Author's notes: Next chapter is the shooting, people! Oh, and just so you know, like Amanda and Regina, Rita and Mrs. Baxter are real-life people, and they fit the descriptions. Not to be evil to them, however, the names you read are not their real names. Oh, and I adore Don Giovanni, did I mention that? I don't care if Madamina! is a basso aria! I just love it, especially the first part. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one.

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Chapter 29 – One more for the Catalogue

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Looking back on the whole thing, Amanda was more than reasonably pleased with how the whole thing went. Once they entered the school and she elbowed Regina to quit looking as if she were going to court, all she had to do was grin at the people who were staring at them in utter disbelief, most of them girls from age 11-18 who were still present in the halls and not in the courtyard, where the beginning-of-term speeches would take place. Even Regina noticed them, which was saying something, because she kept imagining what their headmistress would say and what would happen. The fact that Amanda felt the nagging need to elbow her in the ribs again to make sure she noticed was the irritating part of it.

They had proceeded straight to the headmistress's office and Regina gritted her teeth before knocking and opening the door.

Everyone in the school knew that their headmistress, Mrs. Baxter, was not the most amiable person in the world. In fact, everyone thought that she was one of the least likeable people in the world. When it came to appearances, she was not exactly a beauty queen. She probably used to have brown hair before dying it platinum blonde so often, it seemed to be about as strong as cotton candy that could be torn from her head at all times. It was straight and not very thick. Her skeletal figure and face that was skeletal as well as stern gave her the appearance of the Grim Creeper when she dressed in black. She wasn't evil, but very strict and strangely "nationalistic" when it came to her own school. She had authority, true, but no student liked her. And her dull speeches with lengthy pauses and frequent mispronunciations due to nervousness were legendary.

Surprisingly, the meeting went quite well. they were greeted by the secretary, another wanna-be model type persona who wasted no time before she started staring and almost stuttering, earning herself a glare from Regina and suppressed laughter from Amanda. Regina wasted no time elbowing her friend in the stomach. When Amanda let out an audible "Ow!", the other girl's glare finally softened. Perhaps she had taken out far too much frustration on her friend, but she deserved it.

Only briefly – thank God, Amanda thought – were the two teenagers needed before released from the office. Naturally, the first thing they ran into was the crowd that had gathered itself in front of the office. Some squeals and a lot of questions welcomed them, most of which they didn't understand a word, because the people there just wouldn't stop talking. Amanda briefly thought they might escape to the girl's bathroom several meters away, but the crowd had closed in so tightly that there was really no way out. Once Regina finally remembered she had an opera-trained voice now and screamed out at them to be quiet, did they quiet down.

A bespectacled girl with waist-length mousy brown hair fought her way to them – quite a feat, since her built was very frail – and Amanda suffered a slight shock to see Rita, one of her closest friends, still with fair hair. She dismissed the memory that in less than a year, the two of them would discover – or would have discovered? – Good Charlotte and punk music, eventually leading to Rita dying her hair jet black, much against the wishes of her family. Then again, all of Rita's family had black hair. Rita was simply the not-so-black black sheep.

"Amy! Gin!" she squealed and threw herself at the former, landing in a hug, "You're almost late! And what's all the commotion, Anna said someone saw you heading for Baxter's office."

Amanda proceeded to answer the question, but then someone squealed another question and soon, both she and Regina found themselves quickly answering. Meanwhile, more people – some teachers, including – came to the corridor, trying to find out what had caused the delay.

It didn't help at all that about three minutes after they had greeted almost everyone they knew by name and restarted the story for the umpteenth time that Erik emerged from the office, causing a general wave of sudden squeals and semi-faints from about 99 percent of the present females, overlooking perhaps the teachers.

"Amanda, Mrs. Baxter would like to speak to your parents just to confirm everything, and she doesn't want to waste time looking for the phone number in your files, could you please help?"

