Two.

Pam considered herself pretty lucky when it came to bullies in school. For someone who was quiet, plain, into art, and a little nerdy, she only got the occasional snide comment or rude remark. Most people just left her alone, though, which she appreciated more often than not. She had a few close friends, all of them from her art classes, all of them flying under the radar.

Which is why she knew something was up when Jackson, top pitcher of the seventh grade baseball team and a guy she had never spoken a word to, came up to her one day after math and asked her out. If she hadn’t seen his friends trying not to laugh a few steps behind him, she might have said yes. Instead, she closes her locker and walks around him with a polite but quick, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

He grabs her elbow and turns her around before she can get too far, “C’mon. I think we could really work out.”

She raises an eyebrow and removes her arm from his grip, “Really, no, I’m good.”

“I’m serious! Watch!” Her eyes widen in horror as he gets down on one knee, she can hear his friends now cracking up behind her and she can feel everyone’s eyes on them as they walk past them to their classes. “Pat, will you please marry me?”

Her cheeks are burning and she quickly turns to head towards English, ignoring Jackson completely and trying to block out the whistles and “boo”s coming from around her. It doesn’t even register until she’s sitting at her desk that he hadn’t even gotten her name right.