Chapter Eleven

If her going to Balls means that she has to dress like that, then she should seriously go to them more often, because she was simply stunning.

Cultural Diversity Dance, Non-Denomination Winter Dance, Halloween? Those dress… yeah, nothing compared to this one… though I am still particularly fond of the green dress that she wore to the Winter dance.

But anyway, this one that she had on was completely breath-taking. It was pure white but with a sort of silver glint to it that made her eyes somehow stand out even more, in a good way. It hugged her very close around her chest and torso before falling heavily from her waist down, completely covering and hiding her feet. There were these small glints of light that flickered all over the dress which took me a moment to realize that they were crystals or possibly even diamonds that had been sewn into her gown.

Her hair had been curled and styled in a way that you would never think that her hair spends most of its time in a triangular shape.

But what was on top of her head was actually the most daunting thing of all. The thing that really struck home to me that she really was a Princess of a country and how completely unrealistic it was for me to hope that this relationship really had any chance at all.

On top of her head, placed carefully upon her elegant hair style was a glittering, diamond (and they weren't small either, some were a big as my thumb!) tiara.

I had never seen her with her tiara on and now that I had, I felt a little winded. So winded, I almost completely missed her swallowed a sock expression on her face.

She seemed to notice that my eyes seemed to be particularly focused on that spot of her head, because she quickly whipped it off her head, so that she now twirled it between her hands.

"Well, I'm here." She sounded a little winded herself and I could hear nerves in her voice too. Damn, what had Jude been telling me this afternoon to do when Mia got here?

"Oh, hey," look, I have a voice, "come in, you look…" or not, "you look really beautiful." And then I went back to simply starring at her, because my brain just couldn't focus past the fact of how beautiful she was.

It was only when I heard Lars chuckling behind her did my brain actually decide to start working again.

Clearing my throat as I stepped back, making room for them both to come inside, I said to Lars.

"Lars, my mom and dad are in the living room watching Dateline, if you want to go join them." Lars looked delighted and headed off for the living room where I heard my parents greeting him cheerfully.

Dammit, what had Jude said! Why couldn't I remember? Dammit and it was important too! Oh forget it… which I had… and just move on.

"Well, did you eat yet? Because I've got some veggie burgers…" why is she looking at the floor? God, wait, was she going to tell me that while she was at this Ball, she met someone else?

Oh God! Oh shit!

"Um, I don't know." She replied slowly. I notice she was hunching herself close together within her dress. "If you're having one, I guess."

"Ok." Because I couldn't think of anything else to say because I was starting to freak out that she might be getting ready to dump me. Somewhere in the back of my head a voice was calling me an idiot but I ignored it, though I couldn't stop myself from reaching over and grabbing hold of one of her hands and pulling her, by it, to the kitchen. Where Lil was, working on her story boards for her latest episode of LillyTellsItLikeItIs that I know she was planning on filming tomorrow.

"Jeez," she said when she looked up as we walked in. "What happen to you?" which is a little mean, but she sounded more startled then trying to be actually rude. "You look like you swapped outfits with the Sugar Plum Fairy." Ok, so that was rude.

I shot her a very dry look.

"I was at a ball." Mia explained or reminded her or whatever.

"Oh, of course. The ball. Well, if you ask me, the Sugar Plum Fairy got the better deal. But I'm not supposed to be here. So don't mind me."

"We won't." I reassured her as I moved around the kitchen, reheating the food that I had prepared earlier for Mia's arrival.

I didn't let Mia help me, even though she knew as well as I did where everything in the kitchen was, so she simply stood back and watched me, which actually made me feel better because she seemed to be relaxing now and becoming comfortable and my fears of her dumping me because she met someone else tonight suddenly appeared incredibly stupid.

After I was done getting everything together, going back and forth between the kitchen and the den as I took all the necessary stuff from one to the other, I picked up our two plates of veggie burgers and chips, nodded my head towards the den and said "come on," to Mia, who looked confused but did as I asked.

Out of the comer of my eye I saw Lil give me thumbs up before returning to her work.

As soon as we entered the den, I went over to put the two plates of food down on the two fold out tables that I had set up earlier in front of the black leather couch, across the room from our thirty-two-inch Sony TV, which was cheerfully displaying the StarWars title image, frozen there because I had paused it there.

Mia looked around, looking quite startled but what she was seeing.

"Michael," she started slowly, "What is this?"

