IMPORTANT NOTE: I know at the end of the last chapter, I said that five years would pass, but I've changed it to nine years. Mainly because I needed Holly to be older for the storyline.
Also, I'm going to have a lot of segments from lyrics featuring in The Phantom of the Opera. I don't own any of them, but its because they are in the school play. At the moment it might seem like it has nothing to do with the story and the link with Steve, etc, but it does, trust me! Sorry for the delay in updating, I've been revising, but as of today: no more of that! Exams are over and fanfiction is my main priority until september!
Sam

xx

Seventeen year old Alex Croker sat at the back of his drama theory lesson with his friend Jason Hallis. First lesson of his last year at Oakcrest School. It was a private school, considering that his parents were fairly wealthy, but thankfully he didn't have to stay in the halls of residence that some of the kids did. It was only a ten minute drive or a half an hour walk from their house, so he, his sister Holly, and the others got to go home every day. Jason, unfortunately, didn't. His parents lived in England, where he was originally from, but he didn't talk about them much; which to Alex, was understandable, seeing as Jason had been living at Oakcrest during term time since he was 10. Alex knew that he wouldn't think to highly of his parents if they did that; but they had spent ages choosing a school for him and Holly that meant that they could go home every day. So he felt pretty sorry for Jason.

Drama was his least favourite subject as well, more so than Music, which he found unbeliably boring. It just went to show how different he was from his sister, now twelve, whose three favourite subjects were Music, Drama and Art. He didn't see the point in them. His favourite subject was P.E, but with the amount of exams he had in the following summer, his timetable had changed so that he only had one lesson of P.E a week. He wondered if it would seem suspicious if that was the only lesson they turned up to that year. What made the whole subject worse was the teacher he had been allocated to this year. He had been so mischevious and playful in last years sessions with Mr Harris that the old man had sworn to find someone to 'sort him out' for his final year. Hence: Mr Sykes. Mr Sykes had been Holly's drama teacher since she first came to Oakcrest when she was seven, and five years on, she was his favourite pupil.

My Sykes came into the classroom with an airy expression on his face. He had a reputation for being a bit of a ditz, which was amazing considering he was supposed to be the best teacher in the school.

"Here we go..." Jason muttered under his breath to Alex, making sure he moved his mouth only a little so that Mr Sykes didn't notice.

Mr Sykes put his briefcase on the table, and turned to face the class. He looked around the seventeen year olds with a look of disgust on his face. "Oh this is ridiculous!" He exclaimed. "Right, starting with the back row, I want every other row to stand up." Hesistating, Alex and the others on the back row, and every other row in front of them, all pushed their chairs back and stood up. "Now, this is the amount of people who are going to fail my class this year - fifty percent."

As confused glares swept across the classroom, it was inevitably Alex who spoke up. "Um, sir, would that be the fifty percent standing up or the fifty percent sitting down?"

He gave them all an evil smile. "We'll soon find out won't we. Sit down."

They all sat down, thinking about whether or not they would be the ones to fail. Mr Sykes got out his register from the briefcase and began working his way down the list of alphabetical names.

"Allen, Amy."

"Here." A girl with long dark hair and green eyes answered. Alex fidgetted in his seat a little and Jason winked at him. Alex had had a crush on Amy since his first year. In reality, she liked him as well, but they were both too stubborn to do anything about it.

"Bradley, Sarah." The girl sitting beside Amy, whom Alex didn't get on with at all, looked up from where she was doodling all over her arm.

"Here."

"Carmichael, Robert."

"Here, and it's Robbie." Robbie corrected. Another of Alex's friends, he hated being called by his full name.

"Croker, Alexander."

Now it was Alex's turn to correct him. "Yeah, and it's Alex."

"Croker?" He repeated to himself. Alex rolled his eyes. "Any relation to-"

"Holly? Yeah, she's my sister."

"That's all very well, Croker, but in this class I don't appreciate students interrupting me. Take that as a warning."

A warning after only a minute or two was a record for Alex, who was swiftly following in his fathers footsteps. Mischevious, crafty, and stealthy, and the knack for being able to get any information he wanted about anything was natural to him. Of course, Stella didn't really approve of it, but Charlie thought it was hilarious. His first mission of the school year was to find out about the next school production for Holly. She always performed in them, no matter what they were, and almost always got the main part. The only problem was that he had to get hold of the sheet of plans out of Sykes's briefcase which he never left alone. He had to lure him out of the classroom somehow. Maybe at first break.

