In The Wings

Act V Scene I

Opening night had come to Garnier High School, and the entire musical cast and crew seemed to be buzzing with excitement even though there were some tense feelings hidden right underneath the surface. Without a doubt, the Auditorium Ghost would be attending this performance. All throughout the day at school, the students couldn't focus on their work. The two directors found their thoughts getting wound up and tangled with the musical.

Christine wished that she didn't have to think about it, that it would all just go away. Her life had turned so sour so quickly, but now she had no choice. Everyone had forced her to go on with playing Clara and performing all of the Phantom's added parts on stage. 

But the performance part of her hadn't disappeared. No, she still felt the performance buzz starting to get to her, even though it felt more like anxiety than excitement. She promised herself to give the best performance that she could give - the audience didn't care if her life was falling apart.

In fact, the audience was likely the only thing that kept her together. She reminded herself that the whole purpose of her performance was to put on a good show for those who bought their tickets to get in. Christine just closed her eyes and thought about the audience.

Her lips curled into a soft smile as she remembered how she had flown out into the crowd right after she had been Cinderella. There was that enchanted little girl - Lucy was her name. Christine needed to put on a show so that she could be there for Lucy or some other little girl.

She needed to get herself into the zone in order to be prepared for the performance. If she didn't make sure to do that, then the entire performance on her side would just end up being a complete mess. She didn't want to be responsible for that.

But of course, Christine simply ended up just standing there in the middle of the backstage hallway with her eyes closed, wondering if anyone was going to come along and end up seeing her there. Everyone was likely getting ready, but that also meant they had to come out to go to green room.

She just had to wait until someone came out - then she might end up getting ready and heading to green room. It would just be a matter of her getting a cue for what was going on, except for it would be in real life.

"Christy!" 

Christine's eyes flew open to see a blonde bouncing over to her. Oh, Meg. Meg and her undying energy and always happy demeanor. If anyone could bring Christine up, it would end up being her.

"It's opening night!" Meg said, her voice breathy with excitement.

"I know," Christine said with a nod, looking over to her best friend with a smile. "I've known for a long time. I mean, everyone has been talking about it for so long."

"Aren't you excited?" Meg squealed. "I can't wait, I've got butterflies in my stomach but it just makes me feel like I've been drinking too much coffee!"

"Of course," Christine said - but her voice sounded tired, completely uninspired. 

"Of course you are," Meg said. "You know, maybe we need to find you some coffee and help you to be more energetic."

"No, caffeine isn't good for your vocal cords. I wouldn't want to ruin my voice right before opening night. Just think about that for a moment..."

"Come on," Meg said. "Do some jumping jacks with me. It'll be fun. Get you all energetic and help to wear me down. Look, everyone wins!"

"We'll be doing all sorts of energy building exercises when it comes to us going to green room," Christine replied, shaking her head. "It should be coming up any time now."

"Christy, you're playing the lead," Meg said with a frown. "I thought you might actually be excited about all of this, but apparently not."

"Listen, I have to go get changed."