“Come and see,” 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 tent…

…where a member of the Royal Genovian Secret Service bowed and lifted the flap for us to enter—

—into 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 chilly—it was being cooled down by about a hundred portable air conditioners! There were snowmakers in every corner sending flurries of white snowflakes into the air…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, “Happy Sweet Sixteen, Mia!”

I couldn’t 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 dating this 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 something…something other than Grandmère’s horrible My Super Royal Sweet Sixteen thing.

And I certainly never would have expected an ice-skating party on my birthday, seeing as how it’s 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 I’d 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, who’d come up with the idea and arranged the whole thing, and my mom and Mr. G, who’d been in charge of making sure I was in the dark about it. And my dad, who’d paid for it…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 time….

It’s not enough to create a personal workout and health program targeted to every student’s own specific health needs. But it was a definite start!

Principal Gupta is going to die when they’re delivered on Monday.

Everyone had a good laugh over my indignation at Grandmère’s plan. “Like I was ever going to let her do any such thing,” was what my dad had to say about it (he said he’d tried to invite Grandmère to the skating party, but that she’d declined the invitation. I didn’t tell him that was because she’s busy taking Andy Milonakis to Genovia. I figured he’ll find that out on his own, soon enough).

Even Lilly was like, “You didn’t REALLY think I was in on her scheme to put you on MTV, did you?”

Um, yeah. I really did. But I didn’t tell her that. Finding out that she really hadn’t been was a totally awesome birthday present—but one that made me feel totally terrible when, while we were all chowing down on cake and lacing up our skates, Lilly came over to me and whispered, looking super weird, “I did it. I told him.”