Hello everybody. Thanks for the many nice reviews. So here's a new chapter for you all. Hope you will like it.
DISCLAIMER: PDs are not mine, consequently the characters are not either. They all belong to the great Meg Cabot.
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I ran to the phone and picked it up excitedly. "Hi", I said.
I could hear someone asking "Amelia, is that you?" and that certainly wasn't Michael's voice! Oh no, that totally sounded like Grandmère's voice. My luck!
Me: Yes, Grandmère, it's me.
Grandmère: Haven't I taught you already that you should never answer to the phone yourself?
Me: Right, but I was expecting a call from Lilly (What a lie! She couldn't check though). Plus I remind you that we don't have any maids around here. No hotel receptionists either.
GM: Even so. You should have let your mother or her husband answer for you. And if you insist on answering yourself, you should at least state who you are in a princessy way. Something like: Princesse Amelia Mignonette Thermopoils Renaldo à l'appareil, que puis-je pour vous?
Me: I beg your pardon Grandmère… But there is very little chance that people who call home would understand French.
GM: Well, then say the same thing in English!
Me: Uh, uh. So Grandmère, puis-je m'enquérir de la raison pour laquelle vous me faîtes l'honneur immense de me contacter par téléphone? (In short: why the hell are you calling me?)
GM: Merveilleux Amelia, I can see you're improving a lot (Didn't she understand I was so totally making fun of her?) But back to our, how should I say it, little problem.
Me: What little problem?
GM: You'll know soon enough. I'm waiting for you in the limo so hurry up and get your butt downstairs.
Me: Grandmère, I thought we were expected to be polite! I mean you too are royalty!
GM: Don't discuss young lady. I'm in no mood for this kind of childishness. We are in a hurry. Oh and please dress correctly, you have to look perfect. You always have to look perfect since you can't know beforehand when the press is going to show up.
Oh great! Another of those extremely boring galas! Let me guess René will be there as well and Grandmère will one more time try to set us up. I can't believe it! Oh and the best of it all is that if Michael ever figures out what my poem is about and calls me, I won't even be home…
GM: Oh and Amelia, I'd like to speak to your mother.
Of course mom didn't want to speak to Grandmère so I had to pretend like mom was extremely busy at the moment.
GM: Well, it is extremely urgent (Yeah sure, I believe that! Like last time she called for an emergency was not only because she'd forgot to tell me she'd booked me a French manicure appointment). Tell her that I'll come up if she refuses to speak to me over the phone.
After what mom did not pretend to be so busy anymore…
So I went to my room, changed as quickly as possible and ran downstairs… but not before I noticed that mom was all strange and crying! Gosh, I wonder what Grandmère has been saying this time! With the pregnancy mom is over-sensitive these days. I stopped quickly to kiss her and tell her that I was sorry (for the Grandmère part, I mean), but that just made her cry even more and I didn't have the time to try to comfort her. Cause Grandmère would have killed me…
Anyhow we were not going to any gala! No, we were going to the hospital! And why did we go there? Because Grandmère is a crazy person who is both very sick and very evil and who has dedicated her whole life to ruining mine! I swear I'm not going anymore to princess lessons. Nor am I speaking to Grandmère anymore. I'm gonna tell dad, it's that or I quit being a princess (So what? Maybe I can't quit but I'm still going to do it!).
First thing I did, when Grandmère told me we were heading for the hospital, was to ask if something had happened to dad. I was really worried! But of course nothing had happened to him. We were going to meet a practitioner, she said, for my own good! That's when I started thinking that she might have booked me an appointment for breast surgery. I was not going to show my breasts to anybody! Ok, so I actually have almost nothing there but I still wouldn't feel comfortable. Plus I was sure you could not do breast surgery on a 14 years-old girl!
