Author's Note: Hi Everyone. Another long chapter for you guys to read. Another ten pager. But it's ten pages filled with fun and Michael awsome/awkwardness for you all to feast upon.
I hope that you all enjoy and comments at love, as you all know, lol.

Chapter Ten

You know, I never thought I'd be happy about today being senior skip day, but… I am!

For one thing, all the people who want Mia dead because of the stupid prom won't be there to give her a hard time about it!

Another thing, it sort of gave my parents an excuse to keep Lil home from school today. Even though Senior Skip Day doesn't, in fact, apply to her because she is, of course, not a senior, but they're still using it as an excuse to keep her home so that the three of them can have a nice long chat about her obvious disestablishmentarianism and about the way she treated both Boris and Mia this past week.

Yeah… and I am so outta here.

Ok, I admit that isn't another reason as to why I'm happy it's Senior Skip Day, it's more a Lil Stays Home Because She's In Deep Shit Day, but either way, she's staying home from school today, meaning that I more or less get to have Mia all to myself today, which is why I'm pretty happy about the day.

So before my parents could try and convince me to stay home as well, so that we could have a whole family psychoanalyst session (yeah… right), I bolted out of our apartment the first chance I got and waited outside for Mia to come and pick me up for school.

I had texted her earlier this morning, asking if she wanted to come by mine earlier than usual to pick me up. Her response to my text was something along the lines of Dear God, Yes!

"Hey." I greeted her as soon as I hopped into the limo.

"Hi." She said smiling, even though I could see dark circles underneath her eyes, like she hadn't slept properly in a week, which considering the week that she's been having, I'm not surprised.

I gave her a quick good morning kiss as we set off.

"Mom and Dad finally found out about all the school Lil's skipped and about the press conferences that she's held this week." I told her and Mia looked torn between being pleased and slightly worried. "They've gone all 7th Heaven on her, making her stay home from school today so that the three of them can have a nice long talk about everything she's done this week."

"Is that why you wanted us to come and pick you up earlier than usual?" she asked in amusement.

"Duh! You were my Get of Jail Free card." I said as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to me as I kissed her forehead.

"So that's what's happening at my house. Now please explain what the hell is happening at yours. Why was your grandmother there last night? Please tell me she was only visiting."

"Nope, I wish." She sighed and then explained why her grandmother was staying over at hers.

"So, let me get this straight," I started once she had finished, trying to keep my face straight as I spoke, "she's over at yours basically because no one at the Plaza would run her a bath?"

"Basically… and yes, you can laugh." She added when she saw how hard I was trying not too.

"I'm sorry." I chuckled, "but seriously? God, your grandmother really is ridiculous, isn't she?"

"You have no idea." Mia agreed as her limo pulled up in front of school.

"Thank you, Hans. See you after school." She said to her driver, who smiled at her and replied with he hoped she had a good day at school today.

"Bye." I said to him and he gave me a nod and a smile.

The three of us stood outside AEHS for a few moments, taking in how deserted it looked, it was quite early still before deciding that we'd go to Ho's and get ourselves some much needed breakfast.

I hadn't had any in my rush to get out of the apartment and Mia had apparently been too worked up by her grandmother's presence at her house, that she ate hardly anything for breakfast, so both our stomachs were grumbling in hunger.

While at Ho's buying our breakfast (an egg sandwich for me and Ring Dings for Mia), the moment that Lars in the refrigerated section buying his morning can of Red Bull, I grabbed Mia and pulled her into a secluded part of the store and start kissing her, making up for our lack of kisses over the past couple of days.

For a second after I started kissing her, she froze before relaxing against me, her arms wrapping around my neck as mine went around her waist, her fingers threading themselves through my hair.

I would have liked to have spent the whole day simply doing this, kissing her, but all too soon, we were interrupted by Lars subtly coughing that we needed to get moving or we'd be late for school.

Not that that really matter, since when I arrived at my homeroom, I was the only one there and oddly enough I was the only one who turn up for English as well.

I thought at least Jude would turn up, but it became quite apparent basically from the moment that I walked into class that I was going to be the only person who was going to bother turning up today.

