Chapter Six

"Well, its official, the Princess of Genovia is," Felix took a deep dramatic breath when he finally strolled into Gym this morning, "a juvenile delinquent!"

"What?" I dropped the basket ball that I had been half-heartedly dribbling for the past half-hour, bored out of my mind and not being allowed to read my book. I mean it was the second last week of term; couldn't we (meaning me, because I was the only male in class, beside Felix, who didn't actually want to be there!) be cut some slack during this period? Also I happened to be basically dead on my feet due to the fact that I didn't sleep a wink last night, thanks to my darling sister.

No, really, thanks Lil. Thanks for keeping me up all night because I know that she knows, more or less, who sent those cards to me and she won't flipping tell me! Ok, even though I have an idea… ok, rather a hope, as to who it might be sending me the cards. Which then had me flipping out even more, all night, because of the chance that it might be her!

"Yup." Felix said sounding way too cheerful.

"Why?" I demanded as I bent down and snatched the basketball up before it rolled too close to Richter and his cronies.

"No idea. I just saw her up at Gupta's office looking real guilty about something."

"That doesn't mean she's a juvenile delinquent! You go up to her office almost three times a week!" and not guilty for whatever he had done.

"Yeah, true, but I don't come out of her office suspended."

"WHAT?" I yelled. I was fully awake now! Mia, suspended? For what? Not for pulling the fire alarm on Wednesday?

I mean, firstly how did they find out it was her and secondly, would they seriously suspend someone for pulling a fire alarm… ah, actually they probably would, but it still begs the question of who found out and then ratted her out.

Or maybe it was because of something else…


At lunch I went and hunted down Lil, more to ask her why Mia was suspended than, you know, because of the other thing because… yeah.

Anyway, she was surprisingly pleased to see me.

"Oh good," she said as she saw me coming towards her, "Do you want to go find Tina and asked her about your secret admirer?" she was grinning, but it wasn't exactly a nasty grin more like she was amused in 'I know something you don't know' way.

"Did you know Mia was suspended?" I asked as Lil grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the caff and in the direction of the school library.

"Uh huh, which is why now is the perfect time to talk to Tina."

"Wait, you didn't get her…" I started wondering just how low my sister could go in her desire to know all about, well everything. As low as getting her best friend suspended so that she (and I) could talk to their mutual friend without interruption.

Lil snorted.

"Of course not, Mia's temper is what got her suspended." Mia's temper? Seriously?

I looked questioningly at the back of my sister's head wondering if we were talking about the same girl. Granted this same girl has changed quite a bit in the last couple of months, but I can't image Mia losing her temper enough to get her suspended.

"Lil…"

"TINA!" Lil called as we entered the Library.

A dark haired head suddenly appeared above, surprise, surprise, the romance section of the Library, looking at us with wide, innocent Bambi eyes.

"Lilly?" she asked in this soft sort of voice. She looked at me curiously but mostly just gave Lilly her questioning, Bambi gaze.

"Hey Tina," Lil said smiling innocently as she prepared to corner her pray. I saw Tina's bodyguard, Wahim, watch Lil carefully as she did this. So was Tina actually, she suddenly looked very wary, her eyes now flickering between Lil and me with rapid speed.

"We just wanted to ask you something."

Oh god!

"Um, ok." Tina said slowly. You could almost see the gears in her head turning at like super speed as her eyes kept darting around the library, looking for an escape.

"Ok, so a) are you sending particularly interesting messages to him?" Lil started, jerking her thumb back at me while I stood behind her, gagging. Straight to the point, why don'tcha, Lil? "And b) if so, are you sending them for yourself or," she was smiling particularly wickedly now, "for someone else?"

Tina's Bambi eyes somehow grew even wider and her already dark-ish cheeks grew even darker.

She stared down at her shoes with a determined expression, her lips compressed shut.

"Come on, Tina." Lil said smiling coaxingly at her. Tina shook her head.

"Please."

"I can't." Tina said, still not looking up from her shoes. "She'll kill me." she said this so softly that I wasn't exactly sure that that was what she actually said.

"No, she won't, she'll probably grumble at you for awhile, maybe, but kill you, Nah. Plus you've got a bodyguard."

Tina looked up from her feet with a frown.

"If you already know it's her than why are you asking me?"

