Title: Arrogarsi (That means Assertiveness in Italian!)



Rating: PG to be safe, but most likely G

Summary: Mia takes Lilly's advice for once, and asserts herself!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, if I did, I would be much richer! And Michael would be mine! Muahaha!

Slight AU: I don't know when exactly this takes place. Kenny is Mia's friend, but they never dated. And Mia told Tina that she likes Michael, and Mia's mom is married and pregnant.

Before school, at their lockers…

Mia's POV

"Mia, just tell your Grandmere that you don't want to do the photo shoot. How many times do I have to tell you that you need to be more assertive!" Lilly said sighing in frustration. "Maybe if you were more assertive, then everything would go your way. You really should try it."

"Fine. I guess it couldn't make things any worse," I said.

The bell rang.

"Ok, well I've got to go find Boris before class. Remember Mia, BE ASSERTIVE!" Lilly said, trailing off down the hall.

Hmmm……and exactly how do I be assertive? I don't even know how. That's Lilly. Me? I'm just too shy…..I don't know HOW to be assertive…

I was walking down the hall thinking of ways to be assertive, as I ran into Lana in the hall.

"What where you're going, you freak!" she said.

She started to walk away. "Oh sorr…." I almost said it but then a thought popped into my head. ASSERT YOURSELF, MIA!

"At least I don't stuff my bra….." I said.

Lana turned around sharply. "What did you just say?" she said eyeing me evilly.

"Oh, you heard me."

"Well at least I'm big enough to wear a bra," she snapped back.

"It's a real shame that none of it's natural," I said shoving past her and walking into the classroom.

WOW, THAT FELT GOOD! Maybe Lilly's right. Maybe I should be a little bolder.

During Lunch…

Lilly and I walked into lunch. I got a salad and sat down at my normal table. I looked behind me and saw Michael sitting at the Computer Club table.

"Be assertive Mia," I could hear Lilly's voice popping into my head.

"I'll be right back," I said standing up out of my chair.

I walked right over to Michael's table. I couldn't believe what I was doing. It's like my body was moving, but my mind wasn't working.

"Hey Michael," I said pulling up a chair to sit by him.

"Oh, Hey Thermopolis," he said surprised and turned his attention from Judith to me.

"Come sit with me?" I breathed into his ear and ran my hand through his hair.

No Way! Where did that come from?! Oh no! Now, I'm going to feel like an idiot. I'm totally going to get shot down. I cleared my thoughts. Oh well, it was worth a shot. I already said it, so I can't back down now.

I smiled and stood up. I grabbed his arm and pulled him up with me. He grabbed his tray and followed me to the table.

YES! HE'S COMING! I felt like jumping for joy, but I kept my cool.

I sat down at my spot, and pulled up a chair for Michael next to me. He sat down.

I could see Tina and Lilly looking at me quizzically. I just looked away and started eating my salad, while Michael took a bite of his hamburger.

Ugh, if only Michael would just lay off the meat, he would be totally perfect. But I guess I could live with that. The rest of him would totally be worth it, even if he's not a vegetarian like me.

I looked up and saw that Michael had some Mustard on his face. I giggled. He looked so adorable.

"Huh? What's wrong, Mia? Do I have something on my face?" he asked.

I laughed even harder then. "Maybe……I mean you might possibly have a little mustard on your nose….." I said between giggles.

"Oh really?" he said. He picked up the bottle of mustard off the table. He aimed it at me.

"No, Michael! Don't shoot!" I said jokingly.

He squirted me.

"Oh no, now it looks like you have more mustard on your face than I do," he said smiling to himself.

"Oh yeah?" I said. I picked up the mustard container that he had just set back on the table. I squirted him back.

"Even now?" I asked, smiling triumphantly.

He then picked up the ketchup container, and started squirting me, while I kept shooting mustard at him.

"Ahhhhh Michael……stop," I managed to get out while running away and giggling.

He stood up and started to chase me. He picked up some of Lilly's french-fries and threw them at me.

"Oh, you're gunna get it now," I said, picking up Tina's drink and dumping it on his head.

I saw Josh Richter stand up. "FOOOOOOOOOD FIGHT!" he yelled punching his fist in the air. He started grabbing all of his food and throwing it at his friends.

Eventually, practically everyone in the room was standing up, lashing food at each other.

Michael chased me to the other side of the room.

"Ewww Josh, stop." I heard Lana say. "You're going to get my new shirt all messy," she whined.