Mrs Weinstein didn't seem overly bothered by the lack of students in her classroom; she was armed with a copy of the latest Cosmo and seemed quite content to spend the period reading that. Just as I was quite content to spend the period working on my laptop. Ok, when I say working, I mean more like playing Doom.

But my plans were interrupted, as they usually are, because just as I was setting up my laptop I heard Mia's voice inside the classroom. My classroom.

"Excuse me, Mrs Weinstein, but may I have a word with Michael?" my head immediately whipped to the front of the room where she was standing beside Mrs Weinstein desk.

"Whatever, Mia." Mrs Weinstein replied, turning a page of Cosmo, not overly bothered by the fact that Mia was there at all. But… Why was she here at all? It didn't look like anything was wrong, so why was she here?

I watched, somewhat dumbfounded, as Mia came bounding down the row of desks to where I was sitting, slipping into the desk in front me, smiling as she gushed out, " Michael, remember how you said that you'd only go to the prom if the guys of your band went, too?"

I stared at her, trying to figure out where the hell this had come from.

I could see over Mia's head, Lars leaning against the classroom doorframe, watching us in amusement but giving no clues whatsoever as to what Mia was all about.

"What are you doing here?" I asked instead, "Does Mr G know you're here? You're going to get into trouble again…"

"Never mind that," Mia interrupted me impatiently, like her getting into trouble with her step-father/Algebra teacher was no big issue at all, "Just tell me. Did you mean it when you said you'd go to the prom if the guys from your band went, too?"

"I guess so," I said rather weakly, still trying to see where the hell all this was coming from, "But, Mia, the prom got cancelled, remember?"

This was when her grin began to widen and her whole face seemed to glow with a certain smugness that I wasn't used to seeing on her.

"What if I told you," she started, trying to sound all casual… and failing, "that the prom was back on," oh wonderful. But at least she'll be left alone now, "and that they need a band," wha… "and the band the Prom Committee has chosen is YOURS?"

You have got to be kidding me…

"I'd say…" you fucking kidding me, right? "get out of town." She had to be kidding, right? I mean, there is no bloody way in hell that Weinberger would choose my band to play at her silly prom. No way, no way in flipping hell!

"I am totally serious." Mia said and she looked it too, "And I will not get out of town." My lips twitched into a slight smile at that, "Oh, Michael," slight smile gone, a huge amount of panic at that voice taking over, the voice that I'm pretty sure I'll agree to anything it requests, "please say yes, I want to go to the prom so badly…" she was close to begging, her eyes all wide and for some reason, and maybe this is just me, they looked silver rather than grey at this particular moment. Crap…

"You do?" Oh god… damn. "But the prom is so… lame."

"I know its lame." Then why do you want to go then? "I know it is, Michael. But that doesn't alter the fact that I have been dreaming of going to the prom for my entire life, practically. And I really believe that I could achieve total self-actualization if you and I went to the prom together tomorrow night…" She completely lost me with the self-actualization part of her little speech, but I basically got the gist of it. The gist is while most girls of her age spend their entire lives dreaming about their future wedding, my girl, on the other hand, instead dreams about going to the prom…

Is it wrong that I would have preferred her dreaming about her wedding day rather than the prom? No, I'm completely serious about this. I seriously would have preferred (and oddly enough, be more comfortable with) to know that she dreamed about her wedding day more than going to a stupid high school prom. But no, that isn't the case… of course it isn't. This is Mia after all.

I know for a fact that Mia hasn't thought one bit about her future wedding, deciding that since she is a royal, she'll probably have no say in what happens at her wedding and who would be invited to it since her grandmother will probably just take the whole thing over, so she simply doesn't even bother thinking about it… at all.

And even before that, when she was a little kid, she wasn't planning her future wedding; too busy was she building starships out of Star Wars Lego… with me.

Hey, it's a gig, a voice in my head pointed out. Mia's got you a gig, humour her. She doesn't ask for much, so just agree already.

