February gave way to March and in the crowded halls of Trisha's alma mater, Sprayberry High School, Amber's younger sister, Heather, was chatting with her best friend and lockermate, Jill Jenkins, about the upcoming prom. It was only mid-March but it was not too early to plan for the formal dance being held on the 20th of April.
Jill was a somewhat tall and lanky, but cute, sandy-haired blonde with a reputation for being a bit of an airhead. "So Jill, I guess you'll be going to the prom with Andy, huh?"
"I hope so. We've gone out several times since New Year's. But I don't want him to just assume I'm going with him. I want to be asked, like a lady should be." Heather wholeheartedly agreed. "So Heather, what about you? Anyone special you want to be asked by?"
Heather flipped her curly brown hair that extended out of the end of her favorite red scrungee and replied, "Maybe. Johnny from my British Lit class will probably ask me in the form of a sonnet or something. He and I have acted in a couple of musicals together. There's a couple of other posibilities, I suppose."
"What about that guy from the University you have a crush on. Have you exchanged E-mails in a while?"
"It's been a couple of months. I guess he's forgotten about me or maybe he's making a move on Amber's friend, Trisha. He was always nice in his E-mails, but maybe he just did not want to hurt my feelings. You know Amber's engaged to Doug, who did date Trisha for awhile."
RRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIINNGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!
"Uh oh, there's the warning bell, we better get to class, Jill."
"I'll drop by after school and we'll talk about this some more.
Around 4:00, Jill pulled up into the Dawsons' driveway in her 2001 Saturn coupe and went inside. Heather offered her a soda and some snacks and they turned on Oprah in the Family Room and began to chat.
"So Heather, what about that guy? What's his name again..."
"Jay Williams."
"Yeah, Jay. Have you thought about making your own move by asking him to take you to the prom?"
Laughing, Heather responded, "You're kidding, right? He's a junior in college and in a fraternity and probably has a million things going on. Why would he drive over to Atlanta to go to a high school prom with someone he met at a party back in July, exchanged half a dozen E-mails with and has never been on a date with."
"Well, it may be a long shot, but if you ask him in a manner that is mysterious and romantic, he just might go for it. And besides, if you do it soon and he says 'no', you have time to see what other guys ask you later and go with one of them."
Heather pondered Jill's surprisingly brilliant idea and asked, "So what can I do to ask him while being mysterious and romantic?"
"That's a good question. Maybe you could write him a note or a poem, or something that looks like a formal invitation to a ball from a princess."
"I don't know, maybe.."
"Hey, I have an idea! Princess...Ball...I read an article in Seventeen a couple of years ago that had some clever ideas for asking guys out and I remember one where this girl mailed a guy one of her shoes, Cinderella-style."
"Hmmm, I don't know. I guess you need some sort of envelope, or a box?.."
Interrupting, Jill continued, "No, that's the fun part, you just put stamps and address labels on the bottom of the sole and send it."
"That sounds weird! I guess you couldn't send a high heel, huh?" Heather said while looking down at the pair of black platform slides she was currently wearing.
"No, it would need to be a flat-heeled shoe. Let's go up to your room and look."
Once in Heather's room, they began to go through her cluttered closet. After several pairs of sandals and slides and mules, Jill noticed a cute pair of pink-flat heeled thong sandals - a pair sold by 'Just Libby' and called 'Jodie.' "How about these?"
"Those are my 'practically-new' cute pink thong sandals - one of my favorite pairs."
"Then it's probably a good choice. If you send a pair you like to wear maybe that aura will be transferred through the shoe onto Jay."
"Alright, so what do we need to do?"
"Heather, why don't you think about what you want to say, work on it a couple of days and I'll come over here after school and we'll get it ready to ship. I'll bring my mom's calligraphy stencils if you'd like."
"Oh, that sounds neat, very classy!"
--
Meanwhile, in Athens the campus was practically deserted. Trisha had gone up to New York for her last shoe modeling trip with plans to stop through Charlotte, North Carolina on the way back. She had a final interview with Wachovia Bank at their headquarters location there. She was going to find out soon if she earned one of their prestigious work study internships and where it would be located. Jay and Shawn were in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the week having a fun Spring Break with their fraternity buddies. Doug spent the week driving around Atlanta looking for a summer internship with a local insurance company and spending some quality time dating Amber, who was also on Spring Break from SCAD. Shelley took Jeannie and some of their other sorority friends to her house to spend the week in Orlando. They visited some of the theme parks and also spent a day at Daytona Beach on the Atlantic and a day on Clearwater Beach on the Gulf.
