Phantom (3 page)

Rebecca blushed as she stepped down from the stage. The magic of the moment had passed, and she was just plain old Rebecca again. The spirit of Christine had possessed her during the performance, but now she wanted only to blend back in with the crowd. The faces hovering over her only made her feel even more overwhelmed. Carmen and Debbie were waiting for her, literally glowing with pride. She tried to weave through the crowd to join them. But before she could reach them, Tom stepped into her path, blue eyes twinkling. Rebecca was pretty certain her already unsteady legs were finally going to betray her.

“You were amazing, Becca!” Tom gushed.

“Umm . . . thanks,” Rebecca managed to stutter. She couldn’t believe Tom Rittenhouse actually knew her name.

“We’ll have to get together and rehearse sometime.”

Rebecca was so flustered she almost forgot how to speak. “Yeah . . . sure . . . I mean . . . if I even get a part.”

“With a voice like that, you’re sure to get the lead.”

Again Rebecca’s face grew warm, but this time it had little to do with her singing ability. Carmen was openly gaping at the exchange. As pretty as she was, even she had never succeeded in catching Tom’s attention. But Rebecca knew there were no hard feelings when Carmen flashed a thumbs-up.

Before long, others were coming up to her, congratulating her on a great audition, telling her how they were sure she’d get a good role. Rebecca found herself the center of attention for the first time in her life. But not everyone was happy with the day’s turn of events. Rebecca noticed that Wendy hadn’t budged from her seat. She was glaring at her with an obvious scowl. And from his corner, Justyn looked on at the fanfare with his lips set in a tight frown. Rebecca watched him until he disappeared into the dimly lit corridor, fading into the darkness like the creature of the night that he apparently was.

Chapter Three

“Becca, the cast list’s been posted!” Carmen exclaimed. “Aren’t you excited? I’m sure you got the role of Christine. You were amazing at auditions yesterday!”

Carmen didn’t give her a chance to respond. She grabbed Rebecca’s arm and started dragging her across the hallway to the billboard where the announcements were posted before she could even unload her armful of books. Even from the opposite end of the building, she could see a small group of excited students scanning the list for their names. But Rebecca wasn’t quite as certain as Carmen was about what the results would be. Yes, tryouts had gone better than she had expected, and Miss King had been happy with her performance, but other girls had done just as well. And girls like Wendy and even Debbie, who had been in the drama club for years, would have seniority over a newcomer like Rebecca. She would be lucky, and grateful, if she got one of the smaller, less important roles. Just being a part of the production at all would be enough for her.

They got a little closer but there were still too many people standing around the billboard to be able to see anything. They stood back a little to wait their turn. Rebecca started biting off what little that was left of her fingernails. This was worse than when she was waiting to get back her SAT scores.

“Woo whoooo!” Jay shouted. He forced a smaller, unwilling freshman to exchange high fives with him. “I got a part! Yeah, man! I’m Buquet!”

Jay pushed his way through the crowd of onlookers. He shoved Carmen and Rebecca roughly as he passed. He knocked into her arm, and Rebecca dropped the stack of books she was carrying. Loose-leaf papers went flying in every direction. Jay looked back only long enough to snicker at her before moving on down the hall, continuing to announce his accomplishment, loudly and obnoxiously.

“Ugh, Jay is such a jerk.” Carmen complained as she bent down to help pick up the papers and get them back in some kind of order. “I can’t believe Miss King actually gave him a part. Who’s Bucket anyway?”

“
Buquet.
” Rebecca corrected with a slight laugh. “He’s the stagehand the Phantom kills right before the intermission. He gets hung.”

Carmen chuckled. “Do you think Miss King is trying to send a secret message? Anyway, at least we’ll only have to deal with him for
half of
the rehearsals. I don’t think I could stand spending three full hours a day for the next six weeks with Jay Kopp.”

“Jay’s not so bad once you get to know him.” It was Tom. Suddenly he was kneeling down beside them. “Hey, Becca, I think you dropped this.” He handed her a sheet of paper with her calculus assignment on it.

