Author's Notes: I'm glad, also surprised, that people are actually reading this! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far.. This chapter's a little shorter than the previous few. There's going to be a LOT more exciting action in the next chapter, so I'll be posting that one sometime in the next few days. Eventually, this is going to be Michael-Mia, of course, but I thought I'd take a fun way to get there. It might take them awhile, but that's the fun part. I hope I'm putting enough fuzzy moments in there for you guys. If there's anything you'd like to suggest or criticize about my story, I'd really be glad to hear it!
Hope you guys enjoy this chapter.
Thanks again for all the awesome reviews!
[SATURDAY, JANUARY 22 3:00 AM]
I'm sitting in Lilly's apartment's bathroom right now. After my encounter with Michael in the hallway, I went back down to the living room to yell at Lilly for the following reasons:
- She didn't tell me she had a brother.
- She didn't tell me her brother was gorgeous.
- She lied to me when she said no one else was home.
- She..
Well, I don't know what else she did to make me mad, but am I ever mad. Those are good enough reasons, anyways. I just humiliated myself in front of her absolutely beautiful older brother. I mean, he saw, not to mention heard, me running around in the halls, screaming. Dressed in the weirdest clothes I've ever worn.
But anyways, she was asleep, so I'll have to save the yelling at her thing for tomorrow morning. Preferably when Michael's not around to see me freak out all over again.
And now, he's probably going to laugh at me every time he sees me at school. He'll probably even tell that Judith girl he's dating, so that she can also laugh at me. I bet they're in love. I wish I was in love. I wish Michael was in love with me. I need some serious therapy for this. I'm going to KILL Lilly!!
But Michael has a really, really nice chest.
Not to mention those eyes. And that perfect smile.
Who am I kidding?
Sighing, Mia opened the bathroom door and trudged down the hallway back to the living room, grabbing a blanket and a pillow and throwing them on the floor, closing her eyes and wishing that this day would end already. She had had enough humiliation in the past two hours to last her entire life.
The next morning, Mia awoke to the sound of birds chirping outside. The living room, pitch black when she had gone to sleep last night at three fifteen in the morning, was bathed in late morning sunlight. Mia sat up, confused, looking around frantically. Lilly and Tina were nowhere to be found. Their blankets and pillows were gone.
Not knowing what to do, Mia got up from the floor and walked into the kitchen, still wearing her pajamas – a fitted white t-shirt, along with cropped light blue cotton pants. She sat down at a chair at the Moscovitzes large, rectangular, wooden table, placing her head on her hands, rocking herself back and forth slowly and silently. Where on earth had her friends gone?
"Am I interrupting something?" A deep, male voice interrupted Mia's thoughts, and she quickly looked up to see who had perpetrated the silence.
Michael. He was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, wearing a white t-shirt underneath a bright red Death Cab for Cutie t-shirt, along with a pair of faded blue jeans and a black belt with a silver buckle. His hair was messy, as if he'd just woken up, but it was as cute as ever. Mia shivered. How could someone look so great without even trying?
He could look amazing in his school uniform. He also looked equally as good, maybe even better, wearing normal weekend clothes. He looked amazing without a shirt. Michael had some serious style in a cute, geeky sort of way, Mia thought to herself. She instantly felt silly and young in front of him with her unbrushed hair and simple pajamas.
"No, not really," Mia answered, trying to sound calm and collected. She ran a hand through her hair, trying to make it look at least a little bit presentable.
He smiled, and pulled out the chair across from her, sitting down in it. "Lilly and Tina went to the store about half an hour ago. They should be back soon," he said nonchalantly, not looking into her eyes. He reached out a hand and ran it through his dark brown hair, messing it up with his fingers. "Do you want some breakfast or anything?"
"No, thanks," Mia replied.
"Suit yourself," said Michael, and he rose from the chair gracefully. Mia watched as he walked over to the refrigerator and opened it, pulling out a carton of orange juice, and pouring himself a cup. He then grabbed the cup and walked back over to the table and sat back down. He began to drink his juice in silence.
Mia stared at the table, tracing an invisible design on the polished light brown wood with the tip of her index finger. Moments later, she looked up, feeling Michael's eyes on her. Surely enough, he had been looking at her, and her gray eyes met his deep peat-bog brown eyes when she took a glance over at him. His expression was thoughtful, and Mia longed to know what was on his mind.
"Are you in my G & T class?" He broke the silence. "Because I thought I saw you there one day."
She nodded. "Yeah."
"For a princess, you seem fairly normal," he remarked, looking at her out of the corner of his eye. "Though the clown pants you had on last night were a little bit out of the ordinary."
Mia blushed, completely against her own free will. "Who told you I was a princess?"
He bit his lip. "Mrs. Hill told us that the princess of Genovia was going to be joining our class before you came, last semester. It's kind of big news in our school when anything different happens, because nothing interesting really ever happens there. And since no one else new came, I figured that you must be the princess she was talking about."
"Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo, Princess of Genovia. That's me," Mia said, with an almost bitter tone lending itself to her voice.
Michael, noticing the tone in her voice, looked slightly taken aback. "Sorry for mentioning that. I don't think before I talk sometimes."
So perfect boy had a flaw. Amazing. "Don't apologize. It's fine," Mia answered. "I've just been trying to forget the fact that I'm a princess ever since I got here. All I really wanted when I moved here, aside from meeting my biological mother, my stepfather, and my stepbrother, was to be a normal sixteen year old girl, you know?" She paused for a second. "Never mind, you don't. That was a dumb question."
Michael looked sympathetic. "Yeah, but I can imagine it's been hard for you." He took one last gulp from his glass, and then got up from his chair to put it in the dishwasher. "Are you going to be okay to wait around here for Lilly and Tina to come back? They should be back anytime now, seeing as they left half an hour ago and all."