In New York, Trisha enjoyed her last modeling weekend - one that started on Thursday evening for her and Cynthia because of the 9/11-induced September modeling weekend cancellation. With the extra weekday, Mitchell had a big surprise for her and Cynthia, the two models who chose this Friday to be their make-up day. Brooke and Christine were due into town later that afternoon.
Mitchell had arranged for a short shoe modeling appearance on the popular cable morning show, Fox and Friends. It was a short segment that focused on "Spring Fashions for College Students." Mitchell and Paul took Trisha and Cynthia down to the Fox Studios a few blocks away in a limo. All four of them wore Kenneth Cole clothes and shoes and had another pair of shoes to change into and model. Mitchell had also arranged for the show's three hosts, Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade and E.D. Donahey, to wear Kenneth Cole shoes as well.
The two male hosts, as well as Mitchell and Paul wore dressy loafers and casual street shoes. Trisha and Cynthia wore casual slides and thong sandals. Pretty blonde E.D. wore a nice pair of cream-colored high-heel slides.
Trisha was pleased how friendly the hosts were to them. She had grown accustomed to watching them while getting ready for class each day so she felt somewhat familiar with them. Trisha even commented to E.D. - a regular mule and slide wearer in the spring and summer - that she loved her taste in shoes.
On Sunday, they wrapped up the Fall 2002 campaign and Mitchell took everyone out to Sunday Brunch to celebrate. There were smiles, laughter and tears as the girls knew they would not be working together again. Brooke had decided to quit shoe modeling all together and focus on her studies at TCU. Cynthia, with more modeling experience, had a few jobs lined up through the Younkers department store back home in Des Moines. Christine decided to move onto the professional rodeo circuit while finishing her studies at Northern Colorado. Trisha was offered an opportunity to model on a part time basis, but she decided to wait and see what job she found and where she would be living. Mitchell and Paul offered to be great professional references and even put together an impressive photo portfolio should she decide to model somewhere closer to home.
Jay and the rest of the guys returned from their Spring Break tanned and relaxed but not ready to study again. After getting unpacked, Jay made a trek to the mailroom to see if he had received anything of interest. As he began to pull items out of his mailbox, he was puzzled to find a single ladies' pink thong sandal.
Under his breath, Jay uttered, 'What the heck?' He slipped the single shoe under the stack of mail and hurried upstairs before anyone else could see the shoe he was clutching under his arm. He dropped the other mail haphazardly on the bed and began to examine the shoe closely. He noticed the return address was Marietta, Georgia but there was no name added. Trisha's mailing address was also Marietta and the Zip Code was the same - 30066 - but the street and street number different. The fantasy of Trisha mailing him one of her pretty and feminine shoes was quickly and summarily squelched. He noticed that there was some sort of a note taped to the inside of the shoe so he carefully tore off the packing tape and removed the note. It was on parchment paper and when he opened the note he took notice of the fancy calligraphy that was used to write it.
DEAR JAY,
ONE FAIR MAIDEN, DAMSEL IN DISTRESS
SEEKS ONE HANDSOME PRINCE
TO ESCORT HER TO THE BALL
THE ANTICIPATED EVENT IS OUR SENIOR PROM
HELD ON APRIL 20th AT 8:00 PM
AT THE MARIETTA CONFERENCE CENTER
PLEASE EMAIL ME AT HDAWSON@SPRAYBERRY.ORG WITH YOUR REPLY
SINCERELY,
HEATHER
Just as he finished reading the note, Shawn came in and found Jay in the odd situation of holding a girl's shoe in his left hand and a note in his right. "Hey Jay, what's you got there?"
Jay knew this was something he ought to discuss with Shawn so he did not hide anything. "Remember our trip to Atlanta back on the fourth of July last year?"
"Yeah sure, I went up to see Donna in Dalton and you went to see Trisha and meet her family."
"There was this high school girl there. Actually, she's Amber Dawson's younger sister, Heather."
"Trisha's best friend. I remember meeting Amber at some point - used to be an AOPi. She transferred to another school, didn't she?"
