Disclaimer: I do not own POTO.

You know what bugs me? Hits! I don't know, they just do! I really would appreciate it if you reviewed, although I have read things and not reviewed them, mostly because I didn't know what to say. Thank you to the two people who have reviewed! Anyway, I have been rereading some of the earlier chapters and I have come to the conclusion that my spell check hates me. Well, here's the next chapter!

"A double date?"

Christine and Meg were chatting in the noisy Math Pod before C block when Meg voiced the idea of Erik and Christine going to a movie with Meg and Andre. It was the Friday after the concert, Erik and Christine had been officially "going out" for almost a week and had yet to go on a real date.

"What movie did you have in mind?" Christine asked, dodging a pack of wild freshmen running to lunch.

"Well, Andre wanted to see The Ring 2 and I kind of wanted to see it too," she answered pulling out the movie times in the local newspaper out of her messenger bag, "The times are at 4, 6, 8, and 10. How about we go to the 6 o' clock showing so maybe we could do something else afterwards?"

The minute bell rang and they walked across the Math Pod to their class and entered to move to the back of the room, their normal seating area, and sit in desks side by side. The uninspiring Intermediate Algebra classroom was pretty much empty at the moment except for a random student frantically trying to finish their homework, the rest of the class preferring to run in at the last moment. Christine studied the various would be inspirational posters that covered the white room. You know the kind that show a picture of a ladder and are supposed to make you want to be the very best student you can be.

"Well, I'll have to ask Erik, but I'm sure we'd be able to," she said, starting to erase the disgusting drawings that some hillbilly drew on her desk.

Meg clapped her ring and bracelet clad hands as the bell rang which sure enough heralded a stampede of procrastinating students.

The students rushed to their seats, eager to avoid the wraith of Mrs. Cleveland, one teacher that you really don't want to mess with. Mrs. Cleveland entered the room and immediately asked that they place last night's homework on their desks to be checked. Meg and Christine rolled their eyes at each other as the thirty-some year old teacher swooped to each desk in succession.

"So what time do you want to meet?" Meg whispered to Christine, who was reaching into her bag to grab her homework.

Before Christine could answer, Mrs. Cleveland appeared at her desk, demanding to see her homework and berating her for talking to Meg.

"Talking won't help you with math," she said in a know it all kind of voice, checking to make sure every math problem was complete on last night's ever so enthralling worksheet.

Christine looked up to stare Mrs. Cleveland straight in the eye. She really wasn't unattractive as she was still young with chin length brown hair and brown eyes, but her attitude made her the most infuriating being on the planet.

She gave Mrs. Cleveland a forced smile and nodded her head slowly, deciding it was just better to agree so she could hopefully pass the class and get it over with.

Mrs. Cleveland gave a fake smile in return and turned sharply on her brown flat heels to check Meg's homework. Christine laid her head in her arms on the desk and shook her head, trying to get the image of Mrs. Cleveland's horrible pink zebra striped dress out of her mind.

After Meg's homework had been examined, Christine looked over to roll her eyes again and sigh.

"Before we are interrupted again," she started, making sure that Mrs. Cleveland was out of ear shot, "how about we meet at 5:20 so we have some time to walk around the mall and be the mall rats we are supposed to be."

Meg laughed and nodded and sunk down into her desk to half heartedly listen to Mrs. Cleveland's endless preaching on collinear lines. Christine leaned back in her chair to stare at the one pitiful window in the classroom and wondered what the night would bring and what exactly she was getting herself into.

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"Now if you all don't shut up, you are going to get kicked out!"

The hilarity of the Ring 2 was momentarily interrupted by a disgruntled employee of the local movie theater trying to affirm superiority by threatening the giggling teenagers in the back to stop making so much noise. It just so happened that Erik, Christine, Meg and Andre were in the back and after abandoning the idea of seeing a scary movie, laughed and screamed with the rest of the hooligans.

"Seriously," he yelled, "The next one who makes a sound will be asked to leave!"

There was silence in the theater for about a minute, the only sound being the movie, but was broken by a high pitched scream a few seat down form the "gang" timed perfectly with the discovery of Somura's latest victim.

The employee, whatever his title was, sighed loudly and stomped out of the theater, doing nothing to hide his frustration with the juvenile delinquents.

The previously mentioned delinquents laughed even louder and increased the noise.

