Note to readers: Once again, I am so sorry it has taken me this long to update. Shortly after I posted my last chapter of Cherished, I became ill for quite a while and I've been recovering. I've also had another story in another fandom that I've been working on. Sometimes crazy stuff happens and life gets in the way, but I assure you I haven't forgotten you. To everybody who has supported this story, I just want to say thank you so much. I appreciate you all. I hope everybody enjoys the chapter.
Chapter 36: Frogs and Stink Bombs
"So did you get them?" Isaac asked his best friend Jimmy on the playground of their school at recess.
"I got them," Jimmy answered, and then he took the box out of his pocket and handed it over to Isaac. Jimmy Hughes was a nine year-old black boy who was a little taller than Isaac and wore glasses, and they'd been best friends – and partners in crime – ever since they started primary school at their private school in Pyrus together at age five.
"Thanks, Jimmy," Isaac said as he smiled down at the box of tiny vials.
"Stink bombs in the palace. That's got to be a first!"
"I really wish your aunt and uncle weren't coming to your house for a visit this afternoon," Isaac complained. "If they weren't, you could come home from school with me and watch the whole thing play out."
"I don't know what I'm going to hate missing the most: the stink bombs, or those frogs you're going to turn loose on everybody. You still have them hidden away, right?"
"Sure do," Isaac said with a smug grin. The day before, he'd snuck a few frogs out of the biology lab and carried them home in his backpack. They'd been hidden away ever since, while Isaac waited for the right time to carry out his latest prank. "They're in a big box in my closet. I left them there before I came to school this morning."
"Like I said, I really hate it that I'm going to miss it."
"Don't worry. I'll record the whole thing on my cell phone so you can see what happens."
"Cool," Jimmy said with a smile, and then the bell rang, signaling that they had to return to class.
And true to his word, later that afternoon after school, Isaac had his cell phone with him and started recording as he snuck into Mia's suite, carrying the large box from his closet. (He'd been able to sneak in due to the fact that the guards stationed outside Mia's suite were in between shifts.) Mia was sitting at her desk, discussing something with Brigitte and Brigitta, and Isaac knew it was the perfect opportunity to unleash his latest dose of mayhem.
As the ladies were talking, Isaac set the box down on the floor, and then he pulled the stink bombs out of his pocket and threw the tiny vials on the floor, one by one.
"Oh!" Mia suddenly cried out as she grabbed her nose. "What is that revolting smell?!"
"I don't know, Your Majesty," said Brigitte as she and Brigitta held their noses, too.
"It's awful!" cried Brigitta.
In the next moment, Isaac opened up the box and turned the frogs loose. He was in the small foyer of Mia's suite, covering his mouth so nobody would hear him cracking up as he recorded the women screaming with his cell phone.
A few seconds after the frogs had started jumping about all over the place, Mia and her lady's maids quickly surmised who was behind the prank.
"Isaac!" Mia yelled the second she looked down on the floor and saw the stink bomb vials, and then Isaac immediately opened the doors to Mia's suite and took off running down the hall. Mia quickly ran after him. Clarisse also happened to be walking down the hall at that moment, and when she saw her son darting out of Mia's suite, she instantly knew something up.
Isaac bumped into his mother then and said, "Excuse me, Mom. I've got to go!"
"Isaac Romero, get your butt back here!" Mia's voice called as she chased him.
That caused Clarisse to put her hands on her hips and say, "Alright, Isaac, what have you done now?"
"I'll tell you what he's done. He's just unleashed a bunch of frogs and stink bombs in my suite!"
"Frogs and stink bombs?" Clarisse said incredulously. "Isaac, why would you unleash frogs and stink bombs in Mia's suite?"
After a couple of moments of silence, Isaac looked up at his mother, shrugged, and said, "Because it's funny?"
Clarisse rolled her eyes, and then she told her son, "Isaac, go to your room. Now."
"But Mom…" he whined.
"Now," Clarisse insisted.
Isaac then let out a sigh and reluctantly turned around and walked to his room.
