Rap music blares throughout the dance floor making Hayden Barthel’s ears ring.
She’s been dancing with her friends all night until she hears it.
“Alright, all you couples come down to the dance floor.”
Awkwardly all the single people move off, giving space for the happy couples to dance to Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton, and for the first time that night, Hayden felt something.
She felt out of place.
“So I had a date, and then the Sunday before prom he called to tell me he couldn’t go to prom with me anymore,” Hayden said. “And when they put on Tennesee Whiskey I left kinda left out, like I was third wheeling the entire school. I felt like a mom or a chaperone just waiting for that song to end – I just wanted to cry.”
For the past month, students’ social media has been filled with promposals, pictures of happy couples holding posters, flowers, candy. And while the posts serve as an announcement that a girl or boy is off the market to ask as a date, it also serves as a reminder to the single students that they are… well… single.
“It’s every girls dream of going to prom with someone,” Hayden said. “You feel like you have to have a date – I think that was everyone’s biggest concern was if you didn’t have one. It was scary. I just had to try to ignore the fact that I was third wheeling and say it was okay.”
The pressure doesn’t stop at the “ask” stage of prom. There’s also flowers, boutonniere, tickets, dinner, and most secluding – pictures.
“Looking around at pictures, I kinda felt out of place – like I was missing something” junior Ali Cheatham said. “But because I had my friends, it helped with that feeling. I didn’t feel left out or anything.”
But not all singles feel the need to couple up. Some students didn’t care or even preferred to ride solo and go with a group.
“I didn’t really feel any type of pressure to get a date,” junior Zoe Potter said. “I knew it would still be fun even if one or two of us had a date and the other didn’t in my group. I said if I got one [a date] I’d be happy and if I didn’t, I wouldn’t care.”
Going with a date, not having one, and going to prom all together seems to be the big question around school come April and May, but for some people, who they are going with isn’t even a question. For senior Madison Carpenter and her boyfriend, junior Hayden Wormington, they knew they were going and didn’t even need to ask.
“Even though being in a group is fun, you don’t get that traditional prom feel without a date,” Madison said. “But I don’t think that guys need to do the whole ask thing because we already have too many things for prom to do.”
There’s also one more plus to having a date especially if it’s your boyfriend or girlfriend — you get to spend the day side by side with your comfort person.
“Personally, I think going as a date to prom is much more enjoyable,” senior Cade Martin said. “You get to spend time with the person you love and just enjoying the day with that one person is so much more enjoyable.”
But either way, date or no date, prom can still be enjoyed by both parties.
“I went with my friends plus a date, so I’m not really sure where I categorize. I think it depends on the person if they are closer with their friends or not – I like both options,” senior Lissy Pitch said. “I think just having people around me makes it fun, doesn’t matter who.”