The Princess Diaries, Vol. VIII: Princess on the Brink

## Chronology

### Preceded By

The Princess Diaries, Vol. VII and a Half: Sweet Sixteen PrincessThe Princess Diaries, Vol. VII and 3/4ths: Valentine Princess

### Followed By

The Princess Diaries, Vol. IX: Princess Mia

**The Princess Diaries, Vol. VIII: Princess on the Brink** is the eighth volume of the Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot.

It was released in 2006.

## Book Description

How do you spell princess? D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R

At last, Mia is a junior. An upperclassperson. Free of her responsibilities as student body president. So why is it that everything is going so terribly wrong? What is she doing in *Intro* to Creative Writing? When she has made it through Algebra and Geometry, why must she be faced with Precalculus? And for the love of all that is Genovian, why has Lilly nominated her for school prez *again*? All this is nothing compared to the news Michael springs on her, however. On top of all the mathematical strife, her beloved boyfriend is leaving for Japan for a year. Precalc has nothing on preparing for the worst separation ever!

Turns out there is one way she might convince Michael to stay. But will she? Or won't she? No matter what, Mia seems headed for disaster.

## Opening Quote

*"I suppose" - to Sara - "that you feel now that you are a princess again."*

*"I tried not to be anything else," she answered in a low voice. "Even when I was coldest and hungriest. I tried* not *to be."*

A Little Princess*, Francis Hodgson Burnett*

## Timeline

Begins on Tuesday, September 7, 2005 and concludes on Friday, September 10, 2005 during Mia's junior year.

Chronologically this book takes places over the shortest period of time of the full length novels, occurring over only 4 days. It is tied with the novellas Valentine Princess, The Princess Present, and Sweet Sixteen Princess, which also occur over only 4 days.

## Plot Summary

Mia has just returned from her summer in Genovia. She went with Rocky to his first hair cut and ends up getting her own hair cut, though it is very, very short. Tina has discovered over the summer that Boris and Lilly got to third base while they were dating, which upsets her for awhile. She suspects that Lilly and J.P. had sex over the summer, which is bolstered by the fact that Lilly got blonde highlights after J.P. said he prefers blondes. Lilly refuses to tell Mia as she has a big mouth, which hurts her feelings. Lilly plans to nominate Mia for student council again, even though Mia doesn't want to, and she ends up being the only person nominated. Mia tells Lilly she will run as long as Lilly promises to tell her if she and J.P. have had sex.

The Plaza is being converted to luxury condos, and though Grandmère has already purchased the penthouse she is forced to move out while the renovations are done. She moves to the W hotel but is dissatisfied with the room there. She notices and hates Mia's hair, but realizes that there is no way to fix it as there isn't any left to cut off.

Mia hasn't seen Michael since she left for Genovia so they go to dinner at Number One Noodle Son where he tells her that the robotic arm he was working on over the summer shows a lot of promise and he has been offered the opportunity to move to Japan and work on it. Mia is excited for him until he explains that he would have to be gone for a year or more and would not be able to come back until the project is finished. Mia starts to freak out and asks Michael what will happen with their relationship, but Michael assures her that he is going for them - so that he can prove himself worthy to her family. Mia cries and tells him she doesn't want him to prove himself and she's worried he will find someone else (who will have sex with him) and Michael jokes that that wouldn't be that bad. Mia cries back at the loft and Helen tries to comfort her.

Mia's friends are all sympathetic when they hear that Michael is leaving, except for Boris who argues that it is probably best if they break up as in the orchestra whenever anyone tries a long distance relationship one of the people inevitably ends up falling for a clarinetist. Boris doesn't think it is fair of Michael to ask Mia to wait for him - even if that's what he wants - because Mia is young and deserves the chance for other opportunities. Mia tells him that she would never want to date anyone who isn't Michael.

