Freshmen say ‘I do’ to homecoming

by Preslee Waters

“I couldn’t stop laughing,” volleyball player Kaitlin Vickery said when freshman Peyton Farrington showed up at her doorstep wearing a cow suit and a sign that said “Eat more chicken and Hoco?”

Farrington has planned on asking her to homecoming for two weeks and everyone was excited when he finally did. After she said yes, he was the most excited.

“I wanted to go with someone that I would have a good time with,” Farrington said.

Freshman Hannah Lovett had the same reaction when the cheerleaders held up signs that said “Hannah Lovett will you go to homecoming with me?” after the freshmen football game Sept. 9.

“I couldn’t stop smiling,” Lovett said.

Pryor, with the help of his good friend, Allison Yarbrough, planned on asking her for three days.

“I felt accomplished and proud of myself afterwards,” Pryor said after he got the answer he wanted from Lovett.

At first, Lovett thought he was asking someone else. It wasn’t until she read the sign backwards that she realized it was for her.

“I’m excited to dress up and hang out with Jacob at homecoming,” Lovett said.

The homecoming game Oct. 16 is against Lovejoy High School. The dance is in the cafeteria Oct. 17 from 7-10 p.m.

Pinterest-perfect proposal

Band kid asks his crush to homecoming

by Katy Jones

Trading mums for music, garters for green turf, and suits and dresses for crazy costumes and unique uniforms, homecoming means something different to everyone, and to the band, it means ‘Show Day’.

Band couples love to get in on the fun of asking out dates and attending the homecoming dance. This is displayed in the annual sight of the 100+ mums and garters that hang around the band hall to await the students’ return from practice. Sophomores Josh Beauchamp and Grace Kingston are almost-but-not-quite one of these band couples (always seen together, never making it official) whom everyone loves to see. Their proposal was like something from a Disney movie.

The stage was set to have the perfect, long-awaited homecoming proposal; The perfect sign, a nervous guy, tons of friends, all of whom were surrounded by the familiar walls and lockers of the band hall.

“I chose to do it in the band hall because I thought it would be the best place to surprise her, and as band kids, it’s kind of our home base,” said Beauchamp, a trumpet player in the band.

The sign Beauchamp used read “‘Can I say something crazy?.. Will you go to homecoming with me?’ ‘Can I say something even crazier?…..’”, quoting the comically popular movie, Frozen. It was made complete with glittery snowflakes and an icy blue background.

“I thought the poster was cute, but I know he didn’t come up with it. I knew he got it from Pinterest,” said Kingston, a saxophone and oboe player.

Beauchamp got all of their friends together and sent one out to get Kingston and bring her to the band hall Sept. 24. There he stood, when she walked in, the whole band was in on it. They all quieted as he read the question. She said yes, as everyone expected.

“I wouldn’t change anything about it. In my mind, it went perfectly. I was really excited when she said yes, but nobody was surprised. Everyone knew she’d say yes,” Beauchamp said.

The two sophomores met in the sixth grade, joined band together, and have been close ever since. Despite the encouragement of everyone who knows them or has seen them together, they are not yet an official couple. Or, at least, they wouldn’t let you call them that.

“I thought it was really sweet and unexpected. I was surprised when I saw him with the sign, it caught me off guard,” Kingston said.

Cadets work together to get  ‘yes’

by Katherine Bates

For most it only takes a fancy handmade sign to get a girl to go to homecoming. It took 46 people to get Ashley Henagin to say yes. Using everyone in the JROTC Honor guard, junior Orian Johnson asked junior Ashley Henagin to homecoming.

At the dismissal of Honor Guard, Johnson popped the question. Usually at a normal Honor Guard practice, the cadets will stand at attention and the commander will call someone up to do a chant for dismissal, but Johnson had prepared and told everyone that after he said the “magic words” to fall.

“Everyone was at attention and Orian was called to do dismissal and said ‘Bravo Alpha Lima Lima Sierra’ [the magic words] and then everyone fell to the ground except me [and he said] ‘Oh wow Ashley everyone else fell for you and I’m the only one that had the nerve to ask you to homecoming.Will you go with me?’” Henagin said.

Henagin got a good laugh out of it, said yes.