"This is what life's all about, isn't it?" Grimly staring at his twisted reflection, Erik placed the white mask over his features, his stomach turning at the feeling of the walls closing in around him. Although, today it was easier to bear than most days, today it covered the fresh bruises he sported along his right jaw line. Silently he cursed his creator for allowing him to wake up this morning.

He swung his back pack over his shoulder and headed for the door via the apartment's small kitchen. Melinda was sleeping off another hangover, giving him the prime opportunity to rifle through the purse she had carelessly tossed on the table, smiling to himself as he came up a few bucks richer. So far, the first day of senior year wasn't shaping up too badly.

Thirty minutes later, Erik's black firebird sped into the parking lot of Valle de la Estrella High, a small town high school quickly garnering fame for its theatre productions. The car narrowly missed a collision with Vice Principal Andre, leaving him shaking in its wake. Mentally, he chided himself for being so reckless; jail time plus his face would not be a pleasant combination. Most of his life he had strived to stay out of major trouble, aside from a few harmless pranks. He knew too well the nature of humanity, if he so much as breathed wrong, they would lock him away as though he were a soulless monster.

With a slam of the car door, he headed inside, wary of those gathering outside of the building; far from those who would stop them if they decided today was a good day to punish him for being different. Slinking through the halls he made his way toward the auditorium, to suffer through another of principal Firmin's "welcome back" speeches. T Erik would have the honor of keeping him well lit, for all the effort that required with a computer directed light. Still, he got to remain separate from the general populace by way of the booth.

The back pack thudded to the floor as he lowered himself into a chair. Losing himself in the relative peace of the moment, he gazed at his reflection, mask and all. "One more year, that's all, and then…freedom." He sighed and leaned the chair back, waiting. Below him, seats began to fill, jocks, nerds, preps, goths, all coming together in one place. Tracing his finger along the window before him, he thought of exactly how separate he was from all those below him, behind his own pane of glass, an outcast. "Yet here I am, above them all." Breaking Mrs. Giry's explicit rule, he dug the pack of cigarettes out of his bag and lit one up.

At long last, the faculty began to make their appearance. Standing up, he began to meddle with the switches for the lights. Behind him, he was vaguely aware of the door opening, and the delicate intake of breath, as though whoever she was, she wanted to ask something. Turning around annoyed, he found his eyes locked upon her, and realized he had never seen her before. He felt his breathing stop, as though anything but looking at her were unnecessary. Brown curls tumbled riotously over her shoulders, unsure blue eyes appraised him, and pale skin blushed a light rosy tinge. Erik was suddenly, most painfully aware of the mask he wore, and the horror it covered, and made a motion to turn away from her.

Elegance in a cream blouse and blue skirt spoke. "I'm sorry; I think I took a wrong turn somewhere. How do I get back down there?" She gestured out the window.

"Go back down the stairs, three flights, take a right and go through the door." Dis comfort made his voice no more than a whisper.

"Thank you." She waited for a reply which never came, and soon turned and left him standing there frozen and at a loss for words.

Nervously he kept an eye on the window, waiting for her to emerge in the crowd below, to see how they would accept her. A momentary hope flitted through his mind that perhaps, just maybe, she would become just as shunned as he was, a fellow outsider. He had to remind himself though that she different from him, she was like them.

A few moments later he spotted her, just as the bubbly blonde, Meg Giry waved her over to where her clique was seated. Joining them, she blended in perfectly, as though she had known them all her life. Erik felt bile rise in his throat as Raoul Chagny, quarterback and ladies man extraordinaire, graced with his infamous pretty boy smile. His head pressed against the window, pushing the leather even tighter onto his face. Finally, Firmin emerged, and Erik dimmed the house lights.

The speech was a carbon copy of every other speech given at the start of the year. Only this year, Erik had decided to liven it up, just a little. Midway through, just as Firmin's voice began to rise in pitch, the lights cut off, leaving the assembly in utter blackness

"Not funny Erik." Firmin thundered into the microphone, turning a shade of purple no one could appreciate due to the darkness.

"Really? I'm afraid I happen to be of the opposite opinion." Erik laughed darkly as he answered him through the intercom system.

Biting his lip to silence himself, he pushed the control for the stage's trapdoor, effectively sending the bewildered principal crashing through it. The surprised screech and dull thud signaled Erik to return the lights. The student body at once sprang to life with a cacophony of laughter and the movement of hundreds preparing to exit the auditorium. Vice Principal Andre rushed forward in a valiant effort to restore order, as Mrs. Giry turned her steely grey eyes toward the exact spot where Erik stood choking back laughter.

When most of the students had finally run off, Erik reopened the trap door to allow the shaken Firmin to resurface. The irritated group of teachers yanked to seething man from the hole, while Erik made a hasty getaway, heading for homeroom, the small classroom, just down the stairs from where he was.

Slinking down the stairs, he blended perfectly with the shadow, and managed to reach the door before anyone could spot him. Slipping in, he noted that no one else had yet arrived, and sighed to himself as he realized she would take the opportunity to scold him thoroughly. Awaiting the inevitable, he took his usual seat in the far back corner of the room.

She entered some fifteen minutes later, looking decidedly irritated, and headed straight for her desk. "Boo." The voice sounded as though it were right in her ear. However, Cecile Giry knew her pupil quite well and instantly whirled to face his usual seat. He sat with his legs propped up on the desk before him, fingers steepled, and a slight smile playing about his thin lips.