"She's at that art school down in Savannah. But anyway, that night I sensed that Heather might have some sort of a crush on me. She and I event exchanged a few E-mails, but I thought it was no big deal. Now, she's mailed me one of her shoes and attached a note asking me to take her to her prom."
"She 'mailed' you one of her shoes! What a trip! She sounds like quite a character!"
"It came to me without an envelope or anything. Just a shoe with stamps and an address label stuck on the bottom of the sole."
"I don't know if that's creative or weird. What year in school is she?"
"I think she's a graduating senior from the same high school that Trisha and Amber graduated from back in '98."
"There's one problem you don't have. She's old enough for you to date her if she's a senior. Let me guess. Are you concerned about taking someone affiliated with Trisha to her prom?"
"Maybe, but in this case, Trisha might consider it doing her friend's sister a favor."
"Do you think this Heather girl is having trouble getting a date from her school, Jay? Maybe she has some sort of bad reputation or something. You can't be too careful these days."
"I doubt it. She'd friendly and smart and quite nice-looking. Actually, she's a bit of a flirt."
"That last observation's obvious. Jay, what's your magic number now?"
"We've been away so I need to recalculate - 11 days in May, 30 in April and 7 more in March. It's 48!"
"Jay, you have used over 200 days and you're still not dating Trisha. Do you think it matters whether or not you take this Heather girl to her prom? You ought to go and just have a fun time."
A few days before the banquet- which was well over a week since she mailed the shoe to Jay - but unknowingly only a couple of days after he actually received it, Heather was in her bedroom studying and her mom knocked on her door. She came in carrying a beautiful pink dress with white floral trim. "Heather, I wanted you to try on your dress for the senior banquet before I stitch the seams.
"Sure, Mom." Heather put down her books, slipped out of her shorts and pulled the dress over her head. Mrs. Dawson gave the dress a long look and all the seams seemed to pass inspection. Heather began to take off the dress just as her mom suggested, "Let me see how it looks with a pair of shoes." Heather's closet was open and her mom saw her one pink thong sandal on the floor, picked it up and handed it to Heather. "Why don't you try these on?"
Heather put the sandal on and began to model for her mom.
"You might as well try on both shoes. You're not going as Cinderella."
Heather became nervous about how she was going to get out of this predicament. She got down on her hands and knees and pretended to sift through assorted shoes that lay in the floor of her closet. She was about to suggest that the other shoe was probably buried in the back of the closet, but then she thought of a better idea. "Here's another pair of shoes I thought about wearing." Heather pulled out one of her white thong platform sandals - the opposite foot from the pink sandal she was wearing. She soon began to model for her mom wearing one pink sandal with a low heel and one white one with a platform heel - in lopsided fashion.
"I like the pink one better (pause)"
Heather feared her mom was about to suggest she put on the second pink sandal, then she'd be trapped.
Her mom continued, "But you're 18 years old and certainly mature enough to choose which ever one you want to wear, I suppose."
Heather breathed a sigh of relief as she slipped off both shoes and the dress, slipped her shorts back on and resumed her studying for her upcoming British Literature exam. Shortly afterwards, Jill stopped by for a visit. She and Heather talked in her bedroom.
"I had a close call, Jill.." Heather began to elaborate how her missing shoe was almost discovered by her mom.
"It's been a couple of weeks. Are you ready to give up on Jay? He's just not interested. The least he can do is give you your shoe back."
"It's actually only been 11 days. Maybe he's busy."
"Or maybe he thought your creativity was actually silly or stupid."
"Or maybe Jill, the shoe did not get through the mail and it's lost forever."
"That could be. So then you need to E-mail him and see. By the end of the week, you need to be ready for Plan 'B' since the guys will probably start asking about then."
After class on Thursday, Shawn came back to the Beta house to find Jay watching TV. He asked him bluntly, "Did you ever get in touch with that girl about her prom?"
"No, I got engrossed in my classes and it completely slipped my mind."
"You're telling me that a girl mailed you a shoe and you forgot about it!"
"I'll E-mail her right now."
Jay brought up his laptop and plugged in the modem. He got into e-mail and began to compose the following message:
From: augustajay@uga.edu
To: hdawson@sprayberry.org
Subject: Prom
Dear Fair Maiden Heather,
I was out of town on Spring Break last week and when I returned I found your shoe-mail. You are quite the clever one, aren't you? So your prom's on the 20th? I just happen to be free that Saturday and would be happy to take you. Just let me know more details and then I'll call you to discuss more.
