She approached a boy to ask him to Sadie Hawkins. It may have been a question that she rehearsed over and over in her head, as I do before asking absolutely anything. She may have played out the conversation in her head while showering, light, giggling randomly to no one but the shampoo and washcloths. Perhaps it was flippant. She needed a date, and he would be impressive. Possibly she looked down her nose at him, saw herself as more alternative then his conforming structure. Refusing to wear socks to up her personal aesthetic she rose above him. Either or all ways, she asked him. Either and all ways, he already had a date.
Perhaps the next boy she asked she asked the same day. Scanning her mind to think of someone who couldn’t possibly have a date yet, needing to ask as soon as possible before she was left with no one, or worse, the no ones. Clearly she had waited too long if her first choice had been snatched up. Who had he been snatched up by? Possibly another friend, a betrayal? Knowing a mutual attraction and getting in there first. Or some girl who had never fully existed as a person in her mind, another seat in class, suddenly solidified by the question she had asked first.
The next boy she asked though, did not have a date. But then he did, he had her. It is unclear if he was a close second, a runner-up after the first boy, or a sudden strike of thought: he probably doesn’t have a date yet!
How and where she asked is fuzzy. At school, obviously. The words she used, either exactly or essentially: Will you go to Sadie Hawkins with me. The answer had a greater chance of life variance. Yes. Yes please. Absolutely. Totally. Sure. Why not.
Their becoming aware of each other is more clearly set then how he got that question. Band class. Where students begrudgingly or willingly went instead of lunch period. For the love of music or the love of needing an extra credit. Their brass section ranged from her French horn to his trumpet. She remembers watching him, with jealousy or disgust, as he took quick grabs at his sandwich between his parts as her stomach rumbled away. Her family had five children total, of which she was almost the youngest. Her father required a brushing of the teeths before someone could even pick up the single shared instrument.
Their dating became steadier. Where on the timeline after Sadie Hawkins can only be narrowed down to: before prom. By prom they were official. I know this because he used to joke to his customers, while he was waiting tables at an upscale restaurant, during their prom meals that he had in fact married the woman he attended prom with.
