Finally my dad hung up and then he looked at me. “Better?” he asked.
So I guess he had noticed the hiccups after all. “Better,” I said.
“Do you really understand what I’m telling you, Mia?”
I nodded. “You are the prince of Genovia.”
“Yes . . . ” he said, like there was more.
I didn’t know what else to say. So I tried, “Grandpère was the prince of Genovia before you?”
He said, “Yes . . . ”
“So Grandmère is . . . what?”
“The dowager princess.”
I winced. Ew. That explained a whole lot about Grandmère.
Dad could tell he had me stumped. He kept on looking at me all hopeful like. Finally, after I tried just smiling at him innocently for a while, and that didn’t work, I slumped over and said, “Okay. What?”
He looked disappointed. “Mia, don’t you know?”
I had my head on the table. You aren’t supposed to do that at the Plaza, but I hadn’t noticed Ivana Trump looking our way. “No . . . ” I said. “I guess not. Know what?”
“You’re not Mia Thermopolis anymore, honey,” he said. Because I was born out of wedlock, and my mom doesn’t believe in what she calls the cult of the patriarchy, she gave me her last name instead of my dad’s.
I raised my head at that. “I’m not?” I said, blinking a few times. “Then who am I?”
And he went, kind of sadly, “You’re Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo, Princess of Genovia.”
Okay.
WHAT? A PRINCESS?? ME???
Yeah. Right.
This is how NOT a princess I am. I am so NOT a princess that when my dad started telling me that I was one I totally started crying. I could see my reflection in this big gold mirror across the room, and my face had gotten all splotchy, like it does in PE whenever we play dodge ball and I get hit. I looked at my face in that big mirror and I was like, This is the face of a princess?
You should see what I look like. You never saw anyone who looked LESS like a princess than I do. I mean, I have really bad hair that isn’t curly or straight; it’s sort of triangular, so I have to wear it really short or I look like a Yield sign. And it isn’t blond or brunette, it’s in the middle, the sort of color they call mouse brown, or dishwater blond. Attractive, huh? And I have a really big mouth and no breasts and feet that look like skis. Lilly says my only attractive feature is my eyes, which are gray, but right then they were all squinty and red-looking since I was trying not to cry.
I mean, princesses don’t cry, right?
Then my dad reached out and started patting my hand. Okay, I love my dad, but he just has no clue. He kept saying how sorry he was. I couldn’t say anything in reply because I was afraid if I talked I’d cry harder. He kept on saying how it wasn’t that bad, that I’d like living at the palace in Genovia with him, and that I could come back to visit my little friends as often as I wanted.
That’s when I lost it.
Not only am I a princess, but I have to MOVE???
I stopped crying almost right away. Because then I got mad. Really mad. I don’t get mad all that often, because of my fear of confrontation and all, but when I do get mad, look out.
“I am NOT moving to Genovia,” I said in this really loud voice. I know it was loud because all the Japanese tourists turned around and looked at me, and then started whispering to one another.
My dad looked kind of shocked. The last time I yelled at him had been years ago, when he agreed with Grandmère that I ought to eat some foie gras. I don’t care if it is a delicacy in France; I’m not eating anything that once walked around and quacked.
“But Mia,” my dad said in his Now-let’s-be-reasonable voice, “I thought you understood—”
“All I understand,” I said, “is that you lied to me my whole life. Why should I come live with you?”
I realize this was a completely Party of Five kind of thing to say, and I’m sorry to say that I followed it up with some pretty Party of Five behavior. I stood up real fast, knocking over my big gold chair, and rushed out of there, nearly bowling over the snobby doorman.
I think my dad tried to chase me, but I can run pretty fast when I want to. Mr. Wheeton is always trying to get me to go out for track, but that’s like such a joke, because I hate running for no reason. A letter on a stupid jacket is no reason to run, as far as I’m concerned.