But it turned out that Grandmère is even sicker than I thought! Yep, I can't see any other explanation to her disgusting behaviour! I have never been so humiliated in my whole life! And I have already been through a lot, which is to say… No, the reason Grandmère brought me to hospital was that she wanted a gynaecologist to examine me. I was literally forced to undress and let myself examined! And why?
Because Grandmère wanted to check I was not pregnant! Yes, you heard it correctly! Whatever came into her head! Duh, I'm not Lana Weinberger! I'm Mia… I just had my first boyfriend, whom I hated to French kiss! How could I be pregnant!
I was so furious I didn't say a single word to her on the way back. Though I don't think I could have uttered a word, had I wished to, because I was crying so much it would have made speaking too painful. And Grandmère didn't even apologise or try to explain why she so totally humiliated me! And the worse of it all is that she called mom on her cell-phone to tell her that everything was fine! So mom knew what Grandmère had been planning and she didn't even warn me! I guess that's the reason why she was crying! Yep, because she had just sold her daughter to the devil.
I haven't spoken to mom since. I locked myself into my room and refused to leave it.
Unfortunately there's no news from Michael! My life really sucks!
***
I spent a horrible night! I was too furious to be able to sleep. Which means that I look totally horrible today. I swear I look so ugly, I'm going to repulse Michael. Well, if I get to see him today, that is. Which I am not sure I will, seeing that he didn't come to school with us today. Lilly says he had a computer meeting early this morning. A part of me keeps on wishing that he took the chance to break up with Judith so that he'd be free to declare his feelings to me. But that other part of me tells me he either never found the poem or couldn't understand it (and didn't give a fuss about it). I guess I won't know before some time though…
***
Oh, my God! Michael came to me in G&T and I can tell you my heart was pounding so loudly I could have started a career as a drummer.
"Need help with your algebra?" Michael asked.
Me: Sure, as usual. You know I can't manage by myself.
Michael: Well too bad for you but… I don't intend to tutor you today.
Me: Are you kidding me?
Holy crap! Michael is mad at me But why? Maybe he hated the poem! I should never have written it in French!
Michael: No, I'm serious. I can't tutor you today, as I need YOU to tutor me.
Me: Me? Tutoring you! This is the funniest thing I have ever heard!
And I started laughing, which attracted Lilly's furious glance. Damn!
Michael (with a malicious little smile): Yes, as you know I'm not all that good in French and there is something I need to have translated.
Oh, my God! That's it! That's the poem! It can't be anything else. Or can it? Please, let it be the poem! I just hope I don't faint when he asks me out. Cause he HAS to ask me out!
Me (blushing): Yeah, sure. I'd love to help you.
Michael (pulling out a piece of paper, which I could have recognised among 10 000 others): Here it comes! I'm going to try to read it but I'm not so sure about my accent.
So he read it, and let me tell you Michael has the cutest accent ever:
Mon amour, mon âme-soeur
Je compte les jours, je compte les heures
Je voudrais te dessiner dans un désert
Le désert de mon coeur.
Michael: So what does it mean?
Me (shaking, choking and hyperventilating, all at once): um… it means something like …
Michael: Yes?
Mia (in a whisper, looking down): like… my love, my soul mate, I have been counting days and hours, I'd like to draw you in a desert, the desert of my heart. Of course it's not that poetical in English but in short it means that … Michael… (And I looked up at him at that point) I love you!
Michael (with a huge grin): I thought so. Um, Mia, are you still with Kenny?
Mia (absentmindedly, as I was too busy watching Michael's lips): Kenny who?
Michael: Kenny Showalter! Your boyfriend!
Mia: My EX-boyfriend you mean. I broke up with him.
Michael (leaning towards me): Great!
And then it happened. Right, he kissed me. It was the best kiss I had ever received and not any simple kiss either. No, he Frenched me. And let me tell you I didn't pull away as I would have, had it been Kenny. I could hear everybody cheer us in the background. That is everybody EXCEPT Lilly who was actually too busy swearing. But I didn't care, I didn't care at all cause that kiss was worth everything, including Lilly's swearing. So I decided to enjoy it as long as possible… which unfortunately was not very long since the door opened at that moment on a screaming Tina!
