Hello everyone. This is my first fanfic EVER. So please be nice. Very nice. Before I start I want to thank The Maiden Amorosia (I think I spelt it right) for writing 'You Can't Escape You're Fate. Gave me inspiration for this...

Ali Connia gets a part in her Youth Theatre's Production of POTO as Christine. However, she starts to discover that her fellow actors seem to act very much like her characters from the boy she meets again after many years, the girl she instantly becomes friends with and the silent brooding boy who takes an interest in her. Please RR

This is the first chapter and I warn you I'm not fast at updating but I'll do my best. School and stuff. This is slow moving but I figured that character introductions were important. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Well here we go...

1. Introductions

Ali Connia was not one for early mornings. In fact she detested them. But today was different. She had been up at 7 in order to wash her hair and try and make herself look presentable as possible. She sang along to 'Phantom of the Opera' with Sarah Brightman on her CD player which pulling a T-shirt over her head. Ali was exited because today would be the first rehearsal for her local youth theatre's production of 'The Phantom of the Opera', her favourite musical for years. Ali had been astounded when she had been given a part, let alone the part of Christine Daae since she hadn't thought that her voice was good enough. She wondered what the other cast members would be like. Sighing happily, she brushed her hair, picked up her score and left for the short walk to the theatre.

When she arrived at the theatre, she was directed by a very bored looking receptionist to the rehearsal room. It was simply a small hall with a stage which had piles of chairs stacked against the walls. There were quite a few people there already, everybody seemed to know somebody else and were talking quite happily. Ali felt very secluded and adopted a position against the wall. She could see two men talking by the piano, she assumed that they were the director and the music director.

'Come everybody! Pull up a chair,' the younger of the two men suddenly said enthusiastically.

The cast slowly dragged their chairs to form a somewhat squashed circle. Ali cast her eye over her fellow actors wondering who was playing who. People sat down in their groups and Ali felt quite secluded again. She found herself sitting between the man and another girl. The girl looked at her curiously and then said:

'It's alright, I don't know anybody either.'

Ali smiled at her.

'Everybody seems to know everybody else,' the girl continued. 'I feeling quite alone.'

'Yes, me too,' Ali said gratefully. 'I'm Ali by the way.'

'I'm Debbie,' the girl said.

'Well I at least know one person now,' Ali said giggling.

The younger man began to speak again, halting their conversation.

'My name is Mr. Conclair,' he said smiling. 'As you all know we will be together for the next few months to put on 'The Phantom of the Opera',' he finished grandly. 'Now it's our first rehearsal and I think that we should all get to know each other. We're going to go round the circle and I want you all to stand up and tell everybody your name and the part that you are playing.'

The cast looked at each other dubiously

'I'll go first. My name is Mr. Conclair and I will be your director. Over there is Mr Lamport who will be the music director and Mrs. Sinell will be joining us in the future. She is an amazing lady who will choreograph our routines and make you girls into perfect little ballerinas.'

The girls exchanged glances.

'Together, we will put on a performance that wouldn't look out of place in the West End of London or on Broadway. Now dear, it's your turn.'

It took a second for Ali to realise that he was talking to her. She stood up nervously trying to make a good impression.

'My name's Ali,' she said. 'I'm playing Christine.'

She sat down abruptly.

'Ah, our very own Miss Daae,' Mr Conclair said warmly. 'And next.'

The introductions continued around the circle starting with Debbie, who Ali discovered, was playing Meg. Ali became very aware that there was a boy who was staring at her hardly. She tried to ignore it by turning her attentions to the girl who was introducing herself as Jenna, the girl who would bring Carlotta to life. Ali was slightly taken aback by the dirty look that she received as the girl sat down. Debbie noticed her shock.

'I wouldn't worry about her,' she whispered. 'I heard another girl saying that she wanted to have your part.'

Ali nodded her acknowledgement and stole another glance at Jenna who was scowling at her. The introductions finally reached the boy who was staring at her. He got to his feet and introduced himself still not taking his eyes off her.

'My name's Sam. I'm playing Raoul.'

So this was 'Raoul' Ali thought. This was the person that she was supposed to fall madly in love with and choose over the Phantom. Well he wasn't bad looking, Ali thought as he brushed his blond hair casually off his forehead. But she recognised him from somewhere although she couldn't think of where.

There was only one boy left. He had dark hair and very dark eyes. This had to be the Phantom, Ali thought excitedly. She couldn't get a clear look at his face as he kept his head bowed. The boy stood up and looked sternly across his fellow actors.

