The Man behind the Mask (The Phantom of the Opera)

Chapter 1

"Hurry up Jen!!! We have twenty maximum, twenty- two minutes until our train leaves!" Karissa exclaimed.

"I'm going as fast as I can. It's not my fault that my maid woke me up ten
minutes late" Jen replied.

I laugh as I watch my friends go through this battle again. Karissa is my identical twin sister and I always find it funny when she yells at other people when they are running late. Although we are twins we both have completely different personalities.

Karissa is neat and organized, every time she goes on trips she plans every minute of everyday on a piece of paper. She makes sure we stick to the schedule or else all Hell would break loose. One thing that Karissa hated was being late. First she gets worried, then she starts getting really anxious, and after that she just starts yelling at people. But it's these little quirks that make us love her so much.

While I on the other hand am completely opposite. I'm more of a go with the flow kind of girl. Nothing in life makes me that upset and I am there for my friends when they need me. My sister and I always seem to confuse people even though we do look a little different. We both have long brown hair but my hair is curly and Karissa likes to straighten her hair. We both are average height and have curvy hips.

We do everything with each other and we have the best friend group. I am the oldest of the group at twenty-two years old. Then there is Karissa who is only four minutes younger than me and I make sure she knows it.

After us there is Rachelle. Rachelle is only a few months younger than us and she has fiery red hair and most of the time she wears it straight. She is a little bit taller than us but when I wear heels we are about the same height. She has this superior attitude which is great because she always makes sure we are in our place, and not making complete fools out of ourselves. Rachelle also has strong opinions on life and never backs out of an argument.

Then there is Jennifer but we all call her Jen for short. Jen unlike Karissa is always late, but she can't help it and usually has a good excuse why she is. Jen is twenty-two as well and has long, wavy chocolate brown hair. She is also the tallest of the group and has long legs that she can glide on. Jen is really friendly towards everyone and that is why all the boys easily fall for her. No matter how many boys like her she never ditches us for any boy because our friendship comes first.

Lastly there was Georgie, Georgie is the youngest of the group as she just turned twenty-two a few days ago. She is a bit shorter than me but what she lacks in height she makes up with her flawless skin and dark black hair. She is also very witty and has a great comeback for anything.

Us five go everywhere together and right now we are about to leave for an adventure of a lifetime. Well it's not really a adventure. An adventure would be finding an enchanted island and all we are doing is moving to Paris to find jobs. But nevertheless to us it is still an adventure.

"I don't know why you are yelling at me Karissa, Georgie and Rachelle haven't even arrived yet so shouldn't you be yelling at them?" Jen asked.

"Actually we arrived fifteen minutes ago. We are just putting the suitcases in the carriage" Georgie stated matter-of-factly.

"Guys lets not fight." I said. "This is our last day ever walking down these streets, living in our house."

"Oh no, Tamara is getting weirdly sentimental again." Karissa said.

Rachelle started to say "I think that Tamara  has a great point. If you think about it-"

"I feel a speech coming soon" interrupted Georgie.

"Anyways" Rachelle continued like she didn't hear anything at all.
"I was going to say that it's not weird at all for being sentimental. If you think about it we lived in this house the entire time we were at our language art school. So this house feels a part of us now and leaving it behind feels like we are leaving a part of us behind."

"Well said"

"Hear hear"

"Amen"

" So this is it. Are we all ready to go?" I asked.

"Yep I'm all packed and I didn't forget anything on my list this time!" Jen said.

"What about the things that aren't on the list?" I asked.

"I remembered them too, aren't you proud if me!" Jen said with a triumphant grin on her face.

" Yes yes we are all so proud of you, now can we finally go?" Karissa asked.

Now we could all tell that she was getting really impatient; and none of us wanted to see what would happen next. It would probably end up as a lot of yelling. It was time to hit the road.

"Yes let's go, wait! I have to go to the bathroom," I said.

Then there was a loud chorus of groans and a lot of why didn't you go earlier. But in the end Karissa managed to fit one last bathroom break in the schedule.

"Now Tamara if you are late-" Karissa started to say.

" Yeah I know, you'll kill me. "