This was a request a while back but I started listening to Relient K. They have a song called The Sadie Hawkins Dance or Sadie Hawkins and it gave me this idea. I'm not sure it was the idea of the original request and I might write more on this later! Enjoy. (I really like this one).
"The Sadie Hawkins Dance," Gale read aloud from the obnoxious poster in front of him, "there is nothing better!" He continued sarcastically and turned to his best friend Thom.
"Come on..." His friend hit him playfully on the shoulder, "the girls ask the guys- you don't have to do anything but show up if someone ask you."
"No one is going to ask me." Gale snorted as they continued down the hall to class.
"Katniss might."
"Oh yeah... like that will happen." Gale shook his head, "I don't even want to go."
"Well I'm just saying- don't be surprised when someone asks you. Just go with it. Loosen up. Become the Gale Hawthorne that everyone rumors about."
"I'm not that person." Gale said and laughed, "Why would anyone want to go to the slag heap and make out for hours anyway?"
"Yeah, you're classier than that... you just take them to the woods." Thom winked.
"Shut up and don't give anyone ideas." Gale warned with his pointer finger. The two parted at the sound of the bell. Gale slumped down into a metal seat and tapped his pencil on the table top. The open seat next to him was filled with a skinny dark haired girl.
"Hi." She said and smiled. Gale nodded and turned to look out the window. "So..." Gale tightened his grip on his pencil and closed his eyes. "Gale, is it?"
"Yeah." He said gruffly and looked over at her. The instructor walked in and Gale pretended to pay attention.
"Are you going to ask for my name?" She asked sweetly and moved closer to him. Gale looked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Cornelia?" He murmured.
"You know my name..." She whispered. Gale resisted to roll his eyes and began to tap his pencil against the table again.
"Yeah- you live behind me." He said. Gale wanted to smack his forehead; he was digging his way into a hole.
"That's right!" She almost squealed, "So I was thinking that maybe you could go with me to the dance?" She said, hopeful and star struck.
"I already have a date." Gale closed his eyes as he realized his accidental response.
"Oh... I see." She murmured and looked at her friends across the room. Their shoulders dropped in defeat. "Well, at least I'll see you there!" She smiled and turned back to look at the instructor. Gale stumbled out of class and went in search of Thom. He was leaning against the wall with a short brown haired girl.
"No I'm sorry... I'm going with Bristel." Gale overheard Thom say, "Yeah... maybe next time." The girl wandered off and Gale took her place.
"Bristel asked you to the dance?" Gale asked, unsurprised.
"Yes and no" Thom laughed. "I think it was more force than a question."
"Explain." Gale pushed.
"She came up to me after class just before Demi. She took my arm and shoved me against this wall and said that Griffin was trying to get her to ask him so she told him she was going with me."
"Ah." Gale said and nodded, "will you two just get married already?" Thom pushed off the wall and shook his head.
"Hell's teeth, Gale! Not so loud. We're not even dating. We're just friends."
"The sexual tension between you two is off the charts. Just kiss and get it all over with."
"Whatever. Has anyone asked you yet?"
"Cornelia Cornel." Gale sighed.
"So you have a date." Thom said and clapped him on the shoulder. Gale laughed and ran his hand over his stubble.
"Not quite. See- I told her I already have a date." Thom whistled.
"You're an idiot."
"I know." Gale nodded, "maybe I can use the Bristel technique and get Catnip to come with me."
"The girls ask the guys," Thom reminded him.
"Hell's teeth."
"Okay here's the plan. You walk into your next classroom and the first girl you see... get her to ask you." Gale rolled his eyes.
"Cornelia by now has told everyone. I'm fucked." Gale said and shrugged.
"First town girl."
"You're whacked." Gale sneered.
"You know they want you too, Gale. Those girls always fall for the bad boys." Thom smirked and poked at his friend's chest.
"Fine." Gale murmured. "Challenge accepted." Thom walked Gale to him next class and pushed him inside. Gale looked straight ahead. A small blonde in the back of the room was twirling her hair around her finger. The light danced off the honey colored curls. Gale ran out of the classroom.
"Who was it?" Thom said, holding back a snicker.
"Madge Undersee." Gale choked.
"Nice... hell's teeth, real nice," Thom beamed.
"This isn't going to work." Thom patted him on the back and nodded.
"Good luck." Gale narrowed his eyes at his friend's back and walked back into the classroom. There was an open seat next to Madge but Gale left a seat open between them. He cleared his throat but she didn't look up from her pad of paper.
