Part 33 (1/2)

'You,' she said, when she'd straightened out her skirt, 'are a princess of the royal house of Renaldo. A princess,' she said,

going to my wardrobe, and rifling through it, 'does not s.h.i.+rk her responsibilities. Nor does she run at the first sign of adversity.'

'Um, Grandmere,' I said. 'What happened today was hardly the first sign of adversity, OK? What happened today was the

last straw. I can't take it any more, Grandmere. I am getting out.'

Grandmere pulled from my wardrobe the dress Sebastiano had designed for me to wear to the dance. You know, the one

that was supposed to make Michael forget that I am his little sister's best friend.

'Nonsense,' Grandmere said.

That was all.

Just 'nonsense'. Then she stood there, tapping her toes and staring at me.

'Grandmere,' I said. Maybe it was all that time I'd spent outside. Or maybe it was that I was pretty sure my mom and Mr.G and my dad were all in the next room, listening. How could they not be? There was no door, or anything, to separate my room from the living room.

'You don't understand,' I said. 'I can't go back there.'

'All the more reason,' Grandmere said, 'for you to go.'

'No,' I said. 'First of all, I don't even have a date for the dance, OK? And P.S., only losers go to dances without dates.'

'You are not a loser, Amelia,' Grandmere said. 'You are a princess. And princesses do not run away when things become difficult. They throw their shoulders back and they face what disaster awaits them head on. Bravely, and without complaint.'

I said, 'h.e.l.lo, we are not talking about marauding Visigoths, OK, Grandmere? We are talking about an entire high school that now thinks I am in love with Boris Pelkowski.'

'Which is precisely,' Grandmere said, 'why you must show them that it doesn't matter to you what they think.'

'Why can't I show them that it doesn't matter by not going?'

'Because that,' Grandmere said, 'is the cowardly way. And you, Mia, as you have shown amply this past week, are not a coward. Now get dressed.'

I don't know why I did what she said. Maybe it was because somewhere deep inside, I knew that for once, Grandmere was right.

Or maybe it was because secretly, I guess I was a little curious to see what would happen.

But I think the real reason was because, for the first time in my entire life, Grandmere didn't call me Amelia.

No. She called me Mia.

And because of my stupid sentimentalism, I am in a car right now, going back to stupid c.r.a.ppy Albert Einstein High School,

the dust from which I thought I'd managed to shake permanently from my feet not four hours ago.

But no. Oh, no. I'm going back, in the stupid velvet party dress Sebastiano designed for me. I'm going back and I will

probably be ridiculed for being the dateless biological freak that I am.

But regardless of what happens, I can always comfort myself with the knowledge of one thing: Tomorrow, I will be thousands of miles away from all of this.