I found 'Forever Princess' by Meg Cabot, the last Princess Diaries book, in the library the other day. So I thought, what the heck, even though I completely dislike it when Mia's with JP (BECAUSE SHE BELONGS WITH MICHAEL!!!) I'll read this last one, just to see what happens in the end.

And it was TOTALLY worth it. (Excuse my ensuing infantile vociferations. I'm revisiting my early teenage years.)

I know. Laugh all you want, at me still crazy about the Princess Diaries series. But even though I first read it when I was 11 or so, reading Forever Princess NOW reminds me of why I was completely nuts about it. I'm getting all fan-girl squealy at random intervals, and have been caught with an inane smile on my face in public (I don't think anyone bothered, though, which is a good thing.) Michael and Mia are the cutest couple ever, even cuter than Bella and Edward. I'm comparing them in terms of how giggly and swoony I get whenever the couples are together. Edward's speeches are a little too prettily arranged at times. Romantic, hell yes, but a little too Romeo-ish. (But of course, seeing as how he's from a different time, that's understandable.) Anyway, I'm falling completely in love with Michael all over again, just like I had when I first started reading it. I screamed more exuberantly over Michael and Mia than Bella and Edward. And people who know me know how nuts I already am over Bella and Edward.

Anyway, in fact, so in love with Michael I am - and so convicted of their love, whether or not Mia, dense Mia, realises that - that I didn't read those books where they weren't together. I read up to the 6th or 7th book, I think. One of it was lame, where Mia tried so hard to prove to Michael that she was a party princess and not a prude, when Michael didn't care if she was a party princess anyway (and would rather she wasn't someone she was trying to be) and loved her for being her. That was quite lame. And in another book, it was all about Doing It, and how Michael said he knew she was the one for him and that he wouldn't wait for her to be ready for It. Wtf, I could kill Meg Cabot for doing that. That just killed my opinion of Michael. How could he say he wasn't going to wait for Mia to be ready for It? He has to, because he loves her, hello?

But I still love Michael, of course. It's hard not to. He's so sweet and thoughtful, and clearly loves Mia to bits, and is always trying hard to be worthy of her (even though it's she who thinks she isn't worthy of him).

Last I read, Michael and Mia broke up because she couldn't deal with him having Done It with some other girl before they (Michael and Mia) even got together. He was worried she wouldn't be mature enough to deal with that, which was why he didn't tell her. And true enough, she made a huge deal out of it, and they ended up breaking things off. And then Michael left for Columbia University(why is it that every book I read has to have the characters going off to Columbia? Jessica Darling went there too - way to make me feel inadequate, Meg Cabot and Megan McCafferty), and Mia tried to move on with life.

And then this other guy JP showed up and like how Jacob got Bella through her dark days without Edward, JP did the same for Mia, and they've been together for almost two years (she was with Michael for 4, I think). And oh, did I mention, JP went out with Mia's best friend Lilly (well, ex-bff now, since a bff's ex is off limits) after he broke up with Lilly?

JP seemed like a nice guy; that's what Meg wanted to show. But somehow, I wasn't bought into it. My loyalties (I would use the word allegiance, but it sounded patriotic somehow) lie with Michael and always will. Michael and Mia are perfect for each other. Mia was just too immature to be in a relationship (see: Michael's Doing It with Judith Gershner, when he wasn't even with Mia at that time) then.

But she's a senior now, and Michael's invented something called the CardioArm which makes him some hot young scientist and he's getting international acclaim and each equipment is selling for a million over bucks. And he's back. To New York.

And all the truths just spill out:

1. JP is a dick. That seems the most important. Not only did he get together with Mia after breaking up with her best friend Lilly, he did that once he heard Mia had broken up with Michael and he could now get a chance to be her prince. He even wrote a play that mimicked their relationship and where he was the prince to her princess (how highly can he think of himself?). Plus, he booked a room at some swanky hotel on their prom night months before, even though Doing It was never something they'd ever discussed. AND, he wouldn't read the romance novel Mia had slaved over for 21 months and was hoping to publish, because he thought romance novel-writing was below her and that she could do so much better. He also didn't bother reading it because he was busy with his play. WHAT AN UNSUPPORTIVE DICK. Seriously, what is Mia even doing with JP?!

2. Michael has always loved Mia, even after they broke up, and when he left for University, he got one of their mutual friends to look out for her. He didn't want to get back with Mia (when she tried, after they broke up) because he was going off to University and he didn't think it was fair for her to wait around for him. PLUS, the reason why he was so bent on his work (the CardioArm) was because he was dying to prove himself to Mia's royal family that he was worthy of the Princess of Genovia (Mia), since JP had a famous dad in the theatre industry and everyone loved him (including Mia's family) and thought he was better for Mia than Michael was. Oh, how blind everyone was.

3. Lilly was mad at Mia for two books or so (I don't know, I stopped reading after the 7th book, where Michael and Mia broke up. The one that I'm reading now is the 10th and final one) not because Mia stole her boyfriend, but because she couldn't see what a dick he was and because Mia broke up with her brother (yes, Michael is Lilly's brother) and got together with JP.

And now Michael's back and trying really hard to win Mia back. Mia's never stopped loving Michael, even though she thinks she has and is in love with JP. Somehow, she's just not drawn to JP the way she was drawn to Michael.

All I can say is: SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM! I know, I'm being completely juvenile and shallow here, reading a book like that. But come on, we all need a bit of escapism sometime. And hello, isn't this the cutest love story ever? How can anyone not love Michael?

So I'm left with the last 50 pages or so (sobs), so I'm going to go back to it.

Allow me to indulge in one last infantile, whimsical proclamation before I leave.

MICHAEL AND MIA FOREVER.

(Seems like I've been in love with fictional characters way before I met Edward.)