I ALWAYS forget to say thank you to everyone who reviews! I don't know when I will get to review again because I have a friend coming up tomorrow so I am going to post two long parts. Hope you enjoy and respond!

MIA:
I got out of princess lessons a little early today so I went home and got some homework done before I met Michael. I didn't really have all that much but there was an English essay. I got to his apartment at 7:45.
"So?" I asked him.
"Come to my room," he said, taking my hand. "I don't want Lilly to see this."
I went with him, what other choice did I have? When we got into the room he bolted the door shut. "Should I have brought Lars with me?" I teased.
"What I am about to do you can never tell anyone about."
"Okay."
"Are you taking dance lessons with Grandmere?"
"Yeah but it's so awkward to dance with a sixty five year old lady."
"And you normally don't do that anyways. You would dance with a guy, right?"
"Duh, I would hope so!" I responded, plopping down on his bed.
He took my hand. "Do not tell a single soul about this, got it?"
He put on some slow music. Who knew he was a sucker for love ballads?

"Michael, what is going on?" I asked nervously.
"I took dance lessons when I was thirteen. Mom and Dad made me. I'm going to help you out a little bit."
He held me close, and for some reason it didn't feel weird. I mean, sure, Kenny Showalter is my friend, but if he ever held me this close I think I'd flip out. This gave me the opportunity to take in the nice aroma of Michael's skin.
"Thermopolis?"
"Yeah?" I asked, staring at him. Had he noticed the smelling?
"Can you stop stepping on my feet?"
Our eyes locked for a minute and then I laughed to get myself out of it. "Oops, sorry. My feet are abnormally big-"
"Stop with the excuses and concentrate."
He was surly bossy. But not in the bad way. Like, Josh for example, always tells Lana how she should dress and wear her hair. Michael told me what to do only when he had to. What the hell am I talking about?

MICHAEL:
I couldn't believe what I was doing. Why was I suddenly interested in being friends with Mia Thermopolis? This is a question that plagued me the whole time that I waited for her to show up at eight o'clock. She came a little early though.
While I was showing her how to dance I couldn't help but take in the smell of her hair. The sweet scent of strawberries filled my nasal cavity. I was so wrapped up in taking in her scent that I barely noticed her stepping on my feet.
She put her head on my shoulder once we got into the swing of things. I felt so comfortable with her. In one short week I found the person I could share so much with. I mean, sure, Denis and Felix and all of my other friends I could talk to about just about everything. But Mia was different. I could get her input about girls; what they do and do not like. I mean, I know the basic things, but not the type of things that would make a girl overlook the guys like Josh Richter.
I just hope I don't do anything stupid like fall for her.
At the end of the lesson that night I offered to take her OUT dancing, as friends of course. Cause that is what we are.
"Like old people dancing?" she asked.
"No, like at a club or something."
"SO you can show off your moves and pick up chicks?" she said with a smile.
"No, actually to publicly embarrass you."
She rolled her eyes. "I think I can do that very well on my own."
"Come on though. It'd be fun. And then you could stay here with Lilly that night."
"Okay. It might be fun."
So that was why we were at Club Vito, an underage club for teens. I have NEVER felt more out of place in my entire life but a band I really liked was playing there that night and I needed something to do. Besides, Mia really wanted to go. She really warmed up to the idea.

