From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess by Meg Cabot Read Free Book Online Page A

Olivia,” Lyle said. He nodded as he pushed the button that said “PE.” At first I thought, “Why would they be taking me to do physical education? School was out hours ago!” Then I realized PE had to stand for something else.
    â€œHope you have a nice visit,” Lyle said.
    â€œThanks,” I said, politely. “I hope I will, too.”
    The elevator ride to PE took a long time, and when the doors opened, there was no sign of a gymnasium. Instead, we were in a red-carpeted hallway with white walls trimmed in gold. A sign on the wall said in elegant gold script PENTHOUSE EAST . So that’s what PE stood for. The east penthouse!
    I had never been in a penthouse before, but I knew from all the TV I’d seen at Nishi’s house that it was the fanciest apartment in the building. Also, it was on the top floor of the building, so that meant it was the most expensive. Obviously, princes are very rich, from having saved all their family money for many hundreds of years, which is another reason it made me so mad that those reporters downstairs had asked about my dad “abandoning” me, when actually he’d sent me large checks (and personal letters) every month, and it had been my mother who’d requested I not be told of my royal heritage.
    Then, as we walked down the long, hushed hallway, which was filled with tall vases of real live white roses, I noticed that a door was open at the end of the hallway, and standing in the doorway was an old white lady I recognized from some of the same magazines in which I’d seen Princess Mia. But I’d never bothered to read anything about her because she looked so boring.
    Except that Princess Mia looked pretty scared of her. She was standing up straighter and holding her purse tighter.
    â€œSo this is she?” the old lady asked, before we’d gotten all the way down the hallway.
    â€œThis is she, Grandm è re,” Princess Mia said in a very polite voice.

    I couldn’t believe it! This was my grandmother, Dowager Princess Clarisse Renaldo? She looked completely unlike any grandma I’ve ever seen! She wasn’t warm and cuddly like Nishi’s grandma, who loves to cook and tell stories about life back in India, where Nishi’s family comes from.
    My dad’s mom is tall and skinny and was dressed in a dark purple suit with even darker purple fur on the cuffs of her sleeves (and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t fake fur, which we learned in school isn’t very environmentally conscious), and her fingernails were long and pointy and her long white hair was piled up on top of her head in a big bun.
    Also, I’m not sure but I think she might have drawn her eyebrows on with a black pencil and she had on about a million giant rings that I think were real diamonds and rubies and pearls and emeralds. In fact I know they were, because she’s a princess!
    Mia poked me in the back and suddenly I remembered what she’d taught me in the car to do and say when I met my grandmother.
    â€œIt’s so nice to meet you, Grandmoth — is that a miniature poodle ?”
    I hadn’t meant to say that last part, but I couldn’t help it!!! All of a sudden as I was curtsying I saw this little white powder puff with a tiny black nose peeking out from around Grandm è re’s feet.
    â€œI love poodles!” I cried. “They’re the most intelligent breed of dog. And they’re also very excellent swimmers.”
    I didn’t mean to start yelling everything I know about dogs in front of my new royal grandmother.
    But I just really, really like dogs, almost as much as I love kangaroos. Aunt Catherine would never let us have one (not a kangaroo, of course, but a dog or a cat or even a guinea pig).
    â€œYes,” my grandmother said very stiffly. “Poodles are very intelligent, aren’t they? Did you know they were used as defense dogs on the home front in World War