"My suite smells awful, Grandma," Mia complained.
"Don't worry, dear. Brigitte and Brigitta can simply spray some air freshener."
"I don't think there's enough air freshener in the entire country of Genovia to get rid of that stink!" Mia grumbled.
Clarisse simply shook her head at her son's foolishness, and then she went to find Joseph.
Joseph was hanging out with the boys in the security hub when Clarisse came walking in, and the instant he saw the look on his wife's face, he knew Isaac had been up to no good.
Joseph rose from his seat in that moment and asked, "What's he done now?"
"Today, your son has decided to unleash frogs and stink bombs in Mia's suite."
"Frogs and stink bombs?"
"Frogs and stink bombs."
Joseph let out a long sigh, rolled his eyes, and shook his head. "I'll go and talk to him. Where is he?" he asked.
"I sent him to his room."
"I'm on my way," said Joseph as he started walking out of the security hub. "Frogs and stink bombs," he muttered to himself in disbelief.
A couple of minutes later, Joseph walked into Isaac's room. Isaac was sitting on the side of his bed, and Joseph sat down beside him. Clarisse showed up a few seconds later and stood in front of the bed with her arms folded across her chest.
"Aw, c'mon, guys. Don't give me a hard time about the prank. It was funny!" said Isaac.
"Funny or not, why did you feel it was necessary to drop stink bombs and release a bunch of frogs in Mia's suite?" asked Joseph.
"Mom, Dad, you know how it is. Whenever I play a prank, everybody gets annoyed at me at first, but a few hours later, we crack up over it. Mia may be mad at me now, but in a little while, she'll be laughing."
"That's not the point, Isaac," Clarisse told him.
"Actually, Mom, it is the point. You guys know how down in the dumps Mia's been, especially since Andrew's dad passed away." Andrew had left for England six weeks ago, and two weeks after he left Genovia, his dad died. Since then, his mother had been deemed well enough to leave the hospital, but she still needed round-the-clock care, so he was now living in their family home in Britain and was taking care of her at home. When Andrew's father passed, it had hit him kind of hard even though they were never close, and that in turn had affected Mia, too. "The whole palace knows that Mia and Andrew are a couple now," Isaac continued, "and it's obvious how much she misses him. Mia needs a good laugh right now."
Clarisse and Joseph looked at each other knowingly, and then Clarisse said, "I understand that you had good intentions, but this wasn't the best way to go about the task of cheering Mia up."
"Why not? A good prank never hurt anybody."
"Son, I know that you meant well, but your mother's right. I understand you wanting to cheer Mia up, but what you did was not appropriate. She's the Queen."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Isaac asked innocently.
"Isaac, there's something you have to understand. Mia is the queen of our country. She's our ruler. She works very hard every day to take care of all Genovians, including us. And because she's constantly working so hard to care for us, we must always be careful to show her the proper respect," Clarisse explained.
"And that includes respecting everything that belongs to Mia, like her suite," Joseph added. "It wasn't very nice of you to stink her suite up like that."
"Okay, guys. Okay. I won't prank Mia anymore," Isaac told them. For a while, he then thought to himself.
"Okay," said Clarisse.
"Hey listen, if you want to do something to cheer Mia up, why don't you go out with your mom into her rose garden and you two pick out some roses to give to her? I'm sure that'll make her pretty happy," Joseph suggested.
"Why, yes. That's a lovely idea, Joseph. Come along, Isaac," Clarisse told her son as she held out her hand to him, and then Isaac got up from the bed and took her hand and walked out into the rose garden with her.
When Clarisse and Isaac returned with a bouquet of roses for Mia a little while later, it did in fact go a long way towards improving her mood. She even had a good laugh with Isaac about the prank, although she was not pleased with the way her suite still smelled. She, Brigitte, and Brigitta had sprayed a ton of air freshener, which did help a lot, but there was still a little bit of a lingering stink in the air. Fortunately, Brigitte and Brigitta quickly opened the windows and let out all the frogs, so at least that particular issue had been taken care of.
