A/N: Hey, everyone! Just thought ya'll would like an extra long chapter today! Please, applaud at the end. Anywho, here you go! ;-)

REMEMBER, REMEMBER, THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER!

Chapter Seven

As Erik led her to the music room, Christine started up conversation, "So it seems we're carpool partners now."

"Yes. Oh, and please don't worry about the request," Erik said before she could apologize, "My morning drives were getting rather lonely." Wow, Erik, congratulations! You said something witty!

"I really hope you don't mind, it's just my dad needs a car cause the concert hall is so far away and…"

"Christine, it's really not a problem. I want to do it." Why don't you just go on and confess your feelings, you God damn loony!

With his reassurance, Christine felt strangely excited. It was only a carpool, so why was she doing cartwheels in her head?

"Glad to hear it," she chuckled in response.

The rest of the night whet on as usual: Christine was improving with every comment made by Erik. However, at the beginning of their lesson, she pretended to forget how to breathe properly. She felt herself heat up at the feeling of his hands on her stomach trying to correct her. Then she later smiled at the obvious nervousness of Erik. Surely a man his age and attractiveness would have experience with women. Why was he all shaky around her? She knew he didn't like her that way; she was only a seventeen year old he was tutoring because he felt bad.

After their lesson had ended, Erik sat in his bed watching Christine like every night. He noticed her most recent book sickened her as she quickly closed the offending object and tossed it onto her desk with a look of disgust written all over her face. With his acute vision he recognized the title as a hit teen sensation. Erik loved her sense of maturity as she picked up Pride and Prejudice.

He watched as she read for about thirty minutes until a pair of headlights shone through the window. Looking toward Christine's driveway, Erik saw an enormous yellow Hummer stop in front of her house. After the vehicle was turned off, two men emerged and approached Christine's home. Erik noticed the younger man as Ralf Crain and he assumed the other as his father, Mr. Crain.

As the two men rang the doorbell and waited for someone to allow them entry, Erik looked to see what Christine's reaction would be. At the sound of the doorbell, she sadly marked her book and rolled her eyes in annoyance. Christine got up from her bed and opened her door after plastering a fake smile.

From the windows, Erik's eyes followed her down to the first floor and eventually the front door accompanied by her father. George looked extremely excited wearing a football jersey and clutching a remote. Erik then put together the pieces.

Mr. Crain and Ralf must have come over for one of the pre-seasonal football games.

After George and Christine greeted the guests, she quickly snuck away back to her room. Ralf seemed to dislike her reaction and Erik felt a disturbing chill run up his spine with the look Ralf gave her.

Even though she was now safely in her room, Erik started to panic when Ralf left the distracted men and headed up the stairs. Don't you bloody dare do anything to my Christine, you bloody wanker!

Erik squeezed his sheets in rage as he watched Ralf enter Christine's bedroom. Currently, she was peacefully sitting on her bed reading when his uninvited presence alerted her face toward her intruder. She abruptly stood up in the defensive form.

Thanks to Erik's helpful skill of lip reading, he was able to listen to their whole conversation.

"Can I help you," Christine asked in a loaded manner.

"Just wanted to see what you were up to," Ralf replied trying to look innocent.

"Well I'm busy. Why don't you go back downstairs and watch the game?"

"Why would I hang out with a bunch of old guys when I could make out with you?" His toothy grin, which would usually get girls to swoon, made Christine back away and panic.

"Please get out," she requested.

"No, I don't think you want me to."

Erik had enough. As quickly as he possibly could, Erik pulled his jeans on and then an undershirt. He didn't even bother with shoes as he sped out of his house to Christine's front door. Before he could even think up an excuse of why he was there, Erik pushed the doorbell.

What did I just do? Why am I here? To save the damsel in distress. What are you going to tell her father? From my bedroom, I saw Ralf move on Christine? I think not! Quick! Think! OH! I need to know what time to expect Christine to be ready for carpool. Perfect save, Erik.

A look of surprise wrote over George's face as he opened the door.

