And here is the next chapter, enjoy it.

Melody woke up the next morning, getting ready for school. She almost didn't notice the small note that was placed on her nightstand. Knowing the writher of the note, she decided that she would read it after school and most likely would visit her parents. No doubt her mother was very anxious to know how everything went.

Melody quickly made breakfast and after she cleaned the mess she made, went to school. Much to her surprise Phillipe wasn't somewhere in the neighborhood , waiting for her to arrive and walk her to school. She didn't mind, she would see him in first class and he would still try to win her affection. It bothered her that he desperately wanted to befriend her, she wondered why he would want to be friends anyway. It is normal that he would want to apologize for his behavior towards her the first time they met, but that didn't explain his need to be friends. She would ask him when she got the chance.

As if it already was routine, Katerina and Jean-Jacques were waiting for Melody to arrive. She could clearly see that they wanted to know what had happened the previous evening. But before they could say anything, Melody gave them their answer. "We'll talk about it during lunch."

Katerina and Jean-Jacques nodded and followed her into the building and towards their classroom. Phillipe already was seated and when he noticed the three of them entering, he smiled politely to them and said "good morning" to each of them. Katerina still wasn't too happy that both Melody and Jean-Jacques were involved with this guy. Phillipe noticed and didn't do anything to worsen their understanding. It even seemed as if he lost interest in befriending Melody.

Melody found this strange, but decided against bothering. Madame Galure entered and decided that they would continue to work on their previous exercises. But apparently, she found that everybody sung as they should be and continued the lesson with a new song. It was a song from the opera 'Hannibal', which Melody already had seen a few times, her parents often took her to an opera.

Melody still didn't sing with her full potential, but she sings better than the first time. Madame Galure decided that she now would divide the class in different groups: a group of soprano's (in which Melody was divided), a group of mezzo-soprano's, a group of contralto's.

The boy would be divided into groups of countertenors, tenors, baritones and bass. She let each group sing a different song, made for their specific range.

Fate decided that Melody (one of the soprano's) had to sing the same song with which her mother achieved a status of prima donna, 'Think of Me'. Melody decided to go against her father's warning and put as much as possible into the song, thinking about the times she had sung this with her mother. The rest of the class seemed amazed by her song, not knowing that she could sing like she was doing now. Madame Galure thought it was best to have a word with Melody after class.

When finally each group had sang their song, class was over and everybody but Melody could leave and go to the next lesson. Melody had suspected she would be asked why she never sang like that before. She didn't knew how to answer it and said she somehow had found new inspiration to sing like that. She almost joked about the 'Angel of Music' but could hold of herself before she did.

When she arrived in her second class, lessons already had began. After explaining why she was late, they all continued. It seemed that this time they all would work with the emotion fear. If I put off my mask it would be a whole lot easier for people to 'fear', Melody thought. The lesson was soon over and Katerina almost dragged Melody with her, knowing they could talk about last night. Jean-Jacques followed quickly.

"Now, tell my everything that happened. Did he used any stupid trick to win your affection?" Katerina asked.

"No, well maybe if you count the walk on Montmartre, than yes he did tried."

"He took you to Montmartre, well never would have seen that one coming. I thought he would take you somewhere fancy in order to impress you or something like that."

"He sort of asked me what Melody would like," Jean-Jacques explained Katerina

"And you willingly helped him?" she yelled at him.

"Well yeah, he's my cousin after all"

"HE'S YOUR COUSIN," the two girl asked in surprise.

"Yes, his mother is … or was my aunt"

"And what happened next?"

"Nothing really. After dinner, in some café, he took me for a walk to the hill and we looked over Paris, which was beautiful to see. First we just stood there, watching in silence and then we just sat there, still watching in silence"

"Maybe that's the trick, he want you to think he understands you and in that way he thinks he can win your trust," Katerina thought out loud.

"If he really thinks I fall for that, he's crazy."

"I still think he just want to be friends. Why would that be wrong?" Jean-Jacques asked.