Anyway, I ran down the street, past the stupid touristy horses and carriages, past the big fountain with the gold statues in it, past all the traffic outside of F.A.O. Schwarz, right into Central Park, where it was getting kind of dark and cold and spooky and stuff, but I didn’t care. Nobody was going to attack me because I was this five-foot-nine girl running in combat boots, with a big backpack with bumper stickers on it that said stuff like SUPPORT GREENPEACE and I BRAKE FOR ANIMALS. Nobody messes with a girl in combat boots, particularly when she’s also a vegetarian.
After a while I got tired of running, and then I tried to figure out where I could go, since I wasn’t ready to go home yet. I knew I couldn’t go to Lilly’s. She is vehemently opposed to any form of government that is not by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. She’s always said that when sovereignty is vested in a single person whose right to rule is hereditary, the principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community are irrevocably lost. This is why, today, real power has passed from reigning monarchs to constitutional assemblies, making royals such as Queen Elizabeth mere symbols of national unity.
At least, that’s what she said in her oral report in World Civ the other day.
And I guess I kind of agree with Lilly, especially about Prince Charles—he did treat Diana like dirt—but my dad isn’t like that. Yeah, he plays polo and all, but he would never dream of subjecting anyone to taxation without representation.
Still, I was pretty sure the fact that the people of Genovia don’t have to pay taxes wasn’t going to make any difference to Lilly.
I knew the first thing my dad would do was call Mom, and she’d be all worried. I hate making my mom worry. Even though she can be very irresponsible at times, it’s only with things like bills and the groceries. She’s never irresponsible about me. Like, I have friends whose parents don’t even remember sometimes to give them subway fare. I have friends who tell their parents they’re going to So-and-So’s apartment and then instead they go out drinking, and their parents never find out because they don’t even check with the other kid’s parents.
My mom’s not like that. She ALWAYS checks.
So I knew it wasn’t fair to run off like that and make her worry. I didn’t care much then about what my dad thought. I was pretty much hating him by then. But I just had to be alone for a little while. I mean, it takes some getting used to, finding out you’re a princess. I guess some girls might like it, but not me. I’ve never been good at girly stuff, you know, like putting on makeup and wearing panty hose and stuff. I mean, I can do it, if I have to, but I’d rather not.
Much rather not.
Anyway, I don’t know how, but my feet sort of knew where they were going, and before I knew it I was at the zoo.
I love the Central Park Zoo. I always have, since I was a little kid. It’s way better than the Bronx Zoo, because it’s really small and cozy, and the animals are much friendlier, especially the seals and the polar bears. I love polar bears. At the Central Park Zoo, they have this one polar bear, and all he does all day long is the backstroke. I swear! He was on the news once because this animal psychologist was worried he was under too much stress. It must suck to have people looking at you all day. But then they bought him some toys, and after that he was all right. He just kicks back in his enclosure—they don’t have cages at the Central Park Zoo, they have enclosures—and watches you watching him. Sometimes he holds a ball while he does it. I love that bear.
So after I forked over a couple of dollars to get in—that’s t
he other good thing about the zoo: it’s cheap—I paid a little call on the polar bear. He appeared to be doing fine. Much better than I was, at the moment. I mean, his dad hadn’t told him he was the heir to the throne of anywhere. I wondered where that polar bear had come from. I hoped he was from Iceland.
After a while it got too crowded at the polar bear enclosure, so then I went into the penguin house. It smells kind of bad in here, but it’s fun. There are these windows that look underwater, so you can see the penguins swimming around, sliding on the rocks and having a good penguin time. Little kids put their hands on the glass, and when a penguin swims toward them, they start screaming. It totally cracks me up. There’s a bench you can sit on, too, and that’s where I’m sitting now, writing this. You get used to the smell after a while. I guess you can get used to anything.
Oh my God, I can’t believe I just wrote that! I will NEVER get used to being Princess Amelia Renaldo! I don’t even know who that is! It sounds like the name of some stupid line of makeup, or of somebody from a Disney movie who’s been missing and just recovered her memory, or something.