Somehow everyone in the room had managed to get food on them, except for Lana. Well not if I had anything to do with it. I looked at Michael and smirked.

Michael grabbed someone's nachos and handed them to me.

"Hey Lana," I yelled, over all the loud noises.

She turned around, and I threw the nachos at her.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU LITTLE……" she started screaming.

"Oops, my bad!" I said turning to Michael as we both broke out in laughter.

"URRRRRG!" she screamed, running out of the lunch room.

A few minutes later, I saw Mr. G walk into the room, along with a few other teachers and Lana.

"WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?!" I heard them yell.

Everyone froze.

"Who started this?" one of the teachers asked.

Lana smiled evilly.

"They did!" Lana said pointing at Michael and me. Michael had me in a headlock and was mashing french-fries into my hair.

Michael then let go of me, unfortunately. I wouldn't admit it, but I had been totally enjoying that.

"Mia! Michael! To the principals office! NOW!"

We walked out. We tried to keep serious faces, but once the teachers were out of sight. We broke out into laughter.

"Did you see Lana's face when you threw those nachos at her? Way to go, Thermopolis," he said smiling and patting me on the back.

"I hope I don't get in too much trouble if my Grandmere finds out," I said.

"Well, you can just say it was my fault," Michael said looking at me.

"No, it's ok, Michael. But thanks, that was really sweet of you," I said smiling up at him.

"Eh, well what can I say? I'm just quite the charmer!" he smirked.

"Well, don't get a big head there now or you won't fit into the principal's office," I said playfully shoving him.

We walked into Principal Gupta's office.

"Sit down here," she said pointing to a few chairs, and we did as she said.

"Mia, Michael, I'm very disappointed in both of you and your behavior. I will be contacting your parents tonight after school is over. Right now, you can go home, and if your parents ask why you're home, tell them I will let them know tonight. You may get your books and go." she said walking out of the room.

We walked out of the office. "Here, I'll come with you to get your books," Michael said following me to my locker.

"Thanks, Michael." I said smiling. We walked the rest of the way in silence, until I started laughing out of nowhere.

"What are you laughing about?" Michael said looking at me questioningly.

"Just the fact that we got sent home from school because there was mustard on your face," I said still laughing.

Michael smiled. I opened my locker and got my books, then I walked with him to his locker to get his.

"Hey Michael," I said looking at him.

"Yeah?"

"Could I come to your house. I don't really want to go home. I mean, I know Principal Gupta said to just tell your parents they'd be getting a call, but I know my mom will still question me. So can I just crash with you?"

"Yeah, sure. No problem."

Lars had obviously been with me the whole time, so he called for the limo. I explained to him that I wanted to go to the Moscovitz' and he let me! Lars is so awesome!

Lars walked us up to the door of their apartment. "Just call if you need anything, Princess" he said turning around.

"Ok, thanks. And Lars?" I said as he turned around.

"Hmm?"

"The name's Mia." I said smiling.

He just smiled and walked away.

We walked into the apartment. Michael walked to the closet and got out a towel.

"Here, go take a shower," he said, tossing the towel to me.

"Thanks, Michael." I said heading towards the bathroom. "And thanks for letting me stay here."

"No Problem, Thermopolis."

I took my shower and then got out but I realized that I didn't have any clothes. I wasn't expecting to come over, and I couldn't put my uniform back on, because it was covered in everything from mustard to icecream.

Well, I'm supposed to be bold today anyway. I wrapped the towel around my body, and walked out into the hall.

Michael's door was shut, and I could hear Rooney in the background. I knocked. He didn't answer. I guess his music was just too loud, so I opened the door and stuck my head in.

"Michael?" I said looking around.

He was in the corner and he turned around, wearing nothing but boxers. My cheeks burned bright red. I mean, yeah, I've seen him without a shirt on, but that was purposely. This time, he was CHANGING. I walked in on Michael changing.

"Oh, I'm so sorry……" I trailed off, when Lilly's voice again popped into my head.

So I just walked right in, in nothing but my towel.

I saw him take a deep breath. Was that a good thing? I then saw him looking me up and down. HE WAS CHECKING ME OUT! I then got slightly uncomfortable, but again, Lilly's voice.

I began to look him up and down as I walked closer.

"Looking good, Thermopolis," Michael said winking at me.

"Why, are you checking me out, Michael?" I asked, pretending to be shocked.