"Because you just confirmed that it is her." Lilly said cheerfully.

Tina's eyes widen and started shaking her head fiercely.

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"How?" Tina wailed.

"You wrote the notes." Lil said with a simple shrug of her shoulder, even though she had lost Tina, Wahim and me.

"So?" Tina asked, looking a little bewildered though I saw a tiny horrified glint of realisation start to form in her Bambi eyes.

"Who else but her would need someone else to write those notes? She knows that he knows what her handwriting looks like, so in hopes to keep him in the dark for whatever reason, she asked you to write the poems that she came up with. Which was another clue that the cards were from her and not you because you…"

"Am really dreadful at writing poetry? I know." Tina said with a small pout.

"Also he already knew who they were from he was just curious as to know why it was you who was writing them, so it's not like you've spilled the beans or anything." Lil was saying easily, while I was still thinking what the fuck she was on about now.

"Oh you do?" Tina said looking up at me in surprise, "what was it that gave it away that it was Mia? Or was it sort of intuition that it was her? That's kind of roman..." she trailed off as I started choking.

Oh god, everyone was freaking right! And I was just too freaking blind to see what was right in front of me for apparently YEARS!

"You said he knew!" I vaguely heard Tina wail.

"Well, maybe I should have said suspected, but whatever, he knows now." Lil said as she patted my back, well more like slapped it to get me, in her mind at least, breathing normally again. She was only knocking even more air out of me.

"But-but, Lilly that isn't fair! I mean, the whole point was to see if he likes her back and-and what if he doesn't!" You know, I'm standing right here. "That'll mess everything up! Oh, and-and you won't tease her will you?" Tina was now speaking to me, her Bambi eyes imploring.

I just shook my head because words were basically failing me.

She likes me back. She loves me back!

This insane, goofy grin started spreading itself across my face.

"Yeah, I highly doubt the whole 'not liking her back' fear, Tina." I heard Lil say sounding surprisingly smug.

"You do?" Tina asked me cautiously, "You do like Mia back? Because she's liked you for awhile but she thought that," she gave this weak sort of shrug, "you know." She trailed off weakly.

I didn't and clearly neither did Lil as we both shook our heads at the same time.

"Well, you know, you're Lilly's older brother and Lilly is her best friend and she thought it might be, you know, weird. For Lilly and for you, so she kept quiet about it. And also she kinda thought that you only saw her as, you know, your little sister's best friend and that's all." She gave another helpless little shrug, "and she thought that you might get mad at her, for you know, crushing on your brother." she added to Lil who in return simply laughed, quite vocally.

"It's not funny Lilly." Tina said sounding desperate as she cast a nervous glance in the direction of the school's librarian, who was only staying behind her test and simply glaring at us because of Wahim presence.

"It's not, Lil." I said, having finally found my voice again.

I felt kind of weird though, like this great pressure had been lifted off of me. So apparently Mia had been worrying about basically the same things that I had been.

Shelovesme.

I felt my silly grin come back, ignoring the voice that was saying that I hadn't actually heard those words spoken from her mouth yet.

"Listen," I said to Tina who looked like she was about to have a nervous break down or something, "can you not tell Mia that you told me that it was her that was sending the cards? Because…" but she was already nodding her head in agreement before she said a quick goodbye and good luck in my direction before she (and of course Wahim) bolted from the library.


"I told you." Lilly said as we left the library too, heading back to the caff to grab what little lunch we could.

"What? No you didn't." I said back, even though I wasn't actually mad at her, I was way, way too happy to be mad at her or anyone else actually.

"I did too! I've been telling you for months to hurry up and do something about all this. It's your fault that you took so long."

"Fine, you hinted. Like you did with the cards."

"Technically I told you who they were from too." I rolled my eyes at her.

"Fine." I said, sighing, "you were right and I was wrong and…" I frowned at her, suddenly worrying, "this isn't weird for you, is it?"

Lil gave me one of her legendary looks and snorted.

"No. I mean, yes, it is weird, but I'm surprisingly ok with it. Granted," she gave me an exasperating, "You two did give me an anomaly long time to get used to the idea of it," she shook her head, "my three year older brother has a thing for my best friend, which she returns." I was grinning insanely all over again. "Please tell me that you're actually going to put this information to good use and you're not just going to sit on it for another year. I don't think I can handle another year of stolen, sideways looks and wistful sighs and… argh!" she threw up her hands in disgust.

