A/N: Sorry for the late update! I got caught up with RL stuff last night and forgot to post.

I get worried with every chapter I post because the number of chapters I have left to be posted is dwindling, so it means i have to write faster. I'm currently still stuck, to be honest, because I can't think of a plot. We'll see!

Masked Man 2: Yes the student is Mirelle! More about her soon (;

box5: Thank you for your support (:

emeraldphan: I agree! Knowing all the bits and pieces of rumours can't be doing anything good for Christine... And thank you for always leaving a review and encouraging me, I really appreciate it!

Guest: Thank you! For reading, and for leaving encouragement behind!

RedDeathLvr: It sure doesn't look good for Erik! Haha!

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Chapter 11

Christine hefted her book bag higher onto her shoulder, as she put one hand on the handle of the theatre door. She pushed the door open, wincing as it creaked loudly. She wished that the school would send somebody to fix the faulty hinge.

She looked up from the door handle to find a dozen pairs of curious eyes staring at her in silence. She blinked back at them curiously. Nobody said anything, or moved. Christine looked around, taking a few cautious steps in. Still, nobody responded. They just continued to stare at her.

"Okay… is there something going on here, guys?" She asked. "Did I… Did I come in at the wrong moment?"

Someone coughed loudly, but nobody said anything. Christine took a deep breath.

"Right," she said, gesturing awkwardly, "I'm just going to go and sit over there…"

"Is it true?" Someone blurted out.

"What?" Christine asked, turning to look at the person in question. "What's true?"

"What it says in the news," the girl playing one of the ballet rats said. "The film premiere?"

"The… news?" Christine said slowly, her mind turning in clockwork-fashion. "What news?"

"It's all over the Internet!" Someone called out. "Surely you must have known?"

"I don't know anything!" Christine said, her head starting to throb. "What are you all talking about?"

"You and Mr Chanteur!" One of them said loudly. "Your photos are splashed over the Internet! Are you dating him? Is that how you got the role?"

"Honestly though, if it were so easy to clinch a role somewhere by dating me, I wouldn't have so many letters sent to my manager every week, asking for a chance for an audition," a voice said mildly from behind them. Christine whirled around to see him, standing there in his usual relaxed manner that belied his graceful predatory behaviour, one hand in his pocket and the other clutching the handle of his briefcase.

He raised his eyebrows at them. "Is there something going on around here, perhaps? Are we not having rehearsals now?"

"The only thing we want to know is whether Christine got the role through other means," Charlotte said loudly and snidely. "Come on, Mr Chanteur, the truth is splashed all over the news."

He walked toward them, and the crowd scattered a little as he neared, like a pack of deer fleeing before a leopard. But he merely walked past them and placed his briefcase on the table, opening it to remove his scores.

"The truth," he said conversationally, "is that she has more potential to play the role of Christine Daae well, as compared to you, Miss Redcliffe. Have we not discussed this before? Numerous times?"

"There are pictures of the two of you all over the Internet!" Charlotte said a little shrilly. "Explain those, Mr Chanteur!"

"Are there no photos of you on the Internet, Miss Redcliffe?" He asked, almost sarcastically, not bothering to look at her as he flipped through his scores.

There were a few chuckles from around the theatre, and Charlotte flushed.

"You know what I mean, Mr Chanteur. What I think is that the two of you had some… some distasteful arrangement, and she somehow managed to make you give her the role of Christine Daae. And now you've even gone public about it!" She said nastily.

There was a sudden silence in the room as Charlotte spat out the words that most of them had no doubt been thinking about, but had not dared to voice. Christine paled, thinking of Nadir's grimness in the car the previous evening; this must have been what he had been warning her about.

There was a soft thud as Erik deliberately dropped the stack of scores he had been holding onto the table. He turned to face Charlotte slowly, and his prior veneer of politeness had disappeared, leaving a face set in stone, his green eyes cold and hard.

"Jealousy is an ugly thing, Miss Redcliffe," he said softly. "And I would thank you not to insinuate anything without any real evidence, or I will not hesitate to sue you for slander."

"You're joking!" Charlotte exploded. "The evidence is right there before you!"

"I don't joke around, Miss Redcliffe," he said coldly, turning away from her to look at his scores again. "A few photographs on the Internet can hardly count as evidence. Though if you're dying to know so badly, Miss Sangare did my manager and me a huge favour by accompanying me to the premiere, because I needed to bring somebody with me, and she just happened to be there when I learnt about it—not that I really needed to explain myself to you."

He said that loudly, seemingly to insinuate that he was saying it to everyone in the theatre. It was a silent warning to them not to bring up the matter again.

"You expect us to believe that?" Charlotte asked incredulously. "Your made-up-on-the-spot story? It sounds like utter bullshit."

"Whether you believe me or not makes little difference to me, sadly," he smiled at her, a hard, dangerous smile. "Now I would like to suggest that you take the day off from rehearsals, Miss Redcliffe, for I find myself at the end of my tether for tolerating you."

"You disgusting, arrogant man!" Charlotte spat. "I just wish—"

"Come on, Charlotte, give it a rest," one of the theatre club members murmured, coming forward and taking Charlotte's shoulders to guide her away. "Let's not waste our rehearsal time…"

"Right," Erik said decisively, turning back to look at the rest of the members. "I trust that we can start rehearsals smoothly now?"

Red-faced and ashamed, most of the theatre club members mumbled 'yes', and set about preparing to get ready for rehearsals.

