Author's Note: Sorry about the delay, I was forced against my will to spend some quality time with the real world. Now that I've served my time I'm free again! A big thank you to all my reviewers! I tried to email most of you but some of you guys don't post email addresses so sorry about that! Anyway you're all at the party, just like I promised!

Disclaimer: I own Mandy, (Yippy!) and Tom (silence). I do not own any of the Phantom characters or any of the people at the party. It is a cruel world but somebody's got to say it.

No sooner had Erik stepped through the mirror than I hit the save button and ran to the kitchen, rummaging through the pantry and making a mental list of party foods I had on hand. I was almost to the bottom shelf when there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I called out wondering if Tom had decided to make another appearance this evening.

"It is I," the voice behind the door announced. Now I know of only two people in the world who would ever answer using that grammatically correct but unbelievably cheesy greeting, and my English teacher doesn't know where I live. Well I hope not anyway.

"Come on in Nadir!" I shouted and continued to dig through the shelves.

"Good evening, Mandy. I just wanted to say I'm deeply sorry for your loss and that I am honored to be here for you in your time of despair." He gravely announced as he joined me in the kitchen.

"Hold on, what? What happened? Who's dead? It isn't Erik, is it?" My heart slammed to a halt, my lungs refused to cooperate and, jumping up, I banged my head on the shelf in my moment of panic. Of the three, would you believe my stupid head hurt the worst? Erik could be dead and I was going to start crying over an owwie?

"To the best of my knowledge, Erik is fine. I was referring to the untimely demise of your work, of which I have been informed was of great importance to you."

"Oh, okay. Wooh, you had me really worried there for a minute." I had to take a deep breath before I passed out. "You sounded like an obituary." My brain was clearly suffering from lack of oxygen but that's never stopped me before so I continued on. "Anyway no worries about the masterpiece, my computer may be older than dirt but my software's pretty good. Autosave resurrected most of it, so it should be finished in no time. Right now I have a party to plan! "

He gave me the strangest look. "Erik was extremely concerned about your mental state due to the combined effects of the loss your work and Tom, and now you're saying that really nothing was lost?"

"Hey! My mental state is my concern! Besides, its not like I knew that it would do that! I'm as surprised as you are!" I protested, putting on my best 'wounded innocence' face while rubbing my sore head.

"I somehow doubt that and even if it were true, why didn't you inform him of this before he departed?" Rats! A perfectly good effort wasted. Maybe I can use it on Erik later though…

"Well, he was going to go off and just leave me here! How not fair is that! He could have at least offered to take me with him! Even if the fop takes his seat, he has the whole box to choose from! Not to mention the rest of the entire theater!" I replied switching to my pouting pose. Mentally I proudly noted that it has just as successful on Nadir as it had been on Erik.

"I guess you're right…" Yep, works every time!

"Besides," I giggled having won round one. "Doing things my way is much more fun! We're going to have a party!"

"I think you are almost an unscrupulous as he is! You should be ashamed of yourself for using him merely to get what you want." Mental images of my Mom wagging her finger at me popped into my head and I tried not to laugh in his face.

"Compared to the things I could do, getting him to come to a party isn't really using him and besides it only works if he falls for it. I'm thinking the theme should be Mexican fiesta. Any thoughts?" I asked, quickly switching topics on him.

"What?"

"You know, that isn't exactly the best answer for the question."

"Your party is going to have a theme?"

"Are you kidding? All good parties have themes! Where have you been Nadir?" he regarded me with yet another odd look."Okay bad question. Moving right along…"

"Exactly how big of a party is this going to be?"

"I'm just inviting a few friends of mine…" Though I really have no idea who they are…

"Favor me with your definition of 'a few'," he commanded sternly.

"Well...I'm not exactly sure about that yet…around ten or twenty, maybe…"

"Ten or twenty!" he gasped. "Does Erik know of this?"

"Not yet!" I giggled again, handing him brightly colored balls of crepe paper. "Go tape this all over the place. It's going to look great!"