"Uh," I started intelligently, "Well, Ok. I guess so. If you feel that strongly about it." I said weakly. I thought for a moment she might get mad at me for my lack of, well… I know most guys do not ask their girlfriends to the prom like that. And actually, it's her asking me and only through the fact that she's somehow managed to get the Prom Committee to agree to having my band playing at it, otherwise, she probably wouldn't and…

All other thoughts fled from me as Mia basically grabbed my head and kissed me right on the mouth. I thought that it would only be a quick kiss being that Mia is generally quite shy about kissing me in front of other people, such as my English teacher for example, but instead it turned into quite a long, heated kiss.

Possibly a little too heated for where we were and the only clear, straight thought running through my brain was, 'thank god I'm sitting down and that there is a desk between us or things could get really, really awkward'.

"Mia." I finally managed to strangle out as I found the strength to pull away from her kiss, if I didn't do it soon, I would be in serious trouble.

Dammit, why does she have to kiss me like that when we're in front of people? Why can't she ever do it when we're alone?

Because you're never alone, a snarky voice in my head reminded me.

Mia, completely obvious to my discomfort about what had just happen, or maybe she was ignoring it, simply smiled widely at me before bouncing back out of my classroom, with a "See ya, Mrs Weinstein," before disappearing out into the corridor, with Mrs Weinstein and me staring after her in dumb silence.

Out of the corner of my eye, before he left to follow Mia, I saw Lars laughing as he sent me a 'told you so' look before laughing some more.

"Ah…" I said to Mrs Weinstein, once we had shaken ourselves of out shock.

"It's fine Michael."

"Uh huh. Ok." I said, still trying to get my head around what had just happen and to calm all the chaos that Mia had started within my body by her kiss.

She comes, devastates with a smile, and then leaves, I thought before I groaned.

"Why do you just look like a man who has just been handed his death sentence?" Paul called to me as I trudged into Chem.

He, Judith and surprising Trevor too (apparently he got bored in his empty classroom, so decided to come and invade ours) were sitting at the back of the room, staring at me with worried expressions.

Ok, so Paul and Trevor looked worried, Judith's looked more curious with a sprinkle of smug knowingness about her.

I flopped miserably in a chair beside them, crossing my arms against the lab bench top, and dropped my head on to them with a thump.

"Mia's finally convinced you to take her to prom, hasn't she?" Judith guessed.

I grunted and I heard her giggle next to me.

"You're good." I heard Paul compliment her, causing her to laugh.

"It's gift."

I made another grumbling noise at that

"Wait," Trevor said sounding suddenly confused "isn't Prom cancelled because of the strike?"

"Not anymore apparently." Jude replied, "The Prom Committee has found a new place for the prom to be held at."

"Really? How, why and who made that happen?"

It was here that I stopped feeling sorry for myself as I remembered something very, very important that I had to tell both Paul and Trevor.

"Are you two going to Prom tomorrow night?"

"Ah?" Paul said looking confused.

"No." Trevor said flat out, without even a thought.

"Well, too bad, you're going. Both of you."

"What?" the two of them yelped.

"Uh huh, because we have a gig."

"We have a what now?" Paul asked, staring at me in disbelief.

Trevor was simply staring at me with his mouth hanging open.

"A gig. At the prom."

"Way to go." Jude said, though she looked as shocked as Paul and Trevor.

"What? How? Or maybe more importantly, why did you even agree?" Trevor demanded.

"You mean besides the fact that it's an actual gig?" I asked and he rolled his eyes at me.

"At the Prom? C'mon Mike, there is no way in hell that those cheerleaders on the Prom Committee would ever let us play at the prom. Wait," Trevor eyed me suspiciously, "Is this some form of blackmail that your girlfriend is using to get you to take her to the prom?"

"No. Though she does want to go, but that's beside the point," I added when Trevor started to look triumphant, "the point is we have a gig and a gig is a gig, no matter where it is. Alright?"

"Oh, man, can't we just stick forks in our eyes, instead?"

"NO!" I replied and I wasn't the only one.

"A gig is gig. Get over it." I said firmly.

