I'm Me

Homecoming

The next school day was going well for the most part. I hung out with Rachel like I normally would and went about the day as calmly as possible.

Homecoming was right around the corner and I still didn't have a date. I was worried I'd spend my junior year not going to another guy's choice dance. Rachel had a date, and she was trying to help me find one, even though the guy was supposed to ask the girl out.

"Do you think I'll sound desperate if I ask a guy to homecoming?" I desperately needed to know so I wouldn't subject myself to humiliation. "Jules, it's 2022, girls are taking charge more and more these days." Rachel started one of her famous pep talks. "So I won't sound desperate?" I didn't necessarily understand what she meant. I was not a take charge kind of person, at least, I tried but I would always fail at those attempts. "I don't think you will," she replied. Her green eyes were full of hope that something good would happen for me. "I wish I had your optimism." I grumbled. Normally I would have been optimistic, but I had dealt with so much disappointment that it was hard to see the bright side in some things.
I had a small crush on this cute boy in choir class. He was in the tenor section and would often catch glances with me, and my heart would flutter with excitement. His name was Jack Anderson, he was popular among the music nerds of our school, and he was also the one who would always get leading roles in the plays and musicals. I often imagined what it would be like to be his girlfriend. I pictured what it would be like and I would smile to myself, but I knew that was a silly thing to think about. Jack and I had also been friends since we were in elementary school when we did children's theatre together. I recall my friends in my fourth grade class thinking I was cool because I was friends with a sixth grader. Now I was a sophomore and he was a senior.
We did a production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; I was Snow White and he was my prince.
"Rachel, will you help me come up with a way to ask him to homecoming?" I inquired. "Of course, bestie!" she hugged me excitedly. "Thank you!" My nerves faded away and I didn't worry about it anymore for the time being.
During lunch, we were coming up with ideas for me to ask Jack to homecoming. Rachel was creative when it came to this kind of thing. We also spent time after school coming up with ideas.

I settled on an idea: "Of all the fish in the sea, will you go to homecoming with me?" "That's a great idea, Jules! Let's go to the store to get supplies," Rachel said enthusiastically. I was stimming with excitement by rotating my hands back and forth, "Yes!" then my smile fell. "What if he says no?" "Then he will never know how great you are and he'll be missing out." Rachel replied.

Our plan would be put into motion when we drove to Jack's house, and we placed the poster and fish crackers on the porch, rang the doorbell, and ran away before we got caught.
All that was left to do was wait.