Later that night, long after everybody had gone to bed, Gracie woke up from a nightmare and walked down the hallway to Mia's suite. At the same time, Mia, who was also having trouble sleeping, decided to get up and go downstairs to the kitchen for a little midnight snack. Just as Mia was about to leave her suite, she overheard one of the guards outside her door trying to stop Gracie from coming inside.
"I want Mia," the little girl's tiny voice said. She was wearing the most adorable lavender silk pajamas, and as always, she had her pink bunny cuddled close to her.
"I'm sorry, Miss Gracie, but Her Majesty is sleeping now. We don't want to disturb her, do we?" asked one of the guards.
"But I'm scared."
Mia immediately walked outside and told the guard, "It's alright. Let her in."
"Yes, Your Majesty," he responded, and then Gracie ran into Mia's suite.
Mia then firmly told both the guards, "Any time that Gracie wants to come in to see me, I want you to let her in. You are not to send her away under any circumstances. Is that clear?"
"Perfectly clear, Your Majesty," said the other guard, and then Mia turned around and went back into her suite to talk to Gracie.
By the time Mia reentered her suite, Gracie had jumped into Mia's bed. "Is someone in the mood for a slumber party tonight?" she teased, and then she got back in bed, too.
"I had a bad dream. I want to sleep with you," the child explained.
"Okay, sweetheart. That's fine. You can stay here tonight if want," Mia said, and Gracie responded with a nod.
After a few moments of silence, Gracie told Mia, "I want to stay here forever."
"You mean here at the palace?" asked Mia, and again, Gracie nodded.
"I don't ever want to go back to the home."
"You mean the children's home?" Mia inquired, and once again, Gracie nodded.
"I want to live here with you and Gamma Risse and Gampa Joe and Isaac and Brigitte and Brigitta forever and ever."
Mia smiled and said, "Oh, honey, we always want you to live here with us. We would never send you back to the children's home unless you decided you wanted to go back there. You can stay right here with us just as long as you want to."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Thanks, Mia."
"Of course." Mia then began tenderly stroking Gracie's hair, and she told her, "Sweetheart, you have no idea how happy it makes all of us to have you here."
Gracie remained silent for several more seconds, and then she said, "I wish I'd had a nice mommy like you. But mine was all mean and scary." It had been a difficult concept for such a small child to grasp, but the social workers did eventually get it across to Gracie that her birth mother was gone and she'd never see her again.
Mia thought about it carefully for a minute, and then she cautiously said, "You know, Gracie, I can't do anything to change the way your first mommy was, and I'm so sorry that I can't. But I can be your mommy now, if you'd like for me to."
A very long moment passed, and then eventually, little Gracie nodded. Mia nearly cried tears of joy when she did, and she pulled Gracie into her arms, kissed her cheek, and gave her the biggest, longest hug.
"You really want me to be your daughter, don't you?" the child observed, and Mia tearfully nodded.
"More than anything, Gracie. More than anything," Mia replied, and Gracie smiled. "You'll never know how happy you've just made me."
"I was never able to make my first mommy happy the way you are now," Gracie said seriously.
"That was her fault, Gracie. She was the one with the problem, not you. Don't you ever blame yourself for that, okay?"
"Okay."
"I can't wait to tell Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow."
"Will they be happy too?"
"Of course they will be. They'll be so happy to hear you're joining our family that they won't even know what to do with themselves."
"Will Andrew be happy?"
"He sure will be."
"Is he your boyfriend?"
Mia giggled a bit at the child's question, and then she answered, "Yes, he's my boyfriend."
"Are you two going to get married someday?"
Again, Mia laughed, and she told Gracie, "We might, but it's really too early to talk about marriage. He's only been my boyfriend for six weeks."
"I hope you guys get married. I want Andrew to be my daddy one day," Gracie declared. It was no secret that she positively adored Andrew and vice versa.
"Well, first things first. Right now, I just want to think about doing all the things I need to do so that I can adopt you and officially become your mommy."
