeah—you don't?"

"Well, only during the summer time. We can't have them at St. I's."

"Oh—I see." He smiled. "Well, we'll just have to take the bus then.

"Sounds great…what time?"

"Six thirty….meet early and we can get a burger or something."

"Alright, I'll see you at Burger Bud's at Six then." Cassie walked away with the biggest grin on her face.

She had a date!

"Cassandra?" Mr. Villefort was coming down the hall way, his eyes shining dangerously.

"Yes, Mr. Villefort?"

"I was hoping you could work with me tomorrow on some of your notes. You're inconsistent in hitting that higher range still."

"Well, I've got plans tomorrow—"

"During the night?"

"Well…I don't know how late I was going to be out…but I should be back to St. Isabel's by ten or so."

"Come to my office at ten o'clock then….we really need to get to work on this. Acting starts on Monday."

"Yes Mr. Villefort."