Hi, I am Andrew and I don’t belong here. I am a short guy that looks younger that what he really is, but has a huge heart. I don’t have a social group; everyone pretty much ignores me here at the Musician’s Academy. The only person that acknowledges my existence is my best friend ever, Braden Baker. We met a couple years ago at a Metallica concert. We bonded on the fact that we were both musically inclined. I am a drummer with six years of experience and he is a guitarist with four years of experience. The fact that he likes the same genre of music and bands as I do helped a lot in our bonding. He and I have all the same classes and lunch period. We always had interesting times during lunch, but one day in particular seemed to stand out.

Braden and I were sitting at our usual table during lunch one day having one of our odd conversations that other teenage boys wouldn’t really think about. Most boys our age argued over a girl, well, Braden and I argued over music. Braden started the usual argument with his opening line, “Dude, you are a drummer, so you obviously know that PDP brand drums are better than TAMA.” I wasn’t listening to him; I had my head in the clouds thinking of my crush, Roselyn Banks. Ahhhh, Roselyn. I remember the first time I met her. It was sixth grade and she was in my class and the very first thing I noticed was her eyes. Large and blue, they seemed to glisten like polished sapphire in the sunlight. In fact, I remember the first thing she said to me; which was simply “hi”. Goodness her voice was angelic and smooth! Just thinking about it gave me goose bumps. Obviously she goes to my school so she is a musician as well. She plays a bright pink Fender brand bass guitar. To me, the bass guitar is one of the sexiest sounding instruments ever, which is a fitting choice for her. Then I noticed something, she seemed to becoming my direction.

I was right, she was walking my direction. In fact, she was coming right to me. I simply thought to myself, Oh boy, what kind of sick joke is this. Braden noticed this too and looked at me and said, “Dude, she’s coming right for us... You should totally ask her out man. The whole school knows you got a crush on her.” This was true, but I was never smooth with pretty girls. She came over, pulled a chair over and sat right next to me with a huge smile on that perfect face of hers.“What’cha eatin’?” she began. “umm.. uh…” I stuttered. She giggled and smiled at me as my face turned a bright red. “So, um, prom is coming up Andrew and I was wondering if you would, you know, go with me. As my date.” Now I was almost sure someone paid her to do this, but the thing that kept me from being one hundred percent sure was the way she asked me. She was blushing and giggly with a shy look in her eye, which made me thing that she was interested in me. With my heart bound to beat out of my adolescent chest, I agreed. With that being said, she turned a bright red as well. Now I am starting to think she had a crush on me as well.

She left to use the bathroom and as she walked away I could feel Braden staring at me. I turned to find him all wide-eyed. “Holy cow man, Roselyn Banks just asked you to prom!” He was right, I remembered to pinch my leg when she asked me and the large bruise on my leg proved to me that this was, in fact, reality. Before I could say anything he said with a wink, “and you know what they say, what happens after prom, stays after prom.” I looked at him funny and replied, “C’mon man. You know I am not like that and Roselyn doesn’t seem the type.” “You never know bro, you never know.” He retorted. Roselyn then came back to sit down when the bell that ended lunch rang. I decided to be a gentleman and carry her stuff to her locker and walk her to her next class. Awkward energy filled the hall as I was walking with her. Never thought I would see the day that I was walking my crush to class.

Let’s fast forward to the day of prom, again me and Braden were discussing drums and guitars over cheeseburgers at lunch. Roselyn sat a few tables across with her friends. “You have to ask her out bro. you just have to. She seems interested in you!” I can agree with him. She and I exchanged numbers the day she asked me to prom and almost immediately after school, she texted me. And we got to talking. “I don’t know bro, what if she says no?” I asked him, skeptically. “Then you two can just be friends.” This was true, but I still wasn’t sure. Let’s fast forward again to prom. I rented a limo and a tux that had a black jacket with a teal shirt. She came outside and was totally baffled at the sight of me stepping out of the limo, extending a hand to her as an invitation to come join. “How did you afford this?” she asked with a surprised tone to her voice. I decided to be smooth and say, “a beautiful girl in a sleek teal dress deserves the most beautiful and luxurious car, a limo. Cost isn’t a factor, since you didn’t have to buy your beauty.” With that, she blushed and joined me in the limo. We were off to prom.

No one really thought a girl of Roselyn’s magnitude would ask me to prom. We caught a lot of eyes when she and I stepped out of the limo when we got to prom. We were probably an odd looking couple. I was short with short legs; she was slightly taller than me with long legs. I was awkward looking and she looked like a goddess from Greek legend. While we were walking inside trying to act like we didn’t notice the wide-eyed expressions on people’s faces, she made a move for my hand. Naturally, I let her grab it. That really seemed to throw people off. Just then Braden came up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder, and whispered; “ask her out man!” I mouthed the phrase, “Not yet” and he just smiled and nodded. We strolled onto the dance floor and the DJ played a slow song first, which was odd to me. Roselyn and I turned to one another and I grabbed her waist and she put her arms around my neck. We swayed to the music and my heart beat faster and faster, we locked eyes and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. She gave me a look I will never forget and I sensed that it was my one and only chance. I had to take it.

I felt my face getting hotter as I tried to find something cute to say, something to make her heart flutter the same way she does mine when she smiles at me. As I was brainstorming something to say to her, she had the same expression of debate on her face. Not being a mind reader like a woman, I couldn’t figure out what she was debating on. I was worried that she was debating whether or not to keep talking to me, to ignore me just like all the other girls. I had to act fast while the moment was right, the song was ending and I was sure that the romantic atmosphere on the dance floor would certainly change any second. I looked right into those blue eyes of hers and said, “wanna see something cute?” “Sure” she said with a giggle. “Then look in the mirror. The cutest thing in the world is in that mirror. And would that cutest thing in the world be my girlfriend for the foreseeable future?”

That was the cute thing I came up with and I was surprised it came out really smoothly. No stutters or weird accents. With that phrase being said with the question tacked on the end, my world stopped. I couldn’t hear the music playing, couldn’t see the people in the background dancing, and couldn’t even feel the pressure of my feet on the floor. Being lost in her luminous eyes, I had lost all sense of reality. Seconds seemed like minutes, minutes seemed like hours, hours seemed like days, and days seemed like a lifetime. My world continued to spin again, but this time it spun happily when he blushed and smiled, then said; “yes.” With her answer to my question, and my world spinning happily, we found our lips meeting for the first time. Her lips were very soft, and the kiss wasn’t dry or wet. The music was still slow and sweet and the atmosphere in the room was still romantic. As Goldilocks would put it, it was just right.

We finished our kiss when the song ended, and she excused herself to the restroom. As she walked away, Braden strolled over to me with a huge smile on his face. “Dude, that was awesome!! I knew you had it in you!” Braden said hi-fiving me. He continued congratulating me on my accomplishment of getting the girl, and I realized something. If you really want something to happen, you will find a way to make it happen and that if you really want it, go get it. It doesn’t matter if you are short and awkward; what does matter is that you be yourself and make a good first impression. Let that be a lesson to all of my fellow short and awkward teenage boys out there. If you want it, go get it.