"Fine." Trevor grumbled. "But I refuse to dance."

"That's fine, since we're the only music playing there, which means we'll be stuck on stage for basically the whole prom."

"Sweet. We can play whatever we want then." Trevor said looking marginally happier about the whole thing, while Jude and Paul looked still confused.

"And Mia gets what out of this?" Paul asked puzzled.

I shrugged.

"You mean besides getting to see her boyfriend up on stage?" Jude laughed and I rolled my eyes at them.

"I don't know. I just know that she had something to do with us getting this gig."

"Are we getting paid?" Trevor asked curiously.

"Um, I think we are, actually." I replied as I remembered earlier, out in the corridor, Weinberger stalking over to me, grumbling something about money and so on and that she'd get back to me later with more details. You could just tell that she was absolutely thrilled to have my band playing at the prom.

"Fuck yeah." Trevor said looking pleased.

"I can't believe I ever thought that you were quiet." Jude commented lightly.

"Girl, I play a trumpet when I ain't playing guitar with these guys. Trust me, I ain't quiet guy."

"Clearly." Jude said looking amused, while sending me a 'where do you find these guys?' look.

I shrugged with a grin.

As soon as class was out, I rang Felix to let him know what was happening and he agreed to come to school, so that we could practise in one of the empty music rooms here at school. We had to wait for after school for Boris to join us, but he was happy enough to do so, even though it did disturb his previous plans he had with Tina. But she quickly forgave him when he informed her that he could bring one guest with him to prom and the guest he had chosen to bring was her.

My ears are still ringing from her delighted screams.

When we were finally kicked out of the school's music room at five we headed over to Felix to practise in his building's basement (which is sound-proof) since his whole family, besides him, are out of the city for the weekend.

I used his computer to email Mia to let her know what was happening, since after she had told me about us having a gig at the prom, I hadn't seen her much for the rest of the day due to practising.

"Aw, you're so cute." I jumped at the sound of Felix's voice behind me.

I spun around on his computer chair and glared at him.

"What?"

"'See you tomorrow night. Love, M?' You two are adorable, you know that?"

"Don't you know that it's rude to read other people's emails?" I asked him tersely as I turned back around on the chair, gave my email to Mia a quick read over before sending it.

"Do you seriously tell her everything?" Felix asked as he came to lean on the back of the chair that I was sitting in, ignoring my annoyed glare.

"What?"

"Do you tell her everything?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for example, you told her of the fact that Trevor keeps grumbling under his breath 'Oh, man, can't we just stick forks in our eyes, instead?'." He quoted Trevor with a smirk.

"So?" I asked, trying to understand what he was getting at.

Felix simply shrugged.

"Most guys wouldn't tell their girlfriends that sort of thing, especially about something that was about her idea."

This time I shrugged.

"I don't know. I just do-did. I just do. What does it matter?"

"Probably nothing, just surprising is all. Anyway, your normal pizza or has she turned you into a vegetarian?" He asked as he walked out of his bedroom where his computer is and towards the kitchen.

"Usual." I said with a roll of my eyes, "Mia hasn't tried to turn me into anything. She accepts me as I am." I finished a tad defensive.

Felix raised an eyebrow at me.

"I was teasing you, you know?"

I sighed heavily.

"Yeah, I know. Um, listen, I have to go home and get some stuff. You sure it's ok for us to stay over tonight?" Felix raised an eyebrow at me.

"Fine" I replied with a roll of my eyes as I grabbed my school bag, "I'll be back soon, ok."

"Ok, bye." Felix said as he started dialling for the pizzas.

"Don't eat my Pizza." I yelled back as to him as I opened the front door his place.

"Aw, ruin all our fun!" I heard Felix yell back.

With a grin, I ran down his apartment blocks flight of stairs, feeling too energetic to take the elevator.

"Bye, guys." I yelled down the stairs leading to the basement where everyone else was.

"Bye!" and a "WAIT!" as Boris came running up the stairs from the basement to where I was.