Grandmère moves to the Ritz Carlton but continues to complain about her new room. Phillipe is in town for a UN summit and asks Mia what's wrong. She tells him about Michael and he tells her it's good of Michael to want to prove himself before excusing himself to try to find Grandmère a new hotel. Grandmère suggests to Mia that since the suite at the Ritz Carlton will be empty she could use it for a private romantic goodbye with Michael before he leaves for Japan. Mia does not realize until her date with Michael that evening that Grandmère was proposing that Mia have sex with Michael before he leaves. Mia decides that she will have sex with Michael in hopes that that will convince him to stay in New York and tells him not to make plans for the next night.

The next day Mia talks through her plan with Tina, but Tina thinks that Mia should sleep with Michael as a romantic goodbye, not to try to manipulate him to stay. At lunch Lilly reveals that her campaign strategy is to scare everyone into voting for Mia using table toppers that talk about various disasters that could occur and saying that only Mia would know how to deal with them. Mia starts to have a panic attack during P.E. about her decision to have sex and ends up in the nurse's office where Nurse Lloyd gives her information about having sex. J.P. asks Mia in Chemistry if she is ok after going to the nurse's and she assures him she's fine. They talk about her problem with Michael and J.P. asks if she's really going to sit home while Michael is in Japan. Mia tells him that she will hang out with her friends, but he reminds her that all of her friends are in relationships.

Grandmère moves to the Four Seasons where Phillipe has paid off the help to accommodate anything that she asks for. Phillipe checks in on how Mia is doing and Grandmère cancels princess lessons so that she can unpack and get a facial. Mia goes to the Moscovitzs' apartment to meet up with Michael and they sneak out to the Ritz Carlton. They order room service and after dinner Mia asks Michael if he remembers the last time she had a hotel room to herself and she invited the girls over and not him. He tells her that he does and she notes that this time it's the same circumstances but she invited him. Mia tells Michael that she's given it a lot of thought and she's ready to have sex with him. Michael doesn't seem surprised but asks her if she's sure, which confuses Mia. Michael wants to make sure that Mia won't be upset if they have sex and then he leaves for Japan to make sure she won't feel like he's abandoning her. Mia lies and says that's not why she wants to have sex but she's surprised he would want to leave if regular sex was on the table but Michael tells her he has to go to prove himself to her family.

Mia tells Michael that before they leave she thinks that they should share the Precious Gifts of their Virginity with each other, but Michael asks her what she is talking about. Mia reiterates that they should give each other the Precious Gifts of their Virginity but Michael laughs and says he gave away his "precious gift" a long time ago, which shocks Mia. Mia asks Michael if he's a virgin and Michael says of course not and that she already knew that, but Mia yells back that she did not know. Michael starts to look alarmed and tells Mia that he knows they never talked about it but he didn't think it was a big deal but this makes Mia even more mad and she continues to yell. Michael tells her it was before he even knew that she liked him so he didn't think it would matter and Mia asks him who he slept with. Michael doesn't want to tell her as he's worried she'll get more angry, but he finally relents and tells her he slept with Judith Gershner. Mia freaks out even more, wondering if they were in love and if they used protection, but Michael says it shouldn't matter because she was dating Kenny at the time. Mia takes this as Michael blaming her for this, which he is not trying to do, but he brings up Josh Richter. This makes Mia even more angry and she yells at Michael for just expecting her to wait around while he's off in Japan and Michael gets really quiet and asks her what she means. Mia tells him that it's not fair of him to go off to Japan and expect her to just sit at home like a nun when she is only 16. Michael tells her that's not what he wants but he assumed she wouldn't want to see anyone else because he doesn't plan on dating anyone else, but asks her if that's what she really wants. Mia does not want this at all but can't stop herself from saying that if he could keep the fact that he slept with Judith from her then their relationship might not be as good as she thought. Michael yells at her that she never asked him but Mia continues that if he's willing to move to a whole other country then clearly the relationship never meant that much to him anyway. Michael shakes his head and tells Mia not to do this, but she takes off her snowflake necklace and holds it out to him. Michael angrily tells her not to do this, but she drops the snowflake necklace and runs from the room.

