The week seemed to fly by and, before Nadia knew it, it was Friday. She was so excited and nervous that she hardly knew what to do. Allie had agreed to come over to her house after school and help her with her hair and make-up.

"So, how does this look?" Allie said as she held up a small mirror for Nadia to inspect the results of her work.

"Wow, I almost look like I could be on a magazine cover." Nadia replied approvingly, "I hope Lee likes it."

"He'd have to be blind not to." Allie said reassuring her.

"I bet Kendra would flip if she could see me right now." Nadia stated.

"Where is she anyway?" Allie asked.

"She's working on her part of the holiday pageant. She said she really wanted to be here this afternoon, but I told her that I understood." Nadia revealed.

"Well by the looks of it, it looks like you're going to have us all beat in the love department." Allie said, trying to build up her friend's confidence.

"I don't know about that." Nadia paused, "I hope all of this talk about dates and relationships isn't making you feel uncomfortable."

"Not really. It's not that I'm trying to pretend nothing happened, it'll be with me for the rest of my life. It's just that Ms. Sauve said that part of recovery is being able to move past it and not dwell on it. I don't want to spend the rest of my life stuck in one horrible night. I plan on living the rest of my life to the fullest. Someday I think I'll be ready to even date again." Allie said, revealing her most recent observations about herself.

"I just didn't want to get too personal is all." Nadia stated.

"No way, it feels good to talk about it to my friends. I guess it's sort of therapeutic." Allie replied, "But we'd better talk less so you can be ready when Lee finally gets here."

"You're right!" Nadia said as she went to her closet.

Lee arrived at Nadia's house at a quarter past seven. He was feeling nervous about his date with Nadia, but what he didn't realize was that she was just as nervous as him. He hesitated before ringing the doorbell. Nadia's Dad answered the door and invited Lee inside. Lee expected to get the third degree from her Dad, but to his surprise, he was actually nice to him. He talked to him for a while about sports and news in general. Then Nadia entered the living room and Lee couldn't believe his eyes. He had always thought she was cute, but tonight she was a total knockout. Lee had brought her a single rose, an idea he got from seeing the guy in the hallway the other day. He went to give the rose to her and tell her how beautiful she looked, but whatever he said must've come out as a jumbled mess, because Nadia just giggled and said "Thank you for the rose."

After posing for endless pictures by her parents, Nadia and Lee were ready to go. Allie walked out of the house behind them and headed for her house in the opposite direction. Nadia promised Allie she would call her later. As Nadia and Lee walked down the street towards the theatre, they hardly said a word to each other. Normally they could talk about anything with no problem, but now things seemed different, it seemed more serious. Nadia did catch him from the corner of her eye staring at her a few times, so much so that he almost tripped on a spot where the sidewalk had shifted.

When they finally arrived at the theatre, they stood in line for a good half hour waiting for tickets. When they finally made it inside, it was another long wait at the refreshment stand. But to Nadia it was all worth it, she was on her first date. They finally went into the theatre and found a spot in the front rows that had access for her wheelchair. She apologized to Lee for having to sit so close to the screen. He said it was fine. He told her that he usually sat up front in the theatre when he came by himself. She felt unsure if he was telling the truth or if he just didn't want her to feel bad. As the movie started, Lee really got involved and it kept his full attention. Nadia, however, didn't really pay much attention to the film. She spent most of the movie gazing at Lee. He occasionally looked back at her, but he didn't pass up a chance to hold her hand in the dark theatre. It was all she could do to keep her excitement from bursting out.

After the movie, they left the theatre among the crowd. Nadia excused herself for a moment to go the ladies room. She wanted to check her hair and make-up to make sure they were perfect. She wanted everything to be just right in case Lee wanted to kiss her goodnight. When she came out, she didn't see Lee at first. She wheeled a little ways and saw him with his back towards her. He was talking to his friend Lawrence. She decided she would sneak up behind him and surprise him, letting him know that they could go now. As she approached she could hear part of their conversation.

"So you actually asked Nadia out?" Lawrence asked.

"Yeah, we came and saw a movie." Lee replied.

"It must suck that you can't go out and really party, like dance together or anything. I mean don't get me wrong, Nadia is nice and everything. But do you really want to spend your best years dating a girl in a wheelchair? Come on, if you guys want to get a little more physical, she probably isn't even able to do much. It'd be hard to hit a homerun with her." Lawrence said to Lee.

Nadia heard enough of the conversation that she felt like crawling inside of a shell. What hurt Nadia wasn't the ignorant things that Lawrence said. She had heard all kinds of prejudiced statements from idiots before about people with physical handicaps. What hurt her to the core was that Lee didn't defend her. He didn't disagree with Lawrence, he didn't say anything at all. He just stood there like what Lawrence said was okay. She wanted to cry but was determined to be stronger than that. Lee was so involved in listening to Lawrence that he didn't see Nadia until she had reached the theatre doors.

"Hey Nadia, where are you going?" Lee called out as he ran to catch up.

"Home!" was Nadia's only response.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were leaving, I thought we were going to walk together."

"I didn't want you to be embarrassed by the crippled girl." Nadia said in a scolding tone.

"You heard what Lawrence said? But still, you can't be mad at me for what he said." Lee tried to explain.

"I'm not mad at you for what he said. I'm mad at you for what you didn't say." Nadia pointed out, "If you didn't want to go out with me, all you had to say was that you weren't interested. I'm not some sort of charity case that needs your pity."

"I didn't go out with you because I felt sorry for you, I went out with you because I really liked you." Lee replied.

"Liking me is one thing, but caring about a person is something else. If you truly care about somebody, then you care about how they feel and you don't stand there while someone else berates and makes fun of them. What Lawrence said about me hurt, but only half as bad as you not sticking up for me. If the roles were reversed, if you were in the wheelchair, how would you feel if I let some girl badmouth you and just let it go without challenging them?"

Lee stood there for a moment, thinking about her hypothetical question and unable to say anything.

"That's just a small taste of what my whole life has been like. Think about that and maybe you'll understand why I'm angry at you. I don't need a boyfriend that wants to be with me only when his friends aren't around, a boyfriend that acts like he's ashamed of me or something." Nadia told Lee.

"But I keep telling you, I'm not ashamed of you." Lee said trying to defend his inaction.

"Well, then answer me this, how come you've never introduced me to Lawrence or your other friends at school?"

Lee was left in front of the theatre, realizing that maybe part of what Nadia said was true. He had hurt the most important girl in his life, just to keep the approval of his friends.

Meanwhile Nadia wheeled home, alone.

When she made it to her house, her parents eagerly asked how her date had gone. She didn't feel like spilling everything to her parents, so she said that it went fine and that she was going to bed. All she really wanted to do was get her in bed and cry herself to sleep, but then she remembered her promise to Allie and she didn't want to break it. So she picked up her phone and dialed.

"Hello?"

"Hi Allie, I'm just calling to let you know I'm back from my date." Nadia told her.

"Well, how was it?" Allie asked eagerly.

"It was…nice." Nadia said, lying to her friend. Nadia thought that Allie had been through too much recently to hear her seemingly insignificant problems. So she made up a story about how Lee was so romantic and had walked her home, but that they decided to slow things down for a while. After a few minutes of conversation, Nadia said she would see her sometime that weekend and told her good night. She turned the lamp off in her room, bringing to an end what was supposed to be the perfect night.