"You heading home?" I asked, remembering just now that he was younger than the rest of us. When Boris is away from his usual group of friends (which so happens to be Mia's group), he becomes a lot more mature than when he is with them, like Mia actually. When Mia is away from her friends, in particular Lil and it's just her and me (and Lars), she becomes surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly) mature for her age. I mean, this is the girl who's been taking care of the bills of her house since she was like seven years old.

Mia is quite mature for her age, it just that, her mature side tends to be shoved to the side when she is dealing dominating people like Lil and her grandmother. I think that she thinks it's simply easier to let them think that she's an idiot and childish then try and prove them wrong by showing that she is quite smart and mature. I don't think a lot of people realise just how intelligent and mature Mia is due to the fact that they only ever see her as being naïve (which, I admit, she is at times) or neurotic (which again, she is at times. And paranoid, but seriously can you blame her? With all the stuff that she has to put up with.) or clumsy. And I guess the list can go on, but my point is, they never really see the real Mia. At times, I don't even think Mia sees the real her either. She tries so hard to please everyone else that she doesn't realise that she is perfect just the way she is.

Boris shook his head before nodding it.

"Which is it?"I asked with a grin and watch him go slightly red in the face.

"I'm just going home to get some stuff, but I'm going to stay the night."

"Your parents are alright with that?" I asked as we walked out of Felix's building.

"Yeah," he nodded with a smile, "they're fine. They're happy that I'm involved with you know, a group... of actual people that I know and talk to… face to face." He went even redder but I understood what he meant perfectly.

My parents always got excited too, when I was his age, whenever I was involved in something that had other people in it. I guess they were worried that I might become or already was anti-social, because you know, unlike Lil who had had Mia as her best friend for several years when I was fifteen, I didn't really have anyone. I mean, yeah I had Felix and Paul, but they were sort of friends at school, I didn't have them over all the time like Lil has Mia, so whenever I said that I was in something, the computer club at AEHS for example, they were super happy about it, encouraging me to keep with it (as I have, if only for the rights to bring my laptop to school, something that only a computer club member can do for some absurd reason.). I guess, Boris's folks are the same that way.

"Cool." I said and grinned at him. "You looking forward to it?"

"Playing at your prom? Uh huh."

"Not nervous?"

"No. Compared to the concerts and recitals that I've had play at over the years, this is basically nothing. Easier music to remember too." He replied cheerfully and I grinned at him widely.

"Good, I'm glad." then I decided, since it was still a couple of blocks to go before either of our building, that I might as well use the time efficiently and tease the buggery out of him.

"So, you and Tina, huh?" Already he's face was on fire and he looked ready to run in the opposite direction to which we were walking in.

"It's-ah- it's, I mean, it's not like, um, how you think."

"Really?" I teased, getting more enjoyment out of this than I probably should, but it just so much fun messing with freshman's heads.

"Really." He insisted starting to panic. "It wasn't, I mean, I didn't plan for this to happen. It just something that suddenly happen."

"Hmmm, don't I know!" I agreed thinking back on how I discovered my far from what could be called platonic feelings for Mia and how sudden that had been.

"I really like her." He said slowly, hanging his head down lowly and I sighed heavily. Suddenly teasing him about this had become not so fun.

"I know and she likes you… lot."

"Really?" he asked, looking up at me hopefully.

"Well, given what I walked into yesterday, I would say yeah." He went all red again.

"Ah, yeah, sorry about that." He squeaked while I snorted.

"It's fine. I honestly don't care, but can I suggest you find a better make-out place than the G&T supply closet?"

"Um, yeah… will do."

"Good."

We spent the rest of the walk to his building talking about various things, Star Wars, Buffy, you get the gist of it.

"Do you want to wait here for me or head back on your own?" I asked as we said our bye for now outside of his building.

He thought for a moment.

"Um, if you want." He said with a shrug.

"I'll give you a ring when I'm leaving my place, so that'll give you about ten minutes to get the last few things that you need and whatever, ok?"

"OK." He said with a nod, "cool, thanks Michael."

"It's cool. See you later than." I gave him a wave before he headed into his building and I headed for mine.

