Princess in Love

But I guess Kenny, who Tina now tells me came around the corner right as I was doing it - hugging Michael, I mean - doesn't see it that way. According to Tina, Kenny thinks there's something going on between Michael and me.

To which, of course, I can only say, I WISH!

But I can't say that. I have to go find Kenny now and let him know, you know, it was just a friendly hug.

Tina's all, 'Why? Why don't you tell him the truth? That you don't feel the same way about him that he feels about you. This is your big chance!'

But you can't break up with someone during the Winter Carnival. I mean, really. How mean.

Why must my life be so fraught with trauma?

Friday, December 18, Still the Winter Carnival

Well, I still haven't found Kenny, but I really have to hand it to the administrators: grasping they might be, but they sure do know how to throw a party. Even Lilly is impressed.

Of course, signs of corporatization are everywhere: there are McDonald's orange drink dispensers on every floor, and it

looks as if there was a run on Entenmann's, there are so many cake-and-cookie-laden tables scattered around.

Still, you can tell they are really trying to show us a good time. All of the clubs are offering activities and booths. There's ballroom dancing in the gym, courtesy of the Dance Club; fencing lessons in the auditorium, thanks to the Drama Club; even cheerleading lessons in the first-floor hallway, brought to us by, you guessed it, the junior varsity cheerleaders.

I couldn't find Kenny anywhere, but I ran into Lilly at the Students for Amnesty International booth (Students Against the Corporatization of Albert Einstein High School did not submit their application for a booth in time to get one, so Lilly is stuck running the Amnesty International booth instead). And guess what? Guess who got an F in something?

That's right.

'Lilly.' I couldn't believe it. 'Mrs. Spears gave you an F in English? YOU got an F?'

She doesn't seem too bothered by it, though.

'I had to take a stand, Mia,' she said. And sometimes, when you believe in something, you have to make sacrifices.'

'Sure,' I said. 'But an F? Your parents are going to kill you.'

'No, they won't,' Lilly said. 'They'll just try to psychoanalyse me.'

Which is true.

Oh, God. Here conies Tina.

I hope she doesn't remember—

She does.

We're going over to the Computer Club's booth right now.

I don't want to go to the Computer Club's booth. I already looked over there, and I know what's going on. Michael and Judith and the rest of the computer nerds are sitting behind all these colour monitors. When somebody comes up, they get to sit down in front of one of monitors and play a computer game the club designed where you walk through the school and all of the teachers are in funny costumes. Like Principal Gupta is wearing a leather domi-natrix's outfit and holding a whip, and Mr Gianini is in footie pyjamas with a teddy bear that looks exactly like him.

They used a different program when the club applied to be part of the carnival, of course, so none of the teachers or administrators know what everyone is sitting there looking at. You would think they'd wonder why all of the kids are laughing so hard.

Whatever. I don't want to do it. I don't want to go anywhere near it.

But Tina says I have to.

'Now's the perfect time to tell him,' she says. 'I mean, Kenny's nowhere to be seen.'

Oh, God. This is what comes from telling your friends anything.

Even Later on Friday, December 18, Still the Winter Carnival

Well, I'm in the Girls' Room again. And I think I can state with certainty that this time I'm never coming out.

I'm just going to stay in here until everyone has gone home. Only then will it be safe. Thank God I am leaving the country tomorrow. Maybe by the time I get back, everyone involved in this little incident will have forgotten about it.

But I doubt it. Not with my luck, anyway.

Why do these kinds of things always happen to me? I mean, seriously? What did I ever do to turn the gods against me?

Why can't they pick on Lana Weinberger? Why always me?

All right, so here's what happened.

I had no intention whatsoever of actually telling Michael anything. I mean, let me get that out right away. I was only going along with Tina because, well, it would have looked weird if I had completely avoided the Computer Club's booth. Plus Michael had asked me so many times to make sure I stopped by. So there was no way I could avoid it.

But I never intended to say a word about You-Know-What. I mean, Tina was just going to have to learn to live with disappointment. You don't love somebody for like as long as I have loved Michael, and then just go up to him at a school fair and be like, 'Oh, by the way, yeah, I love you.'

OK? You don't do that.

But whatever. So I went up to the stupid booth with Tina. Everyone was all giggly and excited because their program was so popular there was this really long line. But Michael saw us and went, 'Come on up!'

Like we were supposed to cut in front of all these other people. I mean, we did it, of course, but everyone behind us grumbled, and who can blame them? They'd been waiting a long time.

But I guess because of the thing the night before you know, when I explained on national television that the only reason I'd done that clothing ad was because the designer was donating all the proceeds to Greenpeace - I have been noticeably more popular (positive comments so far: 243. Negative: 1. From Lana, of course). So the grumbling wasn't as bad as it could have been.