Author's notes: After eons of waiting, after such a long time, here is the new chapter, before you guys kill me! It's not the end, and I hope to write at least two more chapters before I have to end the story. Now, this was a tough one – you all knew what was coming, I had to make it good. But it's here! Question for you people: should I continue calling Erik Erik or not?
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Chapter 26 – French lessons and Egyptian break-throughs
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"This is a bad idea." Regina muttered to herself two days later, causing an unusually bubbly Amanda to roll her eyes. They were sitting in a taxi, riding to the biggest and probably first break-through point that could change their lives, as Regina kept repeating ever since she had been presented with the offer.
"Calm down, Gin, you'll do fine. Just start singing the Queen of the Night's Vengeance aria and you'll see how their eyes fall out." Amanda said brightly, "Or that Bell Song you keep mentioning as the height of complicated, from that Indian opera…. Padmé, or something, right?"
"Lakmé." Regina corrected, with a calmer but more snappish voice, "Padmé´s a Star Wars Character. The opera's called Lakmé."
"Yeah, well, alright." Amanda shrugged, "The point is, it's hard, and it'll show you know your stuff." She was very joyful today, knowing that after what they had been through, this was in the bag. She had been very hyper ever since the end of the performance of Phantom, actually, but that was beside the point. Today, she was jubilant.
It was common knowledge – at least Regina thought so – that Amanda loathed the color yellow. She didn't know why, but assumed Amanda thought it much too bright. Today, however, the self-proclaimed tomboy was wearing a shirt of sunny yellow and a black skirt, probably to balance it out. Her hair was in a ponytail and her eye shadow and eyeliner matched her attire, giving her the look of a near-Egyptian.
Regina sighed. She felt ill – as always before a test or an important thing. She had been quite surprised when a lunar calendar on the internet correctly deduced that her weakest point was her stomach, but she wasn't happy with the discovery. To "mask" the fact that her pallor was even greater than usual, she was wearing a white blouse and blue jeans.
The moment she had realized who she was being led to during that break two days ago was as if an anvil had fallen on her head, like it would in a cartoon. The bad thing was, she couldn't escape, and the vainer part of her didn't want to. That part also deduced Erik's plan with ease and spotted where she came in. Yes, "Christine" would be a star… just not on the stage, for a while.
She had endured the introduction, said her name with a smile and listened carefully to all the praise of her voice Erik was saying, sparing him only a brief "If I didn't love you I'd kill you" look. And so an audition was arranged. Just in time, she had been told, they were almost finished with the list of candidates. She had been given the time and place – the biggest problem was that the auditions were in New York City.
Afterwards, Erik led her away, back to the area where her parents stood, and Amanda, who spotted them, rushed in. Regina regained her voice as she introduced her, reminding Erik that it was Meg, Madame Giry´s daughter. Amanda positively beamed when he brought her hand to his lips with the old-fashioned politeness and beamed even more when Regina explained after their parting what he meant when he said "Christine will be the diva again."
Before he left, Regina threw him a semi-angry look. "You could have at least asked me if I agreed with all this, you know."
"Ah, ma plus chère beauté, where would the surprise be?" he said with a smile that appeased Regina slightly, but she shook her head (Amanda, naturally, was having the problem of suppressing a squeal).
"C'est le vingt et unième siècle, pas le dix-neuvième." she noted, "Life cannot be changed so easily, it simply cannot."
"I believe it just was." he said, still smiling. "Merely more quickly than you're used to. Worry not, my dear. You will get the part – you better to portray you than yourself? – and the world will be enamored and you will be the diva, as you are meant to be. I will take care of everything. Trust me."
"But why not begin with auditioning in an opera house?" Regina asked, throwing her last card. "It would be just as hard, but I thought you preferred opera… you know film and yet you don't and this…" She was spared the need to think of more ways to answer by a kiss that silenced her effectively.
"You have absolutely no idea how wonderful it is to be free to kiss you in public, whenever I want to." Erik said pleasantly as Amanda stared shamelessly.
