6th grade awkwardness

Random Story Time: So I have been thinking of my growing up days on the mean streets of Bountiful, Utah. As a 6th grader, you think you are the most happenin' kid in town and that you can do no wrong and that you are as cool as a cucumber (yes, I realize that I am using some very uncool words). As 6th grade progressed, I met the new girl that had just moved into the neighborhood and she was new to the school. She seemed very cool, she was very pretty and she was very tall. She had me by a couple of inches. My eyes were even with her chin. After a couple of months of 'hi's, I guess I decided that our relationship had truly progressed to a point where the logical next step was to ask her to be my girlfriend.

I thought that I was a pretty smooth operator. I was good at sports, I was a very talkative kid and I could talk to girls or boys...but this did not go off as well as I had hoped.

I talked with my friends who talked with her friends and a meeting was set up at the afternoon recess where just the two of us would go out and talk on the playground. The recess bell went off and I assumed my place on the playground. Nikki followed out soon after. Our friends (about 20 of them, I believe) all watched from inside the building through the window. We both kinda said Hi and then I went for it:




Sam: How are you Nikki?
Nikki: Great, how are you?
Sam: Fine, thanks for asking
Sam: Good weather we are having, isn't it?
Nikki: Yep.
5-10 second awkward pause
Sam: So, I wanted to ask you: 'Do you want to go with me?' (my head was probably down and I was probably shuffling my feet a bit)
Nikki: Go where?
Awkward 2-3 second pause as I contemplated how to respond to that question
Nikki: Oh...Yes, Yes, I will 'go with you.'
Now, for those not familiar with 6th grade talk, 'going with you' meant to be boyfriend/girlfriend and thankfully she realized it after a few seconds.
Sam: Cool.
Nikki: Yeah
Another awkward 3-5 seconds and then this is where you see the genius of Sam...
Sam: So, how do you spell your name? Is it N.i.c.k.i?
Nikki: No, I spell it N.i.k.k.i
Sam: Thats great. I'll talk to you later?
Nikki: Sounds good. Thanks

Yes, one of the first orders of business after becoming a couple was to ask her how she spelled her name. I guess I needed to know how to spell her name so that I could put 'Sam+Nikki' in my notebooks and spell her name correctly...I mean, you can't spell your girlfriend's name incorrectly, how dumb would that be? Props to her for keeping her cool and having the presence of mind to not fill dead air with: So Sam, how do you spell your name?

We then both proceeded to casually go talk with their friends and let them know that they are now boyfriend and girlfriend and how cool was that? The friends cheered.

What did being a couple in the 6th grade mean?

• 4-5 hand holds (sometimes after our friends would urge us to hold hands on the bus)
• Exclusive dancing (under our boyfriend/girlfriend arrangement, I don't think we danced with anyone else) at the school dance which consisted of being arms-length away and shuffling our feet to the music
• Giving each other Valentines Day cards
• Playing next to each other on the school playground...me with my friends with her and her friends doing something right next to us.
  
• About 10 phone calls to each other

I still don't remember how we 'broke' up or even if we did break up (she moved after our 6th grade year to SLC)...I am sure it was dramatic and tragic all at once. The one thing, looking back on all of this, that I now realize is how glad that I am that I am no longer in elementary school.

Scary thing is though that Brodi probably thinks that is how I acted with her the first time we went out.