Chapter Three

"MICHAEL! PHONE!"

"Ow, for fuck sake, what?" I snarled back at Lil, rubbing one of my ears from where she had brutally yanked my headphones from. And we had actually been getting along these last few days since the birthday incident. Well, when I say getting along, I mean, she's at one end of the house playing on my old laptop while I've been on the other side on my new one. I think Mom and Dad are definitely contemplating confiscating both laptops, since both Lil and I haven't spent basically anytime outside the condo since we first got here.

"Are you deaf?" She grumbled back at me, "I said your name and phone."

"Your point?"

"Someone is on the phone who wants to talk to you." Lil shrieked as if I was demented or something.

"Who?" I asked curiously as I got up off my bedroom floor where I had been sitting playing with my new laptop, for there wasn't any room at Pop's desk for me to sit.

"Go find out yourself, you retard!" Lil snapped as she talked out of spare/my room.

Sighing heavily, I followed her downstairs before veering off for the kitchen where Grandma and Pop's keep their old wall phone.

Still curious and with no idea who was calling, I picked up the phone from where Lil had rested it down upon the kitchen counter. I was pretty sure this was going to be some type of joke that Lil, in her bored state of mind, has come up with to piss me off, because I couldn't think of anyone who could possibly be calling me, not on Grandma's and Pop's landline. My mobile maybe but my friends have all given up trying to call me on that almost the moment I got it, mainly because it is like never on.

"Hello?"

'Michael. It's me.' I almost dropped the phone in surprise at hearing her voice, and at how simply her voice could send these weird sort electric sparks all through my body, making my heart beat fast and my hands grow tingly.

"Mia." I was grinning like an insane person as I spoke her name. She called! She actually called! "How are you?"

'I'm ok.' Though she sounded tired and I could hear nerves in her voice. But before I could ask her what was up, she was rambling a mile a minute. 'Listen, Michael, I can't believe I missed your birthday. I suck. I can't believe how much I suck. I am the most horrible person who ever walked the face of the planet. I should be in jail, like Mel Gibson was.'

As she spoke (or rambled) on and on about how terrible she was, my grin simply got wider and wider until I couldn't help it but crack up laughing. I just couldn't help it. She sounded so hysterical about something so small that it was hilarious.

"Oh, that's all right." I reassured her, once I got a grip on myself again, "I know you're busy over there. And there's the whole time-zone thing, and all." I could hear her frantic breathing beginning to slow down to a normal rate. She had been really worried about missing my birthday. I shook my head in amusement.

Changing the subjected I asked her, "So, how is it? How did your speech go? The one on Genovian TV? Did your crown fall off? I know you were afraid it might." I couldn't help but grin at the memory of how frantic she had looked at the thought that it might just do that during her speech.

'It was going ok, I mean, I followed the palm cards that were written up for me, but then…' she trailed off.

"But then?"

'But then I ruined it by going off about how six pack holders are extremely dangerous to marine animals.' She admitted with a small sigh.

"Didn't like that huh?"

'No, they didn't. Even though,' she said hotly, 'it is a vitally important issue.'

"Of course it is." I agreed with her because it is. It's an extremely serious issue. Hundreds of thousand marine animals die because of six pack holders and other plastic products every year!

She then told me how she was planning on organising teams of volunteers to patrol the beaches of Genovia during nesting time for Sea Turtles, to make sure that none of their eggs are either disturbed by tourists or crushed by these machines that apparently comb the beaches every morning, so that they are free of seaweed. Like they don't have anything else better do.

'So, how was your birthday?' she asked once she had finished telling me about the Sea Turtles.

"Oh, that." I said with a laugh.

'Yes, that.' she replied and I laughed again.

"It was ok. Lil almost killed herself, but besides that it was pretty mundane."

'She WHAT?'

So I told her about my birthday and what a fun day that was spent hanging out in Promptcare, that wasn't very prompt at all. She was pleased to hear about my new laptop, as well as sounding quite angry when she heard about my lost of sponsors for Crackhead because of my Linux vs Windows article.

'They can't do that. Not when you were only telling the truth.' Mia said in outraged, which had me smiling again.

"Apparently they can and they did. So." I replied with a shrug of my shoulders, which of course she couldn't see. "It's no big deal, though."

'How can you say that?' she asked sounding bewildered, 'You've been working on Crackhead since you were thirteen! You can't just let it go because of those narrow-minded, cowardly people.'

"Yeah," I said, surprised that she actually remembered when I started Crackhead since she was only a little kid at the time, I think she had just turned ten in fact when I posted my first ever Crackhead article. "But I think it's time for a change. I was thinking of starting up a band actually." It's been an idea that Felix, Paul and I have been throwing around for a couple of years but we've all been too busy with our own things (not to mention we didn't have any original music of our very own and none of us were particularly good at playing any instruments a couple of years back), but now, now I thought might be good time to give it a try.

'A band?' she didn't say it as if she thought I was joking, but instead she simply sounded curious and interested and I felt a whole new wave of affection towards her flood through me.

"Yup. What do you think?"

'I think it's pretty cool.' She replied and I suddenly became aware of just how sleepy she sounded. I glanced down at my watch. It wasn't extremely late here but over there…

"Hey, isn't it like three in the morning there?" I asked.

'Yes.'

"Well, you'd better get to bed." I said, feeling like a moron for keeping her up at all hours of the night… morning because she was talking to me. "Unless you get to sleep in." Is it wrong that I hoped that she would say yes to that, so that I could keep on talking to her? "but I bet you have stuff to do tomorrow, right?"

