Henry Level: 

An absolutely true prom story never begins with prom. It begins with Homecoming. Senior year Homecoming was my first ever dance, and I went with my first ever girlfriend. I didn’t know what to expect, but we danced and rode in a limo and stood around for pictures and she broke up with me a week later.

I hadn’t expected that.

The next week I found out that we won Cutest Couple based on a vote that had taken place two weeks earlier. So we posed for a picture pretending like we were a couple; it was the most awkward photo of my life.

Insert Rocky-style montage of me doing push-ups and growing my hair out to a moppy 1970s look. The push-ups did nothing, but the hair spoke volumes.

Six months later, I was making a comeback.  I asked her to prom. She said yes. We went. We were crowned king and queen. I sang the “Turn around” part of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” with my friends. A week later she started dating some other guy.

It’s as if someone was writing a really bad teen rom-com and forgot to include the happy ending.

Darren Tremblay: 

When I was in my early 20’s, I was substitute teaching and coaching at Tahoma HS. I was walking down the hall one day and this girl stops me in the hallway. She says, “will you go to prom with me?” I laughed and said, “that’s funny, you got me on that one.” She immediately broke down into hysterical sobbing and then I realized I had a problem. I tried to explain the whole I‘m a teacher and you’re a student thing but it didn’t help. There was a big scene in the hallway and everyone’s giving me dirty looks for making this girl cry but they didn’t know the story behind it.