Author's notes: Thanks so much for the reviews! My first attempt at humor, but it seems to be quite good. Here is the next chapter.
lady kathrin – thanks! Here you go!
shirahime18 – not to worry, they are far from the ingénue and the clueless best friend. Read on!
mrs. malfoy – thanks! Next chapter coming right up!
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Chapter 2 – Name change: meet Miss Diva and Miss BallerinaX X X X
After about two minutes of searching for the desired room, Regina slammed the door shut, as quietly as possible. Her skill with slamming doors quietly was great, having often woken up at, say 3 am and snuck to the computer, carefully avoiding her sleeping parents. Regina always said it was a thrilling adventure. Amanda always said Regina was an insomniac. Regina didn't deny that.
Now, however, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that both girls were in bodies that weren't their own, in a foreign town and time, and in a story most people classified as fiction. At least, that was Regina's hunch. How they got there and how the hell they were going to get back, she had no idea.
"What's this about?" Amanda demanded, "Gin, I didn't know your sarcasm ran so deep you had to dye my hair blonde when I was asleep." she said angrily, pointing at the long, straight blonde strands, the opposite of her brown wavy mess.
"In case you haven't noticed, we're in ballet dormitories, you look like Meg and I look like Christine on a good hair day." Regina hissed back. She was actually beginning to like the hair, though she was a Leroux purist in this and claimed Christine was a blonde… mostly because she was a blonde. Well, used to be.
"Alright, then how did we get here? This is stupid. This kind of thing always has to happen to us, and…" the angry glint in her eyes turned into an euphoric quickly. "Wait… if we look like the movie characters and are in the movie, theoretically…" she gave Regina a pointed look, "You know who has to be several dozen meters beneath us."
"Look, this really isn't the time to joke…"
But the other girl had begun humming the overture… rather loudly. Regina hated when she did that. Amanda, all things considered, was a cool person, but her singing needed work. She never denied it, considering herself to be music-deaf. That meant she couldn't tell an off-key song from a correctly performed one.
Regina seemed to realize just now who Amanda was talking about, but shook the thought off. Normally, she would stop and began to stare, then probably start raiding the Opera Populaire – or, more probably, think for a second and dash to the dressing room mirror and start singing loudly. But if there was anything Regina hated (and probably even feared) the most, it was not being in control. This was one of those situations.
"We don't know how we got here or how to get back!"
Amanda didn't seem to care the least, but began humming another song and doing rather weird things – her parody of some of the dance moves – and even weirder things. Regina always thought that the parody of Don Juan with a paper mask and a pareo was rather weird, but entertaining nonetheless. At least, when she wasn't stressed.
"I'll have to sing opera if we stay here!" she whined, "Don't you understand!"
"Gin, please." Amanda put on her business-like face. "You sing just fine. And with lessons from you-know-who, what can go wrong?" it seemed as if she thought the case was closed.
But Regina hadn't used her secret weapon yet. Putting on a grave expression, she added: "And you will have to dance ballet."
Amanda, currently singing Think of Me, as if to demonstrate that Regina could do it, froze. Her grin vanished. It almost went to Regina's face. At first, Amanda was checking if it was a joke… it wasn't. She knew. Meg Giry equaled ballet rat. Ballet rat equaled dancing. This was hell. She wanted to retort that Regina would have to do it too, but then remembered the teeny fact that her friend's mother had been a prima ballerina and Regina had to put up with watching trainings and performances for practically her whole life. That equaled that she had to at least know how to pretend she knew what she was doing. She, on the other hand…
She swallowed. "Alright, genius, what's the plan?"
"Plan?" Regina repeated, "I have no plan! I don't know anything!"
"You have to get us outta here! I don't want to hop around in a tutu! And my "mother" is the ballet instructor – who do you think is going to have more training than the rest?" Amanda growled, "Phantom or not, I won't do this! I don't even know how to stand correctly!"