Amanda nodded and attempted to outshout the squeals. "Sure, but will you take my place here and save Gin, please, Gerry? Otherwise these guys will probably cause her to explode and I don't want to be the one stuck with an angry computer freak for the rest of the day."

Regina switched to French, just in case. "Not a good idea. In case you haven't noticed, these little beasts aren't emitting sounds that endanger the species commonly known as dogs because they find you repulsive in any way. And trust me, in this century, that might be far, far worse than what you've been through when people thought you ugly." she rambled quickly.

"You can go fix the piano downstairs." Amanda suggested, also in French, "There's not enough room for them all in there." Regina, seeing that they really didn't have time for more conversation before the eleven-year-old squealing girls would really need slapping and before they would close in on them briefly looked at Erik and almost laughed at the expression on his face. While conversing, the two have forgotten about his uncomfortable feeling when it came to crowds.

Amanda had probably thought that after everything that had happened to them and, especially, not being "horribly disfigured" any longer, the problem had been solved. Regina saw that yes, the problem had been mostly solved, but that didn't mean that he was willing to stay among the crowd. One look told Regina that if he knew how to get to the cellars, he probably would prefer them to the crowded corridor.

Regina took the lead, but decided it was about time he learned things the hard way. Making her way through the crowd, she calmly (at least outwardly) proceeded down the corridor and smiled faintly when she heard the unmistakable footsteps behind her.

"You play an unfair game, Christine – when you entered the unknown, I led you through it." Erik said, with just a hint of an angry hiss in his voice.

"Who ever said I'm not leading you?" Regina whispered back, "I simply think you need a slight push in the social direction. You have to – what would Amy say? Oh yeah. Get over yourself."

"Permit me to remind you that people weren't too keen to remain in my company during a full lifetime, so excuse me if I don't immediately enjoy all the attention, despite its rather different character." He said dryly.

Regina sighed. "I know this can't be easy…"

"It isn't."

"… but things are different now. Not that I'm encouraging you to remain among these girls, no, certainly not." She added quickly, glancing down when he gave her a look that clearly remembered her rather defensive attitude at the airport. "It's just that none of them is going to understand if you find yourself a nice comfy cellar and spend the rest of your life there. How did Leroux say it? "He had a heart that could have held the empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar." Yes, I think that's how it goes."

"I don't necessarily agree, my dear. You see, cellars have a certain charm to them, once you furnish them properly." Regina decided not to reply.

They got downstairs back the way they came and Regina went down a few more stairs, revealing an open semi-chamber there, with doors leaving to the courtyard and to the cellars (coincidently). There was also a rather old brown piano there. And a lot more people, because the rest of the school was just outside.

"It's a bit out of pitch, I hear." Regina noted sheepishly, "I can't really tell, I never learned to play the piano. I wish I had, but I was a kid when my grandma was pushing me into it, so I went defensive and said I would never play." She explained when he gave her a questioning look.

"I could teach you, if you wish." He offered. "Your voice is ready, whatever other instrument you wish to master, I can help you with."

Having expected that slightly, Regina beamed. "What would I do without you?"

"Your life would be much more boring." He said, already inspecting the piano. The crowd was actually very silent during this process and just watched as he effortlessly repaired the instrument and played a few notes just to check it.

On cue, the crowd started begging for him to play something. On cue, Amanda, Joel, Mr. Chael and Mrs. Baxter appeared on the stairs. Everyone fell silent at the sight of the headmistress, who folded her arms and wordlessly managed to usher them all outside.

"All the details have been sorted out, Gina." Mr. Chael smiled at his daughter, "Mrs. Baxter simply wants…"

"… to boast in front of the crowd of parents out there." Amanda interrupted, knowing Mr. Chael wouldn't mind. Regina's dad was very much okay in her opinion, being an actor and thus ever-young in spirit.

"Now, Amy, you know that this sort of thing rarely happens at a normal school." Mr. Chael reminded her with a smile. "And I must say once again, I'm happy for you two. I knew you were so much into acting and singing, Gina, but that you were given this chance is amazing."

