I own nothing! I don't own The Phantom of the Opera or any of the Characters therein!
Sarah sobbed in self-disgust as she looked around her room. as desperately as she wanted to throw a temper tantrum, she couldn't. But she realized, she could go raid another classroom and hi-jack it for herself. She looked at all of the schedules for all of the classrooms on the bottom floor.
"Yes, the bottom rooms under the stairs will work perfectly," she said darkly to herself. "They can't complain, we'll just be switching rooms."
So without permission, she changed the two rooms over the weekend. Yes, it took two keys, and almost nobody knew about the classroom that she had raided unless they needed desperate tutoring, but that was what had made it appeal to her. so when people started to arrive on Sunday, she put a note on the desk of the teachers who worked in the room outside of her lair.
Do not disturb the newly locked classrooms. Classes that were once held there are held upstairs, in the door just across from the hallways. Do not try to enter this classroom, I have chosen it for its hidden location. The attempts at infiltrating locked classrooms should be stopped, and should my commands be ignored, the students who disobey me will meet the same fates as their predecessors. I remain your ever-vigilant protector. L.F.
All teachers had been surprised by this, but they were quick to guide their old students into the new classroom that had so recently been vacated. Yes, Sarah mused, it was much quieter down here and almost nobody could hear her at work, even if she worked through the day. Her surroundings were much less hostile, and she much preferred it here down where nobody would normally go.
"Erik," she murmured just before a new feeling entered her mind and body. "What is happening to us?"
She listened to the tutoring lessons going on outside her classroom as though nothing had ever happened or been changed in the school. One conversation in particular stood out to her, shocking her as nothing had in this way before.
"Can't we do something for the phantom? I mean, surely they're suffering! Nobody's ever given them any kind of tribute, and he died protecting her in vain! And look at her, she died after having god-knows what happened to her! she swore to keep it from happening to others at all costs, and nobody's even done anything to thank her aside from trying to break into her lair!"
"Well, that's true, but it's also true that she's killed people," her teacher argued warily, knowing that she was within hearing distance. "Besides, they're dead, so they wouldn't be able to see this anyways."
"But she can see when others are in danger and protect them! Wouldn't you want to have some way of thanking the phantom who saved you, even if it was just for a few days a year on the anniversary of their deaths?!" the student demanded. "Wouldn't you want someone thanking you if you were in the shoes of the phantoms?"
Sarah gasped, shocked at this young woman's words. Tears filled her eyes, having never before had anyone aside from Toni and Erik standing up for her. Even Meg and Christine hadn't stood up for her when she'd paid a few visits to their era.
"yes, I suppose I can bring it up to the principal," the teacher sighed wearily caving in. "But it should probably be in the gym, in the location that they died in so that they know that it's for them and we have plenty of room for the shrines."
"Maybe the gym can be split down the half-court line, with their photos right beside each other and then the tributes for each one on each different side of the court, covering all sides of the court!"
"We'll see, Serena, we'll see," the teacher said vaguely, warily eyeing Sarah's door when her students weren't looking. "But I'm not sure how the phantoms would react, or even if the reactions will be good or bad, but I do know that you don't mess with the phantoms, not unless you want to get hurt."
"Well, yeah, because everybody's always been so mean to them," Serena protested. "If people would be nice to them, then this wouldn't have happened. If people were nicer to them in death, then maybe we can make friends with her."
"Friends? With a phantom? Don't make me laugh, Serena! Everyone knows that phantoms are what Bleach would call Hollows, or in the case of Kingdom Hearts, Heartless," a male student snorted. "Any idiot who says otherwise is asking for trouble. That's like asking Orochimaru how long his tongue is!"
Sarah had to immerse herself in her work to keep from bursting out and choking the boy that had insulted her. but to her shock, the two were constantly bickering about it until the end of the school day, when finally the bell rang for the students to go home.
By this time Sarah had tears of both hate and pain, as well as joy and gratitude towards the girl that had stood up for her, running down her face. She wiped the tears that never seemed to stop, and she realized what was happening. Slowly she began to put the pieces together.
Tears.
Unstoppable tears.
Full access to the school.
Full access to the air shafts.
A massive arsenal at her fingertips.
Sarah blinked the tears away from her eyes and immediately began to make her own preparations, these designed for more than just protecting her home. No, these were designed for something much, much more intense than that, and something so daring and drastic that she had never done something so reckless and insane in her life, not even when she'd faked her death.
She moved silently through the halls, ducking and dodging out of everybody's sights, causing them to do double-takes and see nothing. More and more people were leaving, and now that there had been a massive amount of deaths on the school campus, nobody was too willing to stay for very long if they could help it. after all, it was her domain, and they knew it. Sarah smiled at these facts in all her phantom-esque glory.
She ruled this school – literally!
"school's out, for the summer," she sang softly as she reached the nearest janitor's closet with access to the air shafts, switching tunes mid-way. "I'm a kid of America, oh-oh-oh, I'm a kid of America. pah, who am I kidding, I'm not kid of Americas! Nah, I'm a kid of being raped, stabbed, and ostracized for even being alive…"
"Do you think the phantom will even care that the students brought it up so close to her new lair?" she heard the two principals ask outside the janitor closet as they passed and closed the door, locking her in.
"And you'll all be paying for it in blood," she snarled softly as she unlocked the door from within, her blood boiling. "All I have to do is lay low and put my plan into a test run over the weekend with a stink bomb. Then you'll be sorry that you ever had noses. My room – well, heh, my room will have all ventilation shafts closed off for the time being. Duct taped closed, no air leakage through multiple trash bags layered across them!"
"Is it just me, or do you feel like the phantoms are getting uneasy again, Fernard?"
"No, they're getting uneasy, Andre. I don't know about you, but maybe this little shrine idea was a good one. Maybe it will calm them down and help us get a ball-park figure of how much they're missed in the communities."