"Erik," her exasperation with him was not well hidden, "you can not keep on like this, you will be expelled."

He chuckled at the notion. "Expelled? Me? Never, Firmin needs me too much."

"You think so?"

"I know so; I'm the technical mastermind here, not to mention the co director. If it weren't for me, none of these past three years would have been a success. He wouldn't dare expel me now, not with the nation watching."

She now stood directly in front of him, vexed by his constant arrogance, his lack of self control. Rifling through the bag beside him, Erik produced a piece of paper that bore a curious resemblance to an interfaculty memo. "You'll likely be getting one of these later today." The memo contained the announcement that this year's production would be the recent Broadway hit, "Wicked". Sighing, she folded it up and stuffed into a pocket. She no longer questioned where he got these things; she really didn't want to know. For four years, she's been more of a mother to Erik then the woman who gave birth to him, and his incessant rule breaking wounded her. He was right about one thing though, Firmin did need him.

"Please keep out of trouble this year Erik, for my sake at least." She looked so weary, he suddenly felt guilty for all the troubled he'd given her for the last four years. It was only then he remembered why she looked especially worn this year.

"I'm sorry about your brother, by the way."

The sincerity of his tone touched her, for awhile she had been in doubt of Erik's ability to feel any compassion to his fellow human beings. "Thank you."

The wheels in Erik's head turned ever so slowly that morning, preventing him from seeing the obvious right away. He knew who her brother was, and that he was the single parent of an only child, if her brother was dead then… "She's your niece isn't she?"

"Who?"

"The brunette girl."

"Oh, yes, Christine."

"Christine…" From a strange part of his mind, or perhaps it was his heart, Erik heard a voice entreating him to learn more about the enchanting girl. Violently, he tried to silence it, arguing with himself that such things were pointless and futile. He was relieved when the homeroom students began to trickle in, preventing him from saying some fiercely stupid thing. Much to his dismay, he found himself utterly disappointed when he did not see her among them.

He looked for in every class attended that day, loathing the foolishness if it, and terribly delighted when it turned out they had several together. He watched everyday after that; sure his golden eyes would burn holes into her. It had to be a sin for him to even look at something so perfect, Christine Daae, an angel who haunted him waking or sleeping.

From afar he witnessed her ascent into the ranks of the school's social elite after she claimed a spot on the cheerleading squad. She had a ready made sycophantic best friend in her cousin Meg, and others soon flocked to her, including Raoul Chagny, who began paying her enough attention that even his normally dense girlfriend began to notice. It worried Erik that she had made an enemy of Carlotta; she was known to be an incredible vicious bully when she felt the need to be.

Carlotta wasn't the only one angered by Raoul's new found fascination. Erik found himself seized by an unholy rage every time he saw them together. He had pleasant daydreams about strangling the life out of the pompous idiot. At which times he would remind himself that Christine didn't even know he was and likely didn't care, so jealousy was useless.

It was in homeroom one morning that the event he'd been dreading finally came to pass. Carlotta hurried in surrounded by a gaggle of her most loyal supporters clucking sympathetically.

"He's just trying to make you jealous…"

"He's not worthy of you anyways…"

"Piangi's always liked you…"

"That Daae's just a little slut anyways…"

Carlotta simply sobbed through out the false platitudes. Normally Erik would have enjoyed seeing the bitch get the treatment she so desperately deserved, he could remember at time when she had been the boyfriend stealing skank, and the girl she had forced out the school in humiliation. Right now though, all he could think of was his bitter hatred for Raoul Chagny. "And Prince Charming took the Princess by the hand, and they lived happily ever after.

Christine poked at the small cup of pudding before her, somehow nothing looked appetizing today. Without reason or warning Carlotta had attacked her this morning during PE when the teacher hadn't been watching. She had shoved her to ground and kicked her in the ribs a couple of times. Christine shivered as she remembered the hatred she had seen in her eyes. Leaning into her ear, she had whispered, "I'm going to kill you, you little toad", before letting her up. She wanted to cry; she had no idea what she had done to insult her, in fact up until now she had thought they were friends. Meg had tried her best to reassure her, but now sat silently across the table at her, picking at her own lunch with just as much gusto as Christine.

A stack of books abruptly landed on the table beside her, causing them both to look up at the new comer, Raoul. Christine smiled brightly; having him show up was one of the few things that would have been able to drag her day out of the gutter. Returning the smile he sat beside her.

"Hello ladies."

"Hi" They answered in unison and then both giggled nervously.

"So Chris, how's cheerleading been?"

"It's good, a lot of fun."

"I knew you'd make a spectacular cheerleader the moment I saw you." The blush that quickly covered the entierety of her face encouraged him to continue. "So, I was wondering if I could persuade you go out with me on Saturday."

For a moment all she could do was stare at him, and then ever so slowly she smiled. So this was why Carlotta had been so angry with her. That hardly mattered now, all that mattered was that he wanted her, her out of all the other girls he could have. Raoul Chagny liked Christine Daae. She wanted to jump up and proclaim it to the world. Instead she simply replied, "I'd love to", already pondering what to wear and how to fix her hair.

"So, I'll see you at six then, dinner and a movie, home before eleven." Quickly he made his exit, boldly kissing her cheek before he left. He walked away extremely pleased. Raoul was a boy used to the best in life, and girls were no exception. With Christine, he would have the best, he would have everything.