They've been dating since last November, so when she brought it up -- in the car, on the way to a baseball game, about three weeks before the dance -- there wasn't too much to talk about.
"I didn't want to go with anybody else," he says.
And neither did she.
Tim Roddy and Maria Suarez, both 17, met through a friend about six months ago. He's the captain of the baseball team and a senior at Davis High School. She's a varsity cheerleader and a junior at Eisenhower.
They're going to both proms.
Her school's dance is first. And Maria, as junior class secretary, has been involved with the planning and preparations since last fall.
At Ike, the last formal dance of the school year is hosted by the junior class. Students in leadership positions do the bulk of the work.
"It'll be a load off my shoulders," says Maria, who's feeling stressed in the last weeks leading up to the May 1 dance. "It's what we've been working for all year."
Planning prom is practically like planning a wedding. Preparations take almost the entire school year. And by the end of the big day, most of the junior class officers will have been awake for nearly 24 hours.
In a way, prom is their parting gift to the seniors. It's also a chance for the juniors to step up, show off their leadership and set the tone for their forthcoming final year of high school.
"It's a way of saying, 'Look what we can do, look at who we are,' " says Ike leadership teacher Lauri Anderson, who chaperones the dance and helps check in guests at the front door. "The incoming seniors are so full of hope."
So are the outgoing seniors. But it's different for them.
"I'm happy," Tim says. "But it's the last dance you get. It means a lot to go. It's kind of sad because you're not going to see your friends anymore.
"You try not to think about it."
Soon, the seniors will be graduating, going off to college or work or the military. Some will stay behind, enrolling at Yakima Valley Community College or moving a half-hour away to Ellensburg to attend Central Washington University. Others will spread out, fanning across the country, from Stanford to Cornell.
The Real World will welcome and wisen them up, test and push them. But tonight -- Prom Night -- that place still seems far away.
Prom is the place where teen movies culminate, the guy gets the girl, and everyone sparkles and shines. It's all about living in the moment and dancing the night away.
Maria's been to homecoming "like three times." This is her first prom. And she's been looking forward to all of it -- the flowers, the photos, the dinner, the dress, the dancing.
"It's like the prettiest moment of your life," she says. "Everything is perfect. The decorations are pretty. Every time you stand somewhere, there's a backdrop behind you."
Prom --usually held the first or second Saturday in May -- is for juniors and seniors. Freshmen and sophomores can go, too -- if they're invited by an upperclassman.
There are nearly 2,200 students at Ike. Less than half attend prom.
"We plan for 600 kids," says Anderson, who went to her prom -- East Valley High School, 1981 -- but doesn't remember the theme or her dress. She has higher hopes for her students.
At prom, she says, "They're all in their gorgeous-ness. I just want them to have a good time and remember it, unlike their leadership teacher that can't remember."
Before the big night, junior class officers help pick a theme, decide on decorations, choose music, order hors d'oeuvres, and select, schedule and pay for a venue. Security officers need to be hired. So does a deejay. And don't forget the photographer.
And that's on top of all the personal preparations. Most prom-goers worry about finding a dress or tux or suit, buying a corsage or boutonnière, getting tickets, making dinner reservations, getting hair, make-up and nails done -- and figuring out a way to pay for it all.
In general, girls have more to do to get ready.
"I just have to shower and put my clothes on," Tim says. "I didn't even know when it was until about a week ago."
Maria "keeps me on track. She kind of tells me where to be and when to show up."
The morning of Ike's prom, Maria wakes up around 5 a.m. She won't get back to sleep until about 2:30 the next morning.
She meets other junior class officers, some of their parents, and a few other helpers in Ballroom E at the Yakima Convention Center on East Yakima Avenue. They spend the morning and early afternoon blowing up $140 worth of balloons, hanging netting, placing white cloths on tables, creating centerpieces, scattering pink petals, and building a fountain -- out of a plastic kiddie pool, black garbage bags, faux foliage and strings of Christmas tree lights -- in the center of the room.
Maria leaves the Convention Center at 3 p.m., which gives her a half-hour to go home and take a shower before her hair appointment at Rene's Beauty Salon on North First Street. Her sister, Leticia Suarez, 21, works there.
Leti didn't go to prom when she was at Ike. But she says she's happy Maria gets to, and agrees to pay for half of her $204 dress and do her hair.
