Activity Night Date

At my middle school we didn’t have dances, we had activity nights. Basically, there was a DJ with video screens, basketball, games and food, oh and awkward dancing, lots of awkward dancing.

People did not typically take dates to these activity nights, so when Marc walked up to me in gym and asked me about the activity night that Friday, I was very confused.

“So, are you going to the activity night this Friday?” Marc asked me.

“Yeah, I was planning on it. Why?” I replied.

“I don’t know. I just wanted to ask,” he answered.

“Marc, why are you asking,” I pushed.

I knew that something was fishy about this question, but I tried not to get my hopes up that I was actually being asked to a dance…Oh, excuse me, an activity night. So I kept pressing him. Marc was not the type of person to just ask a question like this. I mean, he barely talked to me unless he was saying something rude or being obnoxious.

“No reason,” he answered.

“Marc, come on. Why are you asking,” I said.

“Do you promise not to say anything? I promised that I wouldn’t tell.” He replied sheepishly.

“Of course!” I said, “Now why are you asking.”

“David wanted to know,” Marc said, “He wants to go with you. So will you go with him?”

I smiled instantly. “Yes,” I said quietly, “Yes! Tell him that I said yes!”

Marc smiled. “Okay, will do.” He answered.

So there I was, a sixth grade girl who had just been asked on her first date ever. I was on top of the world, for a little while at least.

That Thursday, my dreams of a magical night of dancing with my date were destroyed…by my mother and my own stupidity.

I was grounded. That’s right. I was grounded and could not go to the activity night and therefore, would miss my date. I begged and pleaded with my mother.

“Please mom please?! I have a date! I have my first real date!” I whined.

“Abigail, it is not a date. Stop being so dramatic. This is the way it is going to be, so you are just going to have to deal with the consequences of your actions,” my mother replied.

“But I have to go! I can’t just abandon him! I have a date!” I tried to rationalize.

“End of conversation. You are grounded and that is the end of it.” She said.    

I spent all of Friday night thinking about how much I wanted to be at the dance and how bad I felt for David. I was devastated; apparently my date was devastated too. I learned that Monday that David spent the entirety of the dance sitting on the floor upset, thinking that I had stood him up even though I had explained the situation, through Marc again.

One of the interesting things about these pseudo-dates in middle school is that almost all over the conversations between the two people who are “dating” happen though a third party. God bless the people who act like carrier pigeons between middle schoolers who cannot bring themselves to talk to their crushes in person; if it were not for them, no one would ever know other people’s true feelings, especially in middle school.

By some miracle, David was still interested in me. So by the end of that week, it was determined that we were dating. So there I was, finishing off my first year of middle school with my first boyfriend ever.