Bye for now,
Prince Jay
"So Shawn, read this. What do you think?"
Shawn walked over and read the message and replied, "It's perfect." Shawn snickered and quickly pressed the send button.
"Hey, you idiot, I wasn't ready! It was just a draft."
"Too late now. This way you have to go and you can't chicken out."
"I guess you're right. She was very sweet to ask me and I ought to take her.
A couple of hours and 80 miles away, Heather ran upstairs to her bedroom after school and logged onto her E-mail. She was estatic to see a message from 'augustajay.' Before reading it she called Jill on the cell phone.
"Jill, Jay emailed me!"
"That's great, what did he say?"
"I don't know yet. I haven't read it."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Read it!"
Heather slowly, then more rapidly, read every word of the E-mail to Jill. "Jay's taking me to the prom, Jill! I better E-mail him back!"
"Whoa! Hold on there, Heather. When did he send the email?"
"Let's see..about 45 minutes ago."
"And how long did he wait to get back with you?"
"He said he was gone last week on Spring Break."
"That's still 4 days he waited to get back with you. I wouldn't send anything until tomorrow evening at the earliest. And make sure you sound mature and not eager."
"Good advice, Jill."
The following evening, Heather thought long and hard and came up with an appropriate response.
From: hdawson@sprayberry.org
To: augustajay@uga.edu
Subject: Re: Prom
Hello Jay,
I am happy that you will be taking me to our Senior Prom. I know we will have a nice time. Call me Sunday evening on my cell phone at (770) 555-3741 if you get this mail before then or any evening that's best for you and we can talk about it more.
Bye,
Heather
The following evening was the Senior Banquet. Heather wore the pretty dress that her mom had sewn and also the white thong platform sandals she had found to replace the pink ones that were now verified to be in two different counties in Georgia. Three different guys, including Johnny as already predicted, who were there asked Heather to be his date to the Senior Prom. She was nice and gracious, but still turned them all down and told them she already had a date.
Even though Heather was gracious, Johnny took the rejection particularly hard. He had intended on asking her several weeks before but he had been nervous and shy and therefore put off the potential rejection. Johnny and Heather had never formally dated, but they had starred together in the school musical for two straight years and they had a lot of classes together. Both had a love for fine literature and had become good friends. He and the other two guys did get other dates, but they were still disappointed that cute and friendly Heather was unavailable.
Sunday afternoon, Jay happened to check his email and he saw Heather's message. He summoned Shawn to come and read it over his shoulder. "See what you got me into. I guess I need to call her tonight."
"Yes, you need to call her! Relax, she seems to be a nice girl and you said she was pretty so what's the problem?" Before Jay could reply, Shawn interjected in a mocking tone of voice, "But she's just not Trisha."
Jay was silent then he slowly responded. "Shawn, thanks for your help. I need to just suck it up and move on I suppose." Jay walked over to the side of the room to erase the '41' that was displayed on the oft-erased whiteboard next to his desk.
"Hold your horses, there Jay! I never said to give up. If you love Trisha, then you don't need to forget her. I just think you need to keep your options open, expand your possibilities, enjoy life. You could go bald and gray waiting on her to date you."
"I do go out with other girls."
"Yeah, but only once or twice and they're always someone you think has little or no contact with Trisha."
"I went out three times with Shelia, the Phi Mu from my International Relations class."
"Maybe so, but you have avoided several good opportunities along the way. As for me, I'd love to go out Shelia. The few times me, you, her and Donna have gotten together I found her to be very nice and friendly and quite cute."
"Why don't you ask out Shelia, yourself?"
"Maybe I will. Donna and I broke up 3 months ago and Jeannie and I are only dating casually. Hand me the phone and dial the number."
"Y..y..you're not REALLY going to ask her, are you?"
"Sure, why not. What's the matter?"
"M..m..maybe I want to ask her out again myself. "
Shawn began to expose a crooked smile and he noted, "Okay, have you ever considered that Trisha might react the same way to you if suddenly you looked like there was someone else besides you that she liked? We've been talking about that for 7 months!"
Jay and Shawn chatted a little more and then some of the other guys in the frat called them outside to join in their touch football game.
Sunday evening, Jay finally called Heather who answered the phone on the second ring. She was ready to answer on the first ring, but she did not want to seem too eager. They engaged in some small talk to get reacquainted. They had only communicated by E-mail since they met 9 months before.