"I'm just going to curl everything and put it back," she says of Maria's tresses, which Leti lightened last week.
Maria arrives at the salon with her long, blond hair still damp from the shower. In the chair, as Leti works a curling iron through her hair, Maria closes her eyes.
"I'm really tired," she says. "I might fall asleep under a table."
Her hair takes about an hour. That gives Maria one more hour until Tim picks her up in his 2002 white Chevy Impala.
Tim says he only has one real worry: "I'm nervous she's going to get mad at me for something because she'll be in that high-stress mode."
Other than that, he says, "I'm excited."
When he comes to pick her up, she's running late. She doesn't have her dress on. Still, they make it only about 15 minutes late for dinner at Santiago's, a Mexican restaurant on Yakima Avenue that's owned by the parents of Ike senior Andre Arcand.
They have reservations for 12 at 6:30 p.m.
Before the couples order, Andre's dad, Jar Arcand, drops off a spicy Mexican version of cheese fondue as an appetizer, on the house. Actually, he says, smiling, he'll put it on his son's tab.
Maria, who's petite and has eaten nothing all day but two doughnuts and some fruit, digs right in.
"This tastes really, really good," she says. "Delicious, actually."
She and her date order the same thing: chicken-and-jack-cheese burritos.
Halfway through the meal, she's feeling full: "I feel if I eat any more, I'm busting out of my dress."
At the dance about two hours later, her dress gets her noticed. Tim tries not to step on it.
Strapless, the light pink and animal print dress is short in the front with a train in the back.
"It's kind of shorter than I expected it to be in the front," Maria says. "I like it still. It's really different."
The "Cha Cha Slide" gets most students on their feet. Soon, high heels are sitting on tabletops -- "like knickknacks," says Anderson, who keeps an eye on the dance floor.
"It's prom," she says. "Unless they're way out of control, they're fine. It's way too hard to freak dance in your prom dress. They're either way too tight or way too fluffy."
The guy up there on stage, playing the songs, is none other than Micah Cawley, a deejay for the country station 92.9 "The Bull" -- and the mayor of Yakima.
After meeting with members of Ike's leadership class, he has prepared a list of some 55 songs -- totaling 3 hours and 34 minutes of playing time.
His hope for prom night: "That I'm not outdated and old."
This year's prom marks his first time deejaying an Ike dance. Wearing a city of Yakima lapel pin, Cawley plays music -- everything from Lady Gaga and Kesha to the Black Eyed Peas and Lil Wayne -- hosts a best dressed contest and introduces the royalty. He plays only one fast country song.
"This is it! You better enjoy it!" he says, introducing "Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)" by the duo Big & Rich.
The royalty is announced -- and a prom queen and king are crowned -- at 10:30 p.m. This year, the titles go to Megan Kinney and Will Scott.
As junior class secretary, Maria crowns the prom princesses, including the queen. She also places medallions around the necks of the princes and king.
As the king and queen head onto the floor for their dance, "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith begins playing:
Well, I just wanna be with you
Right here with you, just like this
I just wanna hold you close
Feel your heart so close to mine
And just stay here in this moment
For all the rest of time.
As the song continues, Maria and Tim, standing off the dance floor, near the side of the stage, begin to slow dance. He holds her close, her head on his chest, a couple of balloons drifting near her bare feet.
Ike prom by the numbers
* 500 tickets sold
* $1,400 for Convention Center rental
* $330 for catering
* $500 for deejay
* $200 for security
The Dress
Maria Suarez is planning on wearing purple. Lavender, actually.
A month before prom, Maria already knows what she wants to wear. In fact, she's known all year.
"I've been told I look good in purple," she says.
She also already has an idea how her dress will look -- "It's going to be long and silky" -- as well as who will be paying for it. Her mom and older sister agree to split the cost.
"My mom doesn't want to go over $150," Maria says.
But after shopping with them three weekends before prom, she comes away with something different.
Something pink, a dusty rose. And animal print.
When she sees it in a catalog at Perfect Fit Bridal Boutique in Yakima, she exclaims, "Omigosh! I want that dress! I don't care if it's not purple!"
She takes a picture of the photo in the catalog with her cell phone and orders it on the spot. It arrives three days before the dance.
The strapless dress is short in the front and has a train in the back. It costs $204.
Maria's date, 17-year-old Davis High School senior Tim Roddy, wants to look good, too. He decides to match Maria's pink dress with a tux with a pink vest and bowtie.