Christine rolled her eyes and turned to Erik, who was of course sitting beside her.

"This is so much fun," she whispered, leaning in closer to him, "I feel kind of sorry for the people who actually came to seriously watch the movie."

An older couple sitting in front of them, probably in their late 40's, turned to glare at Erik and Christine. Erik simply shrugged and waved sarcastically while Christine gave them a mock salute. The older couple turned back around haughtily, folding their arms in front of them and Christine could even hear a faint "well, I never!"

"Scratch that," she said, grimacing, "no, I don't."

The rest of the movie continued with laughing and random screaming, turning moments that should have been scary into memories that Christine would laugh at for many days to come. The deer attacking the car was one of the funniest things that she had seen in years and when the little boy ate the drugged sandwich was surprisingly hilarious.

"Yummy drugged sandwich," Andre had said, observing how strangely the kid was munching on the sandwich.

Finally the moment came when what's her name, the main character lady was trapped in Somura's world in the television and Somura was climbing up the side of the well like a frickin' spider thing.

"Oh, I've seen this in commercials!" she heard Meg exclaim on her other side.

"Mommy?" Somura asked.

"I'm not your fucking mommy!" The main character whose name I forget replied, shutting her in the well.

The teenagers burst out laughing and began to clap and holler as the adults gave a collective, exasperated sigh, realizing that they would have to rent the movie to be able to watch it and enjoy the intend effect.

The movie ended all too soon in Christine's opinion, as she was enjoying laughing with people she didn't even know about what was supposed to be, as the preps at school had called it, "like, the scariest movie, like, ever!" Of course, the prospect of sitting semi-alone in semi-darkness with Erik was appealing also. Erik was sitting on her left side, Meg on her right, with the unmasked side of his face next to her, occasionally giving and receiving kisses while Meg and Andre were "occupied." This had resulted in getting popcorn throw on them from the row behind them, but one intimidating look from Erik solved that problem and discouraged who ever was responsible to cut it out.

Erik removed the arm he had shyly draped around her shoulders at the beginning of the movie as the theater lights came on to reveal all of the stuffy adults in the theater standing in front of their seats and glaring sternly at the back rows. Erik, Christine, Meg and Andre merely laughed at their attempt to make them feel guiltily and left the theater.

"So what now?" Meg asked linking arms with Andre outside of the theater.

Because the only theater in their small, boring, southern town was in the mall which is pretty much the only thing to do, the popular activities after you see a movie are to…

Walk aimlessly around the mall, stopping to go to the same stores you go to every time you visit the mall in the exact same order with the exact same stuff.

Venture to the arcade a few steps away from the theater and play smelly old games (some of them really do smell very badly…) or stand around out side of it, proving how hard core you actually are.

Find somewhere to sit until you are told off by the most aggravating mall cops who just don't like you because you remind of them what losers they are.

Stand outside of the mall, smoke cigarettes, and start lame ass fights that bring the whole bored populous of the teenagers and the previously mentioned mall cops to break it up and ban you from the mall, pretty much depriving you of all entertainment in the city limits, but provided photo opportunities for the "kiddies."

Anyway, the group was deciding which stupidly fun activity they would chose when Christine overheard singing. Awesomely bad singing…

"Karaoke!" Christine yelled with glee, "Let's go!"

There were about two sit down restaurants in the mall, one being Piccadilly (fun…), the other being a place called Garfield's with mundane food and lackluster service. One thing they did have was a karaoke contest, usually on Tuesday nights, but for some reason on a Friday night. (Ah, the power of phanfiction!)

Christine and Meg were dragging Erik and Andre into the restaurant, refusing to be seated and made their way to the bar. They beheld a makeshift stage with a microphone and one of those little karaoke machines with the words to whatever song you wanted to sing scrolling across a TV screen with a little ball bouncing on each syllable.

The current contender was a 20 ish male, obviously very drunk, crooning along to Hero, unfortunately sung by Enrique Inglesias. Christine cringed and felt Erik grip her hand firmly, asserting that he sure as hell did not want to do this.

Christine smiled up at him.

"It's just a little fun!" she pleaded, raising a hand to his unmasked cheek, "I know the perfect song!"

She whispered something in his ear causing him to laugh.

"Okay…" he said, shaking his head, "Let's get this over with."

