Commitment List, a princess diaries fanfic

Disclaimer: The Princess Diaries is owned by Meg Cabot.

Author's Note: Thanks for coming to this page! This fanfiction takes place during the scene in Princess in Love that Lilly confronts Mia of having fears of commitment in the G&T room. Michael butts in to support Mia's side and listens to the rest of their conversation. This is in Michael's POV. Enjoy!

Bzzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzz. Okay, okay, hold on. I reached into my back pocket for the buzzing piece of garbage that my mother forced upon me two years ago. A message flashed on the screen. "YOU HAVE RECEIVED 2 NEW TEXT MSG"

(1:00 p.m.) 212-555-5303: Michael, i'm coming 2 ur 5th per class. What do u hav?

(1:02 p.m.) 212-555-5303: Michael! R u there?

(1:05 p.m.) 212-555-1147: G & T … wait, why are you coming?

Why the hell does Judith Gershner want to come to my 5th period class? She's so clingy.

(1:05 p.m) 212-555-5303: the booth? Remember?

Oh, yeah. That. You know, I thought the booth for the Winter Carnival was supposed to be the Computer Club's responsibility. Not "Michael and Judith's" responsibility.

(1:08 p.m.) 212-555-1147: sure… meet me in here; don't bother with a pass. Mrs. Hill never stays long.

Wait, was that seductive? I really hope it wasn't. I don't want Judith Gershner falling for me; the only girl I want is –

"Michael!" Judith greeted me.

I met her with a response of "Oh, hey Judith."

She walked over to my seat at the computer, and started talking about pixels, megapixels, storyboards, and technological capabilities. I think I heard everything, but after Mia walked into the room, there wasn't much flowing through my brain.

"Michael?" she asked, "Michael, are you even listening?"

I stared blankly at the blue screen in front of us, "Yeah."

"Then tell me what I just said."

What are you my mother? She waited about twenty seconds of me staring blankly at her before she realized she wasn't getting an answer.

"Oh, poor Michael. You've just stayed up so late working on our presentation that you're much too tired to think right now!" she pitied.

Sure, the right thing to do would be to correct her and say that I've been awake all night thinking about a card I received in my locker. Lilly told me it was from Mia, but for all I know, she could be lying. I spent the whole night staring at the card with chocolate covered strawberries on the cover. The only thing convincing me that it was Mia who wrote it, were the beautifully written words on the inside cover.

Roses are red

Violets are blue

You may not know it

But someone loves you

Sure, I've seen her write better, even in her essays. But, she said she loves me! Unless she was fooling around, but I've got this gut feeling she isn't.

"Yeah, Judith. I must be hitting a creator's block, or something. I spent hours thinking of how to create that image of Principal Gupta in a catsuit, but it's just not moving along."

This is fifteen minutes after class starts: that I finally realize something's different about Judith. How can I notice this now? She's wearing pantyhose! Only the Lana Weinberger clones wear pantyhose… and Mia when she goes to her grandmother's. Judith's arm is draped across the back of my chair, and all I can think is that I wish it was Mia's. I also wish that instead of working on this fucking booth project, I was helping Mia with her Algebra. God knows whatever else she's working on now.

"Oh, well I might have some ideas for that. You should have called - "

Judith was cut off by Lilly's loud interjection, "Oh, Mia. I should have believed you! I'm so sorry for not believing you about Kenny's phone call, and any doubts I've had about that veracity of which he managed to scatter today with his display of unbridled passion for you in the third floor hallway. I actually feel a bit sorry for Kenny."

Lilly, why must you remind me, and Mia, of that tragic incident? When Kenny shouted he loved Mia from across the hall, I was ready to knock the kid out. But, that might have been suspicious for me in the least considering that he is her boyfriend. Mia has a boyfriend. Mia has a boyfriend. Why is that so hard for me to understand?

"Poor kid," Judith said. "I heard what he said to you in the hallway. I was in the chem. Lab. What was it again? 'I don't care if you don't feel the same way, Mia, I will always love you,' or something like that?"

Honestly, the pencil I was holding could have gone right into her skull at that point. The only positive point was that Kenny said Mia might not feel the same way. I really hope she doesn't. Maybe they'll break up. Shut up, Michael; stop dreaming.

Of course, being Judith, she went on, "It's really sweet." NO IT'S NOT. "If you think about it. I mean the guy's clearly got it bad for you." And so do I, but nobody seems to care. I tried to focus my eyes on the layout plan for the Computer Club's booth presentation, but that came to no success.

"He's obviously very in touch with his emotions," Lilly needs to shut up, and she should take her best friend's side for once. "Unlike some people."

I turned around in my seat, not surprised to see the bright red face of Mia Thermopolis, and said, "Just because Mia doesn't go around shouting about how she feels in the third floor hallway, doesn't mean she isn't in touch with her emotions."

At times like this, I realize I should really think things through in my head before I say them. I'm obviously the only one sticking up for her; like that doesn't raise suspicion.

"Yeah!" Mia said with a grateful look in her eye.

"Well, you could have said something back to him. Instead of just leaving him hanging there."

I love the way Lilly always gets off-set whenever I attack her views on Mia's self-honesty.

"And what should I have said to him?" Mia demanded.

"How about that you love him back?" Lilly retorted.

Cue Mia's red face. I watched the blush rise to her cheeks and prayed that she would give me the answer I was listening for.

"Look, I really and truly value Kenny's companionship. But love. I mean, love. That is a very big thing. I'm not, I mean, I don't…" I listened to Mia's voice trail off, and silently thanked the Gods. So Mia doesn't love Kenny as much as he cherishes her. Baby steps, Michael. Baby steps.

Step back.

What?

Mia thinks love is too much for young people, such as us, to handle. Isn't she the one who told me she loved me? Girls are so confusing.

"I see," Lilly said. Here comes the psychoanalyzing phase. "Fear of commitment."

"I do not fear commitment, I just – " Mia started.

"Let's examine the situation, shall we?" I knew Lilly would do this. "I mean, here you've got this guy going around the hallways, screaming about how much he loves you, and you just stare at him like a rat caught in the path of the D train. What do you suppose that means?"

"Have you ever considered that maybe the reason I didn't tell him I love him back is because I- "

Because you don't love him. Because you love Michael Moscovitz.

Mia continued, "Lilly, you know perfectly well I don't fear commitment. I mean there are lots of boys I-"

That wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for.

"Oh yeah?" Lilly grinned. "Name one."

MICHAEL MOSCOVITZ.

"One what?"

And I thought I was thick, Mia.

"Name a boy that you could see yourself committing to for all eternity." Lilly's grin widened.

"What do you want, a list?" Mia asked.

"A list would be nice," Lilly responded.

Mia pulled out her black Mead journal and lowered her head over the paper.

Judith dragged my attention back to the screen, "So you see, we need to figure out how to get double the amount of pixels to fit in the screen, so people can actually recognize the teachers that they're looking at. Kenny's always drawing that manga, so I think we can get him to help with the art-"

I never really heard a word Judith said as we turned back to face the computer. All that flowed through my head was thoughts of Mia, and how much I hoped that I would be one of the guys on her commitment list.

Author's Note: Thank you all so very much for reading! I hope you liked this one; it's my third attempt at PD fanfiction. Please review; it means the world and more to me.

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