"Don't worry, Lil, I am going to use this information."

"Like, now?" she asked, sounding almost hopeful.

"I can't."

"Why not?" Lil demanded, kicking me in the shins.

"Because she's with Kenny for one thing." That stopped her.

"Oh, right, Kenny." She said slowly. "Ok, fine, but make it soon, ok, because I'm telling you if I have to put up with another month of the pair of you moping over each other, I'm going to lock you both in the supply closet in the G&T room over a weekend or something."

"Thanks, Lil." I said with a snort.


I was in a good mood for basically the rest of the day, which of course surprised Paul, Felix and Judith at this sudden turn around from my general mope-y self.

"You seem happy about something." Judith said after school, during Computer Club after she had finished yelling at the rest of the club about being so bloody lazy with their designs for our Winter Carnival program, saying that their (the rest of the computer club) complaints that they've been too busy with exam studying is no excuse since they had suppose to have been working on their designs for the booth for at least two months now.

"Can't be because of the Princess." Paul said, "You know, what with her being suspended and all. Which," he looked between Judith and me, "does anyone know why?" Judith and I both shook our heads.

Actually it seemed, like with the fire alarm on Wednesday, no one seemed to know the full details of what had caused Mia's one day suspension, which considering her status as Princess, most things that happen to her are around the school in something like ten minutes. Three if it occurred at lunch time.

"Anyway," Paul said with a shrug, "why are you so happy?" he asked me.

"I don't know what you're talking about?"

"Yeah, ok, then what's with the goofy, happy smile that you've been wearing since lunch time?"

"What? I can't be happy?" I asked him with raised eyebrows, before frowning slightly, "and my smile is not goofy looking."

"Yeah, it kind of is." Paul said and Judith gave slight nod of her head. "It's kind of scary after, you know; months of just seeing you all doom and gloom."

"I was not." I just got deadpanned looks in return.

"Fine, maybe I was a little, but that doesn't mean I have to be interrogated by you two just because I'm smiling."

"An overly cheerful, goofy grin for, according to you, no apparent reason. Michael you never do anything for no apparent reason." Paul said. I opened my mouth to argue on that but found that yeah, in a way, he was disturbingly right.

"Also," Judith said as she looked at my face with a searching, suspicious gaze, "he said hi to Kenny."

"So?" I asked.

"You haven't said hi to Kenny all month." Judith said crossing her arms across her chest. "Or anything else to him, actually. You've just been blatantly ignoring him. That or glowering at him when you think he's not look, which you know, he has noticed and he's more than a little freaked out by you."

"Good." I said without thinking, causing Judith to smack me over the back of the head.

"Scaring freshman, bad!" she said sounding thoroughly fed up with me.

"So why the sudden change in attitude?" Paul demanded, his arms crossing against his chest too.

"Look, I'm just happy ok? Must you guys rain on my parade?" I asked and I saw a bit of guilt forming in Judith dark eyes.

"You're right. We're sorry."

"Wait," Paul said looking wildly at her, "we are? I thought we were supposed to be squeezing him dry for information this afternoon?"

"Look," I said quickly before the two of them could work themselves up into a dispute of this, "I'm just happy. I will tell both of you and Felix the reason why I'm happy when I've find out…" I trailed off there.

"Find out?"

"If what is making me so happy at the moment is actually completely and utterly true." That left them completely baffled.

"I don't understand you at all." Paul said as he got up from his computer chair and wander over to a couple of freshman who were playing WOW online.

"Is it because of Mia?" Judith asked after awhile. I glanced at her and gave her a quick grin which, of course, caused her to give this excited little squeal.

"I haven't even told you anything yet and you're already bouncing up and down in your seat." I said with a snort and she calmed down a little.

"I'm sorry, I'm just, you know, happy for you."

"Again I haven't even told you what it is yet." I said laughing.

"I know, and honestly you don't have to because it's your business, but obviously it something good because I don't think I can remember seeing you look so happy. Well," she paused for a moment thinking, "actually I have," she amended, "at Rocky Horror show. She was like the only thing you looked at, like all night." She gave her head a shake, "I am such an idiot."

I rolled my eyes at her.

"Are you ever going to stop beating yourself up over that?" I asked in a hushed voice. She gave me one of those grins that said 'nope' and I sighed.