Tina: Mia, why didn't you tell me anything?
Gosh, was Tina spying behind the door to see if Michael was going to make a move on me? I know she's desperate for a little romance but still…
Me: Well, it just happened!
Tina: How can you say that?
Me: Well, let's see… because it's true?
Tina: So it is true! But I thought I was your friend, why didn't you tell me anything?
Me: But it just happened!
Tina: Maybe it just happened, but it's already all over the press.
Me: Nay… No way!
Tina: Well, look at that!
And she handed me her newspaper. What a shock! I was in the headlines! But it had nothing to do with Michael and I kissing! No, it was far worse. And somehow I started to understand what had been Grandmère's problem as I could read: "Teenage pregnancy: our very own princess sets the bad example."
Me: I don't understand!
Tina: Me neither! How could you hide this from us?
Michael: Tell me it's not true!
Lilly: Oh, my Gosh!
Me: Of course it's not true!
Tina: But you just said it was!
Lilly: Yes, you even said it just happened.
Me: Duh, I thought Tina was speaking about the whole me and Michael thing! And that definitely just happened!
Lilly: I just hope you're not lying to us.
Me: Can't you see it's just a stupid rumour?
Tina: Yes, but why would it start like that, out of the blue?
Me: I don't know. Maybe Grandmère angered some journalist. Or then it could be Kenny. He certainly didn't appreciate the whole breaking-up episode… He might have turned nuts.
Michael: Um, let's look inside the newspaper. We might learn more about this whole rumour.
And so we read the article and that's what it said:
Teenage pregnancy is once more at stakes as 14 years old Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo, princess of Genovia, is reported to be pregnant. Fellow freshman, Kenny Showalter, is thought to be the father. Best friend and stepsister Lana Weinberger, who found a positive pregnancy test in their common bathroom, revealed the truth yesterday evening. After being confronted by her stepsister, the princess would have confessed taking the mentioned pregnancy test.
The dowager queen denied the information but was spotted accompanying Amelia to the hospital, where it is believed the teenager might have had abortion. It was indeed confirmed by the hospital staff that the princess spent a long time with a specialist practitioner. A nurse added that the time she spent in there could have been enough for an operation of this kind.
And there was a picture of me going out of the hospital. And really this picture didn't help as I was crying and looked at Grandmère angrily. It kind of looked like I indeed had had an abortion and was crying over it.
Me: See, it's a set up! Lana is responsible!
Tina: Yeah, like you never went to hospital yesterday evening!
Me: Well… I did but…
Lilly: I can't believe that! First you hide being a princess and now you hide being pregnant. I thought I was your best friend. But apparently Lana is! Cause you told her, but not us!
Me: Lilly, this article is completely bogus! Why don't you believe me? You know that Lana hates me!
Lilly: Well, maybe but I don't think she could have invented something that big. Not to mention that picture, which totally speaks for itself. Come on, guys! Let's go! We have nothing to do with such a liar!
And with that she grabbed both Tina and Michael and pulled them out of the room. Michael looked back at me, but he didn't try to fight off Lilly. He kept looking back at me for a little while though. And there was so much sadness in his eyes… I could tell he believed the whole thing.
And so I started to cry, you know, because that was totally unfair. I had lost Michael on the very same day we had first kissed. How pathetic! And all of that because of Lana! (Ok, because of Grandmère too! After all she is the one responsible for this awful picture!).
But I swear I'm going to get back at Lana! Except that… none of my friends actually seem to be speaking to me anymore. Which means that there is no more working strategy to get rid of Lana! What am I going to do? And I want Michael back too!
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Oh and I forgot to say the poem is the first paragraph of a song by Emilie Simon called Desert. (www.emiliesimon.com)
Oh and please REVIEW!