"Well, you couldn't make it to the Screening Room," I explained, slowly because it was now becoming obvious that even though she did manage to come over here earlier than expected, she was still extremely tired from the ball, "So I brought the Screening Room to you. Come on, let's eat. I'm starved." Because honestly, I was. I hadn't eaten dinner or lunch because I had been so busy trying to organize this for her.

I flopped down on to the couch and made to for some chips just as she said, sounding completely stunned.

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You aren't breaking up with me?" my head immediately jerked in her direction, staring at her in disbelief. Wait, what? Something from Jude's and mine conversation from forth period suddenly came back to me.

Oh sweetie, I thought you understood by now, girls and boys think very differently about the same things in their relationship. You might be more or less over this and looking for ways to get around the whole ball thing, but she's probably freaking out about whether or not you're going to dumb her over this or not.

She actually thought that… seriously?

"Break up with you?" it was hard not to gag as I spoke, as I tried to get my head around how she could get that idea into her head, "Why would I do that?" and here was I flipping out about the possibility that she might be dumping me sometime in the near future. But instead, she was actually thinking that I was going to dump her!

"Well," she was looking extremely embarrassed now and once more staring at the floor, her tiara in her hands twirling faster and faster within them. "When I told you I couldn't make it tonight you… well, you seemed kind of distant…"

Now I was remembering something Lil had said to me back at Grandma's and Pop's condo, the night of my birthday, about my having this look that made me appear angry or annoyed about something. That I sort of shut down when I get it. Dammit, I was going to have to watch that.

"I wasn't distant. I was trying to figure out what we could do instead of, you know, going to the movie."

"But then you didn't show up for lunch…" Lil's right, we really are as bad as each other.

"Right, I had to call and order the veggie burgers, get Maya to go to the store and get the rest of the stuff. And my dad had loaned our StarWars DVD to a friend of his, so I had to call him and make him get it back."

I sort of felt bad for her then, she looked so deflated from what I was telling her, it made me wonder just how much she had been stressing over this, this past week.

"So… you don't want to break up?" is wrong to be mad at her when I heard this note of hopefulness in her voice, like she really had thought that I was going to break up with her over this tiny obstacle? As if I would have let this tiny thing ruin something that we've both wanted for a long, long time!

"No, I don't want to break up." Ever, I added silently to myself. "Mia, I love you, remember?" Because I was suddenly worried that she might have forgotten that. When was the last time I told her that I loved her?

Actually I don't think I have, not out loud, at least, I don't think. I mean, I did in that poem in the program I created for her and I've thought it to her often, but I don't think I've ever actually said it to her face. "Why would I want to break up with you? Now come and sit down and eat before it gets cold." I was feeling like an idiot now, annoyed at myself for allowing this to happen, for allowing her to feel all that doubt that she had obviously been feeling about our relationship and my feelings for her.

She continued to stand there, even after I hit play and the first chords of John Williams's brilliant StarWars theme started to fill the room.

"Mia, come on." Because she was starting to worry me again, "Unless you want to change out of that dress first." Which would be a shame because she really was stunning in that gown, but I didn't want to see it destroyed because it got ketchup and mayo all over it. "Did you bring any normal clothes." Which is a stupid question because Mia actually has clothes here, in Lil's room because she is over here so much.

Instead of answering my question, she instead asked me a question that would have had most guys bolting out of the room faster than a speeding bullet.

"Do you love me like a friend? Or are you in love with me?" I'm honestly thinking of murdering the people who help Mia developed this ridiculously low self-esteem that she has for herself. But I think that would actually involve murdering a whole heap of extremely important people from all around the world, so…

I just stared at her for a moment, still trying to get my head around the fact that she actually felt the need to ask me that, the need to have my feelings for her clarified for her even now.

I'm not good with words.

In complete truth, I completely suck with saying what I really want to say, especially to her, which is probably why we're in this situation right now.

So instead of speaking and probably making the whole situation worse, I simply twisted slightly in my seat, reaching out and taking her still twirling tiara from between her fingers, ignoring the electric shock that passed between us and carefully set it down beside me on the couch, before taking (or rather swamping) her hands in mine, gave her a gentle tug and gave her an extremely long kiss. Of the French variety.

We completely missed the entire scrolling prologue to the movie, only breaking apart when the sounds of Princess Leia's starship was being fired upon and that was only because we both needed air, otherwise I'm pretty sure we would have just kept going. No complaints here.

I let go of her hands and instead cupped her face and said, "Of course I'm in love with you." I thought you knew that. How can I possibly love anyone else but you? "Now come sit down and eat." I gave her a quick kiss, before grabbing one of her hands again and pulling her around the couch and forced her to sit down beside me.