His first mission proved a success, much to the amusement of his comrades. He got Nathan and Nick to distract him by getting them to tell him that there was trouble in the auditorium. He had followed, but it hadn't gone exactly to plan, seeing as he had taken the briefcase with him. He took it down to his office, locking the door afterwards. This would put them a few minutes behind schedule, and cut it very finely with Nathan and Nick's distraction. By the time they reached the auditorium on the other side of school and realised that there was no trouble, he would be back. Alex and Damon had managed to pick the lock within a few moments, and had let themselves into his office. Damon took out his digital camera, and took a photograph of the plans, which he would load onto Jason's computer in his room and print it off. Then they left the office, managed to relock the door, and had only just made it around the corner before Sykes appeared at the end of the opposite corridor, complaining out loud about 'terrible twins'.

By the end of the half-hour break, they had a set of school production plans ready to give to Holly, all he had to do, was to get someone that could actually read Sykes' handwriting. He hid them at the bottom of his bag, ready for when they met up with Holly at the end of the day to walk home.

His next subject was biology, in which they were looking under the microscopes at various things which Alex could neither pronounce not understand. Instead, him, Jason and Robbie sat at the back of the lab, messing around with the microscope.

"Hey, ya know what, Croker? With this microscope, your nose hairs look like the Amazon Rain Forest. " Robbie said playfully, holding the microscope close to Alex's nose.

"If you don't get that thing out of my face, I'm gonna have the Natives come out and eat you." He threatened in return, taking a deep breath through his nose. Immediately, Robbie pulled the microscope away, and Jason laughed. "You know," Alex started thoughfully. "I've just figured out the best thing about this school."

"What's that?" Jason laughed, unable to believe that Oakcrest had any good qualities.

"Once you graduate, you don't have to come back."

They all burst into laughter again, but a disapproving look from their teacher quietened them.

At lunch, Alex showed the sheet of notes around to see if any of the boys could read it. Damon stared at it, blinked a couple of times, and passed it on to Nathan and Nick, who passed it straight on to Michael, who looked at it closely before startling them by saying rather dramatically. "You will curse the day, you did not do, all the Phantom asked of you!" Everyone stared at him as if he were some kind of mental case. "What?" He asked.

"What was all that about?" Damon asked. "Have you taken anything?"

"You wanted to know what play it was." Michael explained.

"You think that line meant anything to us?" Alex asked in stupidity.

"It's the one Holly's been waiting for." He informed them. Again, they stared at him. "You really haven't got a clue have you?"

"Come on, Mike. I get the goods for you, I don't understand what you both see in this stuff."

Michael and Holly both shared the same ambition: to be an actor. Holly loved all performing arts, whereas Michael loevd everything except dancing. "It's the Phantom of the Opera." He told them, folding up the paper and handing it back to Alex. "It's the play our Moms took Holly to see for her eleventh birthday, that night when we went to see the monster trucks with our Dads. She's loved it ever since, spends half her time reciting the songs and quoting the play, and had been suggesting to Sykes that they do that for the school production ever since. Looks like she finally got through to him."

They continued staring at him, Alex broke the silence. "How do you know all of this?" He asked in wonder.

"She tells me in a secret acting code which you guys can't understand." Michael said.

Stupidly, Damon said; "Oh yeah, and what code is this?"

"Plain English." Michael said, taking a bit of his hot dog.

Holly didn't join them for lunch that day, and she came out of school to meet them looking cheerful and happy. "Hiya!" She said, practically bouncing along the path. "Alex, did you-"

"Sure did." He said proudly, producing the sheet of paper to her. Her eyes lit up as she took the paper and read it so quickly that her eyes were like a blur moving backwards and forwards. "Is that what you were looking for?"

All was silent, and then...

"OH MY GOD!" She cried excitedly. "The Phantom of the Opera! Wait til Mom hears about this!"

"Wait til Dad hears about this," Alex laughed sarcastically. "Oh yes, Dad will love this." The sarcasm in his voice earned him a glare from Holly.

"Michael, are you going to audition?" She asked him as they started to walk out the gates.

"I don't know." Michael said.

"Come on, Michael!" Holly said pleadingly. "We always audition together!"

It was some unspoken tradition: the production audition. Holly continued to look at Michael with the puppy dog eyes that worked on all the men so well. They worked best on Charlie, then Handsome Rob, and Michael after that. Alex had grown tolerant to them over the years.

"All right." Michael surrendered quickly, not wanting a guilt trip to follow from her as well. "But I'll need your help."

"Deal." She said smiling.

"When are the auditions?" Damon asked.

"Next thursday, the announcement's going out next monday." Holly said, reading back over the sheet to check.

All the way back home, Holly talked non stop about the play. Suggesting characters for Michael to audition for. Eventually, they were both in their own world, unaware of the others talking to them. One they reached the gates of Alex and Holly's house, they all went inside, knowing that their parents would be there for dinner that night anyway.