Free Princess in Waiting by Meg Cabot Page A

dinner and a movie at the Screening Room this Friday night?'
    And she went, rolling over, 'Yeah, yeah, scuniper.'
    So I got that taken care of.
    But I still had to go to school in my regular underwear, which creeped me out a little because there's
    nothing special
    about it, it is just boring and white.
    But then I kind of perked up when I got in the limo, because of the prospect of seeing Michael and all.
    But then I was like, Oh, my God, what was going to happen when I saw Michael? Because when you
    haven't seen your boyfriend in thirty-two days, you can't just be all, 'Oh, hi,' when you see him. You have
    to, like, give him a hug or something.
    But how was I going to give him a hug in the car? With Lars watching? I mean, at least I wasn't going to
    have to worry
    about my stepdad watching, since Mr. G fully refuses to take the limo to school with me and Lars and
    Lilly and Michael
    every morning, even though we are all going to the same place. But Mr. Gianini says he likes the subway.
    He says it is the
    only time he gets to listen to music he likes (Mom and I won't let him play Blood, Sweat and Tears in the
    loft, so he has to
    listen to it on his Diskman).
    But what about Lilly? I mean, Lilly was totally going to be there. How can I hug Michael in front of Lilly?
    And OK, it is
    partly because of Lilly that Michael and I ever got together in the first place. But that does not mean that I
    feel perfectly comfortable participating in, you know, public displays of affection with him right in front
    of her.
    If this were Genovia it would be all right to kiss him on either cheek, because that is the standard form of
    greeting there.
    But this is America, where you barely even shake hands with people, unless you're like the mayor.
    Plus there was the whole Jane Eyre thing. I mean, Tina and I had resolved we were not going to chase
    our boyfriends,
    but we hadn't said anything about how to greet them again after not having seen them for thirty-two days.
    I was almost going to ask Lars what he thought I ought todo when I had a brainstorm right as we were
    pulling up to
    the Moscovitzes' building. Hans, the driver, was going to hop out and open the door for Lilly and
    Michael, but I went,
    'I've got it,' and thenI hopped out, instead.
    And there was Michael, standing in the slush, looking all tall and handsome and manly, the wind tugging
    at his dark hair.
    Just the sight of him set my heart going about a thousand beats per minute. I felt like I was going to melt. .
    .
    . . . especially when he smiled once he saw me, a smile that went all the way up to his eyes, which were
    as deeply brown
    as I remembered, and filled with the same intelligence and good humour that had been there the last time
    I had gazed into
    them, thirty-two days ago.
    What I could not tell was whether or not they were filled with love. Tina had said I'd be able to tell, just
    by looking into
    his eyes, whether or not Michael loved me. But the truth is, all I could tell by looking into his eyes was
    that Michael doesn't
    find me utterly repulsive. If he had, he'd have looked away, the way I do when I see that boy in the
    cafeteria at school who
    always picks the corn out of his chilli. 'Hi,' I said, my voice suddenly super-squeaky. 'Hi,' Michael said,
    his voice not
    squeaky at all, but really very thrillingly deep and Wolverine-like.
    So then we stood there with our gazes locked on one another, and our breath coming out in little puffs of
    white steam,
    and people hurrying down Fifth Avenue on the sidewalk around us, people I barely saw. I hardly even
    noticed Lilly go,
    'Oh, for Pete's sake,' and stomp past me to climb into the limo.
    Then Michael went, 'It's really good to see you.' And I went, 'It's really good to see you, too.' From
    inside the limo
    Lilly went, 'It's really cold out, will you two hurry up and get in here already?'
    So then I went, 'I guess we'd better . . .'
    And Michael went, 'Yeah,' and put his hand on the limo door to hold it open for