“Today is the day,” my best friend Sade commented. “If you don’t ask him now, it might as well be never.”
“How about never?” I asked.

“Oh come on Ellie! The dance is in two days and you still haven’t even had the guts to say a simple hello,” Sade sighed exasperated. She was right. I have had a huge crush on Sam Armstrong ever since he asked me if he could borrow a pencil in math class. Those big green eyes just made my thoughts get so off track… ok sorry, back to reality. Anyway, the Sadie Hawkins dance, where girls ask guys, is in two days and I haven’t even thought of how to ask him yet.

“Well, what if he says no?” I asked trying to back out of this disaster waiting to happen.

“Ellie,” Sade warned.

“Uh fine,” I gave in. The thing is, I have really bad luck. Everything that I do that’s important, I always mess up in some embarrassing way. I just know that this isn’t going to turn out well.

“You should ask him at swim practice!” Sade yelled in my ear.

“Jeez Sade I’m right here! You don’t have to scream!”

“Sorry,” Sade muttered.

“Um, I guess that’s a good idea,” I concluded.

“Perfect!” Sade squealed with delight. Sade then left to go to her next period. All through science I just couldn’t stop thinking of the horrendous possibilities that could possibly be the outcome when I asked Sam at practice. I couldn’t focus all day. When it was finally time for practice, I was ghastly pale and my hands were shaking uncontrollably. “Ellie,” Sade said as she walked into the locker room. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“I can’t do it Sade,” I said my voice shaking a bit.

“Ellie, you’ve been secretly liking Sam for who knows how many months and when you finally have the perfect chance to tell him, you back out?”

“I guess you’re right.”

“When am I ever wrong?” Sade said with a smirk on her face.

“A lot,” I said cracking a smile. Sade walked me out of the locker room and gave me a smile of encouragement. It didn’t help. I saw Sam standing by the edge of the pool deck by some boys who were tossing a football to each other. I took a deep breath and started to walk over to him. He saw me advancing and waved at me, which just had to make the butterflies in my stomach do another somersault. I walked up to him and I smiled. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said returning the smile.

“So,” I began. “I was wondering if you maybe, only if you want, but if you could possibly um,” I stuttered.

“Are you ok?” he asked looking at me worriedly. I felt my cheeks turn hot and he must have noticed because he gave me a reassuring smile. I took a deep breath and tried again.

“I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?” I said trying to read his face for any signs of, ew did this girl really just ask me this? Just as he opened his mouth, I heard someone yell and felt the pointed tip of a football collide with my head. The unexpected force caught me off guard and I stumbled into Sam. We both fell into the pool, tumbling through the weightless water. I came up sputtering water from my mouth and glaring daggers at the now resurfaced, laughing uncontrollably, Sam. “And you think this is funny?” I half screamed at him, trying my best to stay angry at him. But let me tell you, those sparkling green eyes made it very hard.

“Well,” he began. “Don’t you?” he asked trying to hold back a smile and failing terribly.

“No! I just knew that something absolutely humiliating was going to happen to me! And now you are going to say no and I just can’t…” I babbled but was cut off by him leaning in and kissing my wet cheek. “What was that for?” I said shocked that he had just done that. It must have shown on my face because Sam let out a chuckle.

“Yes,” he stated mater-of-factly.

“Wh-what?” I stuttered unable to comprehend what he was trying to say.

“Wow. Never thought that I would ever get Ellie Young speechless,” he said in mock surprise. I glared at him again and he just smirked. “Yes, Ellie. I will go to the dance with you.”

“You will?” I said unable to believe what I was hearing.

“Who else would I go with?” he said. “But I may need to go with my girlfriend instead. She might get mad.”

“Your girlfriend?” I questioned unable to keep the anger out of my voice.

“I knew it,” Sam said shaking his head and smiling.

“Knew what,” I demanded.

“That you would get mad.” I just stared at him in disbelief. He had the nerve to mess with me like that?

“Ellie Young,” he said while wading forward through the water. “Will you do me the honor of being my girlfriend?” he asked. Then I said something really intelligent like,

“Uhhh.” But I think I got the point across because he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a bear hug. His arms were strong and I felt comfortable in them. I felt like the only thing left to do was pull my arms around him as well. I heard wolf-whistles from the side of the pool deck and some boys yell,

“You go Sam!” But I just ignored them and enjoyed being in Sam’s arms. Who knew this would be the day that Sam Armstrong would make me utterly and entirely humiliated?