"Oh, hey, Erik," George said. Then he turned to Mr. Crain and introduced him. "Bob, this is Erik, our next door neighbor."

Suddenly, Erik recognized Bob from the party: he was the nice guy from the coolers.

"Oh yes, the master of the haunted house. Good to see you again, Erik!" Bob, then shook his hand firmly with a warm smile.

"Nice to see you too, Bob." Erik said with great sincerity. Then he remembered why he was here. "Sorry to interrupt you, but I just forgot to talk to Christine about carpool. Is she around?"

"Oh, yeah, no problem, let me just go get her." Without so much as moving, George yelled up the stairs, "Christine! Erik's here!"

Within five seconds, Christine was at the front door and Ralf a few feet behind.

"Erik! What's up?" The look on her face was of relief, gratitude, and utter admiration. My hero! She thought. Of course, Erik was completely oblivious to this fact.

"Uh, I just wanted to know at what time you'll be ready tomorrow morning." Just talking about it got him excited.

"Ready for what?" Ralf asked suspiciously.

"Oh, there you are Ralf!" said Bob.

"My car broke down, so I asked Erik here to take Christine to the college workshop on his way to work. They're in a carpool now." With George's explanation Ralf's face grew red with rage, but he dared not show signs of weakness in front of Christine.

"I'll be ready as early as 6:30." Christine's heart was fluttering at the sight of Erik on her doorstep. Not only did he rescue her from Ralf, but he looked absolutely gorgeous in his form fitting jeans and undershirt. He was her hero. The only down side was that it was all by chance; how was he to know that Ralf was sexually harassing her.

"Perfect. I'll see you bright and early, Christine. Goodnight George, Bob." Erik dared not acknowledge Ralf as he waved and left.

For the rest of the evening, Erik stayed up watching the house until the Crains finally left. Thankfully, Ralf kept to himself and Erik stayed in his clothes just in case he needed to break them up again.

As he looked back at Christine for one more glance, he saw her smile… in his direction. Okay, don't panic! She can't see you; you have all the lights off. She doesn't know you spy on her. Calm down, she's merely looking in this direction for no good reason.

Little did he know, that she too had figured out which was his bedroom. Of course his lights were always too dim to see anything, but she knew he was there. Now, Christine was fully aware that her lights were on and there was a possibility that he could see her, but that fact didn't bother her at all. It excited her. This could come in handy. The ball was in her court. . .

Beep. Beep.

"I said no nuts!"

Erik abruptly woke up from his strange dream by his obnoxious alarm clock. Looking to his right, it read 6:00. He got up and grumbled all the way to his shower with Caesar tagging along wanting some attention. Absent mindedly, Erik reached down and patted him on the head.

He dragged himself to the shower and complained about work and the early hour to his shower head. All of the sudden he remembered his carpool plans. Like Superman, Erik sped through his shower, brushed his hair, brushed his teeth, and threw his clothes on at lightning speed. His watch read 6:15.

He quickly got all of his work things together and ran to his car with a few Hefty bags.

Erik was never a messy man, but when it came to the interior of his car, he simply didn't care. Sometimes he would have to drive to far away sites, so he was forced to eat in the car. Paper bags, containers, and napkins littered the black leather seats.

From the next door neighbor's window, Christine was getting dressed and silently chuckling at Erik's attempt to clean. She was happy that he would go through the trouble of cleaning his entire car for her.

When the time reached 6:55, Erik ran into his house and dumped the trash bags in his front hallway. Here's a treat, Caesar. It was obvious that his clever dog would look for left-over Chinese: his favorite.

He checked himself again in the mirror and popped a mint into his mouth. Then he got into his car and left to pick up Christine.

Even though he only drove for about five seconds, he thought it proper to pick her up at her home. He was prepared to get out and knock, but he was stopped when Christine walked out of the house on her own accord. Remembering his manners, taught by Edna, he got out of the car to open the door for her.

"Good morning, Christine." He was so nervous, he was lucky his voice came out musical and strong.

"Good morning, Erik." Once she was in the car, he gingerly shut the door and ran to his own side.

