Princess in Waiting by Meg Cabot Read Free Book Online Page B

option
    to be free).
    8. Let Tante Jean Marie know that this is the twenty-first century and that she no longer has to live with
    the stigma of
    feminine facial hair, and leave her my Jolene.
    9. Go to the beach, just once, and walk barefoot through that famous white sand I haven't gotten within
    ten yards of
    the entire time I've been here. Also, establish Sea-Turtle Nest Patrol so that eggs will be protected.
    10. Get crown fixed (combs keep spearing me in the head).
    Saturday, January 16, 11 p.m.
    Royal Genovian Bedchamber
    Grandmere so needs to get a life.
    Tonight was the royal ball - you know, to celebrate the end of my first official trip to Genovia in my
    capacity as heir to the throne.
    Anyway, Grandmere's been going on about this ball all week, like this is going to be my big chance to
    redeem myself for
    the whole snip-your-plastic-six-pack-holder thing I pulled during my first televised address to the
    populace.
    So she makes this big deal out of my dress (a Sebastiano design - my dad finally forgave Sebastiano for
    putting those
    pictures of me wearing his designs in the New York Times Sunday supplement. My dad even forgave
    Grandmere for letting Sebastiano do it without clearing it through him first. Though things are still a little
    strained between the two of them - I heard him tell her to 'lay off' the other day when she was giving him
    grief about his latest girlfriend, one of those bendy trapeze girls from the Cirque du Soleil. I don't know
    what happened to the bareback rider.
    And she makes this big deal out of my hair (growing out and so becoming triangle-shaped again, but who
    cares, boys are supposed to like girls with long hair better than girls with short hair - I read that in French
    Cosmo). And she makes this big
    deal out of my fingernails (OK, so in spite of the whole New Year's resolution thing, I still keep biting
    them. So sue me.
    I can't help that I am orally fixated, the man is keeping me down).
    Then, after all this big-deal making, we finally get to the stupid ball. And it turns out that all that fuss was
    just so that
    Grandmere could shove me at Prince Rene, of all people,and the two of us could dance in front of this
    Newsweek
    reporter who is in Genovia to do a story on our country's transition to the Euro!
    Afterwards I was all, 'Grandmere, I am willing to cool it with the calling Michael stuff, but that does not
    mean I am going to start going out with Prince Rene,' who, by the way, asked me if I wanted to step
    outside on to the terrazzo and have a smoke.
    I, of course, told him I do not smoke and that he shouldn't either as tobacco is responsible for half a
    million deaths a year
    in the United States alone, but he only laughed at me all James Spader from Pretty in Pink-ishly.
    So then I told him not to get any big ideas, that I already have a boyfriend and that maybe he didn't see
    the movie of my life,
    but I fully know how to handle guys who are only after me for my crown jewels.
    So then Prince Rene said I was adorable, and I said please don't patronize me as I am not a child, and
    then my dad came up and asked me if I had seen the Prime Minister of Greece and I said, 'Dad,
    Grandmere is trying to fix me uprwith Rene,' and then my dad got all tight-lipped and took Grandmere
    aside and had A Word with her while Prince Rene slunk off to go
    make out with one of the Hilton sisters.
    Afterwards, Grandmere came up and told me not to be so ridiculous, that she merely wanted Prince
    Rene and I to dance together because it was a nice photo op for Newsweek and that maybe if they ran a
    story on us, it would attract more tourists.
    To which I replied that in light of our crumbling infrastructure more tourists is exactly what this country
    doesn't need.
    I suppose if my palace had been bought out from under me by some shoe designer, I would be pretty
    desperate, too,
    but I wouldn't hit on a girl who has the weight of an entire populace on her shoulders, and already has a
    boyfriend,