I got home just before seven o'clock, changed out of my school uniform and into some causal gear, dumped all the stuff out of my school bag and repacked it with clothes for tomorrow, though obviously I'd come back here to change for the prom, and other stuff that I might need.

I also grabbed my guitar, because as much as I don't mind playing the school's or Felix's step-brother's guitar (who hasn't played it in like, three years. So that when I picked it up to play for the first time when I was over at Felix's a few months back, I actually couldn't due to it being so out of tune from not being played in so long and for the fact that it actually had several string broken. Felix and I split the price between us to buy new strings for it. Felix says that when he leaves home, he's going to sneak the guitar out with him, says it isn't right for an instrument of the quality that the guitar is to just sit around, gathering dust and never being played.), but I really prefer my own.

I don't know. There is just something about playing your own instrument that you brought with your own money, learned to play all by yourself without any help besides music books and from listening to CD's on how it should properly sound.

"Sweetheart, are you going to stay for dinner?" Mom asked as she stuck her head around my door as I sat at my computer, checking if I had any new emails, in particular if Mia had email me back. She hadn't, which had me a little worried, if only because I was wondering if her grandmother had somehow killed her computer. Clarisse, on occasions, has threaten to do just that, saying that Mia spends too much time on the computer talking with people who are below her… and by people, I'm guessing, she means me.

Thank you Clarisse, as if I need to be reminded that I am, indeed someone of lower statue to your granddaughter. I remember it almost every single day, what with the media on a particularly slow news day, have nothing better do than ask the question of why the hell is Mia with someone like me, when she could be dating someone like, say Prince Harry or one of the guys from the Backstreet Boys (over my dead body).

Seriously, I do not need to be reminded by her when I am already competing with the knowledge that I am not right for Mia. I know, I get it! But clearly I'm doing something right compared to those guys, given the fact that Mia is with me and not one of them!

"Sweetheart?" Mom's hand on my forehead drew me out of my mental brood.

"Ah, yeah. I mean, no Mom. I'm going to eat back over at Felix's. he was ordering Pizzas as I was leaving, so I'll head back there after I've called Mia. I want to run by her the line-up of songs that we're planning on playing at the prom tomorrow night." I said as I shut down my computer and swung my backpack on to my back and picked up my guitar case (obviously with my guitar inside.) and headed out to the den to ring Mia.

I was glad to see Mom had brought the whole pretences about my needing to call Mia because I needed to ask her if she agreed with the line-up of songs that we plan to play tomorrow night (I knew that there were some that she wouldn't agree with, but I couldn't change them or the guys would have fits.). I wasn't in the mood to be analysed by her about the real reason I wanted to call her, due to the real reason of my wanting to call Mia being somewhat petty and proving further that I really am quite a possessive person when it comes right down to it. The real reason being that I just wanted to hear proof that she was really mine, and not, say Prince Harry for example and because I missed her and I wanted to check that she was still alive, what with her Grandmother actually staying over at hers for the time being. I would be seriously unimpressed if Mia's committed suicide simply so that she could get away from her grandmother.

I called her home phone, due to the likelihood of actually reaching her and her actually answering it.

She answered after the second ring and I was immediately subjugated to the sounds of screaming voices.

'Hello?' Mia yelled over the noise.

"Mia, it's me." I said back loudly.

'What?' I opened my mouth to repeat myself, but was interrupted by her saying 'wait a moment,' I heard screaming noise start to degrease as she obviously moved away from it. I heard the closing of a door.

'Hello.' I heard her say, sounding a little stressed out.

"Hey, it's me."

'Michael.' She sounded far more cheerful now. I couldn't help but grin slightly at that. 'what's up? I got your email.'

"I just wanted to check if you agree with the line-up of songs that we've planning on playing tomorrow night." I gave her the list and surprisingly she seemed to have no problem with most of the songs that we were planning on playing, even some of the, ah, less than really suitable for prom songs. And some of the songs that she suggested that we add to the line-up weren't so bad either, though I admit, I did put my foot down when she suggested songs like 'She Bangs' by Ricky Martin, threatening that I'd sooner show up on the middle of Times Square wearing nothing but a cowboy hat than play those songs at my High School Prom. Which she accepted and went on to suggest more old school songs like Spoon and White Stripes instead.

