Chapter Seven

I thought that Tuesday, things would be easier.

That the air might be clearer or something like that. I don't know. But anyway, I was wrong, as per usual.

Though there was a bright side to the day, that bright side becoming quite apparent when Mia came and picked me up for School. Only me since Lil took the subway to school on account that she and Mia are fighting. Or rather, as Mia put it, they're simply not speaking to each other at this current moment in time due to their differing views on certain subjects. She, Mia that is, seems to be dealing with the non-speaking thing with Lil a lot better than previous times that they've not been on speaking terms. If anything I'd say it was like something of a weight was lifted off her shoulders when she saw it was only me getting into the limo this morning.

She smiled widely at me as I got in, looking far happier than I think I've seen her in… awhile or maybe she simply looked calmer because she didn't have to be angry at Lil at the moment. But did this mean she wasn't angry at me anymore? She certainly acted as if she wasn't, mad at me that is, if the enthusiastic good morning kiss that she gave me was anything to go on.

However, over the course of the day I would say her good mood definitely deteriorated. Not that I saw her much, what with having to my Maths Final (which was easy) during the first half of the day. But I did finish it during hers and mine lunch hour and when I caught up with then, her good mood of this morning was almost completely gone.

She seemed happy enough to see me though, so I figured that whatever had caused her good mood to disappear probably had nothing to do with me… probably.

Anyway, because I had no finals that afternoon and had nothing better to do, I went to all my afternoon classes, which mostly involved me sitting in my usual sit while I and whatever teacher I currently had, sat back and worked on our computers.

So, in a way, the day wasn't too terrible, just that nearly everyone I'm associated with is currently not talking to someone; Mia and Lil, Boris and Lil, Felix and Paul, Judith, Felix and Paul and I'm just stuck in the middle of it all, not having a clue what the hell I should do about what is happening with all of them and praying to all the high powers out that all of them sort out their differences so that things can simply return back to normal again… and soon.

If only I were so lucky.

I was walking to my Gym class (which, like any sane person, I was dreading) when Tina came rushing up to me, breathing heavily from apparently running all over school trying to find me.

"Hey Tina, what's up?" I said, nodding Hi to Wahim, since he really isn't a big talker, only to Lars does he say more than a couple of words to.

It took Tina a few moments for her to gain enough air in her lungs to speak.

"Do you- do you know about Mia running out of French?" she finally wheezed out. Obviously my shocked expression was her answer that no, I hadn't heard about Mia running out of French, since she continued on, "Well, she did. I don't know why," when my face was obviously screaming out 'WHY', "she just got a call on her mobile and ran out." She took another few deep breaths, before giving me a weak, shy smile, "I just thought you should know."

I smiled back at her, even though inside I was freaking out.

It had to be about Helen. The phone call, I mean. Helen and the baby. What else would have Mia running out of her French Class? Well, besides Clarisse maybe, but I doubt that her grandmother is involved this time.

No, I'm pretty sure this has something to do with Helen and the baby.

"Thanks Tina. Thanks for letting me know." She nodded and gave me another shy smile, before she turned around and headed for her class.

Tina was, and I've always thought this, a very good friend for Mia. Yes, she was a bit of a scatterbrains and a big romantic daydreamer, but she was kind and friendly and she never makes Mia feel bad about herself, unlike my wonderful sister who makes Mia feel like crap on all days that end with 'y'.

I decided to simply ditch Gym and instead snuck off to one of the empty computer labs and tried calling the loft on my mobile (this took awhile, since yet again, I had forgotten my password for it. I really need a new one or maybe I shouldn't keep my mobile off for something like three months at a time), only to receive no answer.

I didn't even really think about it when I dialled the next number that came to me. I mean, really I should have. Thought about, that is. But in truth I wasn't thinking about the social disapproval of my calling him just at that very moment, too worried I was about Mia.

And besides, it wasn't like he minded overly much. Surprised by my calling him maybe, but not bothered.

"Hello." He said in his thick French accent as he answered his phone after the second ring. He sounded surprised that he was being called, and by a number he didn't know.