"How are things going with Kevin?" I asked changing the subject, sort of.

"Oh, they're not." She said with a shrug and went back to staring at her computer screen, but it was obvious that she wasn't seeing anything, plus there were tears forming in her eyes.

"Jude." I said gently, leaning forward in my chair so as to block her more or less from the rest of the clubs view.

"I don't know what to do, Michael." She whispered back, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I've tried everything to just get things back to the way they were. To try and figure out we're we went wrong, what I had done wrong…"

"Judith." I interrupted her, "you have done nothing wrong, ok." She gave me a look.

"Ok, beside that. But you only did that because of what he did."

"Doesn't stop it from being wrong, it just lowered me to his level."

"Thanks,"

"You know what I mean." She gave a little sob. "I was just so angry with him. I mean, I work so hard for everything in my life, including being with him and then he…" she shook her head, more tears rolling.

"And do you know what's worse?" I shook my head, "he doesn't think he's done anything wrong? He said it was my own fault, because I wouldn't sleep with him, you know, like every single day. He said that he was tired of having to take cold showers all the time because of me, so he went and found someone who he wouldn't have to." She rubbed her face with her hands. "Why do relationships have to become all about sex? I mean, we used to have so much fun and then it just became all about sex, sex, sex." She shook her head, sniffing. "It shouldn't be and yet, somehow that what it just seems to come down to."

"I don't think all relationships end up like that." I said softly, gently.

"Yours had better not." She growled at me warningly. I blinked at her in surprise.

"Huh?"

"I will seriously hurt you if you start pressuring her into having sex with you." She threatened, while I gagged.

"Judith! I'm not even with her"… yet. "Trust me; having sex with her, at the moment, is far, far from my mind. Plus, Jude, she's only fourteen! I could go to prison for just thinking the 'S' word in regards to her!" or have my arms and legs broken by Lars.

"Good, keep thinking like that! Because seriously, I will hurt you." She gave deep sigh then, "Look, what I mean is, just be patient ok. Sex is a bit more complicated for girls than it is for guys."

"Honestly, Jude," I said interrupting her because seriously, I could not talk about the possibility of my sleeping with Mia with her. It was too weird! It was almost like talking to Lil about it, except not quite so bad… "Sex, at the moment and I think for a long time coming, is one of the furthest things on my mind. I wasn't even thinking about it until you went and brought it up."

"Yeah, I know," she said with another sigh, "that's what makes you so much better than most guys around. Sex isn't the first and only thought going on in your head. Just promise me you won't let it become, you know, that way."

"I promise." I said feeling embarrassed yet at the same time I felt I kind of owed it to Judith in someway. Plus I didn't want to become one of those guys who thought only about Sex, it just – and I don't. I just don't want to be like that.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked her as we started to pack up for home.

"About?" she asked dully.

"Kevin?" she shook her head.

"I don't know. I've done everything that I can think to do…"

"Besides the obvious thing." quoting what she had said to be just a couple of days earlier.

"Dump his sorry ass." Her eyes grew a little wider and she started to shake her head, but I stopped her.

"Jude, he treated you like crap and honestly, even from what you told me before all this shit started happening, he still doesn't sound like he's worth your time. You could do so much better than him."

"Oh yeah," she gave me a somewhat deadpan expression. She always gets on the defensive whenever I tell her to dump Kevin. "Who?"

I glanced up just to see if he was looking over at us, which he was, though he went bright red and looked away as soon as he noticed my amused, knowing grin.

"I don't know. Paul?"

"Oh yes," Judith said huffily, "of course Paul, now why didn't I think of that," she then paused and looked around at me with wide, questioning eyes, "Paul?"

"Uh huh." And I left it at that, with Judith gapping at me, though I did notice her a couple of times glance in Paul's direction with confused but also slightly amazed look on her face. I couldn't help but grin as I worked.

Ha, now this proved that I wasn't the only person blind around here.


Why do I keep getting this 'last person to know' feeling. I mean, I've been getting this feeling on and off for the last couple of months and it is always in regards of one person.

Mia.

It's not a nice feeling, especially when it is in regard to her. I don't want to be the last person to know stuff about her. I want to be the first.

