Chapter 5 –

He watched Elizabeth leave the room. He did not worry about the students, even after Elizabeth and her little comment. He turned back to his students.

One boy in the back raised his hand. "Erik, why do you wear…?" Before he could finish, a girl next to him hit him and eyed him. "Never mind," he said.

Erik just nodded, knowing perfectly well what the boy was going to ask him. He was silent for a minute deciding what to do. Soon he decided he wanted to put a name to the faces in front of him. "When I point to you, I would like you to say your name, and what part you sing."

He pointed to a tiny girl in the front. "Emily Dulaurier, I'm a soprano."

Next Erik pointed to the boy sitting next to her. "Fredrick Henderson." Erik nodded.

He went one by one through all the students but skipped over the little diva of the class; she looked insulted, and immediately raised her hand. "Sir you forgot me." She said without him even acknowledging her.

He turned around her. "No, I already know your name from the comment you made earlier, Miss Caroline Henson." He turned around again, really wanting this girl to leave it be; she truly was a young Carlotta. "Now why don't we work on our songs? Which one would you like to do first?"

Everyone screamed out a different one. "All right, Julie, which one would you like to do first?"

She thought for a minute. "I'd like to do The First Noel."

"Good choice. Now why don't you organize yourselves into sections and we will do the First Noel."

They stood up quickly and organized themselves by the organ. Erik began to play and they sang it quite nicely. They ran through it two times then Erik stood up. "I'd like for you to sing it acapella so I can hear any mistakes from each student specifically."

While they sang, Erik listened. The biggest problem he kept hearing was Miss Caroline's voice trying to overpower everyone else's. "Miss Caroline, try and blend more with the other singers, your voice stands out too much." The rest of the class continued singing, but Caroline looked as if she were completely fuming. Everyone eyed her and waited for the song to end, because their new teacher was going to get the full extent of Caroline Henson.

The song ended and Caroline burst out. "Sir, you need to understand that I am the strongest signer in this class and it is not my fault they can't sing to my level. No other teacher has had a problem with the way that I sing, and I assure you that you are going to be the last. I have talent and you need to let me express it."

Erik resisted the urge to laugh but he took a deep breath and spoke slowly but commandingly. "I know I am not like any other of your teachers, I pride myself on that fact. In addition, I do not want you singing at that level because when you do, you strain your voice too much, and you take away from the nice singing from the rest of your soprano group. You have talent, yes, but your talent does not exceed that of the rest of the class. You think you are better than the rest, but I know that you are no better than the rest. I have dealt with diva types like you before and I do not stand for it in my students. You will not be treated any better than the rest of this class. If you did not always try to be the center of attention, you would be able to do much better. I know you could do because I have heard the likes of your voice in the Paris Opera house I once resided in. I would hate for you to ruin yourself with an attitude like the one you seem to be getting."

She looked at him in awe. No one had ever spoken to her like that, and she knew she could not rule this teacher as she had before. The only other person in the school who did not tolerate her actions was Miss Bennet, and Erik seemed to be the same type of person. She did not have a response and just nodded and let him continue the lesson.

"Now the other thing I had on my mind about this piece is how few altos we have in this class. I was also informed by Miss Bennet that we have one girl in particular that could be a very good alto, and in fact, I agree. Now, Julie—why do you insist on singing soprano?"

"I…uh…well I like it more than alto."

"Why?"

"I, I just do."

"Well, why don't we try you in alto for the week, then if you really truly hate it, then you can switch back." He came closer to her and whispered in her ear. "I promise that you won't get lonely, you'll only be a little ways away from your friend." He first wanted her to feel threatened but then he realized the effect he could have on her and he winked.

This was not a typical Erik moment, but he truly did not want the students to run to their precious Miss Bennet and tell her the new teacher scared them all. Julie just nodded and went to go stand by Jennifer and Aurora. "So, uh, Hattie, why don't you pick the next song we do? I think The First Noel is doing well for the time being, I am actually impressed with it even though you lacked proper teaching when you began them. Miss Caldwell?" He turned to the close friend of young Julie.

"Joy to the World. It has been in my head since we heard you and Miss Bennet singing it before class." She blushed a bit. Erik saw it, but he waved it off, silly little girls and theirs silly little minds. "It sounded amazing."

"Thank you, and good choice." He turned to the altos, "Please be kind and help Julie with the notes a little bit. If there is any trouble with her learning new notes before the concert, then I'll help her personally."

He was right, Julie felt awkward in the alto section, but when they sang it through the second time, she was more comfortable with it and she sounded much better there. The notes did not seem to be hard for her to sing as some of the higher soprano notes were.

"So how is my vocal class doing with my new teacher?" Elizabeth was able to come back in around ten o'clock, after going to the instrument room to reprimand the little boy who had conveniently left his lunch in the inside of his friend's instrument. He had unfortunately left his name on the bag.

