by Sam Smith

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Excitement. Anxiety.  Her nerves unbearable.  Eagerly, she wraps white and blue streamers around his car.  She has to do this fast, before he gets home.  She hears the roaring of an engine.  Everyone stops to look towards the street.  A hot pink Volkswagen Bug passes by.  Definitely not him.

With a sigh of relief her friends resume working. On the other hand, she is terrified.  One question is on her mind: What if we get caught? Without a word to her friends, she observes and quietly follows them, fixing every piece of ripped paper that covers the meticulously written words: “Jr. Ring?”

Every year, near the close of the school year, St. Teresa’s Academy presents the junior class with their class rings at the Junior Ring Ceremony, which this year was April 16.  In addition to the ceremony, the junior class representatives plan the Junior Ring Dance, which was April 21, in celebration of the juniors receiving their rings.

The juniors are allowed to invite a date to the dance.  This is the exciting part.  This is the part that’s nerve-raking.  While some girls would rather ask their date the simple question: “Will you go to Junior Ring with me?,” others would rather plan a creative way of asking their date.  Junior Sara Meurer and her friends accepted this challenge.

On April 14, Meurer enlisted the help of her friends to decorate her date’s car.  First, Meurer and friend, Maddi Hughes- Zahner drove to fellow junior, Janie Thompson’s house.  Meurer’s friends Andie Drummond, Sammy Patterson and Caroline Fiss also came.  The girls jumped in their cars and follow Thompson’s directions to her cousin, Robbie Thompson’s house.

Ten minutes later, they turned onto Robbie’s street.  They drive past Robbie’s house to “scope the place out.” Once parked, the girls dash to the garage, where Robbie’s car is parked.  Luckily, one of Robbie’s family members left the garage door open.  Meurer hesitates to join her friends.  She worries about one of Robbie’s family members being home, or even worse, Robbie. But Meurer eventually decides against waiting any longer.

By the time Meurer gets to the garage, Hughes-Zahner has wrapped white streamers around the car.  Fiss carefully writes “Jr. Ring?” in red car paint on his back window.  Drummond and Patterson decorate the car with blue streamers.  Meurer quickly ties balloons to both side view mirrors of Robbie’s car.  With girls working on their own sections, Meurer is able to relax for five seconds.  Until she remembers one of the most important part of this project.  The invite.

Meurer returns to Fiss’s side to watch as she carefully writes on the back window.  The door connecting the garage to the house opens.  Meurer’s face flushes, expecting it to be Robbie.
It is Robbie’s mom.  Janie Thompson, being her niece, walks over to her aunt. The girls, especially Meurer, are relieved when Mrs. Thompson announces that Robbie is in St. Louis and won’t be home for a couple days.  Knowing this information, Meurer resumes putting the finishing touches on her masterpiece.

When the car fits Meurer’s approval, the girls thank Mrs. Thompson and drive away with smirks on their faces.  Satisfied, Meurer left the site with a smile. Once back in the car, Meurer finally loosened up and began to crack jokes.  Although her part was done, Meurer remained somewhat tense.  There was one thing she was waiting for.  The response.

Although she has only known Robbie since October, Meurer said she was looking forward to receiving a text message from him with a reply to her decorating of his car.  After two days of waiting, Meurer received a response.  Robbie’s reply was short and sweet: “Heck yeah I’ll go to Junior Ring with you!”