"Well, I was just returning the gesture," he said smiling.

"Oh really…." I said coming even closer.

I'm REALLY REALLY liking this assertiveness.

"You like what you see?" Michael asked, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Eh…..it's not bad….." I said winking at him. "Oh, by the way, I need some clothes, I can't put my others back on, since they're covered in food."

"Oh, alright," he said looking through his drawer and tossing me a tshirt and some boxers.

"Well, unless you don't want me to put on any……" I said trailing off.

Michael's eyes popped open. Perfect! Just where I want him.

"Ok, I guess not, I'll be back. I'm going to go change," I said grabbing the clothes and walking into the bathroom to put the clothes on.

I came back out, Michael shut off his CD player quickly, trying to hide whatever he was listening to. He must have changed it from Rooney to something else, He then got up and went into the bathroom. He quickly took a shower and then put some boxers on, intentionally leaving his shirt off.

When he walked back out, I was lying down on his bed with just a t-shirt and some boxers on, which I had rolled up, so they were really short.

"Welcome back," I said smiling at him. "I've been waiting for you," I said huskily, patting my hand on the spot next to me on the bed.

Michael looked at me curiously and came and sat down.

I climbed up onto his lap, and pushed his back against the bed. I straddled his lap.

I ran my hands through his hair and down his chest and up again along his shoulders and his biceps. I wanted to savor this moment. Michael brought his hands up, brushed a stray hair out of my face and put his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. He brought his hand up again and traced my jaw with his finger. I then saw his remote to his CD player on the dresser, I picked it up and switched it on.

You would have never guessed what came on. Enrique Iglesias came flowing out of the CD player.

Maybe I'm addicted,
I'm out of control,
but you're the drug
that keeps me from dying.
Maybe I'm a liar,
but all I really know is
you're the only reason I'm trying.

I raised an eyebrow towards Michael. He turned red, but then just shrugged. I smiled and gently pressed my lips against his.

He pulled me closer into him as he brought his arms around my neck.

"Dang, what's gotten into you, Mia?" he asked between breaths and kisses.

I stopped. My eyes popped out of my head, and in a few seconds, I lost all of my nerve that I had been building up the whole day.

I quickly jumped up, tears pouring out of my eyes, and started to run out of the room.

"Mia, Wait!" Michael said.

Normally I would have kept running, but something about his voice made me stop. I just couldn't run anymore.

"Mia, you didn't let me finish. I didn't say it was a bad thing," he said lifting up my chin with his hand. "Actually, it's a really good thing. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for that. Mia….." he said looking into my eyes.

"Mia, I love you,"

"Really?" I asked as my crying slowed down.

"Yes, really. I always have," he said wiping away one of my tears.

"Oh Michael, I love you too!" I said jumping up and wrapping my arms around his neck as we fell back onto the bed.

He kissed me again, but by this time the song had stopped.

"Wait," I said propping myself up on my elbows a little as I reached for the remote again and restarted the song.

Michael looked at me quizzically.

"What?" I asked looking down at him.

"Nothing….."

"Hey, I happen to like this song, it reminds me of you." I said blushing.

"Oh really?" he said pulling me back down on top of him.

"You're so beautiful," he said staring deep into my eyes.

"So are you," I said giggling.

"Oh, so you wanna be difficult?" he said as he started tickling me.

"Ahhh Michael!" I screamed laughing.

He then flipped me over, so that he was on top.

"Oooooh, I like a man that's in charge," I said.

He then moved closer and started kissing me again.

He moved down to my neck and started laying kisses on it.

I moaned. I just couldn't help it. I've been waiting forever for this moment, to be kissing the love of my life.

I noticed that as soon as I moaned, the kisses got more intense.

I started nibbling on his ear lobe, and I heard him moan too. Wow, that was a REALLY big turn on.

"I love you so much, Mia," he said

"I love you too, more than anything," I said as we started kissing again.

"Mia…….." Lilly yelled.

I jumped up quickly and fell off the bed.

"Mia, I know you're here, I saw your shoes by the door," she said bursting in the door.

She looked at us quizzically as she saw Michael lying on the bed with his hair all tousled and me on the floor looking all flushed and panting heavily.

"Huh. So I guess you took my advice, Mia," she said looking slightly disgusted. "I didn't expect it to work out exactly like this."

"Neither did I." I said smiling. "I turned out much BETTER than I expected."