“Th . . . thanks,” Becca managed to stutter.

Then she felt like a complete and total moron because she couldn’t think of anything else to say. At least not anything that wouldn’t make her sound like a babbling idiot. Luckily, Carmen wasn’t as easily intimidated by incredibly hot guys.

“Hey, Tom. Have you seen the cast list yet?” she asked as they all climbed to their feet.

Tom shook his head. “Not yet. I was just on my way over there.” He turned to Rebecca who was still struck dumb. “Why don’t I walk with you? We’ll have to get used to each other, you know. We’re going to be spending a
lot
of time together.”

Tom was confident. But then, why wouldn’t he be? He had been the star of all the plays since he was a freshman. But again Rebecca found herself wondering why everyone seemed so sure
she
would get any part at all, let alone the starring role opposite Tom. She hadn’t been
that
good. Had she?

“What? Carlotta! Are you
kidding
me?”

Wendy’s high-pitched shriek was like a banshee cry as it echoed down the corridor. As Rebecca and the others inched their way forward, she could see Wendy’s hands were balled into fists at her side. She kept staring at the cast posting as though whatever she was reading might somehow magically change if she willed it hard enough. Her back was to them when they first approached, but she turned around just as they stepped up behind her. Her face, which was already a blotchy red from anger, turned almost purple when she saw Rebecca.

“
You
!” She spat. “Don’t think you’ve won anything.
Obviously
there’s been some kind of misprint. I’m going to talk to Miss King right now. There’s no way she would cast
me
in a secondary role my senior year. There’s just no way!”

Rebecca was speechless. It was becoming an almost permanent condition for her. She was pretty sure her mouth was hanging open. Beside her, Carmen was wearing a big grin, apparently amused by the whole thing. But Rebecca didn’t think it was funny. Wendy wasn’t the kind of person she wanted angry with her. Her entire high school life could be over with one word from Wendy Wright.

“Geez, Wendy. I guess the concept of being a graceful loser is foreign to you,” Tom said with a smug smile.

Wendy snorted and turned her rage onto Tom. “Oh yeah, Mr. Perfect? Let’s see how gracefully
you
take it. I’m not the only one who’s been upstaged by some usurping loser from the geek squad.” Tom’s smile faltered and Wendy was the one who looked smug now. “If you don’t believe me, check out the casting list for yourself.”

Wendy stalked off with a toss of her blonde hair, and finally they were standing in front of the billboard. Tom tried to act cool, but it was obvious he was a little more nervous now than he had been about reading the results. But he was still nowhere near as nervous as Rebecca. She almost forgot to breathe as she looked for her name on the list. She started at the bottom, still in some way expecting to see her name down there, even after what Wendy had said. But her name was much higher up. It fact it was the second name listed on the cast.

“Christine – Rebecca Hope”

Her breath caught in her throat. She thought maybe she was imagining things. Or maybe she was dreaming. It couldn’t be true. She couldn’t have gotten the female lead in the play. She
couldn’t
be Christine. It was just too much to hope for. Yet, there it was in black and white. She was the star. For one glorious moment, she reveled in it. She felt all the excitement and pride that the accomplishment deserved. Then reality set in.

What had she been thinking? How was she going to do this? How would she stand in front of an entire auditorium filled with people and sing? Maybe she should follow Wendy into the teacher’s lounge and tell Miss King that she agreed with her—that there
had
been some kind of mistake. Maybe Rebecca had been suffering from temporary insanity when she had tried out to begin with.

Luckily, no one noticed that she was having a panic attack. They just went right on talking, not even noticing that Rebecca had long since stopped breathing.

“I got Meg Giry!” Carmen bounced up and down in excitement. “We get to be best friends. Just like in real life.”

Meg Giry was Christine’s ballerina sidekick. It was a role that called for more dancing than singing, which was perfect for Carmen. Plus, it was the biggest role she had ever landed, so Rebecca understood her excitement. Tom, on the other hand, didn’t look quite as happy as he examined
his
placement. His name wasn’t above hers as they had all expected. Instead it sat one line below.

