The Prince and his Rose. (Part 1)

I apologize to those who may have already heard this story from Shauni, but maybe in my retelling you may have the chance to enjoy it again, from another perspective.

Shauni and I go way back. We have been friends since I was a sophomore in High School, she a junior, and we were acquaintances for a year before we became friends. Shauni doesn't remember this, but I remember the first time I saw her: it was in the Lakeside LDS Seminary building, off the campus of Blue Ridge High, one afternoon when I came in during lunch to talk to Brother Moon, the much-loved, and greatly-missed Seminary teacher, who later became my bishop. I remember seeing Shauni, I think she was holding her viola, standing over by the piano in the classroom. I was there with a friend, and I didn't know her name, so we didn't really meet then, but when I looked at her, she gave me a huge, beautiful smile.

Over the next few years, Shauni and I went on at least 5 group dates to the school dances together, but never as a couple. I had been over to her house, a popular hang-out spot, and got to know her sisters, and little brother, Dallin. Then, in the fall of 2002, we really got to know each other. We sat next to one another in Seminary, and worked together during the many group discussions and activities that Brother Moon had us do. I was a junior, Shauni was a Senior. Shauni told me later that it was around this time she started feeling like she might be in love with me, but I was thick, and either ignored her signs, or didn't notice them.

One day we got to the building early, and it was cold outside. I rode the bus to school, walked over to the building, and was standing outside shivering, when Shauni pulled up, and offered to let me sit with her in the warm car. How could I refuse? We started talking about her plans to go to college after she graduated, and I mentioned how I would be moving at the end of the school year. Then we started, well, flirting, and joking around about a possible future together, when Shauni surprised us both by saying, "then you'll move back to Arizona, and we'll get married!" I laughed and blushed, she was embarrassed, and we didn't say much after that. But it left me with a sweet feeling, it was the closest thing to a real "I love you" that anyone had ever said to me.

The next semester passed, and being the insensitive teenage boy that I was, I didn't really go out of my way to talk to, or hang out with her, and every time I passed her in the hallway, she would look at me with a longing that made me feel both guilty, and very dumb. Her best friend, a funny, fiery red-head named Cammette, accosted me in the school parking lot one day. She demanded to know why I had neglected Shauni for months, and not responded to her obvious attempts to talk to me, and what my real feelings for Shauni were. I lamely replied that I was trying to avoid getting into any relationship, because I was moving and planning on a mission, but as for my feelings about Shauni, I would feel very lucky if I married a girl like her someday. That was a revelation even to myself. She seemed satisfied with this, for the moment, and allowed me to go. Shauni told me later that she was very embarrassed by Cammette's boldness, but it proved to be a catalyst for the things that followed, and gave her hope and courage.

The last dance of the year came, a girl-ask-guy dance, and Shauni had decided that this was the last chance to make something happen between us. There was another girl I had been dating here and there at the time, and she was also planning on asking me, but by some fortunate stroke, she asked Shauni, who was an upper-class man, for permission first. Shauni politely insisted on asking me, since she was a senior. I have often thought how strange it is that seemingly small events, that could easily have been changed, make such a difference in the long run.

There's a really funny story about how Shauni actually asked me to the dance, but she remembers the details much better than I, who couldn't do it justice. She tried several things, which all failed, and finally snuck into my house at night while we were gone, and buried a laminated slip of paper in a tub of margarine which she placed on the piano outside my room, which read "look in your room!" (which I was going to do ANYWAY!). Once inside, I saw that my room had been strewn with popcorn, and there was a poster on my dresser with the punch line, "I just thought I'd butter you up, before I popped the question! Will you go to the dance with me? from AHSUNI." I responded with a Hebrew encoded play-on-words, that said, "to AHSUNI, whoever you are, A funny look, a chocolate bar." I had a stranger deliver the message to her with a chocolate bar, while making a funny face. She was baffled, and I had to help her decode it, but the encrypted message, " a funny look, a chocolate bar," was a Hebrew transliteration for "aph, ani lu khashat let bahr." which is very bad Hebrew, but says, loosely, "yes, I would love to go, clearly." She loved it, which made me happy because it took me several hours of tinkering with some Hebrew words to make something intelligible.

For the pre-dance date, we went with a big group of friends on a picnic to a beautiful little town called Greer, where we played games, went ice-blocking down a little grassy hill, and went cray fishing. It was the best date ever. We had a progressive dinner, going from house to house, until it was time to go to the dance. We didn't stay long at the dance, we mostly just went for the pictures, but during the few slow songs they played, Shauni and I would move slowly, hold each other tightly and stare into each others' eyes intently. It was that night I knew that I cared for her very deeply. That night Shauni also invited me to her graduation, which would be in a week or so, and to a clean after-party at a mutual friend's house. It's interesting that another couple who went with us on this date, also got married: Luke Gabe and Jessica Williams.

So, graduation night came. Shauni had lent me her large copy of our Co-ed picture to leave a note on the back, and I brought it with me to the party, which was at Karli Flake's house, in the country club. Once again, we had a great time. Karli's folks had a HUGE trampoline that we all took turns on, bouncing each other, and it was such a clear night that, after we were all worn out, someone brought out a bunch of blankets, and we all laid on the tramp to look at the stars. Shauni and I laid close together, and, you know trampolines, we eventually were side-by-side. I took her by the hand--a little bold for me-- and started to tell her how much I would miss her. We laid like that, talking to each other and looking at the bright stars through the trees, well into the night. I had just told her how much I would miss her when I moved away, and then Shauni whispered something to me that startled me out of my dream state, like a meteor blazing through the sky, she said, "I love you." It took me a minute to recover, and I finally choked out the only thing I could think to say in return, " I love you, too."