She was dazzling, in her blue dress with cascading ripples. Her blue eyes, flanked by light freckles, gazed deeply into mine, as her long red hair enveloped her head and shoulders. She put her hand on my arm as we walked into the huge ballroom. She put her arms on my shoulders and I put my hands on her waist. She smiled and leaned forward to kiss me. All of a sudden I heard someone yelling my name. I panicked, I didn’t know what to do.
“Chad…Chaaad…CHAD!” Mr. Miagi’s shouts brought Chad back into reality a.k.a. Mr. Miagi’s 6th hour AP Calculus BC class.
“Huh? What? Oh sorry Mr. Miagi,” said Chad.
“Its ok, just try to stay with us” he said as he turned back to the board.
He looked over to his friend Amanda and she whispered “Welcome back,” which was quickly met by him sticking out his tongue at her.

This reminded Chad of how Amanda and he originally had met. Back in 8th grade, they had their combined 8th grade band concert at the end of the year. Chad was chaired 1st out of all of the trumpet players in 8th grade, he has always been proud of that. He spent some time talking to the other kids around him and he saw a girl with a silver trumpet.
He was totally fascinated by this and without even thinking about it, he blurted out “Hey! You’ve got a chromed one.”
Well, you see, Chad didn’t think his comment would be taken the wrong way, but it was. That girl was mad, let me tell you. She had equated “chromed” with “car bumper”, so she basically thought that he called her instrument a car part. She went home that night in a fury.
“How dare he call it chromed” she said, grinding her teeth, “My trumpet is not a fender.” Chad didn’t think anything of it; he thought he had given her a compliment. It was only two years later that he found out that he had inadvertently insulted her. He was sitting next to her in the wind ensemble and he had remembered who she was.
“Yeah, you’re the girl with the cool silver trumpet” he said.
“You mean chromed, don’t you?” she retorted. Then they had a big laugh, which was followed by Mr. Phillips, the music teacher, telling them to can it. As time went on, they talked more and more and they eventually became close friends.

Amanda was 5’5”; she had long dirty-blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and a huge smile. Turning back to his seat, he continued to work on the differential equation on the board until the bell rang. 2:40, freedom at last. Chad threw all of his stuff in his bag and walked over to Amanda, who had, over the course of the class, removed almost everything in her back pack and had it on her desk.
“Hey, wanna work on the Calc homework together?” asked Chad.
“Sure” said Amanda as they both walked out of the classroom.
As they were walking down the hall, Chad saw her. Her name was Amy; she had red hair, blue eyes, and a very pretty smile. He waved to her and mouthed ‘hi.’ She smiled and waved back. In all the excitement, Chad had not noticed that his mouth was hanging wide open.
“You gonna close that trap, or am I gonna have to get the drool bucket?” laughed Amanda.
“Ha ha ha NO!” said Chad in a sarcastic tone. At that point Chad’s sarcasm turned slowly into a long sigh.
“I really like her…” Chad sighed.
Amanda then asked, slightly confused, “Then why don’t you ask her out?” “Because…I’m kinda scared to I mean, what can I impress her with? I’m not really good at anything” he said. Amanda came to a dead stop.
“Did you just say you’re ‘not really good at anything’?” She asked “Chad, You’re the best trumpet player in the school, and quite possibly the best in all the high schools in the state; you’ve already been accepted to U of M’s school of music! What could possibly make you say that you’re not really good at anything?”
Chad said “I don’t think she’d be interested in that at all…” he let out another long mournful sigh. “…and prom is in a month...I am so stressed out…”
Amanda said “You know maybe I can help you ask her out…”
Chad stopped in his tracks “Really?”
Amanda said “Sure, but as long as you listen to me, because I’m a girl…I know things.”
Chad started laughing.
Amanda said “What?”
Chad replied sarcastically “Don’t be silly, girls don’t know things!” Amanda punched him in the arm. “OW! Ok, ok, I’m just kidding.”
“Good” murmured Amanda with a smile on her face.