"What do you have to do?"
"I have to call the social workers at the children's home and let them know, and then I'll have to meet with them and sign some papers. And I'll also have to tell the press."
"You mean all those nosey people with cameras and microphones?"
Mia laughed once more, and she said, "I couldn't have put it better myself. Yes. I have to tell all those nosey people with cameras and microphones. It's kind of a big deal to the rest of the country since I'm the Queen."
Gracie got lost in thought for a minute, and then she asked, "It would make everybody sad if I didn't become a princess, wouldn't it?"
"Oh, sweetheart, nobody's going to be upset with you if you decide you don't want your title. We all understand how scary something like that can be, especially for a girl as little as you are."
"But you would all be sad if I wasn't the Princess, right?" Gracie persisted. Her tumultuous past had given her a profound sense of wisdom, and even though she was only five years-old, she could read people pretty well. And she had indeed sensed it from everyone that they would be disappointed if she decided one day to refuse her title.
"Gracie, you don't have to worry about that right now. One day, when you're old enough, you can decide for yourself whether or not you want to officially accept or reject your royal title. More than anything, we'll all just be so happy to have you in our family. That's all we really care about now. We can worry about the rest later."
"Is it true what everybody says, about how you'll need a princess to take your place one day?"
"It is true that there will come a time when I'll be too old to rule Genovia myself. And when that happens, yes, I will need a princess or a prince to take over for me. But Gracie, I am not adopting you just because I'll need someone to rule Genovia for me one day. I'm adopting you because I love you and I want you to be my little girl more than anything in this world."
Gracie smiled and said, "I know. But I don't want a bad person to be in charge of Genovia after you get old. I've heard what everybody says about Nicholas Deverat."
Mia laughed out loud. "That's a little nickname we've come up with for him over the years, but it isn't very nice."
"Is he really a mean rat, though?"
"To be perfectly honest, yes, he's quite a rat."
"And he'll rule after you abicate, right?"
"Abdicate," Mia corrected her with a smile. "I really don't think that Nicholas would be the one to take over the throne. I think that by then, one of his kids would be the one to rule."
"But we don't know if his kids would be good people or not. They might be mean, and if one of them took your place, it would hurt Genovia," the child accurately concluded.
"That is true. But my retiring from the throne is a long way off, sweetheart. Like I told you, we don't have to worry about this right now. I'm going to be taking care of Genovia for a very long time to come."
"Will you adopt other kids after me?"
"That may happen. I may want to adopt again in a couple of years or so. That is, if you have no objection."
"I have no objection," said Gracie, trying to sound so much like a grown-up, which really made Mia smile once again at how cute and adorable she was being. "But if you don't adopt again, and if I don't become the Princess, Genovia might really be in trouble."
To say the least, Mia was really moved by the remarkable wisdom Gracie was showing, as well as her concern for others before herself. In some ways, it was almost like having a conversation with a tiny adult. The terrible way her mother had treated her had really caused her to grow up far before her time in a lot of ways.
"Genovia's going to be fine, Gracie," Mia assured her. "You don't have to worry about this right now, honey. You really don't. The only thing you have to do is go to school, learn, and just be a kid. Your biggest responsibility now is to grow from a child into an adult, and you don't have to do that all at once."
"I know. But I don't want Genovia to have a mean ruler after you abicate."
Mia stifled a laugh and again said, "Abdicate."
"Abdicate."
Mia gently pushed a couple of red curly locks of hair behind Gracie's ear and told her, "You are a very sweet little girl to be so concerned about your country like this, and I am so proud of you. But this is not something you have to worry about. We're going to figure all this out in time. I promise you."
"Do you think I can ever be as good a queen as you?"
"Oh, sweetie, if you became Queen someday, you'd be better than me. You've only been around for five years, but in such a short time, you have already become the most amazing person I've ever met."
The child's face lit up like a Christmas tree then as she asked, "Really?"
"Absolutely."
"I'm still scared of being a princess, but I'll do it if you guys need me to. I don't want Genovia to have a mean ruler after you abdicate."