As Christine settled in shotgun, she inhaled the deep musk scent she recognized as Erik. She then chuckled to herself thinking that the back of the car probably smelt of old stale food.

"I didn't think guys still did that," she told Erik while giving him a sly smile.

"Do what?" he wondered curiously.

"Open and close doors for women. It's very refreshing knowing there are actual gentlemen on this planet." Her response caught him totally off guard.

"Thank you," was all he could say.

"I think I'm the one who should be thanking you." Again, he was confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Well last night, when you came to my house, Ralf was in the midst of making a move on me, and my dad obviously didn't know. Without your distraction, I don't know what would have happened." She looked down at her lap, but her mouth was in a slight smile.

"I'm guessing football jock isn't your type." Erik wanted to know how she really felt about this Ralf.

"No, selfish horn dogs aren't my type." He started to panic, for his thoughts were most definitely horn doggish. "I mean, I know it's just in guys' nature, but the least they could do is have some self control." Erik relaxed again knowing full well that self control was something he had become an expert at.

"I fully understand. The man without the power to control his own self isn't a man at all."

"Wow, you are something," Christine said with a smile plastered on her face.

"I try," Erik joked causing her to laugh. Oh Lord, I made a joke, and she liked it. Whoohoo! He could contain himself no longer has he joined her in laughter.

Christine loved the deep timber of his laugh and the way his thick black eyelashes touched his cheeks when he did. She could hear the music in his laugh, and to her it was a symphony.

At the moment, Erik's Mercedes was parked at the entrance of the college and he and Christine were laughing uncontrollably.

"No, my favorite is when Jim hides Andy's cell in the ceiling and Andy gets so mad he punches a whole in the wall!" For the past fifteen minutes they had been in a deep discussion on The Office, the NBC show. Apparently they were both fans of the comedy. In fact, they had a lot in common, like favorite books, songs, and movies.

"How about when Andy tries to get his bandana wet while he's still wearing the sumo outfit, and he falls into the lake?!" added a giggling Christine. (A/N: video clips of these scenes are on my profile)

"Wow, that show is amazing. Pointless, but amazing." Erik dried the happy tears forming from the sides of his eyes when he looked down at his watch.

"Oh, you better get going. It's already 7." He himself would be late, but he found he didn't care all too much.

"Don't worry about it, it's an art workshop. They're pretty lax here." Her laid back attitude gave him a sense of peace. "Thanks so much for the ride!" Along with her thanks, she gave Erik an unexpected hug and ran out the door yelling behind her, "See you at 6!"

He quickly shook out of his daze and left for work.

"Where have you been, young man! Everyone's looking for you!" Edna screeched as Erik entered his office.

"I dropped off my carpool." Erik couldn't help the smile tugging on his lips at the thought of Christine.

"Carpool? What carpool?" Edna didn't think he was the type of person to ride with anybody.

"Christine has a workshop at the college at the same time I have work."

"Who's Christine?" Both Edna and Erik looked up to see Jon enter the room with a sneaky smile. "Is she your new love interest?"

"She's my neighbour." Erik told him. He didn't want them to know she was only seventeen.

"Who's your neighbor?" It started to get crowded in the office as Rick and Megan entered.

"Christine, my neighbor, is in a workshop at the college at the same time I have work. Her father needs to use her car, so I offered to give her a ride." Erik took the chance to explain everything- almost everything- while everyone was in the room.

"So does Erik have a crush on this Christine?" asked Jon in his conniving manner. As a result, Erik's visible cheek reddened giving away his secret.

"Oh how cute! Erik has a crush on his carpool buddy!" Edna was beaming with the news. For once, Erik had an interest in someone; he could finally move on.

"Wait, Erik. How old is Christine?" While everyone was squealing in happiness over Erik's crush, Rick found reason and noted that this girl was living with her father.

Erik mumbled trying to avoid the question.

"Erik, how old?" Rick asked again.