Mia nodded. "I'll be fine."
Michael nodded, seemingly waiting for something. "Okay." He ran a hand through his hair, looking away from Mia's eyes and down towards the floor. "I have a thing, with this girl... that I have to go to." He sighed, muttering some indecipherable words underneath his breath. "Otherwise, I'd stick around and hang out with you until Lilly and Tina came home."
At that moment, Mia heard the front door to the apartment open, and Lilly and Tina walked into the kitchen. "Hey, Mia!" Lilly said brightly. "Sorry about leaving you with my pathetic brother, we just thought that we'd let you sleep while we went out to get some lunch."
Michael rolled his eyes. "This pathetic brother's out of here, Lilly," he said, picking a pair of car keys up off the kitchen table.
"Good," Lilly replied. "Have a nice daaaaaaaate with Judith," she continued, in a sing-song voice. She then turned around, and her and Tina began to put the groceries away.
Mia looked over at Michael, who hadn't actually left yet. He was standing in the doorway, and as she turned around, he looked right back at her, smiling. Mouthing a silent goodbye to her, he turned and left. Mia heard the front door shut once again, and she knew he'd gone out.
Mia sighed, placing her head in her hands again. So it was a date, this thing he had to do with this girl. A date, with his girlfriend, Judith Gershner, the perfect girl who could clone fruit flies. And Mia couldn't even manage to pass algebra. She had failed a test last week, and she knew it was a valid indicator of the unfortunate way that the rest of the course would go.
For goodness sake, her algebra teacher was her STEPFATHER.
And she still couldn't pass one dumb test.
Lilly turned back to face Mia. "Do you want some lunch?"
Mia had almost, almost forgotten her anger at last night's events. Lilly seemed to have forgotten that the previous night had taken place at all. She seemed to have forgotten how humiliating an experience it must have been for Mia. "When were you planning on telling me that you had a brother?" Mia demanded, quite uncharacteristically for her.
Lilly shrugged noncommittally. "I didn't figure that it was important at all," she said. "And it isn't. Is a peanut butter and jam sandwich on white bread okay?" She retrieved a knife from a drawer and began to slather peanut butter all over a slice of bread.
"I'm not hungry, but thanks." Mia replied. "And no, I guess it's not that important. It's just that I made a huge fool of myself in front of him last night when we did that truth or dare thing. And then you guys totally just abandoned me, so I didn't even know how to explain it to him. He totally thinks I'm insane."
Tina flashed Mia a weird look and sat down beside her with a peanut butter and jam sandwich of her own.
Lilly rolled her eyes. "It's just Michael, Mia. He's nothing special. Believe me, I know. He's insane himself. I'm sure he didn't think anything of seeing you running around in stupid pants." She sighed theatrically, placing a sandwich on a plate and sitting down across from Mia in the chair that Michael had just vacated.
Tina laughed. "If it was me in Mia's situation last night, I would have been totally embarrassed too, Lilly."
Mia shot Tina a grateful look. "At least someone here knows what I mean."
"Sure I do," said Tina. "Michael's hot," she finished nonchalantly with an innocent smile on her slightly chubby face, shoving a bite of her peanut butter and jam sandwich into her open mouth.
Mia jumped up from the table. "That's not what I meant, Tina, and you know it!" She said, indignantly. "I don't think Michael's hot."
"Suit yourself," Tina answered, smirking. "I would have been totally embarrassed if someone as fricking hot and amazingly good looking as Michael had seen me dressed like that and acting that strangely."
"Tina! I don't think Michael's hot!" Mia said, her voice squeaking slightly. She crossed her arms defensively over her chest, frowning.
"Can we stop talking about my ugly computer obsessed completely weird total freak of a brother yet, guys? I'm trying to eat my lunch." Lilly frowned. "Mia, I'm sorry if it embarrassed you that much. We really didn't know that Michael was home. I thought he wouldn't be home at all last night. I wouldn't have done that to you if I had have known that he was home. And even when he is home, he hardly ever comes out of there. My parents are sometimes afraid he might be building bombs or something. Nobody knows what he does in there. He's totally weird."
Mia smiled. "It's fine, Lilly."
"You know what else is fine, Lilly? Your brother, Michael," Tina said, grinning.
Lilly groaned. "Shut up, Tina."
[SUNDAY, JANUARY 23 9:20 PM]
Grandmere left today, about three hours ago, to my relief. I won't have to see her at all for the next month. This is almost like a dream come true. So anyways, now things are going to get to normal around here, with Grandmere gone and me settling in at home and getting to know Mom and Frank and adjusting to school.
I think school's going to be okay. Lilly, Tina and I get along really well. Other than the fact that Lilly neglected to tell me that her brother was the god I kept seeing in school all over the place, I think she's a really cool girl. Well, Michael would probably think I was a freak anyways, even if the first time I met him wasn't when I was wearing clown pants and a bright pink wig, seeing as I'm a five foot nine vegan flat-chested sixteen year old princess.
My life is completely sucking.
I wonder how Michael's date with Judith went. I wonder why he didn't just tell me he was going out on a date with his girlfriend. Trouble in paradise, maybe? No, that's not it. He probably just didn't tell me because he knows that freaks like me can't get dates and he felt bad, like telling me he was going out on a date would have been rubbing it in my face and all.
So aside from being beautiful, he is one of the nicest people I've met here so far.
I wonder how Lilly didn't inherit the good looking gene like Michael did. I haven't seen the Drs Moscovitz, but one of them is probably fairly good looking, since they turned out a son like Michael. Lilly's not really that pretty. She kind of has a smushed-in face, like one of those really ugly dogs. I feel kind of bad for her.
But then again, she has a boyfriend. And I DON'T!
Life is so UNFAIR!