Mia gave Gracie the biggest hug, and then she said, "You have no idea how proud I am of you. You are so amazing. Do you hear me, Gracie? You are amazing. One day when you're a little older, if you still want to become the future Queen, Grandma Clarisse and I can give you princess lessons. Grandma gave me princess lessons when I was a kid, and she and I can teach you how to be a princess, too."
"Cool," said Gracie, and Mia smiled once more.
"But I meant what I've told you tonight. I don't want you to worry about Genovia right now. I just want you to be a kid. Alright?"
"Alright," Gracie agreed, and then she yawned.
"I think it's time we both tried to go back to sleep now," Mia told her.
"Okay. Goodnight, Mia."
"Goodnight, baby. I love you."
"I love you, too," Gracie said sweetly, and after planting a big goodnight kiss on her cheek, Mia turned out the lights.
When everybody in the palace heard about Gracie's decision the next day, there were shouts of jubilation amongst the staff. Joseph and Clarisse were so thrilled that they actually gave each other a big kiss in front of everybody, which of course didn't happen too often. And when Mia called Andrew on the phone and told him about it, he, too, let out an excited whoop.
People were happier, still, when Mia told them how she'd changed her mind about becoming a princess. When Mia told Clarisse about the conversation they had the previous night, she was deeply moved by the child's sense of duty. Mia's lawyers had already succeeded in cutting through all the red tape months before, and the only thing that was required for Gracie to legally become Mia's daughter was for Mia to sign the paperwork. And because Parliament had already passed a motion which changed the law to allow an adopted child to inherit the throne, Mia knew that Gracie would officially become not only her legal daughter, but also the Princess of Genovia, as soon as she signed the papers. Obviously, the option was open for Gracie to one day reject her royal title if she chose, just as a biological prince or princess could, and Mia continued to make it clear to Gracie that she didn't have to make any big decisions about her future right away. Like Clarisse, Mia also deeply admired the remarkable sense of duty she had for someone so young, but she didn't want her to have to decide now whether to be the future Queen or not. As she told Gracie, she simply wanted her to enjoy being a kid and focus on growing up first and worry about being a princess later. Should Gracie decide later on that she was still interested in being the future Queen, Mia knew that she and Clarisse could teach her what she needed to know, and Gracie could then start making public appearances and begin taking on a more active role as Princess of Genovia. But even though Mia remained cautious about it, she had a strong gut feeling that Gracie would go on to be both a remarkable Princess and Queen of Genovia someday. Every time she looked at Gracie, she could just feel it inside that Genovia was indeed going to be in very good hands.
That Friday afternoon, Mia signed all the paperwork in her office, and Miss Grace Katherine Winters officially became Her Royal Highness Grace Katherine Renaldi, Princess of Genovia. The entire country of Genovia celebrated their new Princess that day, although no one celebrated more than the Queen, herself. A lot of pressure was put on Mia to give a royal ball at the palace to celebrate the event, but she refused because she knew the press was particularly anxious to put the little Princess in the national spotlight, and Gracie simply wasn't ready for that yet. There was a party at the palace that day to celebrate the adoption, but it was mostly confined to family friends and their kids, which was far more appropriate for Gracie. Lilly and Kip were there, and Mia's old friend Princess Asana even made an appearance, as well as her husband and little girl. Unfortunately, Mia's mother, stepfather, and little brother hadn't been able to come, nor had Andrew, but she did speak to all of them over the telephone, and they were all with Mia and Gracie in spirit.
Over the next two weeks, Mia cut down on her schedule as much as she could in order to spend some quality time with her new daughter. They spent a lot of time swimming, and whenever Gracie wasn't in the pool or playing outside in the warm June weather, she and Mia played games and played with dolls inside. It was, quite simply, the happiest Mia had ever been in all her life. There had been a bump or two in the road during the two weeks in which she'd taken a mini-vacation from her work. Gracie and Isaac had had a couple of spats which Mia, Clarisse, and Joseph had had to settle, but other than that, it was practically paradise.