“Raoul – Thomas Rittenhouse”

“Congratulations Tom, you get to be the hero!” Carmen was trying to break the sudden strained silence that had fallen around them. But it wasn’t working. Tom was still fuming.

“I can’t believe they gave that vampire freak
my
role!”

Rebecca wasn’t sure what to say to calm him down, especially since she could understand why Miss King had cast Justyn in the role of the Phantom. He really was perfect for the part. Besides his amazing voice, Justyn’s presence was ghostlike. He resonated the soul of a tormented artist. He probably didn’t even need to act very much. And Tom was really much better suited to play the handsome, lovable Raoul. They both had the same boyish good looks and charismatic charm. At least normally Tom was charming. But at that moment he was too angry to take the casting as a compliment.

“It’s not that bad Tom,” Debbie said. She had come up behind them just in time to see Tom’s reaction. “Raoul’s part is just as good as the Phantom’s.”

Tom was past listening to reason. “And what would you know, you fat cow? You’re used to playing the smaller parts. But
I’m
supposed to have the lead!”

Tom didn’t wait for any more words of encouragement. He stormed away; following the same path Wendy had taken. Rebecca assumed Miss King would be getting an earful. Hopefully their director had the sense to escape out the side doors before the protestors could lynch her.

“That was completely uncalled for,” Carmen muttered. She put her arm around Debbie. “Don’t worry about Tom. He’s just pissed that the new guy showed him up. Hey, why don’t you guys come over to my house for a while so we can run through our lines? After all, Deb, you and I are mother and daughter. We should be spending some quality time together.”

Debbie smiled sadly as she ran a hand through her short blonde hair. The fact that she had been cast as Madame Giry, who was the oldest character in the play, probably only made her feel worse. She always got stuck in the frumpy roles, even though her voice was one of the best. It really wasn’t fair. Rebecca almost felt guilty that she had gotten the role of Christine. Debbie had just as much seniority as Wendy, and she was a lot nicer.

“That sounds like fun,” Debbie told Carmen. Then she turned to Rebecca with a much more sincere smile and reached out to give her a hug. “Congratulations, Becca! I just
knew
you would get Christine. I’m so happy for you!”

“Thanks, Deb.” Rebecca returned the hug but it was awkward with her bundle of books still in her hand. “I could never have done this without you. You’ve put up with all my craziness.”

Carmen was rolling her eyes. “Will you two stop being so mushy? We’re doing a high school play. It’s not like you won an academy award. Now, let’s get out of here. I’m starving. We can order a pizza when we get to my house.”

“I need to grab my book bag,” Rebecca told them. “You guys can wait for me outside. I’ll only be a minute.”

“Okay, but hurry up.” Carmen ordered.

Debbie and Carmen disappeared through the main doors, and Rebecca found herself alone in the eerily quiet hallway. It was a gusty fall morning in South Jersey, and the howling wind sneaking in through the old classroom windows added to the chilling atmosphere. While she had been worrying about casting calls, the rest of the students had cleared out of the building. Rebecca had never realized how creepy the school was when it was empty.

It was getting close to Halloween, and cardboard cut-outs of skeletons and big-nosed witches on broomsticks were taped to the walls. There were smiling cartoon characters that shouldn’t have been intimidating, but somehow they were. And even more intimidating was the soft thump of footsteps behind her as she inched her way to her locker.

Rebecca swallowed hard and with more courage than she felt, she swung around to face whoever was behind her.

There was no one there. The hallway was empty, but the door to the gym was swinging on its hinges. Could whoever had been following her have ducked inside? Or was she just imagining the whole thing? Did it really matter? She should just grab her stuff from her locker and get out of there. She was being silly anyway. This was her
school
. She was just as safe there as she was in her bedroom. Yet still, her heart was racing with unexpected fear and excitement. She heard a strong, male voice call out to her in a beautiful and familiar melody.