Mia take a cab, driven by Ephraim Kleinschmidt, back to the loft, crying the whole time. Mia enters her apartment where Helen is on the phone with Lars, who realized Mia was not at the Moscovitzs'. Helen asks Mia where she was but Mia rushes to the bathroom and throws up. Mia tells Helen about Michael and Judith and Helen is nonplussed, telling Mia "it's just sex," but Mia says that Michael lied to her, which Helen says is only kind of true. Helen asks Mia if she picked a fight with Michael so that it would be easier for her when he leaves, since she will be mad at him. Michael calls to see if Mia got home ok, and Helen confirms that she did but won't let him talk to Mia. He e-mails Mia trying to explain why he didn't tell her about Judith and says he kind of expected her to wait for him since part of the reason he is going if for their relationship and he asks her to call him back. Tina texts Mia and Mia tells her everything, but Tina somewhat defends Michael, though she agrees that Mia has a right to be angry. Mia thinks about trying to message back Michael but keeps deleting it. She is concerned about being broken up but knows that they should stay strong.

Before school Michael IMs Mia and tells her he'll be waiting with Lilly when she picks her up to talk to her but Mia calls Lilly and tells her she can't take her to school. Lilly tells Mia that she's breaking Michael's heart and she needs to talk to him. Mia doesn't want to go to school at all but Helen tells her she has to as she broke up with Michael, not the other way around, so she doesn't get to wallow. Tina and Mia pass notes in class and Tina asks her if she would forgive Michael if he asks, but Mia tells her that won't happen since Michael doesn't think he did anything wrong. Tina tells Mia that she felt the same way when she found out about Boris and Lilly but after a while the weird feeling went away and now they're fine, but Mia tells her she doesn't have that kind of time as Michael is leaving for Japan that night. Michael texts Mia and tells her he wants to come by so he can explain himself, but Mia doesn't understand.

At lunch Mia shocks everyone by getting a cheeseburger. Lilly starts to berate Mia and tell her she has lost her mind, first by dumping Michael and then eating meat. J.P. tells Lilly to stop but she keeps going and says that Michael made the right choice by not telling Mia about Judith because he clearly knew she was going to blow it out of proportion. She says that Mia is just mad because Michael won't be her lapdog and stay in New York and do what she tells him to do because he is his own person. This causes J.P. to grab Lilly's arm and drag her outside to talk. Mia cries into her burger and Boris pats her on the shoulder and tells her she's doing the right thing.

In G&T Mia sees Lilly crying next to Boris and asks him what he did. Boris says she was like this when he came in, so Mia asks Lilly what's wrong but she is reluctant to answer with Boris around which he picks up on and excuses himself to go practice. Lilly tells Mia that J.P. broke up with her because he didn't feel the same way about her that she did about him. Lilly begs Mia not to say anything to J.P. because she should have known sooner and he did the right thing by not taking advantage or dragging it out longer than it should have been. Mia tries to use this opportunity to find out if Lilly and J.P. had sex, but Lilly doesn't fall for it. Lilly apologizes for how she treated Mia in the cafeteria and Mia forgives her.

In chemistry Kenny passes a note to Mia inviting her over to study. J.P. passes her a note saying he can't believe that she hasn't even been single for a whole day and people are already trying to get with her. Mia tells J.P. that she knows he broke up with Lilly, but he tells her that he knows he should have done it a long time ago but he was hoping that he would develop feelings for her, however when he saw how Lilly treated Mia at lunch he knew he couldn't be with her. He also tells Mia that he's proud of her for finally standing up for herself with Michael because it's wrong to lie about your sexual history. He asks Mia if they can still be friends, and Mia agrees, and he tells her that he is still a virgin. As they leave chemistry J.P. asks for a hug and Mia leans in, she decides to kiss him on the cheek but J.P. turns and the kiss on the lips. When Mia pulls away from their kiss, embarrassed, she sees Michael standing in the hallway. He turns and leaves, not responding when Mia calls his name. Mia gets sick and is rushed to the nurse's office where she throws up and is sent home for the day (to the Four Seasons as neither Helen nor Mr. G were at the loft).

