Two fifty nine and forty seconds. Only twenty to go until I can get out of here.

…Three o'clock on the dot! Finally!

I looked up at Michael to see that he hadn't been watching the clock like a hawk for the last hour, like I've been. And there's no bell on Saturdays to signal home time, so are we just supposed to leave?

Great, it's now three oh one. Why hasn't anyone else noticed? Oh, that's right, because they're actually doing 'work' or they're kissing still. Jeez. Is it up to me to get us out of here?

I coughed loudly and looked out the window so that when Michael looked up at me, he wouldn't think I'd coughed to get his attention.

But it worked anyway!

"All right, everyone," Michael said, looking at his watch and standing up. "That's it for today. You can go home now."

Thank the Lord.

I grabbed my books and my bodyguard and high tailed it out of there.

"Mia!" I heard Michael calling out to me as I ran to the freedom of the outside world. I didn't stop though. I just kept going.

"Mia, maybe you should just talk to him," Lars said as I dashed for the limo.

That stopped me. Standing at the door, I said to him, "Lars, are you my bodyguard, or are you his friend? Which is more important to you? Let me just remind you how scary my grandmother can be." I started to do my famous Grandmere impersonation, but he stopped me.

"You're right, I'm sorry. If you want to go, let's go."

"Thank you." I opened the door and jumped in, just as Michael was running outside.

"Mia!" he cried. "Lars!"

I saw Lars shrug before getting inside. Once he was safely in, I yelled at the driver to go. I didn't even turn around to see Michael at all.


Lilly called me later that night. "What was your problem today? God, sometimes you can be such a…a…"

"A what, Lilly?" I asked in a bored tone. I wonder if Michael's there?

"An idiot! And Michael's been in a bad mood all afternoon, what happened with you guys?"

"Nothing."

"There you go with the nothing again, Mia. But I know it's not nothing. Michael doesn't mope around the house for nothing. Usually he skips in that annoying way of his."

"Well so what if it's actually something? It doesn't mean you have a right to know!"

"Fine. If that's how you want to be, that's just fine, Mia. I'll see you on Monday."

She hung up before I could say another word. Which is probably a good thing because knowing me, I would've been scrambling around for forgiveness. Which I mustn't do!

I mustn't.


Boy, Michael Moscovitz sure is a tough person to avoid.

He rides to school with me and Lilly in the morning; he walks me to my locker in the mornings; he meets me outside my Algebra classroom; he sits at our table at lunch; he sits next to me in G&T.

And each time he does these things, I look away or start talking to someone else. You'd think he'd get the message after an entire week, but I guess not. He still keeps trying to talk to me.

Maybe I should just tell him that he doesn't have to bother explaining anything to me, because I know how he feels…

But then, that would require the use of my vocal cords around him, which, for some bizarre reason, have been acting up every time he gets within three feet.

Funny that.

On Friday afternoon, I thought I was going to survive. I thought I'd gotten through the week without going completely insane.

But no, of course that couldn't happen.

I was just sitting there in G&T, absentmindedly flipping through my Algebra notes while Michael whispered my name over and over again, trying to get my attention. It's quite annoying, really. But then, while I was sitting there, someone walked in the room and announces that Ms Gupta wants to see me.

I shot a look at Lilly, who's been ignoring me as much as I've been ignoring Michael recently. Am I in trouble for something she's done again?

With shaking hands, I walked into her office and sat down. I hate Ms Gupta's office. It's so small and dark, and whenever she calls me in here, it's not for something good.

"Mia, thank you for coming in. I recently installed a program in the computer files that alerts me when students have accounted enough tardy's to win them a trip to detention. Granted, I'm still working out a few kinks, but this afternoon it informed me that you, in fact, have more than enough."

What? Since when am I late? EVER?

"What?" I asked her, dumbfounded. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know, Mia. I too was surprised, so I checked it out, and it's correct. It says right here that in the past two weeks, you've been late almost a dozen times. So I'm going to have to issue you with a detention tomorrow morning. Eight am, don't be late."

Oh no, Grandmere's ball is tomorrow night, we're supposed to spend the day at a day spa relaxing and getting facial masks and whatever. She's going to kill me!


I returned to G&T to find Michael was sitting in a seat across the room. I guess he's finally gotten the point that I don't want to talk to him.

Lilly's decided to talk to me again though. Which is a bit of a shame, since Lilly not talking is a bit like a holiday.

"What'd you do?"

"Nothing," I replied. "I totally don't get it, but apparently I've been tardy too many times and she's sending me to detention again."

"You, tardy? Yeah, right. There's got to be something wrong with her sys…Oh, wait…" She stopped talking and looked at something behind me. "Never mind."

"What?" I asked her. I hate when people say 'Never mind' because obviously it was important or else you wouldn't have started saying it.

"No, nothing. It's ok. Have fun at detention tomorrow."

After that, she went back to ignoring me. Good. I don't need her anyway.