"Well, who are these 'friends' anyway?" he asked a moment later, having finally figured out how to use the tape dispenser.

"Just some people I met on the internet…" I avoided his eye and instead watched as the streamers unrolled their way across the floor.

"What! Mandy you know Erik doesn't like strange people! What am I saying, Erik doesn't like people at all!" the poor guy looked ready to have a heart attack.

"But these aren't… well okay they are strange people, but they're not just any people, they're phans!" I cheerily informed him, trying to prevent his clearly imminent collapse.

"Not phans! They'll try to make you share the secret, Mandy! You must not tell them!" So I'm thinking that may not have been the best thing to say to him. Wracking my brain I found the answer. Logic, whenever a situation is becoming critical, stay calm and use logic! (Babysitter's guide to emergencies. Then call 911.)

"Why not? They have the same right to call upon you guys as I do." My obnoxious mind played out the phone call. Me: Hello 911? I have a non-fictional Persian from the late nineteenth century lying on my living room floor…I think he's dead but he won't let go of the tape dispenser…

"Mandy, I think its wonderful they care about us and I know how happy that makes you, but Erik is going through a stressful time right now, what with this whole Christine business, and the last thing he needs is a hoard of adoring phans yelling for him every minute! Please promise me that you won't tell!" he cried falling to his knees.

"You're a major downer you know that? Alright I promise." Always honor a dying man's last wish.

The second he glanced up at me I knew I'd been had. Perfectly composed and grinning like a maniac, he stood and collected the fallen streamers and proceeded to finish taping them to the ceiling. I stood there glaring at him, wishing all manner of evil upon him, till I came up with a better idea.

"Okay, well here's the list." I sweetly informed him, handing him the sheet of paper.

"The list…?"

"Yeah, I promised not to tell them, I didn't say they weren't coming to the party." He frowned at me but I continued on. Revenge would come later. "Now you go get them all and bring them back with you. They don't know you're coming to get them but they'll be happy to see you anyway!"

"And why must I go get them?" He may have won round two and he was trying for three as well, but I wasn't about to get caught again.

"These people don't even live in the same state as me Nadir! How else are they going to get here?"

"They're your friends, why don't you go get them?" Bait that hook all you want buddy, this fish isn't biting.

"I have to get everything ready for the party and be here when everybody else shows up. Look, just go get them." Magically sensing I wasn't playing his game he grabbed the paper and stormed towards the door.

"Oh and Nadir?" I called as he opened the door. "Bring them through the mirror when you get back. They'll all like that and the last thing I need is for my landlady to catch a glimpse of you and a hoard of party-ready phans on my doorstep!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Okay everybody! Glad you could make it! Thanks again for coming! Before we get started, I do have a few rules you all have to follow." A collective groan went up from the assembled crowd.

"Yeah I know, but they're not really so bad. Rule one: Due to a promise I made to a very annoying person who shall not be named," I'm sure nobody noticed me scowling at Nadir, who was standing in the back… "I cannot reveal at this time how I am able to contact Erik and company so don't bother asking. Any attempt to torture it out of me and I'll sic the Persian on you. Contrary to popular opinion, this would not be a good thing.

Rule two: Erik needs personal space and you will not mob him the second he shows up! Or any second after that! He isn't yet aware that you're all going to be here so umm.. you're going to have to hide in my room till he shows up. Rule three: Don't touch anything in my room. Failure to comply with these instructions will result in a slow and painful death. I am not kidding. Okay other than that, have fun at the party everybody!"

The group glanced around rather nervously before Nadir herded them off to the bedroom. Just in time too for no sooner had the door shut that Meg and her mother appeared through the mirror. Not that Meg or Madam Giry would care about a mob of Phantom lovers, but there's no way Meg would be able to keep the secret for more than three seconds once Christine showed up with Erik.

"Hi Mandy! Thank you for inviting us to the party! This is going to be such fun!" Meg announced, bouncing around like a deflating balloon. I remain convinced that there is some cosmic force that calls to excessively chirpy girls to become ballerinas. Why can't just one of them be a Goth or something?