I then asked what I had been dying to know since the beginning of our call, "What is all that shouting in the background." Because even though I know Mia is in her room, with the door closed, I could still hear the screaming match going on in the background.

'Oh. That's just Grandmere and my mom arguing.' Arguing? Is that what they're calling screaming matches these days? Sounds like they're ready to kill each other, 'Grandmere keeps insisting that my mom let her smoke in the Loft, but Mom says it's not good for me, or for the baby.' she paused for a moment, obviously listening to what was being screamed now, 'Grandmere just accused my mother of being a fascist. She says that when she had Hitler and Mussolini over to the palace for tea at the height of World War Two,' what? 'they both let her smoke, and if it was good for those guys, it should be good enough for my mom.'

"Uh, Mia," I started slowly, trying to get my head around what her grandmother was claiming she had supposedly during World War 2, 'you do realize that your grandmother just turn sixty-five."

'Yeah,' she sounded disgruntled, probably remembering, as was I, the huge hissy-fit that her grandmother threw when Mia informed her that she couldn't go back to Genovia for Clarisse's sixty-fifth birthday celebration due to the fact that Mia had mid-terms during that time, so would be un-able to attend.

The verbal abuse Mia and her Dad (who seconded Mia's claim that she had to stay here in New York to do her mid-terms) received before and after Clarisse's birthday was formidable. One time after their Princess Lessons, Mia came over to ours basically in tears because of her grandmother's attitude towards her for missing her birthday celebration.

So yeah, I do know how old Clarisse is quite well because of all that. Old enough for the world not to miss her in the slightest if she had some unforseen accident… ok, yeah, I admit I did feel somewhat murderous towards her during those weeks leading up to and after her birthday.

And now, she's lying about historical events to her granddaughter, I thought with a sigh.

"Well, Mia," I said, "I know maths is not your strong point, but you do know that your grandmother could only have been about five years old during the height of World War Two. Right?" I could almost hear the gears in Mia's head turning as she came to the realisation that, surprise, surprise, her grandmother had lied to her… again! "I mean, she couldn't have had Hitler and Mussonlini for tea at the Genovian Palace, because she wouldn't have even been living there yet, unless she married your grandfather when she was like, four."

There was a slight pause as Mia absorbed all that I had told her.

'Miserable old bat.' I heard Mia grumble and I smirked.

"Anyway, I have to go and get Boris, so that we can head back to Felix's to practise." I told her regretfully as I looked down at my watch and saw that it was ten past seven and that the guys (plus Boris) were probably becoming impatient for me (and Boris) to get back. I didn't want to get back to Felix's and find that they had eaten my pizza. "So I'll see you tomorrow night?"

'You bet.' She sounded so insanely happy all over a sudden, her happiness being infectious and I found, despite myself, that I was grinning and feeling happy too.

This is a very dangerous power that she has over me and if she ever finds out that she has this power over me… oh god, am so totally screwed…

Like you aren't already, a voice in my head snorted in amusement. You are so totally whipped!

"You haven't changed your mind, have you? Decided that you'd, in fact, rather go bowling instead?" I was winding her up, but a part of me, but I admit, it was a small part now, was still hoping she'd say yes, that she would rather go bowling than the prom.

'NO!' she basically shrieked back at me while I laughed.

"Ok, ok. I'm just teasing you. I'll see you tomorrow night. Don't let your grandmother get to you, ok."

'Ok.'

"Ok, bye. Love you."

'Love you too. See you tomorrow. Bye.'

"Bye." And we hung up.

"Boris is going to the PROM!"

"Argh!" I yelled intelligently as I jumped back and away from both the phone and Lil.

"Geez! Don't you know it's rude to listen in on other people's phone conversation? Plus you almost gave me a heart attack!" I snapped at her, though it was clear she wasn't listening to a word I was saying.

"Boris is going to the prom? YOU'RE PROM! Why?"