Christine squealed and told an arguing Meg and Andre the song she had in mind. Meg laughed and clapped her hands as Andre instantly agreed, winking and giving thumbs up.

"Awesome!"

She pulled Meg over to the registration table and confidently signed them up for the contest, the winner(s) receiving a free dinner, to a certain extent, at the restaurant.

Meg pulled Christine into the bathroom after they had signed up, signaling to the "guys" where they were going and closed the door.

"I am having such a good time with Andre!" she exclaimed, walking over to the faux white marble sinks and looking into the mirror, making sure her white, black, and red plaid pants and solid black peasant top were looking as good as she felt in them, "what about you?"

Christine smiled to herself and leaned against the tan colored tiled wall, thinking about nice Erik looked tonight in a black track jacket with red stripes, a green shirt advertising The Used's newest album, and dark denim jeans. This was the first time she had seen Erik so casual, usually he dressed very formally, and she realized that she liked him even more this way.

He still wore the mask, although it was a nude color that blended perfectly with his skin tone. When Christine had asked his about it, he had replied that his father gave it to him. Christine had felt sorry for him for an instant but then wondered what kind of father made gifts of masks to his son. Did he really need it? Did he have more in common with her childhood hero, The Phantom of the Opera than just a first name?

"Christine!"

She jerked back to the physical world as Meg shook her, claiming that she had been trying to get her attention for five minutes. Christine removed herself from Meg's grasp as she walked over to the sinks and looked in the mirrors at her reflection.

For once, she liked what she saw she thought as she smoothed the invisible creases in her favorite pair of jeans and her perfectly fit black Full Metal Alchemist shirt.

"What's wrong?" Meg asked, looking at Christine's reflection as she ran her fingers through her hair.

"Nothing," Christine smiled into the mirror and turned to face Meg, "Come on, let's go win this thing."

Meg rubbed her hands together, cackled, and exited the bathroom, Christine right behind her, lifting up the bottoms of her jeans to make sure the laces on her heart-covered Converses were tied. She really didn't want to trip on stage.

They found Erik and Andre sitting at one of the small tables in the bar area, talking about who knows what. Okay, Andre was doing the talking, while Erik, fingers tangled in his shaggy, dark brown hair, had his eyebrows raised, and was staring skeptically at Andre.

Erik noticed that they had return and motioned for Christine to sit in a chair beside him.

"We're up next," he said, answering her unasked question as she sat down.

Christine nodded and looked toward the stage at the current contestant. She was also very drunk and belting out Christina Aguilera's Genie in a Bottle, complete with "sexy" dance moves.

"You know what," Erik observed, watching in silent disgust as the "diva" did a wobbly belly dance, "I think we're the only people that aren't doing this completely intoxicated."

"You are probably right," Christine agreed as the contestant ended her song and practically fell off stage, climbing onto an empty bar stool.

"Now it's time for Erik, Andre, Christine and Meg to sing a little old school," the DJ announced, "give it up for them!"

They got up from the table and walked towards the stage, waving warily at the many drunken cheers they were receiving. Christine began to wonder if this was such a good idea as she smiled and politely declined and offer to "get down" with a man probably three times her age.

Before Erik could protest, they pushed him to the microphone, as he would be singing the lead and Meg, Andre, and Christine gathered around a second microphone that was brought out to sing back up. The DJ gave the signal to start and they began the song,

Is this the real life-
Is this just fantasy-
Caught in a landslide-
No escape from reality-
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see-
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy-
Because I'm easy come, easy go,
A little high, little low,
Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me,
To me

Erik pulled out the microphone which brought whistles and random screams of "I love you!" This made Erik shake his head and silently curse Christine for talking him into doing this.

Mama, just killed a man,

Put a gun against his head,

Pulled my trigger, now he's dead,

Mama, life had just begun,

But now I've gone and thrown it all away-

Mama Ooo,

Didn't mean to make you cry-

If I'm not back again this time tomorrow-

Carry on; carry on, as if nothing really matters-

Meg, Christine, and Andre had quickly worked out a back up singer routine, snapping their fingers together, in time with the piano recording to which Erik was singing to.

Too late, my time has come,
Sends shivers down my spine-
Body's aching all the time,
Goodbye everybody-I've got to go-
Got to leave you all behind and face the truth-
Mama ooo- (any way the wind blows)
I don't want to die,
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all-

Christine's eyes were fixed on Erik as he began to really sing the words like he meant them, different from before when he sang them a little strained, not sincere at all. His eyes met hers as he quickly turned around before the fun part started.

