Author's Note: Tsk Tsk, some of you don't read the hints of the longevity of this story.

ClassicDorkette: I have no clue as to how long this is going to be. I haven't re-read it in awhile because...um, I'm lazy? No, it's pretty long. The major plot isn't even here yet. Major characters aren't here. So it'll be awhile yet.

JenJen-Jenufer: That is what I was thinking of! I wrote the " I gotta have my Mia" line and was like...Hmmm, that sounds wicked familar. So I wracked my brain for about a day trying to remember it so I could use it in the chapter but got frustrated.

Erkith: I don't think my spelling is too horried (heh) that I need a beta, but thanks. Usually I upload chapters, then I add in. Any spelling mistakes are made then because I once again, am too lazy to look them up. I think things look pretty much like they are supposed to. Actually, I'm not too lazy to look things up, I'm usually too tired to do it. I start preparing to post wide awake, then I get too exhausted to do much work to the chapter. I'm gonna stop blabbering now though.

Everyone else, Thanks for reviewing. Y'all rock. (that was a southern girl moment...but I'm not southern, just a fan of accents). Keep up the reviews

Lilly and Mia's friends were the only loved ones from her side that were happy for us, but even they were skeptical. Her mother could deal with seeing me, but I knew I could win her over as well. Her dad and grandmere were a different story, however.

Her mother didn't like me very much because I had put Mia through so much. I wouldn't expect her to welcome me back with open arms. Although, I do think she would prefer Mia to date me than to date some movie star. She trusted me. But still, I had broken her only daughter's heart.

She still let me come over though, and allowed me to call Mia anytime I wanted to call. It was weird going back there because there was the feeling in the air that I didn't belong there anymore. All of the things I had always kept there (a few shirts, a sweatshirt, some CD's) were gone. The picture of me and Mia from the winter dance that only months ago had a home on the shelf in the den was gone. All images of me were wiped out.

I assume that Lilly had Mia perform a ritual clensing in order to get over me. Actually, I know she did. She told me that she had pretended to burn all my stuff. She had wanted to actually destroy them, but Miss Thermopolis didn't let her.

I'm getting off track here. So, like I was saying, it was weird being around Miss Thermopolis She wouldn't offer her famous cookies to me anymore. But she was at least civil to me.
A few weeks after the prom I went over to Mia's for her little gathering to celebrate the end of the year. Miss Thermopolis simply opened the door for me and walked away, not saying a word to me.
I didn't attract much attention at this party, just kind of stayed in the background and listened in on conversations. It had been easier to socialize with these people back before I had broken up with Mia. They all seemed to be nice, on the surface. But I overheard Ling-Su and Tina talking when they didn't realize I was the guy who's back was to them.
"I don't know. I don't think she'll stay with him. I mean, she could do sooo much better. Did you hear that James Coyne asked her out last week?"

"Yeah, she mentioned it at lunch. I really don't understand. He offered tickets to a Broadway play for crying out loud!"

"I don't get why she took him back in the first place."
"I don't either. I mean, sure he's hot and everything...Maybe it's because he's good at you know....that stuff. But he's so immature now. She was telling me about how he was drinking and getting high now."
That was a lie, right there. I did not get high, and infrequently got drunk. Mia wouldn't tell them about that kind of stuff anyways.She thought it was immature to discuss how drunk people got. The other thing, that I was good at the other stuff was true if I do say so myself.
Mia overheard this exchange as well, and looked at me. She saw that I was a little hurt by what I had heard, so she walked up to them, "Hey, if you guys have a problem with my boyfriend why don't you tell me instead of gossiping about it? I thought we were friends?"
They apologized, but they weren't sincere. They were only sorry they had been caught.
"Well, don't bother apologizing to me. I love him and he loves me. We are going to be together whether you two like it or not. I have enough pressure from my family about this relationship so I don't need it from my best friends."
She walked over to me then and took my hand. We went into the closet; the one where my sister had made out with that foreign kid, Jangbu, all those years ago. She turned the ceiling light on, "Don't worry about them. You know that I would never listen to anyone who says we won't last, right?"
I nodded and kissed her forehead. "Of course baby...of course."
She hugged me, so hard like she was afraid of losing me. "I don't think I could bear losing you again..."