"WHY, I'll tell you why, remember what he has done? If he befriend her and pull a stunt like that again he could hurt Melody pretty bad," Katerina stated.

"Well he did apologize for that and I think he really meant that. I don't think he will do something like that again," Melody said.

"Before this conversation gets out of hand," Jean-Jacques quickly said "Why don't we grab something to eat?" and with that they went to a small café where other kids from their class sat. "Do you mind if we join in?" Katerina asked. "No, take a seat," Gustave said.

During lunch, the group talked about some random stuff, going from some book one read to stuff about the lessons. At one point, Phillipe joined the little group, but seemed indifferent to Melody. This action only caused her to be even more curious why he'd even bothered to befriend her only a day ago.

Melody was unaware that Phillipe sometimes glanced over to her direction. He could she her ponder on the possible explanation and this caused Phillipe to get a little more hope: by seeming indifferent he was able to get Melody to think about him, although he had thought about her for the biggest part of the day. He felt glad that his little plan worked. Tonight he would go visit her.

A few hours later, after the violin lesson, Melody found herself on the way to the opera house. Entering the tunnel that gave access to her parents living quarters, she wondered why she even lived alone, she visited her parents almost every day since she went to live by herself. She arrived to the living part of the underground lair and found it empty. "Well this is weird, of all the time I lived here I never found it empty. And here it is, empty. "

"Maybe it isn't empty," came the voice of her father. Melody wondered where he could be: he mastered the art of ventriloquism and he could make his voice come out of every possible thing, so she was never sure where her father was if she heard him.

At that very moment she realized that she had forgotten to read the card that laid on her night-stand . It probably only asked if she would visit soon, in order to talk about the things that had happened last night.

Melody scanned the room, hoping she would find her father. He, on the other hand, stayed in the darkness enjoying the fact that she couldn't find him.

"Okay, maybe it isn't empty, but why is it so silent?" Melody asked. "That's because your mother and I were reading, in the library", Erik answered still hiding in the shadows. "And then why are you here?" Erik smiled "I heard some noise and decided to check it out"

Christine, who now heard voices, knew that Melody arrived. She put her book aside after she put a bookmark between the pages. She calmly made her way to the main room of the house, where she found Melody. "And how did the date went?" she asked walking in the room.

"Considering it wasn't a date, it went well" Melody answered. They all took a seat and Erik and Christine were curious about what had happened. For the second time this day, she told what had happened. She told with great detail about their trip to the hill at Montmartre and the view she had seen.

Erik noticed that she liked the view a lot. He could tell that by the little twinkle in her eyes when she told about it. When she told him about her desire to capture that view trough a painting, he couldn't be more proud. He had taught her how to paint when she was little and she always wanted to learn more from him. That's why he taught her several things going from music to architecture.

"But today he acted as if he didn't care about what had happened the last days," she said. Both Christine and Erik could understand why a young boy would do that. "Maybe he just want to give you a little time to think about what happened and if you consider befriending you. Maybe he doesn't want to rush a friendship that could grow between the two of you," Christine said trying to give an explanation.

"Well, maybe that could be it. It's not if I would ask attention of him. As far as I am concerned, he can do what he wants, I don't care," Melody stated. After talking about various things, Melody thought it was time to return home. And after declining the offer to stay for dinner several times, she was on her way to her apartment.

When she got home, she started to prepare a dinner. This was the only thing she didn't like by living alone, she hated to have dinner alone. Maybe I should invite Katerina and Jean-Jacques sometimes, at least then I won't be all by myself. As if the world knew how she loathed having dinner alone, the doorbell rang. Melody knew it would be either her parents or Phillipe, she hadn't give her address to anybody else. She knew it couldn't be her parent( that would be weird because she only left them an hour ago). So it had to be Phillipe. The doorbell rang for a second time. "I'm coming," Melody shouted loud enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear. She wondered why he would come.

There might be a possibility that the next chapter could come after a serious amount of time, I don't know if the comming week(s) I'll be able to write a lot.