They walked out to the parking lot together and both got into Chad’s car, they had been car pooling since sophomore year so it was kind of a ritual that they would go over to each others houses right after school and hangout for a while, and then do homework. They always talked about marching band, school, and stupid things that people say.
“Oh Man! I heard this amazingly funny thing today” Chad laughed “I was behind this girl in the lunch line and she was talking to her friend”; Chad then used his falsetto voice range to imitate this girl’s voice. “‘You know what I’ve always wondered, if they have 3-d glasses, why don’t they have a 3-d monocle?’” Amanda laughed so hard she almost wet her pants.
As soon as she was finished with her laughing fit, she said “Ok, so, you really want to ask this girl out, right?”
“Yes, yes I do, really really bad” he said hastily.
































“Ok, well…where do I start?” she pondered. “Girls like a bit of confidence, not too much, not too little, but just enough, they can smell fear from a mile away” she said. “Number 2, girls like to be told that they look pretty, it might not sound like much, but it works wonders for them.” She continued. “finally, girls like to know that they are wanted and loved, BUT, under no circumstances are you to tell her you love her, that will scare her away, I know I’ve seen it” she finished.
“Wow, that’s a lot, I hope I don’t forget anything” Chad said.
“I think you’ll be ok.” Amanda said. After they worked on their homework, they talked for a while. “…you know…” sighed Amanda, breaking a period of silence “I wish there was a guy out there that was as dedicated to trying to ask me out, as you are to asking Amy out…”. Chad put his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry he’s out there.”
“You really think so?” she asked.
He looked at her and smiled “I know so.” Another period of silence followed that.
After a moment of silence, Chad asked “Do you like anyone?”
Amanda said “Yes, but I don’t think he knows it yet”.
“Oh” said Chad “Well that’s kind of unfortunate”.
“Yeah” said Amanda as she started to stare off into space.
Chad and Amanda worked on their Homework until about 7, and then Chad dropped Amanda off at her house.
When Chad got home, he went downstairs, turned on his Xbox, and played some Halo. Halo was all the rage in high school, and he and his friends would often hold Halo tournaments at each others houses.
It got to be about 10, so Chad thought I’ve got zero hour in the morning, I should probably start heading to bed. So he started making his way to bed.
As he was walking up the stairs, his phone rang. Who could that possibly be? He thought to himself. He looked at his phone and Amanda was on it. “Hello?” Answered Chad.
After a couple seconds Amanda replied “Hi”.
“What’s up?” asked Chad. Another short bit of silence.
“Are…are you gonna ask Amy out tomorrow?” she said in a stutter.
“Yeah” replied Chad “if my nerves don’t get a hold of me before I get a chance to”.
“Oh, ok, just wondering” said Amanda”. Chad then wrapped up the conversation “alright, well I guess I’ll see you…”
“WAIT! I…” yelled Amanda.
“What? Are you ok?” Chad asked frantically.
“Oh…uh, sorry, never mind I’ll see you tomorrow, ok?” she said.
“Ok, bye” said Chad before he flipped the phone shut.
What was that all about? He wondered to himself.
Chad didn’t sleep very well that night.
He woke up the next morning in a daze. He felt very strange, not sick or anything like that, but nervous. He could feel it now, he could feel the thousands of butterflies swarming in his stomach. As the day went on, he found that he couldn’t concentrate in any of his classes.
He almost fell asleep in Art History, his mind was everywhere in band, and his brain was like a waterlogged tennis ball in AP Physics. RING! Uh oh Chad thought that’s the bell and this is it. Chad knew that after Physics he met up with Amanda to walk to 4th hour together, and then he would have a chance to talk to Amy. She was further down the hall. Chad turned around and looked at Amanda,
“Good luck” she said with a smile.
Chad said “Thanks” as he turned around and prepared to face his destiny.