Not many have his private mobile number and the only reason that I do have it is because I happen to be dating his daughter, so that if anything should go wrong, I can contact him or something like that. I don't know, he didn't really go into details about it when he gave it to me on my second meeting with him; only telling me that if there was ever a need, here was he's number.

I'm not overly sure what he meant by that, but this counts as a need, right? Finding out if his daughter or rather the mother of his daughter was ok, right?

I took a deep breath, suddenly feeling nervous, but I refused to allow myself to imitate simply because he happens to be a Crown Prince (oh, and because he happens to be my girlfriend's dad). I mean, besides that, he's a perfectly nice guy and we get on quite well.

"Hello, this is Michael Moscovitz…"

'Michael.' He said and he actually sounded genuinely pleased. 'How may I help you?'

"Um, I was just wondering, um…" my mind had gone blank.

'If Helen is ok?' He guessed, sounding both amused and pleased, though I have no idea why. Anyway, so it was about Helen, thought as much.

"Yeah, that. Mia rushed out of class and I was worried. Is she alright? The baby?"

'They're both fine I believe,' he reassured me before I could work myself up anymore than I already had, 'Helen simply got dehydrated and fainted at the Grand Union.' I gagged at how calm he sounded.

"But she's ok now, right? And the baby?"

'Yes, they are. In fact, I believe Helen is already bossing the nurses of ER around.' He sounded amused and possibly a little wistful, but I chose to ignore that. I knew from Mia that her Dad had some unresolved feeling when it came to her Mom.

'They're at St Vincent's Hospital.' Philippe said quite unexpectedly. 'I'm sure Mia would appreciate seeing you. According to Lars she is quite beside herself with worry and I'm pretty sure, seeing you, would calm her down a great deal.' I felt my ears starting to turn a little red at that.

"Um, thank you sir. I'll head over there as soon as school is let out. Um, thanks again."

'You are very welcome.' He replied and with that and a quick goodbye, we hung up.

I had to shake myself to get over the weirdness of that phone call, only then dawning on me just how weird it was. Me calling her Dad, her Dad who happens to be a Crown Prince!

How many guys do you know call up the girlfriend's dad, willingly? Especially when said girlfriend's dad happens to be a Princes? None of the guys that I know would. And I had done it without even thinking!

Ok-ay… what does that say about me?

I headed over to St Vincent's Hospital the moment school let out.

I thought that I might get a hard time, you know getting into ER since I didn't have any limbs hanging out their sockets and I wasn't bleeding from a gunshot wound or anything like that, but they let me right on in. Possibly because I might have thrown in the fact that I happen to be dating the Princess of Genovia, whose mother was currently in ER, but you never know, they might like having un-ill people wondering around their ER for no readily apparent reasons… Ye-ah.

Anyway, I found Mia and Lars easily enough; they were in the ER waiting room, both reading. Well, when I say both, I should say Lars was staring at a magazine because he couldn't force himself to go through watching the chick-flick currently playing on the ER waiting room TV and Mia was writing in her journal (what a surprise). I swear that she loves that thing more than she loves me. Can you be jealous of an inanimate object? Because if you can, then I'm completely screwed. I mean, it's bad enough competing with her cat but her journal too!

Lars saw me first, but probably only because an ambulance rolled in with someone who had actually pulled a limb out of its socket and he had looked up to see what was happening and the cause for all the screaming and had spotted me then.

Mia looked up a moment later, saw me and grinned.

"Hey." I said as I walked over to them.

"Hi. What are you doing here?" Mia asked, not sounding angry that I was there, simply surprised that I was.

"Tina told me that you rushed out of French for some reason, and since I couldn't get an answer from the loft, I rang your Dad and he told me what had happen." Mia eyebrows rose to her hairline.

"You rang my Dad?"

"Uh huh."

"Ok-ay." She said after a moment of simply digesting that fact. I know, I was still trying to digest it too.

"Why didn't you just call me?" she asked after a moment, after I had sat down in the chair next to her.

I gave her a look and her face went bright red.

"Because you don't know my number." she answered her own question slowly.

