It was finally the week. The dance was on Valentine's day, this Friday. Evelyn Thelen has been looking forward to this dance for years. She dreamed how amazing it would be getting picked up by her date, being escorted into the dance, dancing all night. She got a warm feeling just thinking about it. Except in reality no one had asked her.
She figured with the dance in a week she wouldn't get a date. She was thinking about ditching the whole thing altogether. As she was walking down the hall of her high school she got lost in her thoughts about the dance. She was pulled back to reality when she felt a hand on her arm pulling her toward the wall.
She looked up to see she was at her locker, her best friends Ainsley and her boyfriend Donovan in front of her. She had never liked Donovan much, not him personally, just because of the fact she had been in love with his girlfriend for years.
"Evelyn! What we're you doing? You almost just bumped in to like 10 people." Ainsley said.
"Oh nothing. Just lost in thought." she said slightly sad.
"You'll get a date. Don't worry." Ainsley smiled at her.
"Yeah thanks." she smiled and glanced over at Donovan, who as usual wasn't paying attention. He was captain of the football team, so a brainless jock. Just then the bell rang loudly and the halls filled with students pushing through to get to their classes.
Evelyn opened her mouth to say goodbye to Ainsley, but before she could Donovan grabbed her hand and dragged her over to his friends. She sighed and stared at them for a moment. Ainsley looked so happy, she knew they'd never be together.
-
Evelyn turned and walked slowly to her first period, calculus. Though she didn't have her best friend in this class, she actually liked it. Of course she didn't like math, she liked the boy sitting next to her.
She finally let it sink in that she'd never be with Ainsley, and has been trying to get over her. She recently started liking Conner, the boy who made calculus enjoyable. They sat next to each other all year, which made them become friends.
She walked quickly into the already full class and sat down embarrassed.
"Slept in?" Conner laughed.
"No." she smiled. "I was just distracted."
"Whatever you want to call it." he smiled. Conner was on the football team with Donovan, but he was different. Not rude, or dumb, or obnoxious. She was hoping he would've asked her to the dance. She thought he liked her too, but apparently not.
Her teacher yelled at the class to quiet down before saying you guys had a test today. She passed it out and sat down at her desk making sure no one was cheating before she started to play on her phone.
"Psst! Hey!" Conner whispered to her.
"What?" she hissed not wanting to get in trouble. He smiled.
"I have to ask you something. After class."
"Ok. W-" before she finished her sentence her teacher shushed them. She glared at them all class, Evelyn sighing in relief when the class was over.
Conner went to find her, but couldn't when he realized Ainsley had dragged her off to their next class. He ran out of the room and stood at the doorway, watching her walk away.
-
The bell telling everyone to go to lunch had just rang. Evelyn and Ainsley struggled to push through to the Cafeteria. They both got something that didn't even look edible slapped onto their plates before walking to the nearest empty table.
During lunch Evelyn kept glancing at Conner, who would stare at her the whole time and turn away nervously when she looked back. Donovan usually sat next to the rest of the football team, but said he wanted to spend as much time as possible with Ainsley this week. Ainsley was preoccupied with him so you decided to go talk to Conner.
"Hey I'll be right back."
"Oh. Where are you going?" Ainsley asked Evelyn.
"To talk to Conner." She noticed Ainsley scrunch her nose and Donovan tense up but neither of them said anything. Ainsley never liked Conner, she really didn't know why, they barely knew each other.
She walked towards his table, him standing up when he saw her coming.
"Hey. Sorry I didn't get to talk to you earlier. What did you want to ask me?" she asked. Noticing his nervousness she figured she already knew the question.
Conner looked over at his table, the whole football team was staring at them.
"Here, come with me." he led her out into the empty hallway and stopped outside the cafeteria door.
"What's up?" Evelyn asked happily.
"I uh...I wanted to ask if you were going to the dance with anyone..? And if not would you like to go with me?" he stuttered out. They both stood there for a minute. Evelyn smiled widely.
"Of course I'll go with you!" she replied happily.