What am I going to do? I CAN’T move to Genovia, I just CAN’T!! Who would look after Fat Louie? My mom can’t. She forgets to feed herself, let alone a CAT.
I’m sure they won’t let me have a cat in the palace. At least, not a cat like Louie, who weighs twenty-five pounds and eats socks. He’d scare all the ladies-in-waiting.
Oh, God. What am I going to do?
If Lana Weinberger finds out about this, I’m dead.
Even Later on Thursday
Of course, I couldn’t hide out in the penguin house forever. Eventually, they flicked the lights and said the zoo was closing. I put my journal away and filed out with everybody else. I grabbed a downtown bus and went home, where I was sure I was going to get it BIG TIME from my mom.
What I didn’t count on was getting it from BOTH my parents at the same time. This was a first.
“Where have you been, young lady?” my mom wanted to know. She was sitting at the kitchen table with my dad, the telephone between them.
My dad said, at the exact same time, “We were worried sick!”
I thought I was in for the grounding of a lifetime, but all they wanted to know was whether I was all right. I assured them that I was and apologized for going all Jennifer Love Hewitt on them. I just needed to be alone, I said.
I was really worried they’d start in on me, but they totally didn’t. My mom did try to make me eat some Ramen, but I wouldn’t, because it was beef flavored. And then my dad offered to send his driver to Nobu to pick up some blackened sea bass, but I was like, “Really, Dad, I just want to go to bed.” Then my mom started feeling my head and stuff, thinking I was sick. This nearly made me start crying again. I guess my dad recognized my expression from the Plaza, since all of a sudden he was like, “Helen, just leave her alone.”
To my surprise, she did. And so I went into my bathroom and closed the door and took a long, hot bath, then got into my favorite pajamas, the cool red flannel ones, found Fat Louie where he was trying to hide under the futon couch (he doesn’t like my dad so much), and went to bed.
Before I fell asleep, I could hear my dad talking to my mom in the kitchen for a long, long time. His voice was rumbly, like thunder. It sort of reminded me of Captain Picard’s voice on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
My dad actually has a lot in common with Captain Picard. You know, he’s white and bald and has to rule over a small populace.
Except that Captain Picard always makes everything okay by the end of the episode, and I sincerely doubt everything will be okay for me.
Friday, October 3, Homeroom
Today when I woke up, the pigeons that live on the fire escape outside my window were cooing away (Fat Louie was on the windowsill—well, as much of him as could fit on the windowsill, anyway—watching them), and the sun was shining, and I actually got up on time and didn’t hit the snooze button seven thousand times. I took a shower and didn’t cut my legs shaving them, found a fairly unwrinkled blouse at the bottom of my closet, and even got my hair to look sort of halfway passable. I was in a good mood. It was Friday. Friday is my favorite day, besides Saturday and Sunday. Fridays always mean two days—two glorious, relaxing days—of NO Algebra are coming my way.
And then I walked out into the kitchen and there was all this pink light coming down through the skylight right on my mom, who was wearing her best kimono and making French toast using Egg Beaters instead of real eggs, even though I’m no longer ovo-lacto since I realized eggs aren’t fertilized so they could never have been baby chicks anyway.
And I was all set to thank her for thinking of me, and then I heard this rustle.
And there was my DAD sitting at the dining room table (well, really it’s just a table, since we don’t have a dining room, but whatever), reading The New York Times and wearing a suit.
A suit. At seven o’clock in the morning.
And then I remembered. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten it:
I’m a princess.
Oh my God. Everything good about my day just went right out the window after that.
As soon as he saw me, my dad was all, “Ah, Mia.”
I knew I was in for it. He only says “Ah, Mia” when he’s about to give me a big lecture.
