to go, anyway.
And then when the limo pulled up alongside Rockefeller Center, I REALLY started freaking out.Where could we possibly be going in or around Rockefeller Center? The rink was closed on account of it being too warm now for ice-skating.
Exceptâ¦
Except that as we pulled up to it, I saw that it wasnât. Closed, I mean.
Instead, the skating rink was closed in âwith a giant white tent, like the kind people rent for weddings.
Seriously. The rink at Rockefeller Center was covered in a giant white tent. People were standing all around it, taking pictures and pointing, like the tent had just magically mushroomed there overnight.
You couldnât tell what was going on underneath the tent. But you could see there were lights on in there. I thought maybe there was a fashion show, or a special episode of The Apprentice being filmed there, or something.
Except that the limo pulled over right next to the stairs that head down to the rink. And Michael got out of the car, then held the door open for me to follow.
âMichael,â I said. â What is going on?â
âCome and see,â he said, still grinning.
And he took my hand and led me out of the limo and down the steps to the rink, and the entrance to the big white tentâ¦
â¦where a member of the Royal Genovian Secret Service bowed and lifted the flap for us to enterâ
âinto a winter wonderland! Seriously! Even though it was the first of May, the ice across the rink was hard and smooth! The air inside the tent was chillyâit was being cooled down by about a hundred portable air conditioners! There were snowmakers in every corner sending flurries of white snowflakes into the airâ¦snowflakes that were glistening in the hair of this huge group of people standing out on the ice, who all shouted, at the same time, âHappy Sweet Sixteen, Mia!â
I couldnât believe it! A surprise birthday ice-skating party! There was my mom, and Mr. G, and Rocky, and Lilly, and J. P., and Tina, and Boris, and Shameeka, and the guy Shameeka has been datingthis year, and Ling Su, and Perin, and the Drs. Moscovitz, and my neighbor Ronnie, and even, of all people, my DAD !!!
I never suspected that they were planning somethingâ¦something other than Grandmèreâs horrible My Super Royal Sweet Sixteen thing.
And I certainly never would have expected an ice-skating party on my birthday, seeing as how itâs just slightly too warm out for skating!
But trust Michael to find a way to give me EXACTLY what I wanted.
Well, pretty much, anyway.
After Iâd screamed at everyone for keeping such a big secret from me, I found out that none of them had actually known about it, except for Michael, whoâd come up with the idea and arranged the whole thing, and my mom and Mr. G, whoâd been in charge of making sure I was in the dark about it. And my dad, whoâd paid for itâ¦as well as for twenty stationary bikes, which he was donating in my name to AEHS, so we could have spin classes instead of volleyball from time to timeâ¦.
Itâs not enough to create a personal workout and health program targeted to every studentâs own specific health needs. But it was a definite start!
Principal Gupta is going to die when theyâre delivered on Monday.
Everyone had a good laugh over my indignation at Grandmèreâs plan. âLike I was ever going to let her do any such thing,â was what my dad had to say about it (he said heâd tried to invite Grandmère to the skating party, but that sheâd declined the invitation. I didnât tell him that was because sheâs busy taking Andy Milonakis to Genovia. I figured heâll find that out on his own, soon enough).
Even Lilly was like, âYou didnât REALLY think I was in on her scheme to put you on MTV, did you?â
Um, yeah. I really did. But I didnât tell her that. Finding out that she really hadnât been was a