"Uhh, hi Meg, Madam Giry." True to form, the older lady looked like she was ready to smack anybody who dared to dance less than their best at the party.

"Good evening," she answered. Wait, who invited Dracula? Too creepy. " I have brought some sweets for your party."

"Oh, great! Thanks a lot, just go put them over there on the table while I finish these decorations." Miss Happiness of the year didn't follow her but instead incessantly tugged at my shirt. "Yes, Meg?"

"I just wanted to tell you, I told Jammes about your party and she told Annette and she told…" Seeing that this could take a while I helped her to the end.

"So the entire theater knows I'm having a party and…"

"Well, not the entire theater…" shifting her feet she looked ready to start her tirade all over again.

"Come on spit it out."

"Well, I invited all the ballerinas, and Sorelli invited Philippe and he's bringing…" Instantly my mind pictured the only fate in the world worse than death…

"NOT THE FOP!" Silence.

"Good heavens no!" she giggled nervously. "Who would bring their little brother to a party? He's bringing…" She stopped again and I seriously considered throttling her when I noticed the reason for her silence. Erik was leading Christine through the mirror.

"Hi Erik! Hi Christine!" I cried, hugging them and sneakily maneuvering them away from the mirror. Now I just need to figure out how to block the escape route…

"ERIK!" The doors to my bedroom burst open and a human tidal wave crashed out, a seemingly endless mass of crazed worshipers, arms outstretched to touch their idol. Like a startled merekat, Erik's head shot up and he made a mad dash to the mirror…

"CHRISTINE!"

…only to be brought up short as another wave spilled out of the mirror, this time a swarm of insanely perky ballerinas intent on hugging their bestest-best diva friend. With nowhere to run and sure to be crushed between the demented forces, I did the only thing I could to save him.

"Where in the world have you been hiding…" I began the silly little song, my strong voice drowning out the chaos. The phans, recognizing the song and being compelled to sing along, stopped inches away from poor Erik and joined me in the song as the ballerinas, thinking we were playing hide and seek, abandoned their attempt to hug Christine and ran for cover. We could have easily sung through the entire score but eventually we had to stop because no one wanted to sing Raoul's part.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourselves!" Nadir cried into the silence as he picked himself up off the floor. "Trampling your elders and then nearly breaking one of the rules! I have never seen such an unruly…"

"Nadir, its my house. I get to discipline them." Bestowing upon the group my 'evil genius grin' I continued. "Breaking the rules calls for death, but since you only almost broke the rules, I'll settle for sending you home by midnight!" Keeping an eye on Erik, to be sure he wasn't about to try to sneak out again, I let them whine and beg away.

"As for you ladies, I am appalled!" Madam Giry scolded the gaggle of ballerinas collected under the table, waiting to be found. "You must learn how to make a proper entrance immediately! Now back to the theater with you, we will work till you get it right!" Resisting the urge to applaud, I watched as she escorted the chastised girls through the mirror, and then resumed my conversation with the assembled phans.

"Now that everybody is clamed down a bit, I like you all to meet Erik, Christine and Meg. You've already met the Daroga." Most ignored the two ladies and the fuming Persian, preferring to gaze at the rather stunned dark angel standing in my living room.

"Now I want us all to be good friends though it seems a few of you apparently know each other already. Some better than others." At my pointed look, Erik took to examining the ceiling for spider webs as Christine, catching on to the innuendo, alternated glaring at him and some of the blushing girls. This was going to a lot of fun!

"Alright everybody, lets get this party started!

AN: For anyone wondering what has happened to Tom, I am pleased to announce that he has joined Raoul Lover's Anonymous. The four existing members are thrilled and have unanimously voted him member of the year! Go Tom!

Anyway, next chapter WILL be the party, and you're all going to be there! Some other characters might just wander in and some may even be kicked out! Who knows what might happen!

P.S. Don't forget to review!