"You are mistaken, Elizabeth, they are my vocal class." he replied with a smirk. Some of the girls began to whisper and giggle. The boys and little innocent Emily were completely oblivious, but the girls seemed to be convinced that there was a romantic connection between the two. Erik was oblivious to it because he was in fact just an overgrown little boy, but Elizabeth caught a few of the things they were saying.

"Oh, well, sir, would you please be kind to show me how your class is doing." She referred to him as sir, and the girls hushed down. Elizabeth noticed that Julie now stood with the altos and she knew she would be forced to compliment the man in front of her for it.

"Why, sure. Miss Bennet." He replied using her last name because she had used 'sir.' "We just finished working on Joy to the World, and we would be happy to sing it for you." The class all nodded at the opportunity to show their skills to Miss Bennet. The students adored her, except for perhaps Caroline who hated her at times. All the students seemed to love her, something Erik had noticed. He looked up to her for that, but she would never know that. He had never been adored by everyone around him; in fact, he had hardly been adored by any of the people who were around him. He hoped this place would be different for him, and somehow deep inside he knew it would be—if he could keep his real identity secret.

Leaving his thoughts he sat down at the organ and began playing. The students began to sing and all seemed to be going well. Finally, at the end of the song, Erik played the final chord of the piece and while Elizabeth applauded and the students looked proud, he was disgusted. There was something wrong with this organ and it annoyed him. It was not very well tuned and he wanted nothing more than to send the rest of the eleven people out of the room so he could properly tune it. The lack of proper teaching and upkeep of both the students and the organ he used was very plain to him.

Elizabeth decided to stay in the room to watch Erik interact with his new students for their first class. She had to admit, he was probably the best suited for the job they had ever had at the Academy. He may have been rude and arrogant to her, and probably mostly every other adult on earth, but he worked so well with these kids, and through music you could forgive him in an instant. This was definitely the man's gift.

After going through Silent Night, which was Jimmy's choice, the students broke for lunch. He would not see then for the rest of the day and he said he had enjoyed their first lesson. When all the students had left her turned to Elizabeth, "What is it, Miss Bennet? Do you just not trust me around your students? Or do you always intently watch every lesson?"

"I just wanted to see how you would do on your first lesson. I thought I would be kind and I'd drop in." She sighed then remembered her compliment for him. "Oh, I wanted to tell you, I am very happy to see that you were able to get Julie to try with the altos. She is very much better suited there. I have not been successful at that, I am impressed."

He at first was not expecting a compliment, but he soon responded with "See, I told you that you underestimated my talents."

"Sometimes, sir, I find you completely insufferable! I try to compliment you, but all you do is laugh it off, and be inconsiderate back. Do not expect me to compliment you again."

He was silent for a minute then he felt bad. "Well, I do have to compliment you in noticing that she was not suitable for the soprano section. Very few teachers would see how much she strains her voice in doing so."

"Do not think that just because you pay me a compliment, I will forgive you."

"I was not expecting forgiveness; I just thought I would give you the same courtesy you gave me, and, not to my surprise, you gave the same type of rude response I gave you. So now we are even in the rudeness to each other."

They stood in silence for a minute. "Would you like to come oversee lunch with me?" Elizabeth said finally.

"Actually I would like to spend the rest of my afternoon trying to get this organ up to top shape; it is still quite out of tune."

"Well, if you'd like to, you could also do the one in the theatre since in fact it is the one you will do performances on." She said sarcastically. "See you later today, Erik."

"Goodbye, mademoiselle." He turned to the organ and began his work.

He pulled the pieces apart for hours on the organ in his classroom until he was completely satisfied with the upkeep of his organ. It was now nearing the end of the day and he tidied up his classroom. Although he was never one for neatness, he did want a good working environment for the students.

After he was done that, he thought back to what Elizabeth had said during lunch, about the organ in the theatre and he decided that it was worth it. He wanted all the instruments he used to be in top shape, like the ones he used back in the Paris opera house, so he ventured through the halls back to the theatre he had passed earlier, and went in.

When he got inside, he found a small but also elegant auditorium. It was the perfect size for the school, enough seats for parents, as well as a few special guests.

He spotted the organ right away it was seated off to the side of the stage keeping the accompanist in the shadows while the students performed their talents. He slowly made his way up to it and looked it over, then played a few cords.

He soon deduced that this organ was not in as bad a shape as the one in the classroom, but it would still need some of his care because of the lack of actual time spent playing it.

He lost all track of time, and soon did not heard the quiet steps of his employer and landlord as she made her way down through the theatre. "You know, I was joking before when I said you could tune the theatre organ. Monsieur Erik."

"Yes, but when it comes to my music, I do not joke about it." He replied after hiding the fact that he was startled by her presence.

"Neither do I and that is why I have a professional come in before every concert to make sure the instruments we need are in proper condition."

"Well, now you have me to do free of charge, so you won't need to spend the extra cash for it. Do not worry. I am almost done; I shall get to the house soon. I will see you tomorrow at breakfast, if not tonight at dinner." He had no real intention of going to dinner as he was not hungry, but it was better that he should be polite while the two were at the academy. "Goodnight, Elizabeth."

"Goodnight, Erik."