The Princess Diaries

Mia’s mom, her dad, and Mr. Gianini disapprove of Mia going out with Josh, but when Grandmère arrives at the loft, she bulldozes her way in and announces that she is “tak[ing] [Mia] shopping for a new dress” (246) despite their protests. On the night of the dance, Mia writes that she is wearing “[her] new dress, [her] new shoes, [her] new nails” and her “professionally made-up face,” but there is “no sign of Josh” (248). Mia starts to wonder if this was all a big prank, but Josh eventually shows up and starts trying to impress Mia’s parents with compliments. At dinner, Mia starts to notice that Josh “isn’t acting very sensitive” (253) as he brags about the girl he dated before Lana, whose father was a millionaire. She also notices that Josh isn’t easy to talk to, and he seems to have no interest in getting to know her. At dinner, Josh orders “filet mignon for everyone” (257), despite the fact that Mia is a vegetarian. Josh and his friends keep drinking champagne, and “the more champagne Josh has to drink, the more he keeps on touching [her]” (257). Later that night, Mia writes from the girls’ room at Albert Einstein in distress. When she and Josh arrive at the school for the dance, reporters and paparazzi are waiting, and Mia wonders who could have called them. Josh pulls Mia out of the car and up the steps while “Flashbulbs [are] going off everywhere,” and reporters shout for Josh to “Kiss her! Kiss her!” (263). To Mia’s great discomfort and embarrassment, Josh “smashe[s] his mouth against [Mia’s]” (263) as the reporters get their pictures. Inside the school, Mia realizes that Josh “set [her] up” and “notified the press that [she’d] be here tonight” so he could “get his picture in the paper” (266). She confronts him in front of the whole school and says that he only kissed her because she’s the Princess of Genovia, not because he actually likes her. She says that Josh “[hasn’t] tried to get to know [her] at all” (268), and Josh shrugs off her complaints. Mia “turn[s] [her] back on him” (269) and walks into the girls’ room. She hides out in the bathroom, fuming over how stupid she was and how Josh used her. Lilly and Tina enter the bathroom and ask Mia if she’s all right. Lilly even apologizes for her behavior and promises that she will “make a concerted effort to stop telling everyone, especially [Mia], what to do” (271). Tina and Lilly invite Mia to hang out with them, their dates, and Michael, and Mia agrees.

The next morning, Mia is glowing from the memory of the dance. She “slow-danced with Michael Moscovitz,” Mr. Gianini tells her that he is raising her grade from an F to a D, and “Iran bombed Afghanistan, so there wasn’t a single picture of [her] and Josh kissing in any newspaper on the newsstand” (273). Mia spent the whole dance with old and new friends, and she thinks Michael might like her. Mia makes plans to appear on Lilly’s TV show, and when the night comes to a close, she spends the night at Lilly’s. Michael shows Mia a song he wrote called “Tall Drink of Water,” which is about “this very tall pretty girl who doesn’t know this boy is in love with her” (280). Mia thinks about how lucky she is, and happiness overwhelms her. Later Sunday, Mia’s father and Grandmère stop by the loft, and Grandmère announces that she will be leaving for a week. Mia offers to walk her to her limo, and while they are standing outside, “the Blind Guy walk[s] by, tapping his cane” (281). Grandmère tells Mia to help the poor man cross the street, but when Mia refuses and tells her to do it herself, Grandmère approaches the man and offers to help. The man touches her inappropriately as they cross the street, and Grandmère “whack[s] the Blind Guy across the face with her purse so hard his sunglasses [go] flying off” (283). Suddenly, the whole street finds out he can actually see.