For the rehearsals that day, Christine worked extraordinarily hard, to make sure that any rumours about her getting the role through other means would be quelled. Nevertheless, she could not stop the nasty feeling in her gut. Meg had not turned up for this rehearsal because the ballet de corps were not needed, and Christine felt a burning need to talk to her. Talking to Meg would probably make her feel better.

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It turned out that she did not have to wait long. Meg accosted her as she stepped out of the theatre after the rehearsal ended.

"There you are!" The blonde girl hissed, slinging an arm across Christine's shoulders and dragging her along as she brisk-walked. "I've been waiting for rehearsals to be over so I could talk to you."

"About what?" Christine asked dully, though she could make a rough guess over what Meg wanted to talk about.

"Haven't you seen the news?" Meg looked at her incredulously. "Your face is—"

"I know, I know." Christine sighed, cutting her off. "It was all everybody could talk about during rehearsal. Charlotte threw a fit, Erik got angry with her, and then nobody could quite look me in the eye afterward. But I haven't actually seen the news yet."

"You're probably not going to like it," Meg said grimly.

"Just tell me one thing—who was it written by?"

"Some reporter at The Scoop, why? It's one of the biggest gossip newspapers on the entertainment industry."

Christine sighed heavily again. "Let's talk after we get back to my house, Meg."

When they were back in Christine's house, both snuggled on her bed under the covers, Meg waved her phone at Christine. "So you're saying you actually met this reporter last night at the premiere? And now that same reporter published an article on you?"

Christine nodded.

"How did the premiere go, anyway? Did you meet anyone famous?" Meg asked, her eyes twinkling. "I would have given anything to have gone as well."

Christine smiled teasingly, and showed Meg the photo she had taken with Nathaniel Griffin and Tess de Lecie. Meg squeaked in envy, grabbing a pillow and hitting Christine with it.

"You terrible child!" She mock-wailed. "How could you show me that just to make me jealous? Christine Sangare, you ingrate! After I lent you my dress, too! I couldn't be more jealous. Nathaniel Griffin looks hot in that photo!"

Christine laughed at Meg's dramatic reaction, but sobered quickly. "Still, even though I enjoyed the premiere, I met Trevner there. He seemed pretty interested in who I was, and Erik was less than welcoming toward him. So… when I got back… I did a search on Erik Chanteur."

"You?" Meg's blue eyes widened. "You, the person who calls me a 'stalker' when I do things like that? So, what did you find out?"

Christine mutely booted up her laptop and slid it over to Meg. "Take a look."

Meg quickly skimmed through the articles on the browser. "Oh man," she said.

"Yeah, 'oh man'." Christine agreed grimly. "They sound so bad no matter how many times I read them."

"He doesn't mince his words, does he? This Trevner person?" Meg winced, scrolling through the second article. "I mean, it's little overboard to describe Mr Chanteur as a 'cold, calculating psychopath who has no qualms about forcing his will onto innocents'. Honestly, Mr Chanteur doesn't seem that bad a person, but then again, you never know…"

"It just seems like such an extreme description," Christine protested. "I mean, Erik has been nothing short of courteous."

"But that could just be part of his ploy to lure the poor, innocent you," Meg waggled her eyebrows at Christine.

Christine scowled at her, and Meg shrugged.

"All I'm saying is, you should just be careful and watch out for anything strange. I know he's been nice to you, and honestly, my mother only has high praises for him, but all the same, don't let your guard down too much."

"I'll be careful," said Christine, twiddling her fingers. "I guess I should take a look at the article now, shouldn't I? Seeing as it's my face that's being plastered over the Internet."

She did a quick search on the article and came up with it in a moment.

'Chanteur after yet another student!', the headline of the article proclaimed in big, bold letters. Christine stared at it, a little hesitant to read on.

"Go on," Meg urged. "Just read what that creep of a reporter has to say, so that you can get it off your mind."

Genius composer Erik Chanteur is perhaps most known for his scandal last year regarding his illicit affair with his student. At the premiere of The Girl in the White Dress, Chanteur was spotted with a fresh face, though he angrily refused to allow her to speak to The Scoop's reporter. A guilty conscience, perhaps? Upon further investigation, it is believed that the young woman is a student at The Academy, where Chanteur currently teaches at. It seems that Chanteur has decided to target this student as his next conquest, and here at The Scoop, we shall anticipate eagerly if history will repeat itself in this illicit affair. Stay tuned as we bring you more news!

"Illicit affair?" Christine said incredulously. "That man can spin rumours out of thin air."

"That's his job," Meg said drily. "Nobody would want to read The Scoop otherwise. With this article on the Internet, I take it rehearsals didn't go too well."

"Charlotte confronted him about it," Christine said. "She made a scene about how I got the role through 'other means', since she clearly believes she's the better singer."

"She's just jealous," Meg waved a hand airily. "She can't stand the idea of someone else taking centre-stage, and worse, being the teacher's pet. You know Mr Gilford's always favoured her, but now that Mr Chanteur's the mentor, she probably can't get used to the idea of not being Little Miss Perfect anymore. She'll get over it."

Meg hopped off the bed and picked up her bag. "Anyway, it's late and I'd better get home! Do you have lessons with him tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I do," Christine said. "Why?"

"Well, I'm just saying, but you might want to make sure that Trevner's not around Mr Chanteur's apartment hoping to snap a photo of you. You don't want a photo of you leaving Mr Chanteur's house on the papers, do you?"

Christine groaned. "I'd never even thought of that. I'll be careful."

Meg gave her a quick hug. "I'll see you in school tomorrow or something."

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A/N: As usual, please read/fav/follow/leave a review to let me know what you think! xx hazel