"Your burger is getting cold." I said and she beamed back at me and I felt this huge weight lift off my chest. Weight continuing to lift as once we finished our food, Mia curled up on the couch and snuggled in close to my side as we both quoted lines, on cue, from the movie.

I admit, even though I was paying some attention to the movie, enough to quote lines (but I've watched this movie so many times, I can recite the whole thing in my sleep,), I spent most of my time watching Mia, running my fingers through her hair, which was now falling out of is elaborate do and was simply now falling in glossy waves around her head and neck.

Every so often I kiss the back of her head, which of course had her twisting her head around for me kiss to her properly, which we would do for about five minutes before returning our attention to the movie.

Just as Luke was flying off to attack the Death Star, I put it on pause again, so that I could go and get us dessert. After a bit of struggle, which I lost, Mia helped me take the plates out to the kitchen (which was now empty of Lil and her story boards), though I didn't allow her to help with the making of the dessert.

"If I let you do it," I teased, "we'd end up with more on the bench then in the bowls."

"That's Lilly." She shot back, sticking out her tongue.

After giving up trying to make me let her help me with the sundaes, Mia headed back for the den, where I met up with her again, sundaes in hand, a few moments later. I immediately noted a small box sitting on my TV table that hadn't been there before.

I carefully handed her sundae, because she was still wearing her stunning dress, before pointing at the box and saying, "What's this?"

"It's your birthday present." How did I not see that one coming?

I sat down, feeling, I admit quite puzzled because I had no idea what she had gotten me because the box was seriously small.

I picked up the box cautiously. I could hear something small gently rattle around inside of it.

"I told you that you didn't have to get me anything." Seriously being with you is enough, better in fact, than any of the other present I received. Yes, even better than my laptop. I know, shocking right? I must love her.

"I know." She was actually bouncing up and down on the couch beside me. "But I wanted to. And I saw this, and I thought it was perfect." Her mood was infectious, so even though I was still bewildered by what it was that she had actually gotten me, I was excited too,

"Well… thanks." I said slowly as I opened the box and frowned.

I didn't think it was a joke, because seriously that isn't something Mia did, and I knew from experience that all her presents have some kind of meaning behind them. The problem was, her other presents, they were pretty easy to figure out what had made her think to get them for us, this? Not so much.

It was a rock, a tiny rock, no bigger than an ant. Maybe even smaller than an ant, a pinhead. But I had this strong feeling that its significance was much, much larger than either of those things. But what was it? It had a sort of weird shine to it too.

"Huh?" Damn, stupid mouth. "It's… its really nice." Again, stupid.

She laughed and not her nervous or shy laugh either, it was her laugh that she made when she was truly happy about something, which immediately made me try even harder to figure out what the significance of this rock was.

"You don't even know what it is!"

No, I don't. Clue please?

"Well," I said, feeling sheepish and slow, "No, I don't."

"Can't you guess?"

"Well, it looks like… I mean, it closely resembles… a rock." I was so missing something here. Something big. Real big!

"It is a rock." She seemed to find this quite funny. I guess for her this is quite an amusing situation, for once she is the one in control of the situation, her being the one with the knowledge of what is going on.

I eyed the rock more sharply; annoyed it wasn't giving me more clues to its origin, I mean, besides the weird sort of shine to it, because apparently to Mia it was bloody obvious where it was from.

"I don't know. Genovia?" I was giving up and she looked even more amused as she shook her head.

"No, silly." She giggled. "The moon! It's a moon rock!" Say what? "From when Neil Armstrong was up there. He collected a load of them, and then some of them got split up, and Richard Nixon gave my grandmother a bunch of them when he was in office. Well, he gave them to Genovia, technically. And I saw them and thought… well, that you should have one. Because I know you like space stuff. I mean how you've got the glow-in-the-dark constellation on the ceiling over your bed and all…"

Up until this point my brain more or less stopped working, all I could do was stare down at the tiny rock that she had given me, not quite believing what I was seeing. It was only when she mention my room did I come out of my zombie state of mind.

"When were you in my room?" trying to remember when it was the last time that I had invited her into my room. The only time I could think of was after the Cultural Diversity Dance, but that was months before I had put my glow-in-the-dark star constellation up.

"Oh," her face went bright red, "a long time ago." Uh huh, sure. Little liar. But I didn't call her out on it, it wasn't like it actually mattered or anything, so I simply said, "Oh," in response before looking down at my present.

My present that had come from the moon... Oh flipping hell!

"Mia," I said urgently, "I can't accept this."

She looked startled and a little hurt.

