Chapter 2
The stages of New York seemed the last place Christine thought shed ever find herself. Not that she was there for an actual professional production such as Wicked or Mama Mia, but the mere fact that she was there for anything seemed to be hard to believe.
When Christine stepped out of the bus on to the streets of Broadway she nearly couldn't believe the sight. Her best friend, Meg, shared a similar look beside her as they both looked on in awe and sheer excitement. As soon as all of her choir mates had stepped off the bus there teacher instructed them to follow. Christine and Meg hooked arms and laughed and jumped in excitement.
"I can't believe were actually here, Meg, this is amazing!" Christine yelled over the noise of the busy New York streets.
"I told you, didn't I? And here you were thinking about not coming and leaving your best friend behind to have to sit and sing alone probably side by side with the levy twins, while they played another game of who can be the loudest. I can't believe you Christine." Meg turned her face away as if to pout but stilled carried a smile on her face.
"Ok, ok I know, you've been reminding me the whole ride here, but I came didn't I?" Christine stated truthfully. She really was happy that she came.
"Yea I know, but the fact you almost decided you didn't want to see all of this?" Meg pointed in the directing of the buildings.
Christine laughed lightly, but truthfully it wasn't that she didn't want to see New York. She actually wanted to see it real badly. It was more the fact that she was having trouble at home that had caused a problem. Living with three other girls who had other things they wanted as well had caused a bad issue in her household. She had begged her aunt and uncle and made bargains with her younger cousins on monthly chores all in her attempt to be able to come for this trip. It took a lot of luck and understanding from her family to convince them.
As they followed there teacher, Meg, pointed at all the monuments, buildings and statues she saw putting "Oohhs" and "Oh my gods" before all her sentences. Christine was fascinated herself. She had never been in such a huge overcrowded place before. There school lived in a very rural area very close to the country with only small towns around them.
A stranger bumped passed them pushing them out of their way.
"Hey you jerk watch it or ill push you out in the road!" Meg yelled back to him. Christine laughed hard and so did Meg and then shrugged.
"My mom said you have to be real tough out here or people will just walk over you and you know how I feel about that so I might as well give out my toughest act."
"By the end of the week people will think you're a true New Yorker Meg." Christine laughed. Meg had always had a tough and spunky personality that Christine always admired, one of the many reasons why Meg was her one, true friend.
They sped around a corner until they came to a very big and old vintage looking building. Their teacher, Mr. Cleveland stopped all of them. The chaperones surrounded them making the group huddle together.
"Ok when we get inside I want the guys to come follow me into their dressing rooms and the girls will follow Mrs. Swift into theirs. Then we will all meet up on stage for rehearsals and go back stage in the last half hour until its show time. Stick together and don't wonder too far off from a chaperone. Mrs. Swift and I will take attendance as soon as we get inside. All right lets go!"
Christine and Meg looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Although they had Mr. Cleveland for four years as a teacher he still didn't seem to get that they were now nearly adults and didn't need Chaperones to look after them. As they followed the crowd inside Christine was willing to bet that sooner or later this evening Meg would rebel and break rules and force Christine to join her. Something that was not very uncommon for Christine when around Meg.
As the hours went by, Christine and Meg had been fit into a tight schedule: sing, eat, sing some more, get dressed, put on make-up, sing once again, and then wait. By the time they were ready for the show to begin they were tired and irritable. The dresses they had to wear were heavy and thick making them hot. Not to mention ugly and out of date.
"Looks like a pretty good crowd," Meg whispered to Christine as they waited back stage. Christine looked past her shoulder. The house was more then half way full. Only some rows were empty up in the balcony.
Christine's heart started to pound as it always did right before a big performance. Not to mention that this was the first she had ever done out of state. She and Meg were doing a duet together in the second act and she wondered if Meg was just as nervous as she was. Glancing at her best friend it seemed that she was more excited then anything else making Christine wish she felt the same.
The concert was a success. They started out nicely in the beginning, a couple of small stage errors here and there, but nothing major. Christine and Meg's duet couldn't have been sung better. The months of practicing had paid off.
Afterwards, they celebrated back stage and in the dressing rooms. When the crowd finally dispersed they started roaming the stage and the seating areas. Meg ands Christine changed out of the dresses and into more comfortable clothing and walked around the theater.