As he walked down the hallway, she saw him and waved. The hallway suddenly seemed warmer as Chad walked up to her. Everything slowed down. The hallway became more and more crowded, the closer he got to her. It felt like everyone was listening. It felt like everyone was judging him. Every step got harder and harder to take. As he was getting closer, the butterflies came back into his stomach. His palms were getting sweaty. At one point, he was even finding it harder to breathe; he needed to control his mind, and he needed to focus. As he approached her, he cleared the last thoughts of doubt from his mind, took a deep breath, and took his opportunity.
“Hi.” Chad said with a fair amount of confidence.
“Hi.” said Amy as she brushed her red hair away from her face and smiled at Chad.
“What’s up? Got any tests today?” Chad said in a desperate attempt to start a conversation.
“No, no tests today, those were all yesterday” replied Amy as she stared off into the distance. Then Chad decided to go for it.
“So, listen” said Chad “Are you doing anything this Friday? Would you like to go see a movie with me?” He held his breath. She smiled, and kind of laughed a little as she looked down at the ground, Chad thought wow, that’s not quite the reaction I was looking for.
She took in a breath to talk “No, I’m sorry, I don’t know if you knew”, she looked up, “But my mom won’t let me date right now”. Chad felt his stomach drop. “I’m sorry” she said in an oddly insincere tone “Oh, ok well, I gotta go to class” he said trying to hide his pain “See ya”. “Bye” she said as he walked away.
His mind was racing with questions, but all of a sudden his questions were answered when he heard Amy and her friends laughing. He turned around to see what they were laughing about and saw them looking at him. Just then, everything made sense, there was only one thing going through his head she lied, she lied to me just so she wouldn’t have to go out with me.
Amanda saw him coming back down the hallway and she waved. He looked up at her as soon as she was within earshot and said “she said no” and he kept walking. Amanda was shocked.
“What? What do you mean ‘she said no?’?”
“Yeah, I’ll tell you about it later” he said as he walked to the band hallway.
When Chad got to his music independent study, he got into a practice room, sat down, and thought. I can’t believe that she did that! Did she have to be so mean? What am I going to do now? His thoughts where interrupted by a tapping on the glass. It was Amanda.
She opened the door and said “I got a pass to go to the bathroom; so I don’t have a lot of time.”
“She said no” Chad said “But she lied to me so she wouldn’t have to go out with me.”
Amanda asked “how do you know that she lied to you?”
“Because” Chad replied “I heard them laughing and talking about me as I walked away”.
Amanda looked down and said “oh, I’m sorry, girls can be cruel sometimes, I bet she didn’t even consider how much nerve it took to do that.” Chad then looked up. Amanda continued “you know, if a guy had the guts to ask me out, I’d be so happy…” her voice trailed off as she began to daydream.
“Amanda, you gotta go” said Chad. Amanda looked at the clock and said
“Oh, yeah, I gotta go, I’ll…”
Chad interrupted her “Thanks for being such a good friend, I’ll see ya 6th hour.”
“Ok” said Amanda as she hurried to her class room.
Chad spent the rest of that day thinking about everything that Amanda had done for him, and he kept pondering who she liked. She had told me earlier that she liked some one, he kept thinking, she also told me about wishing that someone would ask…her…out…THAT’S IT!
The bell rang just as Chad figured it out. He ran to his 5th hour Composition class in the hopes that it would go by faster, let’s just say it felt like the longest hour of his life. He couldn’t pay attention; he just kept thinking how could I have missed all the signs? How thick am I? It’s been right in front of my face this whole time! He got to his 6th hour as soon as he could; too bad Amanda sits on the other side of the room. Chad was wrong; this was the longest hour of his life. As soon as the bell rang, Chad went up to Amanda.
She said “Hi! Feeling better?”
“Yeah” said Chad “It’s almost like it never even happened.”
“That’s good” said Amanda. As they walked down the hallway, Chad was thinking about where he was yesterday at this time, and how much he’d grown in just a day. Chad kept playfully bumping into Amanda.
She kept giggling.
“Hey! What’s up with you today?”
“I got something I wanna ask you” Said Chad with a smile on his face. Amanda looked at him
“Yeah? What?”
Chad looked her in the eyes and said “Are you doing anything on Friday?”