"Seventeen!" Everyone stood silently staring in shock. "You happy now? Christine is my seventeen year old neighbour whom I find attractive!" Erik didn't know why he just shouted out all of this private information, but he felt his friends deserved an explanation.

"It's not that uncommon; my parents are 11 years apart." Erik gave a sad smile at Edna when she tried to soften the situation.

"It's only a nine year difference. Once she's in her twenties, you'll look the same age," Jon said adding some comfort. "I've seen stranger pairs."

"Are you all crazy?! She's a minor! It's illegal!" Rick was shocked at everyone's acceptance.

"Rick, sweetie, she's almost 18. She'll be an adult soon." Megan tried to calm her husband down.

"I shouldn't have said anything," said a now gloomy Erik.

"No Erik, don't listen to Rick, he's just not used to the abnormal," Megan soothed as she shot daggers at Rick.

"Yeah, Erik, love knows no age," Jon added.

"You guys, I like her, but I have no idea if it's requited, so let's just get off the subject." With Erik's gloomy downcast appearance, they all obeyed and patted him on the back. He really had no idea how much they loved him.

"I'll go get you some coffee, sweetie," Edna then herded everyone out the door.

What have I done? No one would be looking at me like this if I had just kept my mouth shut!

"Oh, Erik!" His head bolted upright and his eyes grow wide with panic when he heard Vicky's sing song voice.

"Vicky, get out of my office!"

"Umm, no, I think I'll stay awhile. We need to discuss business." She sat down in one of his chairs.

"Fine, but I want a witness." He didn't feel safe alone with her. Pushing down on his intercom, Erik said, "Edna, I need you in my office."

A second later Edna burst into the room with Erik's coffee. "Here you go, sweetie."

"Edna, do be a dear and get me one as well," Vicky commanded with an evil smile.

"No, Edna, don't bother. Just get the rest of the team." He waved Edna off while she fled the office. "I don't think it's wise to sign anything without the team present."

"It's only a bit of personal agreements. We really don't need the whole team in here." She looked a little embarrassed and flustered. Obviously this was a private matter. All the better to advertise.

"No, I think we do." He gave off a casual smile as Jon, Megan, Rick, and Edna reentered the room.

"What's this all about?" Rick asked.

"Vicky wants me to sign some personal agreements," Erik said with a smug smile while laughing at the blonde woman with his eyes. "Tell, us, please, what is this agreement exactly?"

"Uhhh…" Vicky stuttered until she got her thoughts together. This was not part of her plan; she was hoping to corner Erik all alone to win him back. He would be perfect now that Jim was starting to move on.

"I just wanted you to sign a relation agreement." This so called relation agreement meant that neither she nor Erik could sue the company should their "romantic" relationship terminate.

"My dear, you need to be in a relationship in the first place in order for this document to be valid." Everyone in the room chuckled at the sarcasm. This was truly the best kind of embarrassment.

"Excuse me." Picking up her things, Vicky fled the room and not even her heavy makeup could hide her heated face.

"What was that about?" Rick's face was totally distorted with confusion.

"Apparently, she wanted to ask me out for some manipulative reason."

"That scarlet woman will just not leave well enough alone!" Edna raved. "I'm just glad that your values are so high, Erik."

"I'd have to disagree… your age interest is rather low," Jon retorted.

"I swear, Jon, one more comment and I will have you tormented just as much as Vicky." I'm bloody well serious, too.

"Someone's got a stick up their ass."

"That counts as a comment," snarled Erik again.

"Fine," huffed Jon. With a wave of his hand, he left the office with a strut.

"Come on, let's give Erik some space." Megan then led everyone, including the reluctant Edna, out of the stuffy room.

They will all be the death of me.

When 5 o'clock rolled around, Erik's stomach was doing flip flops and the giant butterflies were threatening to fly out through his nose.

It was still a whole hour until he had to pick up Christine, but he couldn't help being a nervous wreck. The entire day, he achieved absolutely nothing. I swear, if she gets in the way of work, I will be forced to move.

Finally, 5:50 came and Erik sped to his car. He even forgot to say goodbye to everyone.