"Yes, you can. There are plenty left back in the palace museum, don't worry. Richard Nixon must have really had a thing for Grandmere, because I'm pretty sure we got more moon rocks than Monaco or anybody else." She didn't get it. She didn't understand the actual reason behind my inability to accept this gift.

"Mia." I said, "It's a rock. From the moon."

"Right?" she was looking uncertain and worried now.

I tried again to explain.

"It's a rock that came from two hundred and thirty-eight thousand miles away. Two hundred and thirty-eight thousand miles away from our planet." And you've just given it away as a birthday present to your nobody boyfriend!

"Yes." She was looking almost sick with worry now. Great work, Moscovitz! "Michael, if you don't like it, I can give it back." And risk being caught? You could so tell she didn't get this by legal means, which is another part of the problem of her just giving this precious little rock to me, "I just thought – " she started to reach for it, as if she really was about to take it back.

I immediately jerked my hand and the little box containing the precious little rock with it away from her.

"No way! You're not getting this back." I was going to keep this, no matter what the consequences might be. Heck, there could be none at all. They seriously might not notice one little rock missing from their display… fingers crossed "I just don't know what I'm going to get you for your birthday. This is going to be a hard act to follow?"

"Oh, that." She said and suddenly she was smiling this almost vixenish smile at me. "You can just write me another song."

So she finally got it. Finally, she understood that a 'Tall Drink of Water' was actually about her.

I smiled at her and she beamed even more widely back at me, which of course made me want to kiss her, so after I gently placed the lid back on the box and setting it on the TV table, I quickly gathered her up into my arms and kissed her warmly.

We had to stop shortly though because of the threat of our sundaes melting on us.

We happily ate our sundaes and watched the rest of the movie.

When the credits rolled around and we were clearing up our sundae bowls, Mia suddenly said, "Oh, I thought of a name for your band."

I gave her a pleading look.

"Not," I groaned, "the X-Wing Fighters. I beg you."

"No," she said sounding a tiny bit irritated. "Skinner Box." I looked up from stacking the dishwasher in surprise, because honestly, I would never have thought of that. Not because it isn't a good name, in fact it's a brilliant one.

"Skinner Box." I rolled it over my tongue carefully and immediately liked how it sounded.

"Yeah." Mia said and she was smiling again. "I mean, I figured, since you named your dog Pavlov…"

Exactly, how the heck didn't I think of Skinner Box myself?

"I kind of like it." I said, more than liked, it was the name I wanted to name my band, "I'll see what the guys say."

She was beaming all over again and then we were kissing all over again. I can kind of see a pattern here.

Another pattern I see forming is her disappearing off to the bathroom to go write in that journal of hers.

Not that I actually mind, writing in her journal is her thing, it just, I have enough already to compete with without adding an inanimate object to my list. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to add it anyway.

Anyway, Mia disappeared into our bathroom for about half an hour, to change out her ball gown into a pair of pajamas that she has over here and to brush her teeth because she has a tooth brush here too.

I wasn't overly bothered by her disappearing act to the bathroom, but Lil was and after half an hour, she was banging on the bathroom door, demanding to know if she was bulimic or something.

After a moment where in Mia opened the bathroom door, I heard Lil grumble, all crabby like (Lil really isn't a late night or an early morning person), "Do you mean to say you've been in here for the past half-hour writing in your journal?"

I had thought, at this point, it might be good idea to try and save Mia from Lil. So I ducked out of my room and headed towards them, only for Lil to grumble "And you still haven't figured out what you're good at?" before storming off when Mia shook her head in response. What was all that about? And I asked Mia that when I came to her side, wrapping my arm around her waist.

"Oh," Mia said as she ducked her journal into this beaded bag that she had been wearing with her ball gown that was now draped over her arm, "she's just mad because I haven't figured out what my secret talent is."

"Your what?" I asked curiously.

"My secret talent." She looked embarrassed as she spoke, her cheeks taking on this rosy colour. "It's just that you and Lilly, you're both so talented. You guys are good at so many things, and I'm not good at anything, and I sometimes feel like… well, like I don't belong." My heart restricted a little at her words. "At least not in Gifted and Talented class, anyway." She finished off with this little dejected sigh.

"Mia," I said, tightening my grip around her waist, "You're totally gifted."

"Yeah," she said, with a sarcastic hint to her tone as she fingered the ball gown hanging over her arm. "At looking like a snowdrop."

"No," I said and I couldn't help but laugh, "although now that you mention it, you're pretty good at that, too." She pulled a face up at me and I laughed again, "But I meant writing."

