The Princess of Beverly Hills

Chapter VI

VI

The rain was falling as a gentle drizzle on the outside of Mia’s window when she woke up in the afternoon of Sunday. The sun which had adorn the morning with warmth was now replaced with a pack of dull and gray clouds; just like those Sunday afternoons which seemed endless and were usually spent with the time-wasting thinking of what to do. Mia, however, knew exactly what to do. It took only several seconds after she woke up for her mind to be completely occupied with dreaming thoughts of James and it took less than several seconds for her to decide that she should go see him. The girl who was flustered by loveable ideas ran down the stairs with her evening dress still on and threw a question towards Steve at the very first glimpse of his presence.

‘’Dad!’’

Steve turned around, a bit in confusion.

‘’What’s it darling?’’

‘’Are the studios open today?’’

‘’I suppose they are’’

‘’Great!’’

‘’Why are you asking?—thinking of becoming an actress finally?’’

‘’Do you think I could be an actress?’’

‘’Well—not with what you’re wearing at the moment, but you might have a shot in radio-broadcasting’’

‘’Ha-Ha!’’ Mia pretended to laugh sarcastically, ‘’you’re so amusing’’

‘’Laughing is the only way to be victorious in every way’’

But Mia was already running back to her room on her white socks that reached up to her knees.

‘’Mia!’’

Steve called again.

‘’What?!’’

‘’Don’t run on your socks!’’

She sighed.

‘’Okay!’’ and whispered afterwards, ‘’I’ll be running on my damn socks all day long in Paris’’

Mia was instantly all dressed up again as she was now sitting on a bench whilst she waited for the bus to arrive at the end of her block. Hidden under a black umbrella and covered with a beige trench coat she dared to avoid any conversational small talk with some fellow neighbors who were also waiting for the bus that was always late on Sundays. Every drop that fell on her umbrella seemed to pass a second with fastened speed just as the bus finally appeared from around the corner.

‘’Finally!’’ she smiled and stood up, she even started to make eye contact with the other people around her, ‘’that was about time, wasn’t it?’’

An old lady in the crowd slightly nodded, not really sure of the time either.

The doors of the bus opened with a mechanical schuss and Mia climbed the steps looking downwards as she was busy folding her umbrella.

‘’Why hello there!’’

Mia looked up in surprise, finding the same bus driver from last night behind the wheel.

‘’You!’’

‘’Me?—no you!’’

‘’You left us behind at the top of that mountain!’’

‘’And I’ll do it again if you don’t snap it and take a seat’’

‘’Oh!—you’re just rude, aren’t you?’’

‘’I’m a lot of things, pleasant is not one of them’’

She frowned and walked to the back of the bus and took a seat with her arms folded over each other without noticing that she was exactly doing what the driver had expected of her to do. But Mia didn’t care; in fact, she didn’t really care about anything that was going on around her because she was weaving dreams and hopes into a full complexity of happiness with James. It was so occupying, so endlessly taking up all her attention that she almost forgot to step of the bus when her destination was reached.