Grandmère rants about Michael and says he must have done something truly heinous for Mia to have finally taken off her snowflake necklace. Mia tells Grandmère what happened and Grandmère mistakenly believes that Michael cheated on her, Mia clarifies that he lied about the Precious Gift of his Virginity, which confuses Grandmère as she does not believe virginity to be a gift. Grandmère tells Mia that she should thank Judith because no woman wants an inexperienced lover, but it probably doesn't matter anyway since Michael is leaving for Japan and they will probably never see each other again, which causes Mia to cry.

Phillipe comes in and is concerned to see Mia crying. Grandmère tells him that Michael and Mia broke up and she suggests they get Mia some bourbon, but Phillipe suggests tea instead. Through her sobs Mia tells Phillipe what happened. Phillipe listens and tells her he thinks she's making a mistake because true love doesn't come around that often and when it does it is foolish to just throw it away, and even more foolish to throw it away without a fight. He tells Mia that he once did this and it has been the biggest regret of his life, then leaves for his UN meeting. Tea arrives and Grandmère pours some for Mia, Mia asks her who Phillipe could have been referring to and she first suggests Eva Longoria, though Mia tells her that was just a tabloid rumor. Grandmère says that she does not know as the only woman Phillipe has ever mentioned more than once is Helen and that is only because of Mia.

Mia suddenly jumps up and grabs Lars and they rush out of the room. She tells Lars to call a cab and calls Lilly and asks her what airline Michael is flying on and what time his flight leaves and Lilly tells her. After she hangs up she calls Phillipe on his emergency line. She asks him if the woman he was talking about is her mother and he just says "Don't tell her." Before he hangs up Mia asks him if he ever used to smell Helen's neck because it smelled really good to him, and he is confused as he never told anyone that, but he tells her he did - and it smelled like freesias.

Lars finally gets a cab and they get in, only to realize that it is once again Ephraim Kleinschmidt's cab. He recognizes Mia and offers her tissues but she just tells him to drive to JFK. They hit quite a bit of traffic and Lars suggests that Mia simply call Michael but she reminds him that she kissed J.P. in the hallway and he probably wouldn't even answer. They get to the airport and rush inside just as Michael's plane takes off and Mia collapses to the floor and cries. Phillipe and Hans come to get her in the limo and they stop for a cheeseburger on the way to the loft.

Mia collapses on her bed and Helen comes in and tells her Phillipe filled her in about Mia being sent home from school and rushing to the airport. She tells Mia that she thinks she did the right thing, but Mia tells her she was too late and the plane had already taken off. Helen suggests she call him when he lands but Mia tells her that it's too late - Michael saw her kiss J.P. in the hallway and Helen asks Mia what she is going to do with her. Mia is concerned Michael will never want her back because she is crazy, but Helen tells her she has always been a bit crazy and Michael has still loved her. Helen tells Mia that they are ordering food from Number One Noodle Son and asks if she wants anything. She is surprised when Mia asks for a number of meat dishes, but orders them for her. As she leaves Helen tells Mia that Lilly called and she should call her back.

Mia calls the Moscovitz house and Mrs. Dr. Moscovitz answers the phone. She is noticeably displeased with Mia but tells her she could never hate her and assures her that she and Lilly will be fine. Mia assumes she must have meant Michael until Lilly gets on the line and begins screaming at her for kissing J.P. Mia tells her she just kissed J.P. as a friend but Lilly doesn't believe her and informs her that since Mia didn't show up Lilly gave the student council speech and was elected president. Mia pleads with Lilly that they've been friends for too long to let a guy come between them but Lilly says maybe that means they've been friends long enough and hang up. The phone rings again immediately and Mia answers and, assuming it's Lilly, begins apologizing but a man's voice comes on and Mia believes it to be Michael. J.P. identifies himself on the phone, to Mia's disappointment, and tells her that he has tickets to Beauty and the Beast and they should go to get away from their problems - both agreeing not to talk about either of the Moscovitzs. Before she leaves Mia e-mails Michael, saying simply "I'm sorry."