This is just a quickie update. If any of you have read my poetry Songs of the Raven - and even if you haven't – PLEASE vote for me on the Phanphiction Reader's Choice Awards! You can find the website at www (dot) freewebs (dot) com/phanphicawards. Also, if I forgot to say it last time, the Siren as she appears in this phic belongs to MetaChi.
Clair: Actually, America doesn't have an official language, since there are so many people that speak so many different things. Melting pot, and all.
EriksIngenue: Yes, in the book it's Erik singing from underwater through a hollow reed. Then he comes up and tries to drown whoever's intruding on his lake. It nearly happens to the Persian. …Nooo, no physical attraction. I guess I wasn't being clear. I meant that he picked her up by the collar, like when you pick up a kitten by the scruff of its neck.
Elflover: Yeah, but I mean they're uncomfortable. Corsets and everything. Ugh, lucky, lucky, lucky! I just read Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, and I'm looking for Goethe's. That's the one you saw, right? Mephistopheles rocks.
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Hana blinked. Once again she found herself submersed in the cold waters of Erik's lake, with the Siren at her side. Said Siren swam up and helped her out of the lake. The organ started echoing loudly from Erik's house. Hana sighed.
"What's up?" inquired the Siren.
Taking a seat beside the lake's edge, she introduced herself. "I'm Hana – the contest winner?" The Siren nodded. "I really have to study my part for Cinderella, but I left my music in there." She jerked her thumb toward the house. "He'll never let me in now."
The Siren shrugged. "Sorry 'bout that. I'd get it for you, but I'd never be able to open that door. Plus he'd figure out it was me."
"How?" wondered Hana.
"Water spots all over the carpet."
"Oh."
They were quiet for a while.
"Want to go play paintball?"
"What?" Hana stared at her. The Siren shrugged again.
"We can't get your music until Erik cools off. Or at least until he opens the door. So you wanna go and kill some time until then?"
Hana considered. She didn't have a lesson until seven, so it'd be kind of cool to go hang out with the Siren. "Okay," she agreed. Climbing into the boat again, she braced herself as she was slingshot-ed over to the opposite side of the lake. The Siren hopped out of the water, and Hana was surprised to find that this blue mermaid-like creature had legs. Scaly and finlike, yes, but legs.
"To the paintball grounds!" she called, pointing dramatically in a random direction. She set off with Hana, who was still rather confused.
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Erik sat pounding the organ angrily. As time passed, though, the music began to cool down, becoming calmer and smoother.
All violin inspiration had now left him.
He massaged his head and moaned. Perhaps he had been a little hard on Hana, but he absolutely hated to be interrupted while he was working. And it had been such a good song too. He supposed it would have to go unfinished for the moment. Leaving the now silent organ, he went to the door and pushed it open. Hana was nowhere in sight.
"What had she even come down here for?" Erik irritably said aloud.
He swung the door shut again and fastened its numerous locks. Flopping down onto the couch, he noticed he was crushing a large amount of paper. It was Hana's copy of Cinderella.
That was what she had wanted. She came down for her music for rehearsals.
And I threw her in the lake.
Erik felt a bit guilty. All he had to do was give her the music, and then she would have left him in peace. He hadn't needed to be so aggressive.
Then he stood up indignantly. Why was he feeling guilty? He was the Phantom of the Opera! Regret should be an alien emotion to him! It was just as much her fault! All she needed to do was pick up the music. Coming into the music room – which she knew was off-limits – wasn't necessary!
Storming, he dropped the music sheets and went looking for something to eat.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A large blue paintball exploded in Hana's face.
"Gotcha!" called a girl from high in a tree. MetaChi was her name – the Siren had insisted that she come along with them on their paintball excursion. Hana fired her red paintballs in her general direction, but to no avail. MetaChi laughed.
Hana decided to revenge herself upon the Siren, who was crouching behind a nearby bush, believing herself to be unseen. Soon, she was splattered with red.
"Not fair!" she called, sending green paint back as a response.
With her position exposed, MetaChi fired at her, thereby exposing her own position to Hana, who fired at her, creating a triangle of red, blue, and green paintballs.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Meanwhile, Erik, while grumbling excessively, returned to the living room and started to gather up the scattered music sheets.
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"Okay, who got hit the most?" The Siren rubbed her hands together eagerly, counting the colored spots on the three splattered girls.
"I think MetaChi won," said Hana, who was now firm friends with the both of them. "I only hit her five times."
"I only got hit twelve times," said the Siren proudly.
"You did not, I hit you loads of times, you just can't see the blue paint on your skin," retorted MetaChi.
"Yeah, well I see smudges where you wiped paint off!" said the Siren smugly.
"Okay, okay, I know how we can solve this problem," said Hana, pretending to play the mediator. "I won."
Arguments broke out again as they made their way to the Opera.
Hana and the Siren said goodbye to MetaChi at the Opera doors while a winner still hadn't been chosen. They decided to meet for lunch someday to finish the argument. Hana left the Siren and returned to her room.
Closing the door behind her, she turned around and stopped.
Her music lay neatly on her couch waiting for her.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Why are you covered in paint?" asked Lefevre, looking rather bewildered as Hana entered a small practice room above the main auditorium for her lesson.
She smiled as she opened her music.
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Yes, I know it's short, but you're lucky to have an update at all. I just got back from Washington, D.C. Please vote for my poetry!
