Disclaimer – only because some people find it necessary. I don't own The Princess Diaries and I don't own It's a Wonderful Life. The movie, that is. I disclaim.
A/N – thanks for being great people and reviewing… I'm going to try not to let you guys down… and while I am technically not part of the Save the Trees movement, I did throw rocks at the guys who cut down the trees interfering with the telephone wires. Not heavy ones though. Big enough that they got the message that I didn't like what they were doing.
And in case you didn't notice, the whole Genovia ceasing to exist thing was taken from the movie.
Previously in It's a Wonderful Life…
"What about Tina and Lilly? What about Kenny? Michael. What happened to Michael?" I looked Clarence in the eye, but he just turned away, shaking his head. "Mia…" he began, then faltered. I was beginning to like this less and less. I figured if he didn't want to tell me, it wasn't going to be good. So I conceded and said, "Alright, show me Tina and Lilly then. Where are they? In school?" Clarence replied, "Yes… and no."
Again the world around us started fading, then coming back into focus, and I found myself outside the cafeteria of Albert Einstein High School. I looked back at Clarence, but he wasn't there. I took a deep breath, then went into the cafeteria. Almost immediately I spotted Tina. She was sitting by herself, eating her lunch, and reading another romance novel. When I say sitting by herself, well, that means she had no friends. There was only Wahim.
This was the Tina I knew of before I ever sat down to eat lunch with her, back when Lilly and I had a fight. Except this Tina looked considerably more depressed. I was about to go over and talk to her when someone brushed past me, causing me to almost lose my balance. "Watch where you're going, freak!" Oh, my God, who else could that be but Lana! I followed her indiscreetly to where Tina was sitting. Lana opened her big, fat mouth and said, "Tina, you know, the sign says that it's against the law for there to be more than 500 people in here at one time. I think we both know that you shouldn't really be allowed to occupy the space of two people. It really isn't fair."
I saw Wahim open his mouth, but I was seeing red by this time. I figured, hey, if I don't exist, then I can tell off Lana and not receive a downgrade on the social scale. And plus, it would make Tina-without-Mia a bit happier. So, I went up and tapped Lana on the shoulder, "Hey. You're going to apologize." In the most menacing voice I could muster. (A/N: woot woot alliteration!) Lana gave me this little giggle, and said, "And you are…?" I was totally ready for this. "Your worst nightmare," I said. Lana just stared, Tina just stared, the whole cafeteria just stared, until Lana started laughing hysterically. She was laughing so hard, tears were running down her fake-tanned cheeks. And I decided to relive my two most triumphant moments ever. I grabbed Tina's Nutty Royale, coned Lana, and while she was screaming at me, I grabbed her stupid pink cell phone and crushed it with my heel. As I did that, Lana had tears all right, but they were not because she was happy. Oh, no. She was absolutely furious. And then I heard applause. I received a standing ovation from the entire cafeteria, except from Lana and her minions, of course. And Tina was staring at me with a mixture of awe, gratitude, and "who the hell are you". I was about to leave it at that, except I forgot one more thing.
I grabbed Lana by the collar and told her once more to apologize. She stammered out an apology and then fled, into the girls' bathroom no doubt, followed by her friends. Tina in the meantime, became the Tina I knew now. I guess without me, being the resident freak of AEHS, Tina got it doubly hard from Lana. And of course, Lana was still Lana. Anyway, she showed me her new book, and started on about the heroine. I stayed for a little while. I needed a little bit of my life back, and this was one way to get it. The bell rang, and Tina had to get to class, but she wanted to know if I wanted to sit with her at lunch tomorrow. Of course, I said yes, even though I was sort of hoping that Clarence (where was he, anyway?) would give me back my life by the end of the day. Perhaps even before that would be nice.
So, while Tina went off to French class, I decided to go look around for Lilly and Michael. I was nearing the room where I usually would have G&T, when I heard Clarence say, "You know, you were right." I spun around so fast, I think I almost broke my neck! "What was I right about? Where were you? " I said. He replied, "I was here the whole time. Don't you think it's a bit weird to see an angel when you're in school?" I nodded my head in understanding. If I was in school and saw someone like him, I would have thought he was a desperate paparazzo. And then would have Lars knock him out. I opened my mouth to ask what I was right about, when he held up a hand. "You were right about Tina. She is having a hard time of it, double in fact, because you don't exist. She's more depressed than she could have ever been, and the fact that she has Wahim to follow her around doesn't help very much." I opened and closed my mouth several times. I must have seemed like a fish or something. "Oh. Right. Well, I'm going to find Michael and Lilly. So I don't know if you want to disappear again, because…" I trailed off there. Clarence said, "I'll disappear, but not because you're going to find Michael and Lilly. Kenny's coming. He wants to talk to you." And with that, he went and vanished.
Kenny? Oh, my God. I couldn't. I could NOT talk to Kenny Showalter, anime freak. That's when I heard a sound that could only mean that Kenny was running down the hall, down to talk to me. "Hey! Hey! Wait up one sec? Can I talk to you?" I took a deep breath and turned around. Kenny was definitely still Kenny. Except more pale, more gawky, and more, well, clumsy. "Um, hi," I said, very enthusiastic, you could so tell. Kenny stopped when he neared me and leaned against the wall while catching his breath. Yeah, he was also out of shape. Definitely not the kind of guy you would expect to be in army fatigues for Halloween. "Hi! gasp My name's Kenny! What's yours?" he asked. So I told him my name, and then he proceeded to tell me how he really admired my standing up to Lana in the cafeteria. How he thought it was very Josie from Josie and the Pussycats of me to do that. How he thought we should get to know each other better, hang out more.
I knew where this was going. I really could not back out of it again. This was Kenny for sure, but except a bit more pathetic. And besides, I wanted, no, more like needed to find Lilly and Michael. I needed to see Lilly and Michael. Especially Michael. He had to be here somewhere.
So I told Kenny to eat lunch with me and Tina tomorrow, even though I was hoping once again that wouldn't have to be the case. His entire face lit up and he ran off, but not before giving me his screen name: JoC4princess.
Very, very scary.
Clarence showed up after Kenny left. "Remember when I answered 'yes and no' to the question you had about Tina and Lilly still being in school?"
All of a sudden it hit me, like a Mack truck. Tina, yes. Lilly, no. Whoa.
A/N: ooo it's a cliffie!! ok ok before you get mad, its not a real cliffie. In other words, there is more.. It's all happening in the next update. However, the next update is on hiatus for about 2 ½ weeks, due to the fact that I'M GOING TO ENGLAND AND IRELAND YAY! for two weeks. I'm leaving on the first of July, with a fair amount of people from my school (school trip), and I swear to you, kind reviewers and readers, that I will be writing on the plane trip there, the times when I'm not being a tacky tourist, and the plane trip back. I know I'm not being very kind about this, and I'm extremely, extremely sorry, and I'm also sorry for not updating quickly-er, but I was packing, and my mom was ready to go psycho on me for not packing "the right way". Anyway, I'm sorry again, I hope you guys can forgive me, and um, read some more TPD fanfiction. It's healthy. Really, it is.