Disclaimer: "The Princess Diaries" belongs to The Walt Disney Company and Meg Cabot.

Mia was in bed. All alone.

Now that she was Princess of Genovia, the time she had all to herself was much, much lower. She was always in the public eye, always being watched, watched by Clarisse, watched by Joe, watched by the palace servants, watched by photographers, watched by everyone.

Except when she was in her bedroom. With the drapes closed, the door closed and the lights out.

It was a time she cherished.

It was the first day of April.

She had never pulled an April Fool's Day joke on anyone. However, during her high school days in San Francisco, she had been the victim of more pranks than she could remember. And not just on April 1st.

I should have kept track of all those jokes. I might have won a Guinness World Record.

Now it would be her turn.

But what would she do? And when?

Certainly she could not pull a prank while she was out in public. The ensuing scandal would make the attention on her increase a hundredfold, at least. She did not want that, even if it would make newspapers and magazines sell record numbers of copies.

Whatever she did, she would have to do at the palace. But she was always watched so closely, there was no way she could pull off anything even close to a prank. Clarisse noticed everything, even things no one else could see or hear, not even Mia.

Right here. Right now.

She climbed out of bed, and began rummaging through drawers. All the items appeared useless. Assorted books. Pens and pencils, both black and colored. A pair of oval sunglasses. Earbuds. A whole bunch of crossword puzzles. It appeared to be an exercise in futility.

Over to the TV screen. There was a cabinet underneath the screen. Maybe that had something.

There was various CDs of classical music, documentaries of other royal families, a few Bill Nye videos she had brought from San Francisco, twelve educational LaserDiscs, and a VHS cassette of a NOVA episode.

Perfect.

Not only that, but there was also a two extra speakers and some wiring.

Even better.

She looked at the clock. It was 5:00 AM.

Too early.

So she waited until 5:45 AM. Then she got to work. Time to give everyone else a wakeup call they would never forget.

She hooked up the two speakers to the TV screen, and cranked both dials as high as they went.

Then she turned on the TV. She put one finger on the power button and another on the button to decrease volume. It worked. The station she had last left the TV on was currently transmitting a silent black screen. She was one lucky girl.

Next step-setting the TV to VCR mode.

Finally, she inserted the NOVA videocassette and it automatically started playing.

She plugged both her ears with her fingers. Tightly. Even wrapping the lower skin flap of her ear around the ear opening. It was what she did when she went to a chemistry demonstration at the California Academy Of Sciences and they blew up a hydrogen balloon.

Her elbows and upper arms were pressed against her chest. She could hear her heart beating.

She watched the screen closely. Why was this taking so long? Why does time always slow down whenever you're waiting for something?

The black screen suddenly turned bright orange, and Mia could now hear and feel the unnatural blast of MOOG Synthesizer music, which became silent when the screen displayed the words "Boston presents".

Now the music changed to soothing strings. Mia's heart was now racing. So were her grandmother's footsteps.

Mia rushed to turn everything off, and her finger reached the VCR's Eject button at the same moment Clarisse flung the door open and screeched, "Princesses DON'T wake up the whole palace with...with whatever THAT noise was!"

"This princess just did," Mia replied. "April Fool's!"

The End. I welcome any and all reviews with open arms.

If you want to see the WGBH Boston logo for yourself, look it up on YouTube.