Stacey Joy Netzel Boxed Set by Stacey Joy Netzel Page B

and humiliation surged forward. Standing in my
sunlit kitchen the day after New Years, I was transported back to
not only my worst date ever, but my one and only date in high
school.
    I’d had a crush on Josh Nelsen for three
years, ever since we were freshman and he showed up in my English
Lit. class. It was two weeks until the Snowball Winter Formal, and
Josh had been elected to the Court as the representative for the
junior class. Now he had to pick a date, our class’s female
representative, and she had to be a junior, too.
    Oh, I dreamt about going to dances as most
girls do in high school, but I’d already had two and a half years
of staying home to prepare for my reality. Not quite pretty enough
for the popular clique and not someone who excelled at anything in
particular, I was easygoing on the outside and painfully shy on the
inside.
    I had a few close friends, girls and boys
alike. I got along with most of the people in my class, as well as
classmates in the grade above and below me, but I’d never been
asked on a date. Of course, the one guy I really wanted to ask me
to do anything, Josh, was dating a senior and had been for a year.
Josh and Lyssa had a rocky relationship, punctuated by hallway
break-ups and equally public make-ups that involved lots of
tongue.
    About the time Josh was elected junior
representative, he and Lyssa were in the off-again stage. That’s
when rumors began to circulate that Josh was going to ask me to be
his date to the Snowball. Me, Summer Clark , the junior
Snowball representative. Me, on a date with Josh! I was so
nervous, and yet more excited than when I’d gone to Space Camp for
a week in the seventh grade.
    Miracle of miracles, he did ask. I even
managed to accept without sounding like a total, breathless idiot.
I hoped. We’d maintained a very casual friendship prior to him
asking me out. Josh was one of those people I got along with while
still managing to hide my feelings. Casual “hi” in the hall; smile
across the classroom; “see you tomorrow” if we happened to pass
each other at the end of the day. Much to my relief our status
continued as normal because it was bad enough I kept fantasizing
about the end of the date, I didn’t need added social stimulation
in the weeks leading up to it.
    It snowed the night of the dance, too. I
wore a beautiful, emerald green floor-length dress to complement my
long dark hair. Josh showed up looking great in a black tux and
crisp white shirt, his brown hair gelled back in the current
style.
    “Wow,” he said when I opened the door. “You
look great, Summer.”
    “Thanks.” I ducked my head and smiled, full
of shyness and hope. “So do you.”
    He slipped a pink corsage on my wrist and
took me to dinner before the dance. It was almost perfect, except
for the shrimp that fell off my fork and rolled along my dress to
the floor. My cheeks flamed with embarrassment, but as I wiped at
the barely discernable stain, he laughed and told me not to worry
about it. I tried not to.
    Once inside the transformed, glittering
school gymnasium, Josh and I danced, he got me punch before the
seniors spiked the bowl, and then escorted me through the formal
court processional while I prayed I wouldn’t trip. I felt like a
princess during the yearbook pictures that followed. The night was
a dream come true. I even managed to set aside my anxious
anticipation of a possible goodnight kiss while I giggled on the
side of the dance floor with Jenna and my other friends. Josh
smiled at me from across the gym and I couldn’t help but think of
the kiss again.
    And then Lyssa showed up.
    Blond curls piled high on her head, legs
that wouldn’t quit in her sexy dress cut up to there, and do-me
heels. Yes, even in high school I recognized a pair of shoes like
that. So, if I did, it stood to reason, so did Josh.
    He headed straight over to the punch bowl
and downed not one, but two glasses. Next time I saw him, he and
Lyssa were on their way out the doors,