"Oh look! I didn't know they had box seats here," Meg said pointing up at the balcony seats on the sides of the theater. They sat down next to a group of girls they sometimes hung out with on certain occasions, Becky, Amanda and Brianna, who sat together in the fourth row to the theater.
"Yea, I noticed them when we looked out over the crowd before the performance, but I don't think I saw anyone sitting in them." Christine stated looking up at the dark balcony.
"They probably don't use them unless it's for some major full house production or something." Meg replied.
"I don't know about that, I'm pretty sure I saw someone sitting up there actually. I think around the time you and Christine were doing your duet," Amanda replied. "They were gone after that or at least the next time I looked up to see."
"Are your eyes always wondering Amanda? Jeez no wonder Mr. Cleveland is always yelling at you to pay attention" Brianna laughed. Amanda shrugged.
"I pay attention I just don't like focusing on one thing." Amanda explained.
"So the guy was probably a manager of the place or something if he didn't even stay for the whole performance." Meg said getting back on topic.
"I don't know," Amanda shrugged, "Couldn't really see his face. So Anyways, Becky, when are you going to see Mike again?"
Becky laughed at Amanda's randomness.
"I don't know. Were supposed to get together when we get back, oh my god! Did I tell you what happened that night…?"
Becky trailed off into some same old story, Meg nudged Christine and she got up and followed Meg off who knew where.
"Oh, Christine there you are!" Mrs. Swift shouted as she came around a hallway. "Look I need to talk to you for a minute, Meg do you mind? Alright then, come with me Christine it will only take a moment."
Christine glanced at Meg and followed Mrs. Swift into a nearby room. Mrs. Swift had loads of papers and folders scattered on top of a desk. Christine wondered how important this really was. Mrs. Swift always seemed to make a big deal out of the smallest things. Perhaps that was just part of her job.
Mrs. Swift closed the door and sat down at the table. Christine sat down as well, not sure on how long this was going to take. Mrs. Swift started going through papers. Christine noticed that they were all personal contact and emergency information of all the students.
"Well Christine I was going through the contacts and I was wondering, did you happen to forget to fill one out?" Mrs. Swift asked behind small oval glasses.
"No Mrs. Swift I'm pretty sure I gave you one before we left on the bus." In fact Christine knew she did. She remembered handing it to her right before she stepped on the bus.
Mrs. Sift nodded. "Mmm that's what I thought. Ok, well we've seemed to have misplaced it, even though I was sure I had kept all of them safely inside my bag. You'll just have to fill another one out."
Christine nodded not giving any thought on the fact that her personal information was missing. Mrs. Swift handed her another sheet and she filled it out with the usual information.
"Alright thank you Mrs. Daae," Mrs. Swift said taking the sheet. "Ill be sure not to have this one get lost either, although I think it strange enough the other one was gone in the first place. I had never had that happen before."
"Ok well is that it Mrs. Swift?" Christine got up, wanting to get off the whole incident.
"Yep, you're free to go!" She said gathering up papers and placing them in a bag.
"So what was that all about?" Meg asked as Christine walked out of the room.
"Nothing real important, just another one of Mrs. Swift's paranoid issues with keeping things organized." Christine shrugged. Meg gave her a look and Christine smiled.
"Those stupid emergency and personal contact sheets they make us fill out before we can go on the trip, you know? Yea, well Mrs. Swift lost mine. Real typical huh?." Christine laughed.
"Wow, that is so like her," Meg laughed as well." So anyways, have you decided yet on coming to music camp for the summer with me? I know you want to Christine." Meg said in her joking, but still serious voice.
"You know I want to Meg, but … my family."
"Oh, come on! Look, ill talk to them. Tell them how important it is to have someone you know at camp. Plus, they know how much it would mean to you right?"
Christine rolled her eyes. It wasn't that she didn't want to go. She defiantly wanted to. But whether her aunt and uncle would let her was a whole other matter. Then Christine thought: what the heck. Why not let Meg persuade them. She was real good at it after all, much more then she was.
"Alright Meg, if you can persuade my aunt and uncle then ill come." Christine said challenging her.
Meg smiled wickedly. "Get ready for one hell of a summer Christine Daae."
Christine smiled. "I'll be looking forward to it."