However, there had been one important element missing from the equation: Andrew. It had now been over two months since they'd last seen each other, and even though she was overjoyed from the adoption, she still missed him terribly and vice versa. Therefore, she decided to do something about it. The Renaldis had a summer home in England that was actually in a town near Andrew's family home. What made it so difficult for Mia to go to England for a brief visit with Andrew was her unbelievably demanding schedule as Queen for one thing, and the impossible news media for another. That weekend, though, Mia was finally able to clear some time out of her schedule. And thanks to the Renaldis' various connections with people in pretty high places in the press, Mia was actually able to arrange a brief media "blackout," so to speak, in which she was able to "sneak" out of Genovia for the weekend without the press making a ruckus. It was reported that the Queen would be gone from the palace that Saturday and Sunday, but the press said that she was staying in their family's beach house in Mertz, not in her family's summer home in England.
It was around eleven o'clock that Saturday morning when Mary, the maid who had been with the Hurst family for ages, knocked on the door of Andrew's room. Andrew had spent the morning feeding and caring for his mother, and she was now asleep in her room, so he was taking the time to get some paperwork done. He was sitting at his desk when he first heard the knock.
"Come in," he called.
"Sir, you should come out to the back garden," the short, plump, gray-haired lady told him.
"Why? What's going on?" asked Andrew.
"A surprise, sir," answered Mary.
"A surprise?"
"Yes."
"Good or bad?"
"Good, sir," Mary told him with a great big smile. "Very, very good."
Andrew chuckled a bit, then set down the pen he'd been holding in his hand and got up and went downstairs. When he went out the back door and into the garden a few moments later, he looked around for a second or two, but he didn't see anything unusual. Their garden was absolutely gorgeous, overflowing with a rainbow of flowers and beautiful green trees, and it was indeed a lovely sight, but Andrew didn't see anything there to be surprised about.
But then all of the sudden, Mia jumped out from behind the huge oak tree in the center of the garden, and Andrew's heart stopped.
"Mia!" he gasped, and then she ran into his arms and kissed him for the longest time. "Mia, what are you doing here? How did you manage to get here without making a big splash in the press?"
"Let's just say that it pays to be royal. The Renaldis have a lot of old friends in high places in the media. I pulled some strings. Reporters back in Genovia are saying that I went to our beach house in Mertz for the weekend."
"Oh, Mia, you don't know how happy I am to see you," Andrew said lovingly. "You have no idea how much I've missed you." In the next moment, he planted a big kiss on her lips. Then they simply stayed in each other's arms and stared into each other's eyes for the longest time.
"Oh yes I do know, too. I've missed you just as much."
"Are you going to be here the whole weekend?"
Mia nodded and replied, "Uh huh. I'm staying in our family's summer home."
"You did bring some guards with you, didn't you?"
"I thought you could guard me," Mia teased, and Andrew laughed.
"I'd be happy to," he said seriously, and then the couple kissed a third time.
"All kidding aside, though, yes, Lionel and a few other guards came with me. They're hanging out in your lounge right now. Mary said it was alright."
"Oh yes, of course it's alright. Nothing's more important than protecting the Queen."
"I do feel a little bad that I basically lied to the entire country of Genovia, but I am so happy I'm here."
"I'm even happier than you are. And yes, I know it's not right to lie, but you do have the right to a little privacy every now and then, you know. You may be the Queen, but it's not always everybody's business where you go and why."
"That's true," Mia agreed.
"So how's Genovia's new Princess?"
"As sweet and adorable as ever. And even though I've only been away from her for a little while now, I already miss her so much."
"I know the feeling. I've missed her like crazy these past two months. I can't wait to see her again. But, we can both relax because Princess Gracie is in the best possible hands with her Grandma Clarisse and her Grandpa Joseph. And, you and I are together now for an entire weekend, and we are going to enjoy every single second together. We are going to make every moment count."
"You got that right," Mia agreed, and once again, they shared a long, loving kiss.