"You still need permission from me." Regina noted, unable to think of anything better, since it seemed her brain cells were rendered non-functional by a sudden electrical shock.
"Then I will ask for it next time." And he kissed her again, without permission. "Forgive the impertinence of an outcast, who wishes merely to be granted a bit of heaven through an angel."
Since Regina was too brain-dead to say anything and Amanda was positively on the verge of squealing, Erik took Regina's numb hand and kissed it, as he had done with Amanda, said only: "Crois à ton ange, bel enfant." and left them standing there.
The next day, plane tickets to New York arrived. Everyone but Regina was completely amazed, but when she explained, everyone – to her astonishment – seemed enthusiastic about that. They saw it as one major fun trip. And so, they went to America. Not a very enjoyable flight, since it was overly long for most of their tastes, but seeing everything when they got off the plane was great. Their hotel for the few days had also been booked, so Regina had no chance to object. A free trip to the US? Who in their right mind would reject that, Amanda reasoned, and it seemed that the parents agreed, once Amanda told them that they had it from a reliable source.
Now, Regina covered her face with her hands. She couldn't do this, it was too…
"Come off it!" Amanda snapped at her. "You've done stuff that's far worse than these things. You've sung them before; you'll do fine and get the part, like Gerik said." She said with a satisfied smile since Regina removed her hands to throw her a dirty look.
They were there far sooner than Regina would have liked, and Amanda practically dragged her all the way, knowing that there was a chance that Regina might lose her nerve and try to get away. Besides, getting lost in a foreign (and big) city was not a good idea, so she thought she was doing her friend a bit of a favor.
Once they got to the correct door, Regina – somewhat unaided by Amanda, who was rolling her eyes again – took a deeper breath and knocked. When a "Come in!" came from the inside, she opened the door and entered, Amanda following, a studio. Amanda saw that Regina wasn't really there when she was shaking hands with Joel again and took unnecessary care not to look at Erik either. Why, she had no idea. But if it helped her… Amanda shrugged inwardly. Regina could get worked up about doing things correctly.
"Well, shall we begin then, Miss Chael?" Joel said enthusiastically. Then, apparently seeing Regina's weak nod, he added: "If only half the praise of your voice I've heard from Gerry is true, then I'm sure I'll be impressed. Don't worry."
In any other case, a sarcastic comeback would have entered Regina's mind, but now there was only a blank, so she nodded again. "Okay, let's get started." she said, remembering what she was supposed to sing and that she wasn't supposed to sing it in French.
Needless to say, minus the two people who had been anticipating nothing short of a triumph, everyone in the room was goggling at the young girl as if she had just sprouted antennas and proclaimed that she is from Mars and comes in peace. She managed the two biggest numbers of the show – TOM and WYWSHA with apparent ease. When she finished the latter, everyone seemed speechless, and the two already mentioned people exchanged looks of triumph.
After a minute of awkward silence, Erik stood up and clapped for a moment, managing to conjure up a smile on Regina's face. "Bravo, my dear. But perhaps you would sing "O patria mia" from Aida for me? It compliments your voice wonderfully."
"And here I thought you would make me sing 'Il dolce suono', at the very least." Regina said with slight relief. The Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor was immensely difficult. Amanda only understood that they were talking about arias and probably difficult ones. Joel didn't seem to understand a word. Then again, he might have still been stupefied, so it was hard to tell.
With a smile that plainly said "We will get to that soon enough", Erik motioned to Regina to start. Taking a breath, she began to sing a capella. Somewhere mid-aria, some people showed signs of life, but waited until Regina had finished.
The verdict was clear: send all the other ones home at once, we've found our Christine, Schumacher was saying into his phone, presumably to Webber or someone from the production, it was unclear. Meanwhile, Regina regained some color, Amanda was jumping up and down in excitement and Erik slipped a hand around Regina proudly.
"You see, I told you you could do it." he said fondly.
Regina smiled and seemed relieved overall. Then she thought for a moment, freed herself gently and said: "Wait." She looked at Amanda. "We're not done yet, Amy has yet to audition for Meg's part."
