Anticipation hung in the air of my fifth-grade classroom until my teacher finally dismissed the class. A crowd of kids all piled into the hallway, hurrying to grab their coats, books, and backpacks. I raced to the cubbies to pull my homework out when a mysterious purple bracelet taped to a crinkled note fell out of my cubby.

I quickly picked the note up making sure no one around me saw. I ran to the bathroom to read the note, barely managing to hold back my excitement. The note read, “I like you a lot, do you like me back?” Check yes, no, or maybe at the bottom, from His Name. I slid the purple bracelet on my wrist, checked yes on the note, and put the note back into his cubby and our love story began. True love.  

Whether it was passing notes, exchanging snacks, or meeting at lockers, “love” appears to have whipped its way around the hallways of WO elementary and middle schools. WO high school students take a painful trip down memory lane recalling their elementary and middle school “love” stories. 

Warning: Be prepared to cringe. 

Stories: 

Jr. Fiona Das: This boy and I were “dating” but I was very young at the time and my parents would have killed me so I said that I’m becoming a nun and I’m not allowed to date. Years later he texted me saying “You still a nun or can I see you?”

Jr. Natalie Wilcox: I check my phone, it’s 7:58, time to go to the dance room. I get there and stand in the crowd of 7th and 8th graders. The air is hot and sticky. A slow song starts and my friend shoves me towards the guy I’m about to have my first dance with. There’s at least 5 cameras in our faces. Function was definitely something to remember.

Sr. Leeza Jongekyrg:  One time there was a girl in my elementary school who had a wedding during recess. She got married to a tree.

Sr. Nicole Milligan: In 3rd grade, my class got a new kid and almost every girl liked him. I was one of them, but lucky for me he liked me back. We had become friends and would talk a lot and both kind of knew we liked each other. One day, one of my friends who also liked him helped him write me a note saying how he felt about me, which he gave to me that day during recess. After he gave me the note nothing new ever really happened, and we never actually “dated.”

Soph. Mallory Renkema: He gave me his carrots at lunch and said I was beautiful. 

Soph. Jayden Yiem: Up until the third grade, I had thought of girls as totally different people than I. To me, girls were this weird cootie species that acted different from the rest of us. But in 3rd grade, I met one of them. At first, we were nothing more than assigned partners we’d work together with for math and English. Then we became closer. We’d eat together, and we’d play during recess, and we were just having ourselves some good times. I like to think that we’d become friends over time. One night, I had a dream. In that dream, the person I had spent so time bonding with, had suddenly left me. I became scared of that. That dream taught me that I wanted to stay with them and that I wanted them to not leave me. That was the night I had realized that I had fallen in love.

Sr. Emily Johnson: It was in 5th grade when I realized that I was in love. His name was Luke, and he was the ultimate “it” boy. He was amazing at soccer, super smart, and had the cutest smile. I had a crush on him for the longest time. We met in SAIL, an advanced English class that was separate from my normal elementary class. We sat next to each other every day in SAIL, and the rest was history. Like literally. History. At the end of the year, Luke left to live in Australia for what was supposed to be “3 years,” but to this day I never saw him again. I was heartbroken. When the last day of fifth grade rolled around I told myself I would tell him how I felt and perhaps that would convince him to stay. But I was too late, I saw him get into his mom’s car and drive off. He was the one that got away. 

Soph. Danielle Arch: In fifth grade, me and this kid named Daniel really hit it off because our names sounded similar, but it was only for that reason.

Sr. Lydia Foy: I remember being so nervous to dance for a song at Function with my “crush.” We talked about it beforehand in order to plan our dance. When we got to Function we met upstairs in the game room and started to head down to the game room. I was so nervous. I remember being so sweaty from playing 9 square in the gym earlier that night. When we were dancing my friends decided to take pictures of us and they posted them on Snapchat. It was quite an awkward experience. 

Jr. Trent Mulder:  I did not date or have a crush on anyone at this time.  I made my priorities clear. I was about chasing that bag.

Sr. Adria Hamilton: So I had both an elementary and middle school “relationship.” I specifically remember Valentine’s Day in 4th grade. Me and my “boyfriend,” as everyone would say, had exchanged our gifts to each other across the hall at the end of the day because we weren’t in the same class. I had given him puppy chow and he gave me candy and a note. So many people bring up today how we “dated” in elementary school, and a lot of it consisted of talking with friends to see if he still “liked” me. I was also in a middle school relationship and I remember one of the ways he flirted with me was going through my locker and stealing my gum, in that case, he had to memorize my lock combination. I remember everyone taking pictures and making a big deal that we held hands after school, and a lot of people gave us a ship name “xadria.” Oh, what a time that was.

Sr. Mackaylee Antone: There was a boy in my kindergarten class who I really liked.  I learned in 1st grade that he lived in the same neighborhood and decided to play with him. He was teaching me some really cool pool tricks and then I smashed my head on the side of the pool. We never talked again.

Sr. Bre Foreman: In elementary school, I was dating this one guy that many girls wanted. One day we had indoor recess and I had seen him “flirting” with the girl who would try to bully me and it pissed me off so bad. I decided to grab a jump rope and beat him with it and he ended up with a candy cane-shaped welt on his face.