Meg Cabot - Give Me Five

As I stood there gazing at my reflection in the floor-length mirror, I couldn't help thinking how convenient the off-the-shoulder thing is. You know, in the event Michael and I ever wanted to get to second base.

But then I remembered we aren't actually going anywhere together where I would actually get to wear this dress, since

Michael had put the whole kibosh on the prom, so it was kind of a moot point. Sadly, I peeled off the dress and put it

back on Grandmere's bed. Probably there'll be some function I'll end up wearing it to in Genovia this summer. Some

function Michael won't even be there to attend. Which is just so typical.

I came out of the bedroom just in time to see Lilly on TV She was addressing a room full of reporters at what looked like the Chinatown Holiday Inn again. She was going, 'I would just like to say that none of this would be happening if the Dowager Princess of Genovia would publicly admit her culpability in her failure to control her dog, and in bringing said dog into a dining establishment.'

Grandmere's jaw dropped. My dad just kept staring stonily into the TV

As proof of this claim,' Lilly said, holding up a copy of today's edition of The Atom, 'I offer this editorial written by the Dowager Princess's own granddaughter.'

And then I listened in horror as Lilly, in a sing-song voice, read my article out loud. And I must say, hearing my own words thrown back at me in that manner really made me cognizant of just how stupid they sounded ... far more so than, say, hearing them read in my own voice.

Oops. Dad and Grandmere are staring at me. They do not look happy. In fact, they look kind of ...

Wednesday, May 7,10 p.m., the Loft

I really don't get why they're so upset. It is a journalist's duty to report the truth, and that is what I did. If they can't take the heat, they both need to get out of the kitchen. I mean, Grandmere DID take her dog into that restaurant, and Jangbu DID only trip because Rommel darted out in front of him. They cannot deny this. They can wish it hadn't happened and they can wish

that Lesley Cho had not asked me to write an editorial about it.

But they cannot deny it, and they cannot blame me for exercising my journalistic rights. Not to mention my journalistic integrity.

Now I know how the great reporters before me must have felt. Ernie Pyle, for his hard-hitting reportage during World War II. Ethel Payne, first lady of the black press during the civil rights movement. Margaret Higgins, the first woman to win a Pulitzer for international reporting. Lois Lane, for her tireless efforts on behalf of the Daily Planet. Those Woodward and Bernstein guys, for the whole Watergate thing, whatever that was about.

I know now exactly what it must have been like for them. The pressure. The threats of grounding. The phone calls to their mothers.

That's the part that hurt the most, really. That they would bother my poor dehydrated mother, who is busy trying to bring a

new life into the world. God knows her kidneys are probably rattling around in her body like packs of de-siccant right now. And they dare to pester her with such trivialities?

Plus, my mom is so on my side. I don't know what Dad was thinking. Did he really think Mom would be on GRANDMERE's side in all of this?

Although Mom did tell me that to keep peace in the family, I should at least apologize. I don't see why I should, though. This whole thing has resulted in nothing but heartache for me. Not only did it cause the break-up of one of AEHS's most long-term couples, but it caused me to have what looks to be a permanent falling-out with my best friend. I have lost MY BEST FRIEND over this.

I informed both Dad and Grandmere of this right before the latter imperiously ordered Lars to get me out of her sight. Fortunately, I had the foresight to snag the prom dress out of Grandmere's room and stuff it in my backpack before this happened. It's only a little wrinkled. A good steaming in the shower and it will be good as new.

I can't help thinking that they could have handled this little affair in a more appropriate manner. They COULD have called a press conference of their own, fessed up to the whole dog-in-the-restaurant thing, and had it all over and done with.

But no. And now it's too late. Even if Grandmere fesses up, it's highly unlikely the hotel, restaurant, and porters' unions are going to back down NOW.

Well, I guess it's just another case of people failing to pay heed to the voice of youth. And now they're just going to have to suffer.

Too bad.

Thursday, May 8, Homeroom

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!HH!!!! THEY'VE CANCELLED THE PROM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Atom

The Official Student-Run Newspaper of Albert Einstein High School

Special Supplementary Edition

PROM CANCELLED!!!!!!!!

By Lesley Cho

Due to the city-wide hotel, restaurant, and porters' unions strike, this year's Senior Prom has been cancelled. The restaurant Maxim's notified school officials that due to the strike, they would be closing, effective immediately. The

Prom Committee's $4,000 deposit was returned. This year's senior class is left high and dry with no alternative but to have the prom in the school cafeteria, something Prom Committee members considered, but then dismissed.

The prom is special,' said Prom Committee chairperson, Lana Weinberger. 'It's no ordinary school dance. We can't

just have it in the cafeteria, as if it were another Cultural Diversity or Non-Denominational Winter Dance. We'd

rather have no prom than a prom where we're stepping on old French fries or whatever.'

Not everyone in the school agrees with the Prom Committee's controversial decision, however. Said senior Judith Gershner, when she heard of Lana Weinberger's remarks, 'We've been looking forward to our prom since we were ninth graders. To have it taken away now, over something as trivial as stray French fries, seems a bit petty. I would rather have French fries stuck to my heel at the prom than no prom at all.'

The Prom Committee remains adamant, however, that it will have the prom off school grounds, or not at all.

'There's nothing special about coming to school dressed up,' ninth grader Lana Weinberger commented. 'If we're

going to get dressed up to the nines, we want to be going somewhere other than where we have gone every morning

all year long.'

The cause of the strike, which was summarized in this week's edition of The Atom, still appears to have been an

incident which occurred at the restaurant Les Hautes Manger, where AEHS freshman and Genovian Princess Mia Thermopolis dined last week with her grandmother. Says Lilly Moscovitz, former friend of the princess and

chairperson of the Students Against the Wrongful Dismissal of Jangbu Pinasa Association, 'It's all Mia's fault. Or at

least her grandmother's. All we want is Jangbu's job back, and a formal apology from Clarisse Renaldo. Oh, and vacation and sick pay, as well as health benefits, for busboys city-wide.'

Princess Mia was, at the time of going to press, unavailable for comment, being, according to her mother,

Helen Thermopolis, in the shower.

We here at The Atom will attempt to keep all of you informed as strike negotiations progress.

Oh, my God. THANKS, MOM. THANKS FOR TELLING ME THE SCHOOL PAPER CALLED WHILE I WAS IN THE SHOWER.

You should SEE the dirty looks I got as I made my way to my locker this morning. Thank God I have an armed bodyguard,

or I might have been in some serious trouble. Some of those girls on the Varsity Lacrosse team - the ones who smoke and do chin-ups in the third floor girls' room -made EXTREMELY threatening hand gestures towards me as I got out of the limo. Someone had even written on Joe the stone lion (in chalk, but still) GENOVIA SUCKS.