MIA:
Michael picked me up to go to the club that night at nine o'clock. "Remember to call me when you get back to Lilly's!" Mom yelled to the door as I left. Yeah, like she'd remember I had to call.
Once we walked into the club Michael took my hand in his, protectively. He was just like a big brother. "Did I tell you that you look nice tonight?" he asked me.
I felt weird in what I was wearing. Grandmere picked it out for me when she heard I was going dancing at a club. She had consulted her designers who told her they would have a top ready for me by Friday afternoon. It was kind of a toga inspired top a la Jessica Simpson. I told her I didn't want to bare too much skin, and for once she agreed to my requests.
"I feel really out of place," I admitted after he bought me a coke.
"I know what you mean. But once the band starts playing we can dance and ignore everyone else."
I didn't point out that there was music already playing. Music that I happened to like. But he didn't. He was very strict in his musical tastes for some reason. "Oh no!" I gasped.
"What?" he asked.
"Lana Weinberger is over there and she caught sight of me!"
He looked over at her. "So?"
"So she's probably saying how stupid I look and that I should stop trying to look like her and her friends."
"You aren't though," he said simply. "Who would want to look like that? Buying the knock off versions off of Canal Street of what you can get with one phone call? Mia, she's nothing."
Our hands rested on the counter together. His hand on mine. "Michael, I only wish I had your confidence."
"You should. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. Lana is just jealous that you have the looks, style, social capacity of her, plus intelligence."
How did this guy NOT have a girlfriend? He always knew what to say to make a girl feel better.
Lana walked over to us. "Hey there Mia. Out on a Friday night? Wow, big step for you I suppose," she said icily. Then she looked at Michael. "Wow, I never knew Club Vito had a freak outreach program. If I had known I would have never come tonight. What, Mia, did you make that shirt all by yourself on a previous Friday night spent all alone?"
"Lana, have you ever heard of the designer, Sebastino?" Michael asked.
"Uh, no."
"Of course you wouldn't. He's a very high fashion designer. Mostly does things for big stars like Britney Spears. Mia is close personal friends with him and this is a one of a kind top designed by him. So why don't you go scamper off to your little boyfriend over there, who is by the way starting to dance with that scantily clad brunette," Michael said coolly.
Her mouth dropped. She didn't even know who Sebastino was but she was mad that I did. Before even considering her boyfriend with someone else she says, "You do NOT know Sebastino."
"Of course she does. His number is on her cell phone. If she wanted a dress right now to change into he'd be right by to give her an original."
"B-But how?"
"Oh oh Lana. Josh is starting to make out with the girl," Michael replied. Lana turned around quickly and ran off.
I sat there with my mouth still open, still prepared to blubber something stupid to Lana in regards to her first comment. Michael had handled that without any nerves. "How the heck did you do that?"
"Mia, you have to read people. Lana wants things that other people say are cool. I knew she'd lay off once she heard that the guy who designs Britney's clothes was your personal designer."
"But he's not."
"She doesn't know that."
"You are the best, Michael."
"That's what all the girls tell me."

MICHAEL:
Euro-Trash got up on the stage. I jumped off of my stool and grabbed Mia's hand. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"We are going to dance," I replied simply.
"I-I don't know, Michael," she said nervously. I pretended I didn't hear her arguments. She had to get over her fear of being in the public. I waved to Lars who was keeping his eyes on us.
"Mia, you'll love this band. They're awesome!"
Euro-Trash was awesome because they didn't play just one kind of music. They kind of spread their musical interest all over the charts. They did some new age stuff, some pop, some rock a little bit of everything. They were kind of Mia in a musical sense. I knew she liked pretty much everything so I knew she'd like these guys.
By the look on her face I could tell she did. She started getting comfortable with the crowds, which made us have to dance closer together. I hadn't danced like this with a girl before. Usually when I went to these things I left before the crowd became a dancing orgy. Before people just started rubbing up against one another that is. But we stayed until Euro- Trash was done for the night.
The only downer for that night was when a guy tried taking Mia away to dance with him. She shook her head no, "I'm with him!" I could get used to girls saying that. But I was surprised nonetheless because this guy was a Josh Richter look alike.
"Michael, thank you soooo much for bringing me here! I would have never come here if it hadn't been for you!" she exclaimed when we left for the night.
"It was my pleasure, T."
Lars didn't look very happy. I looked at my watch and realized why. It was quarter to three in the morning. He came up to us. "I spent all night trying to figure out where you two were. You cannot do that anymore, if something happened I would have never known."
Okay, so he wasn't pissed about the time. "Sorry Lars. Can you back off?" Mia asked nervously. She didn't want people to see that she had a bodyguard like her friend Tina.
"Okay Princess."
"Lars, no one knows," she hissed. "Shut up!"
"Sorry Princess."
She rolled her eyes and pulled me by my wrist far from him.
"You okay?" I asked her.
"I am a freak. A freak who can't even go dancing with a guy without having someone tell her she did something wrong. I just want to be normal and be able to go out and have fun like everyone else. Like Lana-"
"You don't seriously want to be like Lana?" I said.
"Well, no, but still. She doesn't have a three hundred pound guy always walking thirty feet behind her at all times."
I put my arm around her. Physical contact was no longer an issue after how close we were that night. Sweat was pouring off of the two of us. "I had fun tonight Thermoplis."
"Me too Michael. I don't think Lilly would have ever done that with me."
"I hope you guys don't dance like that together."
"Two girls dancing like that? Don't guys normally like that?"

I smiled, "Yeah, but when one of them is my little sister."
I was still a little embarrassed. I was worried that she thought I was strange. That she didn't like me touching her like that. But at that moment I didn't care. I just wanted my arm around her. I didn't want to lose that closeness we had shared for hours and hours. Maybe we could come here every Friday night- wait, what the hell was I talking about?