I shook my head at her comically.

"But you never have your mobile on anyway." She shot back at me as I started to laugh at her.

"Because no one interesting ever calls me." Actually no one calls me, at all. If people want to talk to me, they do so over IM. Like Mia, for example. Most of our conversations, when we're not at school or hanging out, are over IM.

"So, in other words, you're saying that if there was a chance that you were going to get a call from someone you find personally interesting say, Sarah Michelle Geller, you would have your phone on all the time?" Mia asked, somewhat dryly.

"Definitely." I said with a grin that caused her to roll her eyes back at me.

"Give me your phone?" she ordered, making a 'give me' motion with one of her hands as she used her other to scrounged through her school bag for something.

"Are you actually going to give Sarah Michelle Geller phone number?" I asked teasingly, though I admit, I was also a tad hopeful. Yes, I do love Mia more than anything else in the world but… this was Sarah Michelle Geller! Buffy!

"No. Mine." She replied as she pulled her new phone out of her school bag.

I pulled my face into a mock pout.

"Aw well, I guess I'll just have to force myself to settle for you in the meantime." She elbowed me in the gut, before once more making 'give me' motions.

So with a mock sigh of reluctance, I handed over my phone to her.

"Do you even remember your phone number?" I asked her teasingly after a moment as she simply sat there, holding both our phones in her hands.

"Of course I do." I grinned at her. "Shut up." I laughed.

"Mean."

"Yes, yes, I'm very mean." I agreed and Mia stuck her tongue out at me, before typing in her phone number into my phone's address book.

"Not that it'll do much good." She said once she had handed my phone back.

"Hmmm, why?"

"Because my mom and Mr G are the only ones allowed to call my mobile. You know, to contact me when the baby is being born."

"Yeah, but what happens after the baby is born?" I asked, "Are you still going to be under those rules?"

"Um, I don't know."

"I doubt it," I said as I plucked her phone from her hand, and went into her address book, not surprised at all to see that she only had three numbers listed in it, Mr G's and Helen's mobiles as well as the lofts number.

I quickly typed in mine before handing it back to her as I added. "But it's not like it'll be a problem, since we mostly IM each other anyway."

"Because you never have your mobile turned on."

"You didn't even have my number." I replied in exasperation.

"I do or rather, I did. Lilly gave it to me." She said when I gave her a questioning look. "I tried calling it a couple of times but you never answered (because you never have it on). Lilly thought that it was hilarious."

"When did you…" I started to ask before remembering that I had received several calls during one of my phones being off stints and I hadn't known the number, so hadn't bothered calling it back, thinking that it was just some company trying to sell me something. "That was you?"

"Uh huh."

"Wait, why weren't you using you home number?" I asked as I went scrolling through my missed calls list, which considering how often I have my phone turned off, there isn't an overly huge list to go through, because no one ever calls me on my mobile, so I found the group of calls, from same unknown number, quite easily.

"Because every time I called you, I was over at Tina's. They kept daring me to do it, for some reason." She added with a shrug when I gave her another questioning look.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

She gave another shrug.

"Didn't see much point to. I mean, I didn't have a mobile then, I knew more or less that you didn't use yours very often, granted I didn't think you actually turned it off for weeks on end, and I can talk to you easily enough on IM or at school and if I ever want to call you I can always call your home phone, so I just didn't see much point bring it up when it wasn't really an issue to begin with. And even now," she said starting to grin, "I can still see us communicating more by IM then by using our mobiles."

I did too. But that didn't mean I didn't want her mobile number, or her not to have mine.

We settled down into comfortable silence, either watching CNN of the occasional ambulance that rolled in, the three of us making a game of trying to guess what had happen to person who was being brought in (is sad that Lars won most rounds? Or just worrying?).

During most of the time that we were waiting, Mia and I played Thumb Wars. Don't ask me why or how that started, only that we did it for something like two hours.

It didn't get boring or anything due to fact that though I have bigger hands than her, her thumb is faster and is surprisingly strong once she has mine trapped underneath hers.

Anyway, it ended up becoming a draw between us, as we both won as many rounds as each other.