"Huh?" she looked so bewildered. I actually felt rather privileged to be the one to enlighten her about her "secret" talent.

"Well, everyone knows that you like to write. I mean, your head is always buried in that journal. And you always get As on your papers in English. I think it's pretty obvious, Mia, that you're a writer."

She looked so surprise that I was laughing again. I tried to stop but she didn't look hurt or bothered by my laughing. Instead she was simply smiling that wonderful beautiful smile of hers.

"Grandmere isn't going to like that." She giggled as we wandered for my room, where I wanted to show her a new program that I had been working on, it was the modeling of the death of a dwarf star and possibly play her a couple of the songs that I had written for the band. Both of which Mia was pretty enthusiastic about.

"You should enter that," Mia said as she looked over my program of the dying dwarf star, "into the Science Fair in April." She told me with a wide grin.

I looked at her in surprise because honestly I only made the program to get some extra credit in my Multimedia class, but now…

"It would totally win." She informed me brightly.

"It's not quite done yet." I replied and she rolled her eyes at me, muttering something that sounded like "perfectionist, the pair of you."

"What was that?" I asked, swiveling on my computer chair to look at her sitting innocently on my bed.

"Nothing." She smiled cheekily back at me.

I gave her a skeptical look, before making it look like I was turning back around to my computer, lulling her into a sense of safety, before I lunged at her, causing her to scream and scramble to get away from me, only I was too fast, my arms wrapping around her waist and holding her tightly to me as I tickled her without mercy.

"Quit killing my best friend!" we both heard Lil yell from her room. I stopped tickling Mia and she fell in limbless heap on my bed.

"No fair," she grumbled, "you're bigger than me." I just grinned back at her, kissed her nose before getting up again and heading for my computer to show her some of the other stuff I had been working on, while she told me about the ball.

When it came close to one in the morning and Mia was actually starting to drop off to sleep, I forced myself to be responsible and make her go to Lil's room to get some much needed sleep.

"Come on. Up we get." I said as I pulled her gently to her feet with her yawning and picking up her stunning dress again.

"So is that yours to keep or do you have to return it?" I asked her as we walked to Lil's room.

"Um, I think it's mine." She said through a yawn.

"Cool. It really does look good on you."

"I look like a snowdrop." She argued and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah and the pretties snowdrop around." I replied and she smiled sleepily up at me.

"Get to bed." I said and she did so, muttering something about when Lars left earlier this evening she should have had him take her dress back with him, since he was already taking her tiara back, because now she'd have to leave in the morning to take her dress home then come back here to go bowling with Lil, Boris and me.

"Don't worry about it." I reassured her as I gave her a goodnight kiss. "Sleep well. Sweet dreams." She smiled and said you too.

"I love you." Her smile grew a little wider.

"Love you too." I kissed her again and let her go to bed before she fell asleep on her feet, it has happened, before heading back for my own room.

Once in there and I had closed my door, I pulled down a box that I had made in woodwork in my freshman year (so far the only piece of woodwork that I have ever done that actually ended up looking how it was meant to, even if it did end up being way larger than it was meant to be. Spice rack? Forget it.), from where it was half hidden at the top of my book case.

Inside of it were the photos that Lil had given me for my birthday of Mia and me, as well as some other bits and pops that Mia herself had given me over the years.

I carefully placed the box containing my moonstone into it, all the while my brain was trying to think of something of equal value and worth that I could give Mia for her birthday.

You have four months a voice said in my head.

Ah huh, I'm running out of time.

Author's Note: Ok, so here's chapter 11 (Sorry for the cliff-hanger at the end of chapter ten, but... chapter 10 was long enough as it was! And so, was this one! I had to cut it somewhere, lol!), essentially the end of book 4 and this fic, except that I have an extra chapter, that I will be posting up shortly.
Once again, if you don't hear from me for a couple weeks (basically two weeks), don't freak out or anything, I haven't died, I'm just not able to get near a computer with Internet connection where I'm going, though I am working on the no internet problem, but still don't expect any chapter for The Fifth Note of SkinnerBx until at least after Christmas. Beside the fact that it is Christmas and I want a little break from writing (I know, shocking, right?), I am having a little bit of trouble with writing book 5. It's not coming to me as easily as the other previous books have done, so because of that it might take a little bit longer to write than say this one did.
Anyway, I'll update with the extra chapter shortly and I'll wish you all a Merry Christmas now, because I'm leaving tomorrow (Australia's tomorrow that is) and won't be back until either the 23rd or 24th of December.
So not quite bye for now, but with the next chapter it will be.