He folded his paper all carefully and laid it down. My dad always folds papers carefully, making the edges all neat. My mom never does this. She usually crumples the pages up and leaves them, out of order, on the futon couch or next to the toilet. This kind of thing drives my father insane and is probably the real reason why they never got married.
My mom, I saw, had set the table with our best Kmart plates, the ones with the blue stripes on them, and the green plastic cactus-shaped margarita glasses from Ikea. She had even put a bunch of fake sunflowers in the middle of the table in a yellow vase. She had done all that to cheer me up, I know, and she’d probably gotten up really early to do it, too. But instead of cheering me up, it just made me sadder.
Because I bet they don’t use green plastic cactus-shaped margarita glasses for breakfast at the palace in Genovia.
“We need to talk, Mia,” my dad said. This is how his worst lectures always start. Except this time he looked at me kind of funny before he started. “What’s wrong with your hair?”
I put my hand up to my head. “Why?” I thought my hair looked good, for a change.
“Nothing is wrong with her hair, Phillipe,” my mom said. She usually tries to ward off my dad’s lectures, if she can. “Come and sit down, Mia, and have some breakfast. I even heated up the syrup for the French toast, the way you like it.”
I appreciated this gesture on my mom’s part. I really did. But I was not going to sit down and talk about my future in Genovia. I mean, come on. So I was all, “Uh, I’d love to, really, but I gotta go. I have a test in World Civ today, and I promised Lilly I’d meet her to go over our notes together—”
“Sit down.”
Boy, my dad can really sound like a starship captain in the Federation when he wants to.
I sat. My mom shoveled some French toast onto my plate. I poured syrup over it and took a bite, just to be polite. It tasted like cardboard.
“Mia,” my mom said. She was still trying to ward off my dad’s lecture. “I know how upset you must be about all of this. But really, it isn’t as bad as you’re making it out to be.”
Oh, right. All of a sudden you tell me I’m a princess, and I’m supposed to be happy about it?
“I mean,” my mom went on, “most girls would probably be delighted to find out their father is a prince!”
No girls I know. Actually, that’s not true. Lana Weinberger would probably love to be a princess. In fact, she already thinks she is one.
“Just think of all the lovely things you could have if you went to live in Genovia.” My mom’s face totally lit up as she started listing the lovely things I could have if I went to live in Genovia, but her voice s
ounded strange, as if she were playing a mom on TV or something. “Like a car! You know how impractical it is to have a car here in the city. But in Genovia, when you turn sixteen, I’m sure Dad will buy you a—”
I pointed out that there are enough problems with pollution in Europe without my contributing to it. Diesel emissions are one of the largest contributors to the destruction of the ozone layer.
“But you’ve always wanted a horse, haven’t you? Well, in Genovia you could have one. A nice gray one with spots on its back—”
That hurt.
“Mom,” I said, my eyes all filling up with tears. I completely couldn’t help it. Suddenly, I was bawling all over again. “What are you doing? Do you want me to go live with Dad? Is that it? Are you tired of me or something? Do you want me to go live with Dad so you and Mr. Gianini can . . . can . . . ”
I couldn’t go on because I started crying so hard. But by then my mom was crying, too. She jumped up out of her chair and came around the end of the table and started hugging me, saying, “Oh, no, honey! How could you think something like that?” She stopped sounding like a TV mom. “I just want what’s best for you!”
“As do I,” my dad said, looking annoyed. He had folded his arms across his chest and was leaning back in his chair, watching us in an irritated way.
“Well, what’s best for me is to stay right here and finish high school,” I told him. “And then I’m going to join Greenpeace and help save the whales.”
My dad looked even more irritated at that. “You are not joining Greenpeace,” he said.
“I am, too,” I said. It was totally hard to talk, because I was crying and all, but I told him, “I’m going to go to Iceland to save the baby seals, too.”
“You most certainly are not.” My dad didn’t just look annoyed. Now he looked mad. “You are going to go to college. Vassar, I think. Maybe Sarah Lawrence.”