Author's Note: I'm so sorry that it has taken me this long to update! I have been a little preoccupied with my other stories, so as much as I love this one, I put it on the back burner for a little while. Anyways, I'm back, and I have the whole story planned out, so get ready!

Please start reviewing and tell me what you think!

Monday rolled around quickly, much to Erik's delight, and before he knew it, he was walking to the auditorium to warm up with Christine.

They had decided that since it was her first day of practice as a singer, they would just start out with a private warm up instead of a full-blown lesson.

Once inside, Erik saw that Christine was already onstage, pacing nervously. He smirked a little to himself and walked forward and onto the stage until he was right behind her.

He gently placed his hand on her shoulder and chuckled quietly when she jumped in surprise.

"Nervous?" he asked ironically.

Christine's eyes lit up with warmth, and her face colored with embarrassment.

"Um no," she coughed into her hand. "Whatever gave you that impression?"

"Well, it could be the new track marks you have made on the floor," Erik said with a straight face.

Christine looked down to the floor as her face flushed once again. "Oh, right." she mumbled.

Erik walked over to the piano, already enjoying himself, and sat down with a flourish.

He watched as Christine timidly walked over to the side of the piano to join him and wait for instruction.

"The first thing I would like to begin with are scales. I trust you know what those are?" Erik said, hovering his fingers over the keys in anticipation.

Christine nodded her head in the affirmative, and they began.

She was a little shaky at first, not always able to follow the scale perfectly, but Erik was once again struck by the quality and pureness of her voice. His mind wandered with visions of how perfect her voice would be in time.

After she had improved her scales, Erik moved on to exercises that would help her pronunciation when singing.

Christine did well on these, only getting tongue-tied once in a while.

Erik allowed her to get a drink of water to soothe her voice when he noticed that there were five minutes until real practice began. Christine walked over to the edge of the stage where her bag was, and bent down to get her water bottle when she hesitated.

She stood back up and looked at Erik shyly. After she seemed to muster her courage, she cleared her voice and said, "Mr. Destler, can I ask you something?"

Erik was a little startled by the forwardness in her voice, considering how shy she seemed, but he nodded his head anyway.

"Well, I was just, that is, I just wanted to know, erg," Christine took a calming breath, "I guess what I'm asking you is if you think I can actually do this. You heard me warming up just now, I'm sure I don't even compare to the people who have been singing in the choir. I don't belong up here as a singer."

Erik watched as Christine hung her head. He walked over until he stood two feet in front of her.

"Christine listen to me, I'm not lying to you when I tell you that you are better than these singers. They may have the training and experience, but you have the raw talent, and they are nothing compared to you when it comes to that. If you really want this, than all you have to do is work at it, and I promise, you will be ten times better than any of them." Erik said sincerely.

Christine looked up again at this speech. Her eyes seemed to fill up with emotion, but she wasn't about to cry.

Erik could sense an understanding between the two of them. Christine seemed a lot stronger than he had originally given her credit for, but she had a lot of self doubt issues. He would have to find out what the cause of those were.

As they stood on the stage, Erik heard the back door swing open, and he knew practice had begun.

After all the singers had assembled on-stage, Erik made the introductions.

"I want to introduce the three of you to Christine Daae, the new singer joining us. Some of you may know her from the ballet department, or your other classes, but she comes to us as a singer. In fact, I would like to switch around a few places." This was said by Erik in a way that made it sound off-handed, but the truth was, this was the part Erik had been looking forward to all weekend.

"Carlotta, you have been doing wonderfully in the role of Arabella," not, "however, I think your voice might be better suited for the role of Dylan. Christine, I think you will do well as Arabella."

Erik could see the anger written across Carlotta's face plain as day.

"Dylan is a boy's part!" Carlotta screeched indignantly.

"Well yes, but we had no one to play it before, and now we do. Just sing in an alto." Erik said calmly, waving away Carlotta with a flick of his wrist.

Carlotta's mouth opened to make what Erik assumed were more protests to this change of events, but he turned and stalked off to the piano before she had a chance to say a word.

Once he had seated himself comfortably, he looked over to the teenagers with raised eyebrows.

"Well, are we going to start practice, or are you going to stand around like a bunch of mannequins?" he asked with an edge to his voice.

To his approval, the four jumped from their spots and moved towards him.

"I think for this week Christine will need a score to sing from," Erik said, "however, the rest of you should know your songs by now."

As the practice dragged on, Erik was pleased to see that he wasn't the only one who thought Christine's voice was amazing, not that he had ever doubted her ability, but it was nice to see the others react to it the way he had.

The other three singers, even Carlotta, had stared at Christine in amazement when she had first started singing. In fact, the group song had turned into a solo for Christine accidentally since everyone else had stopped to listen.

In time, and after a few harsh words of encouragement from Erik, the others were paying attention to their own music instead of Christine's. It turned out to be one of the best practices they had gone through so far, and Erik had no doubt that it had everything to do with Christine.