I'm sick of Lilly smirking her 'I know something you don't know' like she's been doing all of tonight, because she knows that I don't know the details of Mia's suspension, which she has now obviously learnt and is for some reason very smug and acting like it was all her doing. Which has me again slightly worried about just how Lil will go to get her own way, but anyway, she won't tell me what it is, what Mia did to get herself suspended today.

So giving up on her and trying to get her to tell me, I decided to just bite the bullet and go and get the whole story from the Primary source. Though I admit my heart was a little bit in my throat when I saw that she online.

I had been deliriously happy all day from finding out that the cards were in fact from her and that I now knew that she liked me, maybe, if not just as much, as I liked her. Maybe…

But now that it's come to actually talking to her, I had no idea what to say.

I had so much to say, but I couldn't because she didn't know that I knew that she was the one who had been sending me the cards. And I'm not quite that desperate (or cruel) to just come out and tell her that I know it's her. That wouldn't go down well with her, plus it would probably embarrass her half to death if I did that, since I'm pretty sure the whole reason behind her sending the cards are more that she's testing the waters, like I had been doing in September and October before I started trying to give up on her again, before she built up the courage to tell me herself. Why didn't think of doing something like that?

Though I did send that get well card way back in October that said Love,Michael at the end of it. I mean, how many guys does she know put that at the end of a get well card?

Actually, don't answer that because I honestly don't want to know. She could be getting letters from Buckingham palace with Love, Harry on the bottom of them by now for all I know.

Just bite the bullet Moscovitz!

Be calm and casual and go from there.

CracKing: Hey, Thermopolis, – Hey, Thermopolis? I'm trying to be calm and casual and I'm back to calling her Thermopolis? Though, in a weird sort of way, it's become something like my nickname for her. No one else calls her Thermopolis, only me, so in a way, it makes it unique. – What's this I hear about you getting suspended?

Her reply came almost straight away.

FtLouie: Just for one day.

Thank god!

CracKing: What'd you do?

FtLouie: Crushed a cheerleader's mobile phone.

My mouth dropped. Of all the things I had thought that she had done, that hadn't been one of them! I had honestly thought that she had been ratted out somehow about the fire alarm incident on Wednesday, though Lil wouldn't have been so smug about this if it had been that, I reasoned. But seriously! She crushed a cheerleader's mobile!

That's my girl. And what's the bet it was Weinberger's phone that was crushed?

Grinning, I typed back.

CracKing: Your parents must be so proud.

Or at least Helen Thermopolis would be.

FtLouie: If so, they've done a pretty good job of disguising it so far.

Did this mean she was grounded? Please, no.

CracKing: So, are you grounded?

Please, no.

FtLouie: Surprisingly, no. – thank god! – I told them the attack on the phone was provoked.

I wanted to ask her what had actually caused her to kill the phone. I mean, it must have been something big for her to take the life of innocent piece of technology. But I refrained from doing so, promising myself that I'd ask her later, I just had to make sure of something first.

CracKing: So you'll still be going to the Carnival next week?

FtLouie: As secretary to the Students Against the corporation of Albert Einstein High School, - Honestly Lil, come up with shorter names for your crazy schemes, would you? Though you had to admire Mia's ability to remember the whole title of Lil's new committee against AEHS… and ok, worry a little too, - I believe my attendance is required. Your sister is planning for us to have a booth.

Of course she is. I'd love to see her actually go through with her plan, since that's how far its honestly going to get, a plan. No way is Gupta going to allow her to set up a booth that will be encouraging AEHS students to turn against their teachers and school board. Not that I actually see that happening either. I mean come on, yeah we complain about our teachers and the homework, and the fact that it is still mandatory to do PE and so on, but that's as far as we get, complaining and whining. No one is ever going to rally together because of it.

CracKing: That Lilly. She's always looking out for the good of mankind.

FtLouie: That's one way of putting it.

I wanted to go back and ask her what exactly Weinberger had done to warrant Mia's attack on her phone, but wasn't able to due to her suddenly sending me a quick bye before she logged off.

I stretch my arms above my head, sighing.

She loves you.

A smile crept across my face and before I knew it I was grinning like an idiot.


Author's Note: Sorry, I am so sorry for taking so long to update. Study for exams and doing assessments are brutal! Anyway here is a nice long chapter that will hopefully stop all of you from killing me for a couple more days.
Bye for now!