I see a little silhouette of a man,

Scaramouche, Scaramouche will you do the Fandango-

Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me-

Galileo, Galileo,

Galileo Galileo

Galileo figaro-Magnifico-

But I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me-

He's just a poor boy from a poor family-

Spare him his life from this monstrosity-

Easy come easy go-, will you let me go-

Bismillah! No-, we will not let you go-let him go-

Bismillah! We will not let you go-let him go

Bismillah! We will not let you go-let me go

Will not let you go-let me go

Will not let you go let me go

No, no, no, no, no, no, no-

Mama Mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go-

Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me-

She laughed as Andre shrieked the really high parts and Meg bellowed the low parts. Christine stuck to her normal range and made dramatic gestures, Meg and Andre joining in, making a show of the "let me go" part as they abandoned their microphone and fought over Erik, Meg and Christine on one side and Andre on the other, cackling evilly and scaring Erik in the process.

Erik pushed them aside, except for Christine who he began to dance with during the awesome guitar solo, while Andre and Meg resorted to head banging (think Wayne's World) He twirled her away and sang the lyrics to her, holding one of her hands.

So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye-

So you think you can love me and leave me to die-

Oh baby-Can't do this to me baby-

Just gotta get out-just gotta get right outta here-

Christine smiled at him for about the millionth time as sang/screamed the accusing lyrics to her, but obviously didn't mean them as he gave her that sexy, dark look that she loved.

He drew her up to him again and gave her a quick kiss as Andre played the air guitar, Meg still banging her head and dancing wildly.

Christine pulled away from him as she, Meg, and Andre went to the other microphone again to finish the song and sway in time.

Nothing really matters,

Anyone can see,

Nothing really matters-, nothing really matters to me,

Any way the wind blows...

Erik whispered the last line into the micro phone as the song ended to tumultuous applause. Christine had almost forgotten that they were doing some silly karaoke contest until she heard the reaction and stepped towards Erik and encouraged him to take a bow. Before he could, however, the DJ interrupted.

"Well, I think it's obvious who won this thing," he announced, "let's give them another round of applause!"

The audience clapped and yelled even louder this time, the other contestants not angry because they really didn't even remember competing in the contest anyway.

They were led off the stage and into the main dining areas, decorated with random, fake memorabilia that thoroughly confused Christine, the drunks losing interest and ordering another drink, and to the podium thing where the hosts waited to seat you.

The manager was the one waiting there, a man of about 35 and was already balding, wearing a light blue button up shirt with Khaki pants and a gold name tag that said "Manager" confirming their suspicions.

"Would you like to use your gift certificates now or wait?" he asked, handing them each a little card with Garfield's embellished on it.

They looked at each other without speaking decided against it.

"I think we'll wait," Erik answered for the group.

The manager gave them a curt nod and clapped his hands together.

"Well, ok then," he said putting away menus that were probably supposed to be for them, "The cards expire in a year and have a total value of ten dollars each."

The manager bid them farewell as they thanked him and exited the restaurant.

The stores in the mall were pretty much already closed as they looked around except for the movie theater and Garfield's as they had separate hours from the stores. They walked down a short hall, carpeted by the typical fugly junk that you usually find in malls, to the closest exit and found themselves outside, surrounded by smokers and all around ruffians. (Remember them?)

Christine avoided eye contact as she grabbed Erik hand and walked to the parking lot to Andre's SUV, a red 2000 Jeep Liberty. They decided to drive together and Andre volunteered as Erik's was only a two-seater.

Erik opened the back car door for her as she rolled her eyes, insisting that she could open the door herself, though she did like the attention.

When they were all buckled in, Andre started the car and turned off his CD player which had been playing Green Day.

"What now?" Andre asked, looked over at Meg and back at Erik and Christine.

Christine glanced at Erik from the corner of her eye and caught him doing the same thing. They turned to face each other and nodded.

"Waffle House," they said in unison.

Yay! I like this chapter! I got to listen to Bohemian Rhapsody, which by the way I do not own but was written and composed by the Great Freddie Mercury and performed by Queen, about a million times, and imagine Erik singing it. WOO! Anyway, please review! Love and Peace! Kupo!