I was watching another ambulance bring in another patient, cringing inwardly when I saw what they were doing to him, when Mia suddenly prodded me with her free hand, her other was still trapped in terrific battle of thumb wars.

"Hmm?"

"Come on. Doesn't that look fun?" she said and I gave her a 'what' look, thinking that clearly the whole thing that had happen with Boris yesterday has skewed her brain somewhat.

"Getting your chest cracked open with a rib spreader in the middle of Seventh Avenue? Not really?" I said slowly, contemplating, for a moment, and I might as well add, not for the first time, my girlfriend's sanity.

She gave me a very dry look.

"No," she said somewhat huffily, though I did notice her cringe when she happened to look in the poor guy's direction, "On the TV. You know, Prom."

I heard Lars give a snort of amusement from Mia's other side, causing me to glare at him over Mia's head while he gave me a 'rather you then me' look before sitting back and watching the doctors work on the guy with his chest cracked open.

I fought back a sigh and looked up at the TV screen, watching for a moment, at all the dressed up, dancing kids displayed on it and said a quick 'no'.

I hoped, even though I knew it wouldn't be, that that would be the end of it, but of course it wasn't.

"Yeah, but seriously. Think about it." I have and it's still no, "it might be cool. "It might be not. Actually I'm sure it is. Not cool, that is. "You know. To go and make fun of." Which is what she and I had done at the previous two dances that we had gone to together-ish. Well we hadn't exactly gone together, but we had certainly left them together. "And you don't have to wear a tux, you know. You could just wear a suit." Which is just as bad as a tux! "Or not even a suit." She added quickly, obviously seeing the face that I had pulled at the word 'suit'. "You could wear jeans and one of those T-shirts that look like a tux." This time I actually heard Lars chuckled, while I stared at Mia, once again, questioning her sanity.

"You know what would be even more fun?" I asked, and I saw her fighting back a sigh, "Bowling."

This time, Mia didn't bother fighting back a sigh as she rolled her eyes in exasperation at me.

"But, Michael," she started and I started to panic some, because she was using that voice, the voice that made me want to do anything that she wanted, which is bad because I might find myself actually agreeing to go to prom with her. "Seriously. We could go bowling any old night. And frequently do. Wouldn't it be more fun, just once, to get all dressed up and go dancing?"

I sighed heavily.

Dancing, of course, that would be the reason why she would want to go to the stupid prom.

"You want to go dancing?" I asked and she nodded, "we could go dancing." Seriously, if that was the only reason why she wanted to go to prom, because she simply wanted to go dancing, then she could have just told me and I would have taken her dancing before this and I wouldn't be in this situation with her about the damn prom. "We could go to the Rainbow Room if you want. My parents go there on their anniversary and stuff. It suppose to be really nice." I could see her starting to hesitate as if her resolve about prom was starting to falter some. YES! "there's live music," I continued quickly, hoping that I could convince her out of wanting to go to the prom once and for all, "really great old time jazz, and - "

"Yeah," she started slowly, interrupting me, though I could see that her resolve about prom wasn't as strong as it was before. "I know. I'm sure the Rainbow Room is very nice." I could see a flicker of hopefulness in her eyes. "But I mean, wouldn't it be nice to go dancing some place with PEOPLE OUR OWN AGE?"

I fought back a groan, before sighing. Why was I getting this feeling that I was somehow going to be going to my prom, whether I liked it or not.

"Like from AEHS?"I asked slowly and watched her nod. "I guess so." Oh god, resolve failing, "I mean, if like Trevor and Felix and Paul were going to been there…" which was becoming less and less likely what with how things had been between them. "But you know, they wouldn't be caught dead at something as lame as the prom."

I thought that she might fight me some more over this, but I could see in her eyes that she was getting as tired as I was about this whole prom thing.

"So," I said after a few more moments of silence. Mia looked back around at me, as I rubbed my thumb lightly against the hand that I was still holding, "do you want to go to the Rainbow Room sometime." She looked at me in surprise.

"Um?"

