No one seems to have noticed, though, I guess because Mamaw and Papaw are here. They stopped by to say good-bye on their way to the airport before they fly back to Indiana. Right now, my two grandmothers are making lists of baby names and talking about who to invite to the christening (oh, no. Not again.) while my dad and Papaw are talking about crop rotation, as this is an important topic to both Indiana farmers and Genovian olive growers. Even though, of course, Papaw owns a hardware store and Dad is a prince. But whatever. At least they’retalking.

      Hank is here, too, to say good-bye and to try to convince his grandparents they are not doing the wrong thing, leaving him here in New York—though to tell the truth, he isn’t doing such a good job of it, since he hasn’t once gotten off his cell phone since he arrived. Most of these calls seem to be from last night’s bridesmaids.

     And I’m thinking that, all in all, things aren’t so bad. I mean, I am getting a baby brother or sister and have also acquired not just a stepfather who is exceptionally good at Algebra, but a foozball table as well.

     And my dad proved that there is at least one person on this planet who is not afraid of Grandmère . . .and even Grandmère seems a bit more mellow than usual, in spite of never having made it to Baden-Baden.

     Though she still isn’t talking to my dad, except when she absolutely has to.

     And yes, it is true that later today I have to meet Kenny back at the Village Cinema for a Japanese anime marathon, since I said I would, and all.

     But after that I am going down to Lilly’s, and we are going to work on next week’s show, which is about repressed memories. We are going to try to hypnotize each other and see if we can remember any of our past lives. Lilly is convinced, for instance, that in one of her past lives she was Elizabeth I.

     You know what? I, for one, believe her.

     Anyway, after that, I am spending the night at Lilly’s, and we are going to rentDirty Dancing andRocky Horror -ize it. We plan to yell things in response to the actors’ lines and throw things at the screen.

     And there is a very good chance that tomorrow morning, Michael will come to the Moscovitzes’ breakfast table wearing pajama bottoms and a robe, and forget to tie the robe like he did once before.

     Which would actually make for a very profound moment, if you ask me.

     Avery profound moment.

 

About the Author

 

Meg Cabot has lived in Indiana, California, and France, and has worked as an assistant dorm manager at a large urban university, an illustrator, and a writer of historical romance novels (under a different name). She is still waiting for her real parents, the king and queen, to come and restore her to her rightful throne. She currently resides in New York City with her husband and a one-eyed cat named Henrietta.

 

Visit Meg’s website at: www.megcabot.com

 

 

 

Books by

MEG CABOT

 

THE PRINCESS DIARIES

 

THE PRINCESS DIARIES, VOLUME II:

PRINCESS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

 

Credits

 

 

Jacket photographs © 2001 by Timothy Hampson

Jacket design by Alison Donalty

Cover © 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc

Typography by Alison Donalty

 

About the Publisher

 

 

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

PRINCESS IN THE SPOTLIGHT.Copyright © 2001 by Meggin Cabot. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.

PerfectBound ™ and the PerfectBound™ logo are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Gemstar E-book edition v 1. April 2002 ISBN 0-06-05984-3

Print edition first published in 2001 by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

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