Chapter Three...

Life is peachy. I'm not even bothered by the fact that Grandmere still makes me attend stupid Princess Lessons. Especially since I started dating Josh, because she's been so much nicer to me. I suppose all I ever needed to do was find a perfect, gorgeous boyfriend to get her off my back. Why didn't I think of it before?

Oh, maybe because I thought it was impossible for that to ever happen. But now I know that that's not true. Because my boyfriend is perfect. And he is gorgeous.

Josh and I have been officially dating for twelve days. That's almost two whole weeks! Are you supposed to get your boyfriend something for your two week anniversary? Or would that make me seem needy and clingy?

Maybe I'll just get him a little something to show how much I care. And since he's so devoted to me I bet he'll have something really romantic planned for us anyway.

My boyfriend is perfect. He really, really is.

"You want some?" he asked me at lunch time, offering me his half eaten hot dog.

I almost threw up when I caught a whiff of it, thrown right in my face. "Um, no thanks, Josh. I don't eat meat, remember?"

"Oh, right," he said, taking a bite of it himself. "I forgot." Bits of bread, meat and ketchup flew out of his mouth as he said it.

That's just great. I don't eat the stuff, but I don't mind being showered in it!

I patted myself off and didn't say anything about it. What would be the point? He'd just apologize, sending more food my way.

I turned back to my rice and salad, but I couldn't help but notice Michael was sitting with the rest of the Computer Club, looking like he'd just lost his limited edition Darth Vader figurine. I hope he hasn't, because that one's really rare!

Josh said something else, and I forgot all about Michael. I mean, who wants to worry about Michael when Josh is talking?

Later

Josh and I stepped out of Baskin Robbins. He had pistachio and I had mint chocolate chip.

"Can I try some of yours?" Josh asked me, already digging his spoon into mine.

"Uh, sure, I guess."

What's more romantic than sharing food in public? Especially ice cream. Maybe we could sit down and we could spoon feed each other.

"Mmm," Josh said. "That's better than mine. Here, let's swap."

Before I could object, since I don't particularly like pistachio, Josh had switched our cups and was devouring mine.

But that's ok. I don't mind.

As we started walking along Josh took my hand, I feel so proud. I mean, you should have seen the looks girls were giving me! These are really pretty, cheerleader types, like Lana, and they were jealous of me, Mia Thermopolis. Formally the girl no one had any reason to be jealous of, whatsoever.

Suddenly I spotted Michael Moscovitz up ahead. He was walking towards us with his friend Felix. But it didn't look like a very happy conversation, and I'm sure neither of them could have been as happy as me and Josh were anyway.

"...I dunno, man," I heard Felix mutter. "This is just a little weird... I'll see you around."

Felix ran off just as we reached them.

Josh made no effort to stop to talk to Michael, but I wanted to. I pulled his hand back and stopped walking.

"What's up, Michael? Are you ok?" I asked him. He looked really depressed.

Michael stopped walking and looked up, he hadn't even seen us. "Oh, hey. Um, nothing. Everything's fine."

Josh pulled on my hand and motioned that we should be leaving, but I wanted to stay. I want to make sure Michael's really ok. Josh can wait.

"Are you sure?"

Michael looked like he was going to cry. He looked over to Josh apprehensively, and then turned back to me. "Yeah, everything's fine. I just...I just have a lot of stuff going on right now."

"Okay," I said. Josh has let go of my hand and is teetering on the balls of his feet, motioning for me to come on. "But if you ever want to talk to me about it, you know you can."

"Thanks."

I smiled at him and looked back at Josh. He's really not very patient.

"What's your problem?" I asked him, once we'd moved off.

"I don't like that guy," Josh said, I noticed he hasn't made a move for my hand again.

"What guy? Michael? What's wrong with Michael?"

"He's a geek, Mia. He's in the Computer Club, and he watches Star Wars and geeky stuff like that."

"So?" I asked. I may not be smart enough to be in the Computer Club, especially since I can barely use a computer, but I like Star Wars too.

So I guess I'm somewhat of a geek. But I think dating Josh will give me a few, much needed brownie points with the A crowd.

"So? What do you mean so? I don't like to be seen with people like that. Do you know what that would do to my reputation?"

Does that mean dating me isn't tarnishing his popularity? Maybe I'm more popular than I thought!

"Well what about me?"

"What about you?" Josh took my hand back and I felt a lot better.

"I mean, aren't you worried that people will judge you because you're dating me?"

"Nah, it's cool," he said.

Smiling at my life once more, we continued on our way to the Loft, where we spent a good ten minutes confirming how much we like each other outside the door.