Everything went smoothly on his way to the garage. The elevator was on his floor and it stopped for no one. When he saw his car in the garage, he practically ran to the vehicle. In his speedy haste out of the property, Erik almost got into an accident as he raced to the college.

Of course, leaving work, ten minutes early with only a two minute drive, he found himself sitting in his car eagerly waiting for Christine to emerge from the building. As if she read his mind, she walked out at exactly 5:59 with all of her equipment. Her promptness made him cheerful for some unknown reason.

Stop smiling like a buffoon!

Coming to his senses, Erik jumped out of the car and met her half way.

"Hey, Christine. Let me take those for you." He then offered his arms as her very own personal luggage cart.

"It still amazes me how many manners you have," she said with a smile. "Are you sure you're not from the south?"

"My assistant tries to make sure I am well educated in proper southern etiquette." Taking her load, he quickly, yet gingerly, placed it in the back and then ran around the car to open her door.

"I'm glad she's such the dictator. The world needs well rounded men such as yourself." He didn't know a comment like that could make him want to jump up in the air.

"Thank you." His smile made Christine want to melt in her seat.

"So, how was your exciting day at the office?" said Christine with a voice laced in sarcasm.

"Exhausting as usual, and most recently annoying."

"Are your office buddies getting on your nerves?" she giggled.

"Just one in particular," Erik growled in response.

"Ohhh. What's she like?"

"How'd you know she was a woman?" The things this girl knows.

"You got a far off look, like you had a history with her. Is she your ex?"

Did she really just read all of that from one look?

"Yes, actually. Well almost, not really." She looked at him confused and then amused.

"Hmmm, weird way to put a relationship," she said half laughing. After Erik smiled in response she sat there looking at him. "She must be stupid."

"Why do you say that?" When he looked over to read her expression, he noticed her starring at him and his breath caught in his throat at the intensity of it.

"Because she let you go." She then closed her eyes and turned her face toward the warm sun to soak her skin.

Erik was now beyond baffled. She actually saw him as something worth holding onto! Not to mention the way she said it and what her eyes spoke to him. Don't see it that way; she's only trying to cheer you up! You're the pitiful charity case of a neighbor. Just take her to her house so that she can get back to her own world.

"By the way, Erik, your lessons are doing wonders for my voice. For the first time, I'm starting to become confident in it."

"How can you not be secure in the first place?! Everything about you is absolutely brilliant!" Realizing what had just escaped his lips, Erik quickly attempted to fix the situation. "W-w-what I mean to say is that your talent is spectacular." That was too close. Perhaps it would be better for me to fall into a coma for a while. Maybe then I wouldn't embarrass myself with speech or anyway else for that matter.

Christine then had her own little rant in her head: Did he just call me brilliant? He said ALL of me, too! Maybe he likes me as I do him… No, he's just being nice. Like a perfect, 26 year old man would fall for an 'immature' teenager like me.

"Thank you, Erik. That really means a lot to me," she said in a somewhat somber tone.

The rest of the ride was peaceful coast, but with the anxious questions hanging in the air. Both of their doubts blocked their decisions and views of one another. Why were they holding back? Of course what the outside world would think was one of the most major issues hanging over their heads, but does that opinion truly matter in comparison about how two people feel? Aren't our instinct and beliefs supposed to overcome all odds and spit the world in the face? In books and fairytales this is all true and good, but how far will people go in real life to obtain it. Hopefully, Christine and Erik realize their story is far more powerful and real than any fairytale can comprehend.

A/N: Thought I might play with drama rather than comedy at the end there. Hopefully you liked it. Please let me know how you felt about this chapter.

REMEMBER, REMEMBER, THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER!

Erik: Don't you think that V for Vendetta is rather similar to our story?

Christine: Why yes, I do see that comparison. It's a shame about the ending though.

Erik: Well our's wasn't so fantastic either! (Erik grumbles crossing his arms)

Christine: Well that's why they invented Fanfiction, Darling.

Erik: Praise God for Fanfiction!

Both: R&R!