But her grandmother kept her busy all the time. She went to Genovia for that summer. They figured she would forget about me if she wasn't going to see me. Or that I would find someone else; proving that they were right about the kind of guy I was.
But they weren't right. I was the faithful boyfriend who gave my girlfriend a webcam for her birthday so that we could have late night chats while she was in the palace. I didn't even go out all that much because I was too afraid of missing a call from her. I went out, sure, but only to hang out with my band and to play with them.
"You are pathetic," Lilly deemed me one evening in late July.
"What do you mean?" I asked, checking my e-mail for the hundredth time that day. She e-mailed me and said to meet online at midnight, my time. All I can say is thank God that her grandmother finally relented and got the internet in the palace.
"I mean," she said teasingly, "That you and Mia are the stereotypical high school sweethearts."
I smiled. "So?"
"And I'm happy for you. I might be the only one...well, actually, Miss Thermopolis is starting to like you again. Don't get too crazy about that though because her dad and grandmother still hate your stinking guts. You are not going to win them over."
Who cared though? I mean, by this time next year she'd be eighteen, a legal adult. We could even possibly get an apartment together, as long as we didn't waste our pooled money. It'd be perfect.
I started my internship in mid July. It was good to have something to distract me from thinking about how much I missed Mia.
I was having fun though. Learning what it was like to work in a real working environment and meeting people was a great time. They even asked me if I would want to come back the next summer, after I complete my final year. I'm no dummy, I accepted their offer. Good jobs were scarce these days.
I was walking out of my building one evening, that is, my work building not apartment. It was the hottest day of the entire summer so I loosened up my tie and undid the top buttons of my shirt.
"Do you normally do strip shows, or is it just for me?" a voice asked from a bench that I walked past.
I looked back and saw the most wonderful sight from the entire summer, Mia. My face exploded into a smile, "When did you get here?" I asked, quickly walking back to my girlfriend.
"Last night..."
"Explains why there was no web cam action..." I teased. She stood up and I pulled her to me tightly.
"Well, got plans for the night?" she asked, our noses touching.
"Nothing could pull me away from you," I replied, leaning for a kiss.
She kindly obliged.
"PRINCESS!" someone screamed, we turned and saw some cameras.
"Comes with the territory," she said with a sigh, pulling away from me. We started to walk back to the subway and back to my apartment.

We ordered from a new vegetarian place not far my apartment. "You like?" I asked.
"So yummy," she agreed.
Her cell phone rang a half a dozen times before she shut it off. "The caller ID said it was Grandmere. I am sooooo mad at her right now," she explained.
"Why is that?" I asked, feeding her some of my tofu. I had gotten a taste for vegetarian food while we were broken up. Not that it was abnormal for her to be mad at her grandmother, but I wanted to know the newest reason.
She rolled her eyes, "She had a contest back in Genovia, 'Win a Date With a Princess!'"
I nearly choked on my food. "Beg pardon?"
"Exactly. She thought if I had a date with a Genovian I would get over you. But I'll always be under you," she promised, leaning in for a kiss.

Before I could say something completely perverted,
"Mia! When'd you get back?!" Lilly exclaimed, interrupting our living room picnic.
"Last night," Mia said with a smile.
"You can see him any old time, come into my room," Lilly said, grabbing Mia's hand.
"Lil, we're in the middle of a date..."
Lilly rolled her eyes, "Fine. But I want details...about you know Genovia, not my brother."

Her senior year. Well, that was probably the longest nine months of my life, up until now that is. But you'll hear about that later.

She would be turning eighteen at the end of the year, and I was counting the days. You know how some guys did a website for Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen? A countdown one that had down to the second that they turned eighteen? I kind of kept one like that, well....not a website, and not to the second. I'm not that big of a psycho. I marked it on my calculator.

Not that I was expecting to do anything with her because she's kind of nixed the idea of premarital sex.

The school changed the uniforms. "Damn, why couldn't they have these when I went to school with you?" I teased. Instead of the pleated skirts, it was more of a wrap type of skirt. "You could totally do a 'Baby One More Time' thing down the halls of Albert Einstein High School in this."

"They are disgusting. I refuse to wear this. I am going to wear my old skirt," Lilly said, interrupting my conversation with Mia. Me and Mia were sitting in my kitchen while Lilly paced the length of the kitchen

"I think they are kind of cute," Mia replied.

"You would. You've become a slave to the fashion industry."

"Shut up Lill. I happen to think that Mia looks adorable in her uniform," I replied.

"You just like anything that shows her legs off," Lilly countered.

I smiled and put my hand on top of Mia's thigh, "Why shouldn't I like that? She has nice legs."

Lilly rolled her eyes, "We have to go to school now. Before you start molesting her legs," she said pulling Mia out of the chair.

"I'll be by tonight, okay?" Mia asked as Lilly pulled her out of the room.

"Wouldn't be Friday night without you," I replied with a wink.

"Michael, no. We are stopping," she said with a giggle, one Friday night in November. We were in my dorm room. Friday nights were our private nights in my dorm. She always had to go home at midnight, but I always snuck into her room at the loft anyways.

"Ugh, Mia. I love you. You love me..."

"So we can wait it out."

"You and I both know that your grandmother and your father are NOT going to let you marry me."

We laid in my bed, just staring at one another. "Michael, I am the one who will decide who I am going to marry. Not my dad. Not my grandmother. Not Parliament. I've looked into it."

I laughed, "Oh?"

"Once I turn twenty one they have no real say over what I do. It's an old law that no one really thinks about anymore. But I know Grandmere will bring it up if you and I were to go off and get married right now... If we can hold off until then... you know, when I'm twenty one..."

"Mia, that is another four years away." I ignored the fact that she brought up getting married right now. That was a bit too much for my hormonal mind (hell, I was at the point where I would drag her to the nearest JP and get married, but again, I digress...)

"So? You won't wait for me?"

She looked terrified. "Mia, I'd wait a million years if you asked me to. And you know I would. I just don't want to be banned from Genovia."

She smiled, "You won't be. Besides, I'm going to rule one day. I get say in who is banned from the country."

I kissed her nose. I had finally settled down enough to be close to her again. "I love you Mia Thermopolis."

"And I you, H-"

"Do not use my real name," I warned.

"Why not? It's so...manly," she giggled.

"I am called Michael for a reason little Lady."

"I don't care what you are called. I love you all the same."

And then we proceeded to make out. I could live with that for another few years.

But little did I know I would only be waiting until May.