'I'm Jeremy. I play the Phantom.'

He sat down quickly and continued to stare at a dot on the floor.

'Well that's fantastic,' Mr Conclair said. 'Now just talk amongst yourselves while I talk to Mr Lamport about our plan of action for the day.'

The director got up and left while people huddled in their groups. Debbie turned to Ali.

'That guy who plays Raoul keeps staring at you,' she muttered quietly.

'I know Ali replied. 'I'm trying to ignore it.'

'I didn't know that you were playing Christine,' Debbie said. 'You must be really good.'

'Well, I didn't think that I was.'

Ali stole another glance over at Sam whose eyes were still intently fixed upon her. She looked away quickly.

Jenna got up and began to breeze around the cast talking loudly and drawing as much attention to herself as possible. She waltzed over to Sam who broke his fixed lock on Ali to acknowledge her.

'I'm Jenna,' she said holding out her hand.

Sam took it and smiled politely.

'Excuse me,' he said getting to his feet and walking away. Jenna looked at him, amazed that her had left her.

'Ali, he's coming over here!' Debbie hissed

'What?' Ali said before she noticed Sam standing over her.

'Hi,' he said awkwardly.

Ali smiled politely at him.

'I thought that I recognised you from somewhere,' he continued. 'You're Ali Connia aren't you? My uncle used to play with your father in a string quartet. We used to play together backstage at music concerts. Do you remember me? Sam?'

Ali stared at him hard for a moment.

'Sam!' she cried jumping to her feet and flinging her arms around him. 'I can't believe that I didn't recognise you! How are you?'

Sam laughed and hugged her back.

'I've been around. Nothing too interesting. But look at you Ali! You look great. All grown up! Not a bit the gawkish girl that once you were,' he grinned quoting his line from the musical.

'Gawkish eh?' Ali said laughing.

Debbie coughed, not so subtly beside her.

'Debbie, I want you to meet Sam. We used to play together as children.'

'Hi,' Debbie said. 'So that's why you were staring at her constantly?'

Ali blushed but Sam laughed.

'I'm sorry about that. I just couldn't place you Ali.'

Suddenly the trio became aware that everyone was staring at them. Jenna was positively seething that, despite her efforts to engage Sam, he had gone to Ali and was talking to her quite casually. She was even more annoyed that Ali was getting a lot of attention. She decided to continue to progress around the circle until she came to Jeremy, who was sitting alone, still staring at the floor.

'Hi, I'm Jenna,' she said loudly, grateful for the attention that she was getting.

Jeremy appeared to be ignoring her. She tried again, even louder.

'Hi, I'm Jenna.'

Jeremy looked at her.

'I heard you the first time,' he said coldly before dropping his head to the floor.

Furious, Jenna went back to her seat muttering loudly about how rude some people were. She winked at a group of boys who grinned back.

Mr. Conclair came back to the group.

'We're all making friends? Good. Now Mr. Lamport and I have decided that we're going to work on the beginning this morning. I'd like you to act your part and just improvise for today. We won't bother with auction today. Let's go straight into 'Think of Me.' So that's everybody, except Jeremy of course.

Everybody traipsed onto the stage, Jenna, enthusiastically taking centre stage. Jenna, although she could sing, apparently thought herself better than she actually was, singing certain notes out of tune and insisting that it was written wrongly on her score or that the piano was out of tune. Ali could hardly wait to sing. Her heart skipped a beat as Debbie said:

'Christine Daae could sing it sir,' to the boys playing the managers.

Ali took centre stage and began to sing. She hardly needed to look at the score after listening to the soundtrack so many times. It seemed over all too soon and she hardly noticed the applause that she was getting. Even Jenna admitted that she was 'alright' and Jeremy had stopped staring at his dot on the floor to watch her.

'That was lovely Ali, lovely,' Mr Conclair said happily. 'Let's do that again shall we? We have to work on a bit of stage management. Everybody's blocking each other.'

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

He stared at her amazed. He had prepared himself to act alongside someone with a voice like Jenna's. Ali's was, well, different. He gazed at her face. She was pretty too, very pretty. It would not be hard to act like he was in love with her. Had she even noticed him? He didn't know. He could see that boy that she had spoken to earlier hug her. He looked on jealously. How could he even make her notice him? How had that boy done it? He had not been blessed with knowing her for years. Only in that thirty minutes he felt drawn to her presence. She was special.