'Oh,' she sounded like she was half asleep already, 'Just a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the hospital. And then lunch with the Genovian Historical Society. And then a tour of the Genovian zoo. And then dinner with the Minister of Culture and his wife." The most she talked the more I was filled with a sense of horror.

"Oh, my God." I was truly alarmed by what she was telling. I mean, what she was being expected to do was pretty full on and it was only, like her first visit to Genovia as a Royal and they already had her doing all that! Seriously! "Do you do that kind of stuff every day?" I asked, hoping beyond hope that she would say no, she didn't, that tomorrow was simply an out of the ordinary busy day.

"Uh huh." I'm not going to get my girlfriend back alive am I? They are going to work her into the ground with all this royal stuff and kill her because of it.

"Mia." I said with some panic, "You better get some sleep. You have a huge day ahead of you." And I want you to come back to me as more than simply a zombie.

"Ok." I rolled my eyes at her cheery, sleepy tone. She wasn't going to hang up, I could see that now. Crap, which meant, of course, I had to and I didn't want to do that.

"I mean it, Mia." I ordered all the same. I mean, clearly they weren't thinking of her health or they'd have cut back with all those royal duty crap and Mia certainly never thought about her health, so clearly I was going to have take on that role. "Hang up the phone and go to bed."

"You hang up first."

Crap….

I hate it when she uses that voice and by hate, I mean love, because it means that I'll do more or less anything that she'll ask me to.

I felt my lips twitch into the smallest of smiles. God, I love this girl.

"No, you hang up first." Whenever I heard this said in movies or TV shows, I thought it was the most corniest thing to say at the end of a phone conversation, but here, saying it to her, I meant it. I honestly didn't want to hang up. Though I didn't want her to hang up either.

'No. You.'

"No. You."

'Both of you hang up,' my darling sister's voice suddenly screeched down the line from the extension, 'Grandma needs to call Uncle Mort inSchenectadyto see how his toe surgery went." Thanks Lil, like Mia really needed to hear that.

With a sigh, which I heard Mia echo on her side, we both simply said bye and hung up more or less at the same time.

I pulled a face at the now hung up phone. I didn't even get a chance to say I loved her.

"Grandma." I called, "Phone is free."

Grandma looked up at me in surprise from where she had been watching some game show on the television.

"Oh Michael, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for Lilly to kick you off the phone so suddenly. I actually wasn't planning on calling your uncle for another half an hour." I gave her an 'are you serious' look before sighing and telling myself to just get over it already. Mia was exhausted anyway, and getting off then was probably for the best, who knows how long we could have both gone on with the 'no. you' thing. Not that I would have actually minded, but once again Mia was exhausted and seriously needs her sleep.

"How's Mia?" Grandma asked.

"Um, she's ok, tired. She's doing a lot over there, you know, meeting her people and government and so on."

"Yes, I can imagine." Grandma said nodding, "Most be tough for her." I nod.

"Yeah, but I think she'll be ok, she just needs to get used to it all first, then she'll be fine." I said with completely confidence. I mean, look how much her confidence in herself and her ability to speak her mind has improved in just the past few months.

Grandma smiled up at me, a knowing sort of look in her eye.

"What?" I asked, feeling my ears start to grow red.

"Oh nothing. I just don't I've ever seen you so happy before." Grandma said with a grin, as she moved to get up. I quickly moved to her side and offered her my arm to help her.

"Such a gentleman." She said smiling up at me fondly. "She's lucky to have you." My ears went, if possible, even redder at that.

"I think it's me that's lucky to have her." I mumbled back and Grandma chuckled.

"Alright. You're both lucky to have each other." She said, standing on tippy toe to kiss my cheek before she made her way to the kitchen to ring Uncle Mort about his toe.

Shaking my head I headed back to my room, though not before I walked into Lil's and smacked her over the back of the head for interrupting my goodbye to Mia.

"But you were both taking so long!" She whined as she rubbed her head. "And you promised you wouldn't be sickening together. I told you that the two of you would be sickening together!" I rolled my eyes at her ranting and left her room, once more heading for mine, to think over songs that I wanted my so far unnamed (and with no guaranteed band mates of yet to speak of) band to play.

Of course, thoughts of Mia invaded my head, and so that all the verses for songs that I had so far come up with were in some way related to her, but that was ok, since my basically my whole reason for getting into writing songs was actually because of her and the need to vent my feeling for her some way or another or I would explode or do something extremely embarrassing. So writing songs had been my answer, to keep from doing the things I stated above.

Writing songs has kept me sane while I couldn't have Mia. Though now that I actually have her (more or less), new ideas for songs still keep flowing into my head with every hour of the day.

And now I felt like I would explode if I didn't play them. At least writing them down was keeping me from going insane from being stuck in a condo inFloridaand not being able to see Mia.

God, I miss her.

Author's Note: Hey Everyone, here's chapter 3 and the long awaited phone call between Mia and Michael. I'm not sure why but this phone call aways makes me laugh whenever I read it. They're just so sweet together, and I guess, we also get to see a happier Michael. I mean, in the earlier books, he was like in a good mood, but I don't think he was particularly happy, but here, when he's talking to Mia, I think is the first time he actually sounds happy and cheerful.
I think Mia brings out a whole different side to Michael, a happier, possibly warmer side of him that he doesn't really let out for anyone else besides her, but that's just want I think. And that's how I'm going to try and write it too. I just think Mia brings out the best in him and because of that he wants to be the best... for her and will do anything to become so.
Anyway, thanks for reading and you know reviews are much loved or any ideas you might have for this fic or in a later one, anything that you have wondered about and would like to see written in these fics, let me know and I will try and put it in.
See you all soon