by Shay Young-Mitchell

On a Cold Night on September 22, while tap clubs were going door to door tapping members, there was a new excitement in the first years’ residence hall. Dogs were running down the hall chasing each other, and their owners were sitting in the hall talking about the classes they take. Something completely different was going down in Room 311. Sara, a first-year soccer player, was deciding on what she should do for her first official date with Shai, a first-year field hockey player. Sara and Shai met at the beginning of the year, and they would hang out all the time, with Emily, a first year field hockey player, and Nisha, another first-year field hockey player. They would hang out more and more, and then they started to like each other, and they began to hang out constantly. Sara finally realized that she wanted to be more, so she decided to plan a date to officially ask Shai to be her girlfriend officially. Sara, Emily, and Nisha sat in Emily’s room sat debating on where she wanted to take her. She kept debating on where she should take her: the butterfly garden, the boat house to see the stars, or even a picnic at the gazebo. She kept going back and forth inside her thoughts, until Emily pointed out . . .

“Why don’t you do a scavenger hunt of all the places you have memories at and lead it to a picnic under the stars?”

Sara would continue to think about it for a few moments more, and then she finally decided that she would do a scavenger hunt, and it would be of all the places and memories that they have shared together, and it would lead to a picnic under the stars. She spent all night figuring out what should be at each station and where each station should be. Emily, Sara, and Nisha packed into Sara’s car and began riding throughout all of Sweet Briar, trying to figure out where the pinic should be.

“Let’s go to Daisy’s grave,” Emily insisted.

Sara screamed, “Are you crazy? Daisy’s gonna haunt us if we go up there, the fuck is wrong with you.”

They drove to the boathouse, and they walked to the dock and looked out at the water. Sara thought how perfect the stars are at night. She looked at the greenish lake water, at her reflection in the water.

“It’s after 9pm, the boat house is closed!” screamed the campus police officer.

Emily, Sara, and Nisha, were then escorted back to Sara’s car. They would sit there for a minutes more in silence. Sara would finally break the silence and say.

“Nope, this is the wrong place.”

Then they would then keep driving, they then drove outside of Prothro, where there is huge field, a field bigger than any backyard they have ever been in. You could see the clear sky and the stars. Sara mentioned that she’s never seen stars so bright.They would walk around the backyard. Sara saw the high grass and said, “Nope this place isn’t good enough.

Sara began to get frustrated because every place they went to there was a problem.

Sara would say “It’s too dirty” or “It’s too far.”

This would continue on for hours. Finally, around 1:00 am, they decided to call it quits and they began to drive back to Meta Glass to get some sleep before their 8:30 am class. Suddenly, while driving down Upper Quad, “STOPPPPPPP!” Nisha yelled, pointing at the bandstand.

Sara then pressed on the brake, swerving the car to the side of the road. They got out and walked to the bandstand. Sara stood there staring there at the bandstand, looking at the wooden area like Michelangelo looking at his finished masterpiece. Sara then paused for a long time, and then realized a breath of relief and then said, “This is it. We finally found the perfect spot.”