"I only think prom is lame," I said softly, "dancing with you is not." I watched her cheeks turn a rosy red colour at that as she nodded, smiling.

"Ok."

"Cool." I squeezed her hand tightly in mine. Then, just to make sure she wasn't still a little mad at me, I kissed her gently, because in a way, I admit, I did feel a little bad, you know, about the whole prom thing. I know how much she did want to go, how much she does love to dance, and I was beginning to feel bad about the whole refusal to take her to the prom.

"I promise I'll make it up to you, ok." I mumbled when we pulled apart for air. I felt her nod slowly and I kissed her again.

Her mom and Mr G came and found us a short time after that.

"Hi there Michael." Mr G greeted me as they came over to where we were sitting.

"Hi." I said before turning to Helen, "how are you feeling?" I asked her and she smiled.

"Oh, I feel fine." She replied waving her hand in front of her, as if her fainting in Grand Union was no big deal at all.

I could see Mr G rolling his eyes at that.

"Right and let's keep you that way." He said as he put an arm around her waist and sort half steered towards the exit.

"Mia," Helen said over her shoulder as all walked out of St Vincent's, "how bout you and Michael go and do something together for a couple of hours."

"Just make sure your home by at least ten. School night, remember" Mr G added with an apologetic grin before he and Helen headed off to hail a taxi.

"What do you want to do?" I asked and Mia thought for a moment.

"Pizza?" I grinned

"Sounds great."

I held her hand as we walked to Ray's Pizzeria, talking about everything and anything, with Lars occasionally throwing in his two cents.

He doesn't always join our conversations, but sometimes he does, telling us about all things he did before he entered the body guard business. And even some of the stuff he has done during his time as a bodyguard and from what I can gather from what he's told us, it's pretty obvious that out of all the people he has acted as a bodyguard for, Mia and her dad are his favourite.

He has a great respect for Mia's dad and with Mia; he sort of treats her like a favourite niece or a younger sister. He's still very professional, but you can defiantly tell he is fond of Mia.

Anyway, we had a good time, eating pizza and simply hanging out. It had been a while since our last date, not that we really plan dates, they sort of just happen most of the time, like this one but it had been a while since we had gone out, just the two of us (well three of us, because of Lars, but he was barely noticeable when he's sitting off watching a game on the big screen at Ray's, cheering along with most of the other patrons).

We did some homework while we were there at Ray's. Or rather, Mia did her Algebra homework and I helped her with it.

She is getting better with it, but it's obvious that Maths really isn't her strong point, just like English isn't mine.

"I hate it." She grumbled as I showed her what she had done wrong in the equation I had set for her ten minutes earlier.

"It's just a silly mistake; you'd still get marks for your working if this were a test." I replied gently, Mia simply pulled a face.

"Still." She said, sounding frustrated.

I kissed her temple fondly.

"Come on, let's get you home." I said even though it wasn't even eight o'clock yet, but Mia had had a stressful day and she looked tired enough to seemly fall asleep where we were in the booth.

Lars and I got her home safe and sound with Mia giving me a warm kiss before heading into her building.

"Looks like you've managed to talk your way out of going to the prom." Lars said as we headed in the direction of my apartment building.

I shrugged.

"I guess." But then I caught a look at his face, the look that he wore on it was one of secret amusement, like he knew something that I didn't.

"What?" I asked suspiciously.

"Nothing."

"Come on, tell. What?"

He simply smiled knowingly at me and I spent the rest of the walk to my apartment building trying to get him to spill whatever secret suspicious that he had.

"You're not going to tell me are you?" I finally grumbled once we had reached my building.

"Nope."

"Thanks a lot." I said rolling my eyes at him, causing him to chuckle.

"Good night Michael. The Princess and I will see you in the morning."

"Yeah, see you then." I said as I gave him a goodbye wave and headed into my building.

Lil was there when I got in, along with Jangbu, planning their next stage of attack, but I pretty much ignored them, heading straight for my room as soon as I got myself a drink of water from kitchen.

I did a bit of research on the dangers of dehydration for pregnant women, which I then printed off to give to Mia tomorrow for her to then give to her mom.