He gets to see the cell-phone photo of the dress a couple weeks before the dance.
And when he sees Maria in it the night of the prom, he decides, "She looks amazing."
The Decorations
The idea is students will feel as though they are stepping into a "Secret Garden."
That is the theme of the 2010 Eisenhower High School prom, hosted by the junior class. The class officers -- including 16-year-old treasurer Cati Burke -- have been working on the plans and preparations -- from deciding the theme to tracking down decorations and a deejay -- all year.
Money for prom comes from the junior class budget.
"They've had to raise those funds since they were freshmen," says Ike leadership teacher Lauri Anderson.
Because they're on a budget, Anderson says, "They do a lot of recycling."
Ike's drama department loans the faux greenery, fake trees and latticework for this year's prom. The faux flowers, left over from other Ike dances, come out of leadership's storage attic.
And the fresh forsythia and lilacs come from Cati's yard.
"As much as I want everyone to have a good time, I really want the seniors to have a good time," she says. "I want them to be impressed."
Cati, Maria and 17-year-old junior class president Kyle Curtis all wake up around 5 a.m. on the morning of prom to ready Ballroom E at the Yakima Convention Center.
They stop at Ike to pick up decorations, then head to the convention center, where they blow up $140 worth of balloons, hang netting, place white cloths on tables, move tables, create centerpieces, scatter pink petals, and build a fountain -- out of a plastic kiddie pool, black garbage bags, faux foliage and strings of Christmas tree lights -- in the center of the room.
Down the hall, in Ballroom C, West Valley High School is holding its prom on the same night. That room doesn't have nearly the same amount of decorations.
"It's nothing compared to ours," Maria says.
The Dance
The doors open at 8:30 p.m.
But students -- in suits and sparkles, up-dos and high heels -- begin gathering outside the convention center a half-hour earlier.
Guests -- students that don't go to Ike -- have to be checked off a special list, their names given to administrators in advance of the dance. Tickets cost $15 each at the door, or $12 in advance, with an ASB card.
Administrators and teachers, including Anderson, man the door -- and get to see what everyone was wearing.
"That's the best part," Anderson says.
Parents volunteer at the coat check. They serve as chaperones, too. So do teachers, "the cool teachers," according to Maria.
Meantime, they have until midnight. That's when the music stops, the lights come on and the tear-down and clean-up begins.
Before the magic ends, the royalty is announced -- and a prom queen and king are crowned -- at 10:30 p.m. This year, the titles go to Megan Kinney and Will Scott.
At 11:11 p.m. balloons are released from nets above the dance floor.
Ike parents Mark and Maureen Cross don't wait for the balloons to drop. They sneak out just before 11 p.m. Before that, they had been sitting against the south wall of the ballroom, chaperoning.
"Wish I was young again," says Mark, surveying the crowd. "We know a lot of the kids. It's fun to watch them dance. It looks like they are having fun."
The deejay thinks so, too.
From the stage in front of the dance floor at the other end of the room, he tells the dancers, "You guys are looking good!"
The Deejay
Micah Cawley, Yakima's 25-year-old mayor -- known on air as Cefus -- went to Ike's prom in 2001 as a junior in high school: "It was a lot of fun."
That year, the dance was held at the Modern Living Building at State Fair Park.
"I was short and wearing some suit that didn't fit," says Cawley, who graduated from an online school. But he attended Ike from 1999 to 2001 and considers it his alma mater.
Before students start showing up in their suits and gowns, he says he heard there was a rumor going around school that he would only be playing country music -- or a bulk of country music -- since he works at a country music station.
He tried to quash that rumor in the recent edition of Five Star, Ike's student newspaper, which featured prom on the front page. Cawley told news editor Bianca LaCaille, "I can tell if people like what I'm playing, and I'm not afraid to mix it up to get the results I need."
Maria and Tim hope he plays their song: "I Wanna Be" by Avant. The chorus goes like this:
I wanna be the smile you put on your face
I wanna be your hands when you say your grace
I wanna be wherever is your favorite place (girl)
I just wanna be close ...
"We had our first kiss to that song," Tim says.
The last dance is always the same. It's an Ike tradition to play "Stairway to Heaven" at the end of prom every year.
Anderson's not sure when or how it got started, but she says, "That's how everybody knows it's time to go home."