Regina smiled a bit forcibly. She knew that had things gone the normal way, she would really never have gotten the chance. But now that she had the chance, she sure as hell wasn't going to throw it away. "Thanks, Dad." She said, hugging him. They then proceeded to watch the speech from the entrance, taking care to pointedly ignore every stare. Only Amanda seemed to be truly enjoying teasing the people with grins and brief waves.

The speech they had expected to be long, dull and boring. And it was, after Mrs. Baxter got past their case. She had smiled in a way that made others want to scream in terror and, after the usual greetings, began to say: "Some of you have already noticed our special guests. We were forced to delay the beginning of the celebration," many students wanted to snort. "because we had things to discuss. I am very pleased to announce that two of our students, Miss Amanda Kerri and Miss Regina Chael, have been chosen at an audition for an adaptation of the Broadway musical the Phantom of the Opera for two of the leading roles." There was general astonishment among the audience and many more heads turned to them. "Thus unfortunately, they will not be joining us for this brand new school year, as they have to be present in America for rehearsals and shooting." The two girls failed miserably at looking devastated because of this fact.

They didn't fake being devastated when Baxter decided she wanted to boast the skills of her students and said: "And so, I would be very honored if I could summon them here for a brief addition to our student program."

Amanda sulked and Regina sighed, but both decided to be brave. The student program was a traditional part of the opening of the term, and both despised it. No one actually wanted to perform in it, but the teachers were very sneaky in their blackmailing. Once on-stage, Regina took the mike, greeted everyone and tried to get out of it by saying that they have nothing rehearsed and that singing a capella wouldn't have the effect they wished for. Unfortunately, not too late afterwards, someone must have realized that since Erik had repaired the piano, he could probably play it, and Amanda spotted a small crowd where they had stood, a few guys probably going to bring out the piano, the rest – Amanda didn't fail to notice that primarily girls – were begging him to play.

The next minute, the piano was on the stage and a few way too bubbly girls were gossiping and throwing Erik, who was ushered towards the stage, dreamy looks. Regina glared and mouthed "I hate you" to him, but he pointedly ignored that.

Once he sat down at the piano, Regina asked if he could play the Catalogue aria – "Madamina! il catalogo è questo..." . Erik frowned. "Christine, that is a basso aria. You are a soprano."

Regina nodded. "I know. But listing all the women Don Juan "loves", when and how he gets them and what happens them is more than perfect." Being quite the genius and by now knowing that his Christine wasn't faking the glares, Erik understood and gave her a look which made Regina wish he hadn't.

The only thing that surprised him was that Regina began singing the aria in English and, despite being more than a major third away from the original score, she managed to hold the tune well. Amanda was the one who noticed that there was a parallel between the sudden crestfallen faces of the girls and a subconscious grin on Regina's face as she sang, because both sides probably realized who would be spending time with Erik and who wouldn't. now it was most of the girls that gave Regina death glares so ridiculous Amanda was certain she broke a rib by suppressing laughter.

The audience applauded when Regina finished the last sentence: "Now you know all that he is." with a long note, but unfortunately Baxter didn't allow them freedom just yet, forcing them to stay there for her "How we shall miss you" speech. Regina thought that unlikely, for she and Baxter had had only 1 conversation previously and that had involved her prying into what she had been reading at the moment, finding out that it had been a French grammar textbook. She very much doubted Baxter had known her full name before today. Amanda, surprisingly, took the speech rather well, knowing that it was probably the very last one she would have to suffer and savoring that thought.

Once all this was over, Regina found her father and moaned: "Can we please, please go now?"

Mr. Chael laughed. "And here I thought you would savor the last remaining days of normal life you have."

Amanda then joined them, laughing almost hysterically for some reason. When they asked why, she managed to point a shaking hand in the direction of where Baxter stood, apparently trying hard to start a conversation with Joel or Erik. None of them could help it right now – they joined the laughing session. Otherwise they would really have broken some ribs.