“No one is saying you have to do any of those things, Mia,” Lilly glowered.

“Lilly, that’s not the point. Think about it,” I said. “I’m the princess of Genovia. I’m supposed to be a role model. I support causes like Greenpeace and Housing for the Hopeful. What kind of role model would I be if I showed up on TV, spent all that money flying my friends to Genovia and had a huge shopping spree and rock concert, just for them?”

“The kind who really appreciates her friends,” Lilly said, “and wants to do something nice for them.”

“I do really appreciate you guys,” I said, a little bit hurt by this. “And I definitely think each and every one of you deserves a trip to Genovia for shopping sprees and free concerts. But think about it. How would it look, spending all that money on a birthday party?”

“It’s going to look like your grandmother really, really loves you,” Lilly said.

“No, it’s not. It’s going to look like I’m the biggest selfish spoiled brat on the planet. And if my grandmother really, really loved me,” I said, “she’d spend all that money on something I really wanted—like helping to feed AIDS orphans in Ethiopia, or even…I don’t know. Getting stationary bikes for spinning classes at AEHS!—not something I don’t care about at all.”

“Mia’s right,” Tina said. “Although…I’ve always wanted to see Destiny’s Child in concert.”

“And I’ve always wanted to see the art collection at the Genovian palace,” said Ling Su, a little wistfully.

“I could totally use a makeover,” Perin said. “Maybe then people would stop thinking I’m a boy.”

“You guys!” I was shocked. “You can’t be serious! You’d want to let yourselves be filmed doing all that stuff? And have it be shown on MTV?”

Tina, Ling Su, Perin, and Boris looked at one another. Then they looked at me, and shrugged. “Yeah.”

“Admit it, Mia,” Lilly said angrily. “This doesn’t have anything to do with you being afraid of looking selfish on TV. It has to do with you still holding what happened at your party last year against me.” Lilly’s lips got as small as—maybe even smaller than—my mom’s had, the night before. “And so you’re going to make everybody here suffer for it.”

Silence roared across the lunch table after Lilly dropped this little bombshell. Boris suddenly didn’t seem to know where to look, and so settled for staring at the leftover buffalo bites on his tray. Tina turned red and reached for her Diet Coke, sucking very noisily on the straw sticking out of it.

Or maybe her sucking just seemed noisy, compared to how quiet everyone had gotten.

Except of course for J. P., who, out of everyone there, was the only person who had no idea what Lilly had done at my fifteenth birthday party. Even Perin knew, having been filled in about it by Shameeka during a particularly boring French class. In French, no less.

“Wait,” J. P. said. “What happened at Mia’s party last year?”