They soon got into a discussion of the date itself. When they needed to leave, what to wear, etc..
"So, Jay, do you want to rent a tux there or here? Either way you can get dressed at my house before you go.
"Does it matter?"
"Not too much, but (Heather thought quickly with an excuse to get him to come to Atlanta) if you get it here I can make sure it's well-coordinated with my dress and I can help you pick one out. I can bring a swatch of my dress to the tuxedo rental place." She also thought it would be a good time to become re-acquainted with Jay in person since they had not seen each other in so long. It was a bold move to ask him to make a 80-mile drive, each way, but she figured it was not a big deal for a college guy with his own car.
Jay was feeling more comfortable and relaxed with Heather and he boldly asked, "Tell me which mall or shopping center the tux place is and we can meet there, grab a snack first and talk and go from there."
"Sounds good. How about Saturday at 2 p.m."
"That's fine with me."
"Okay, then. Come to the food court at the Town Center mall and sit near Chick-fil-a. Oh, and maybe you can bring me my sandal I mailed you. I've missed getting to wear them this spring."
Jay jokingly suggested, "Sure, I can bring you your other sandal. I'll look for the stunning fair maiden in the mall food court wearing only one pink sandal." Jay thought this would gather a good laugh, but to his shock and surprise, Heather took him seriously and agreed, "Okay, I'll play along." Actually, Heather thought it was very romantic and sweet. Jay had unknowingly and unintentionally made Heather even more attracted to him. Heather, on the other hand, had no idea that she had accidently played into one of Jay's weaknesses.
On Saturday, Jay drove over to Atlanta to meet Heather. He was sure to bring her shoe with him in a bag, so as to not look strange as he entered the mall. Heather left her house wearing a pair of sneaker mules and carrying her one pink sandal and a swatch of her dress in her purse. She arrived at the mall a little before 2 p.m. and paused to muster the courage needed to walk into the mall's food court wearing only one sandal. Jay similarly arrived even earlier in the hopes of getting to watch Heather walk in with one shoe.
Heather opened her car door and slipped off her shoes and put them in the back seat. She slipped on her one pink sandal after pulling it from her purse and began to walk toward the entrance. She hoped she would see no one she knew until she had her other shoe back. Unknowingly, Jill had let it slip to a few of their other friends what was going to happen.
As Heather made it to just outside the entrance of the mall at the food court, two of her friends, Jamie and Stephanie came walking outside and tried to act like the meeting was coincidental. Jamie asked, "Hello Heather, getting ready for the prom?"
"Yeah, just looking for some accessories."
Stephanie replied back with, "I guess you could use some shoes, you only seem to be wearing one."
"Did Jill tell you about why I'm here. I'm going to have to get even with her."
"Okay, we confess. We just want to see the dreamy college guy you're bring to the prom."
"Alright, give me a minute to go inside and then sit somewhere away from Chick-fil-a. Then once you see us, you can walk by and don't look strange or say anything."
"That'll work," both girls quipped.
Heather took a deep breath and walked inside, stopping to wipe the dirt and grime from the bottom of her bare foot on the doormat. She walked one shod with one sandal slapping her foot. Jay saw her immediately and began to track her every step from his seat near the Chick-fil-a. She looked so cute walking through the food court full of people with her lone sandal. She was catching a few stares that she seemed to be trying to ignore. Jay stood when she arrived and pulled out a chair for her like a gentleman.
"Hello Heather. It's nice to see you again."
"It's good to see you again, also." Jay pulled her sandal out of the bag and was about to hand it to her. Insead, Heather crossed her leg and pointed her barefoot in Jay's direction like she wanted him to put it on for her. He caught on quickly in disbelief and obliged by slipping her sandal back on her foot. "Thanks. I'm glad I can wear these again. There a nice pair of sandals."
"I've got to ask, how did you come up with such a creative idea?"
Heather told Jay about her friend Jill and meanwhile, Stephanie and Jamie walked by slowly and took a good look at Jay. Jay bought them a order of chicken strips to share and a couple of sodas which they consumed by getting reacquainted. Soon they found themselves in the tuxedo rental store looking at tuxes and picking out a nice gray one to coordinate well with her maroon dress. A couple of hours later, Jay and Heather parted to drive to their respective homes, both feeling very excited about their upcoming date.