The only problem Erik saw with Christine the entire night, was her lack of confidence. She always looked up to him when she was singing as if asking him if she was doing alright.

When practice was over, Erik stood from the piano and said, "Christine, would you please stay for a minute?"

Christine looked as if she had been expecting this. She walked over after the other students had left.

"You hated it didn't you, I was awful." Christine said, her eyes downcast.

Erik couldn't believe his ears. How could she think she was awful when it was clear she had been the best singer in the room?

"Christine, there is nothing awful about your singing. You did even better than I thought you would do, and that's saying something." Erik said, trying to lift the girls spirits.

Christine didn't seem to be completely consoled, but it had helped a little.

"Let me ask you something. Why are you convinced that you are a bad singer?" Erik asked gently.

Christine seemed a little surprised by the question. "Oh, I don't know really. My mother used to sing to me all the time, and I would join in with her whenever I knew the words, but I just never thought that I was that good. Besides, it just seems so weird to be pulled from ballet which I have done my whole life, to sing, which I have never really thought about doing."

Erik could understand. She had been doing so well in something completely different, but was now being told that she was perfect for something else. It was probably pretty disconcerting.

"When was the last time that you sang with your mother?" Erik asked, figuring that it must have been a while ago for her to have such little confidence.

Erik instantly regretted the question when he saw Christine noticeably stiffen. In fact, her whole face had turned white, and her body was as rigid as a board.

"Years ago," she whispered. She looked up at Erik with distant eyes and cleared her throat.

"Both of my parents died several years ago in a car crash." she said very quietly.

Erik felt like smacking himself over the head repeatedly with the piano. How could he have been so stupid as to bring up a painful memory like this for her? He should have read the rest of her file, screw the consequences.

He felt like pulling her into a hug and squeezing away the memories, but he didn't want to alarm her. Instead he sat down on the piano bench with a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"I'm so sorry Christine. I understand how it feels, I lost both of my parents early in my life." If you count them leaving me as losing them... "Would you like to talk about it?" he asked, patting the seat next to him.

Erik could see the immediate hesitation in Christine's eyes. It was obvious she didn't talk about this often, if ever. Maybe that was what she needed though, to talk about it.

Something Erik said must have changed Christine's mind though, because she slowly inched forward and sat on the seat.

Erik was alarmed when he heard her sniffle, but she seemed determined not to cry, and soon she was telling him everything.

Erik listened to her explain her childhood, and how lucky she had been growing up. She told Erik all about her ballet training, and how devoted her parents were to teaching her, as well as taking care of her.

Erik heard stories of the holidays they spent together, the vacations they took, anything and everything that Christine thought of and said, Erik listened to.

Eventually, Erik listened to the story of how Christine had opened the door around two weeks after she had turned twelve, and found a policeman standing there, waiting to take her to the scene of a car crash on the outskirts of town.

Her parents had left her on her own for a few hours to go out a buy a new piano, unfortunately, they were crashed into by a drunk driver. The driver's car was a very old and unstable model with many loose wires and cords, and it had burst into flame after the impact. Her parents car caught flame shortly after.

It was at this point that Christine stopped. Erik realized that for her to say any more would make her relive memories she worked hard to repress.

Erik's heart had broken over and over again as Christine had told her story. He couldn't believe how much she had been through at such a young age. It was almost worse than his own past, and that was saying something.

He was amazed at the strength she possessed. Not once during her whole narrative had she broken down and cried, although Erik saw tears at the surface of her eyes many times. He wouldn't have blamed her at all for crying, in fact, he had been close to tears himself at one point, but she had remained strong.

Erik didn't bother to stop himself as he pulled her into a hug, and rocked her back and forth to soothe her. What she needed right now was to know that someone was watching out for her, but this was the best way he could convey that.

After several minutes of him calming her, Christine seemed to relax. She pulled away and smiled shyly.

"I'm sorry to have broken down like this. Thank you for listening, you could have stopped me anytime." she said quietly.

"I wouldn't have stopped you. Christine, you have been through a lot, and sometimes the best way to move on from things is to talk about it. You can talk to me anytime you need to, in fact, I hope you will." Erik said with a small, rare smile on his face.

The two stood up from the bench, shaky after spending so long sitting on it.

Christine glanced at the clock and jumped a little when she noticed it was 11:30.

"I had better go if I'm going to be any good at all tomorrow," Christine said, "Goodnight Mr. Destler."

"Christine, after everything tonight, I think you can call me Erik." he said firmly.

Christine blushed slightly with embarrassment. "Oh, right, well then, goodnight Erik. And thanks again," she said as a second thought over her shoulder as she walked down the aisle and out of the building.

"Goodnight Christine," Erik said under his breath after she had left.

Author's Note: So please review and tell me what you think about it! Otherwise I won't know how interested people are in the story, or how many people want the next chapter.