Mechanically, though she had never done it before in her whole life (hating ballet to the core since she was eight), Regina showed her the basic stances, the correct position of the arms, hands, legs, everything. Amanda stared at her. It was like looking at a ballerina – a real one. She frowned deeply.
"Now wait just one moment…"
Relaxing her body instinctively, she repeated the poses with ease, doing even better. It was an impulse, really, as if she had done it zillion times before. Again, she frowned. Of course! It hit her. The body wasn't her own, it was Meg´s, and Meg was a dancer. She tried something different – recalling things from Meg´s life. Early childhood. Growing up in the Opera. Dancing. Meeting Christine. Training. She blinked several times sharply.
"I remember…" Regina looked at her quizzically. "I remember Meg´s life. It's like… like having two memories at once – I remember my life, but these other memories seem natural. Try it."
It was Regina's turn to frown, but she tried. And it came to her easily. She remembered entire parts in operas. Notes. Music lessons. A beautiful ethereal voice calling to her. Memories of a dark-haired man playing the violin. She had never seen him before, but instinctively recognized him as her father. She also had memories she knew weren't hers. That meant… that the real Christine wasn't in her body… the real Christine no longer existed. There were only memories left of her. Or… did Regina no longer exist? She shuddered. Scary thoughts. And way too philosophical for an early morning.
"Alright, well, I honestly don't know what to do." Regina bluntly said. "I guess we'll have to stay like this, until…" until they would get back? It didn't seem probable, even to her.
"Then we have a chance to set it right!" Amanda suddenly beamed. "I know you well enough to say there's no chance you'd pick the Fop over Erik and since you're officially Christine now, you can do that!"
Regina laughed weakly. "Don't forget that Don Juan premieres months after all of this… and once we make one major change, everything will change. It's a jigsaw."
"Right now, we focus on Hannibal." Amanda said dismissively. "We'll plan things out after the rehearsals – they're today, I thi…know it." she smirked slightly, "Ready to sing Think of Me and kick Carlotta's ass, Miss Prima Donna?"
Now, even Regina had to laugh. "Alright, but remember – Regina and Amanda are names we can't use anymore. It's Christine and Meg now."
Amanda grimaced. "I don't like the name. I never knew if it stands for Margaret or Megan, or just Meg. Now I know."
"And?"
A laugh. "I'll tell you later, if I feel like it." At least it was still Amanda on the inside.
Regina sighed. "Fine. I guess we should go to bed for the moment. Today is the big day, but we'll have to listen to Carlotta for a while."
"And Piangi." Amanda… Meg stuck her tongue out. "At least he's nicer."
"Yeah, never had a Prima Donna tantrum before."
"Are you certain?"
Laughing, the girls returned to bed, this time making no effort whatsoever to keep things down. The ballet rats, they knew, were mostly drunk from yesterday, so there was absolutely no chance that they would wake up sooner than at half past six, the recommended time to wake up in the Opera house.
When Regina woke up, she instantly had to remind herself that her name was now Christine. It would take time getting used to, but she decided that she could handle it. After all, her parents sometimes teasingly called her that. Her parents… she would never see them again… she sighed. She hated her conscience. It was way too strict for its own good. If she could punch it every once in a while, she would feel better. The role of an ingénue was laughable to her. She, a major martial arts fan, was to be the damsel in distress. Oh, well. Might as well enjoy the finer parts of the role – like the fact she knew that soon, a certain "angel" would emerge from her mirror. She felt better at once.
Amanda wasn't a morning person, but Meg was. The fact that Meg had a conscience angered her – Amanda had no conscience, as far as she was aware. Nevertheless, she was eagerly awaiting her first day, especially since she knew there would be fun things happening soon. While a bit jealous at first that she wasn't Christine, she got over it. Revenge on the Fop for ruining a perfect romance would be enough. Besides, you never knew how many ghosts haunted the place. It seemed like one big adventure to her now, especially since she knew that while no one else knew, she and Regina would be the ones in control. They knew what would happen… and what they would make happen.
The show was ready to begin.