"Um, because he happens to be in my band." I reminded her as I picked up my guitar from where I had placed it up against the couch, "and because he's in my band, which is playing at the prom, my prom, he gets to come along."

She sniffed.

"And I guess he's take that bitch with him." She spat back at me.

I raised an eyebrow at her, especially when she said bitch considering how she's treated him just this week.

"You mean, Tina?" I asked.

She scowled furiously up at me and I rolled my eyes at her.

"Yeah, I do believe that he is taking her. Why? What's it to you?" I knew I was pushing it, I could just see it in her eyes that she was getting ready to give me one of her ankle shattering kicks.

"Hey, you dumped him, remember? You can't get mad at him for asking another girl to the prom, when you dumped him in the first place, as well as made he feel like he was nothing better than crap for the rest of the week."

"Shut up." She snapped at me, kicking out at me, though I managed to dodge her kick and put enough distance between her and me, so that for her to try and kick me again, she'd have to come closer and of course, I would see her coming if she did and simply move again.

"Well, I gotta go. Gotta pick up Boris and head back to Felix's." I said as I walked out of the den.

"Bye." I called to Mom, Dad and Maya in the kitchen getting ready to eat dinner.

"Bye. Have fun! Don't stay up too late!" They called back and with that, I left and headed back for Felix, ringing and picking up Boris along the way.

"You don't think they've eaten all the pizzas, do you?" Boris asked nervously as we walked towards Felix's building.

I started to answer when I saw something that stopped and my brain clicked onto something. I smacked my palm against my forehead.

"Michael?"Boris asked sounding alarmed.

"I doubt they've eaten any of the pizza." I replied with a sigh.

"Huh?"

"Strike, remember? All restaurants are closed." Boris eyes became somewhat bug like as he looked up at me in horror.

"But-but… what are we going to do for food?" he asked.

"Head for Grand Union and buy a whole heap of frozen pizzas." I replied as I changed my course and started heading for the closet Grand Union to Felix's place.

When we got there, it became apparent that I wasn't the only one who remembered that there was a strike on, as we soon came across Paul, Trevor and Felix in the frozen section, stocking up frozen pizzas, mini pies and other frozen food to the sustain us through the long night of practice that lay ahead of us.

Not that any of us actually minded, in fact, we were looking forward to it, playing all night and dare I say, we were actually starting to look forward to playing at the Prom.

Our first real gig… and it was at the Prom… I'm sure there is some kind of irony here that I'm just not seeing as of yet.

But anyway, Mia's happy; she's going to the prom. The guys are happy because we have a gig… even though, it is at our prom. And I'm happy because they're happy.

Paul and Felix seem to have gotten over the whole Judith thing, though neither of them are talking about it because it's still an obvious sore spot for them both.

Boris is happy because he's finally with someone who appreciates him, as we've all heard a million times because he get stop gushing about Tina every moment that we're not practising, though none of us have the heart to tell him to shut up already, we get it, you love her, she loves you, you're in a very, very happy place right now.

And Trevor's happy because he gets to play something that isn't being stuff down his throat by either his parents or music teacher and he's getting paid for it too.

So yeah, everyone is happy at the moment. Except for maybe Mia, who texted me a bit after twelve asking;

Is it still illegal to murder someone, if they happen to be exactly like Grandmere?

No, because the whole world would too busy thanking you to press charges. I texted back with a grin. Get a shot in for me, ok ; )

Kay!

I don't know why, but this cracked me up, maybe because I could hear her say it, her enthusiasm behind it.

She's a weird one, my girl. Yes, she is. But that's why I love her so.

Author's Note: So orginally, this chapter wasn't as long as it now is. It was orginally only six pages (or something like that), but then when I read back over it, the flow wasn't quite right, so I added stuff like, the Boris and Michael scene and a few other stuff like Michael insecurities about his relationship with Mia and wondering if he really is worthy of her and so on. Just little stuff that ended up making this chapter like super-long.
Anyway, chapter Eleven won't be so long (its a whopping three pages lol), and it'll be up soon.
Again, Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Bye for now.