"Are you ready for this?" Gale asked, gesturing to the words, pop quiz, on the blackboard. Madge looked up and over at him. She seemed shocked, so shocked that she let her pencil roll off the table top.
"Uh..." She said and looked at the board.
"I think I'm ready." Gale pressed, "I've done some of the reading, mostly because it was interesting, and the quizzes normally aren't that hard." Madge blinked up at him. Gale gathered up his courage and moved over a seat. Madge quickly closed her drawing pad and stuffed into her leather backpack.
"Honestly," she said as she clicked the bag closed, "I haven't read the material, so I'm not feeling that ready." She looked back up at him.
"You'll get by with common sense." Gale smiled. She made a face.
"Why are you talking to me, Gale?" She sighed, "I swear you're not even in this class."
"I normally sit in the middle on the other side of the room." He said and gestured to the area.
"Next to Eliza?" She asked nodding in the direction of a group of townies.
"Err..." Gale looked around the room. In the end he realized he was in the classroom over from his. "I..." He looked at her in shock. "I went to the wrong room." She laughed and he stared at her bright smile.
"You better get to the right class before the bell rings." He nodded, "well- goes!" She grinned and practically pushed him out of his seat.
"Nice talking to you!" He said as he darted from his chair. Gale dropped into the first available seat and starred down at the wooden grooves in the table. He couldn't get that smile out of his head. He thought back to all the times he sold her strawberries and couldn't think of a time she had actually smiled.
"How did it go?" Thom asked at lunch.
"We talked." Gale murmured, looking down at his roll, "don't get excited- I was in the wrong room." Thom laughed loudly. He wiped the corner of his eye,
"Classic." Gale sighed. "Don't look so down... you didn't want to go with her anyway."
"Sure." Gale nodded.
"Wait." Thom gasped, "You actually want to go with her now, don't you."
"Shut up. You know me too well." Thom sighed and sagged back into his seat.
"Hell's teeth." He said and looked around the cafeteria.
"I know." Gale said.
"No, really." Thom groaned, "Wow I thought you hated her." Gale melted into his hands and stared down at his roll.
"Me too." Gale popped the roll into his mouth as the bell rang out around them. He couldn't sit through the next three classes; he couldn't get her off his mind. So when he saw her staring at the poster for the dance after school he couldn't stop himself from walking up behind her. "Are you going with anyone?" He asked. She jumped and pressed a hand to her chest, moving away from him.
"You scared me!" She cried and smiled.
"Sorry." He smiled back.
"Liar." She murmured and started to move away from the poster, "you know I can't get the face you made out of my head. The one where you realized you were in the wrong classroom." She looked over her shoulder at him. He rolled his eyes. "I'm seriously still laughing about it." She admitted.
"I'm sure it wasn't-" Madge cut him off,
"Oh it was, believe me."
"Fine..." he smiled, "the dance, are you going with someone? I saw you looking at the poster."
"You know," She said, falling into step with him, "every year someone forces me to go with them." She tapped her chin, "isn't for the girls to have freedom of gender roles?" She murmured. Gale started to sweat, was she onto him?
"Mhmm," he said quickly, "Shame that happened to you." She looked over and brushed some hair behind her ear, it fell back over her eye and Gale took the effort not to reach out and pull it back.
"No, it's alright." Madge said and clasped her hands together. "I just want to ask someone for a change."
"You could ask me," Gale said before he could stop himself. He drew in a breath, "I mean the answer might not be yes but at least you can say you asked someone, right?" Madge laughed and Gale relaxed, opening the front door for her.
"I could..." She sighed and looked up at him, "but then I would have to go with you if you said yes."
"Ouch." He grinned.
"Are you going with anyone?" She asked.
"Well, Cornelia asked me to go." He said and rubbed the back of his neck, "and I accidently told her I already had a date." Madge laughed, "Yeah, all the seam girls think I have a date so no one else has asked me."
"Tragic." Madge grinned, "Poor Gale Hawthorne has a make believe date to the dance."
"Hush." He smiled.
"You could get a town girl... oh my goodness..." Madge covered her mouth and her eyes opened wide, "that is why you started talking to me!" She cried, "I'm the only town girl you know!" Gale froze in front of a bench as Madge collapsed onto it.
"I'm sorry, really, I..." Madge stalled his apology with a loud laugh that spiraled into giggles. Gale stood over her, dumbfounded. She tried to stand up but grabbed her sides, still laughing. Gale cleared his throat.
"I'm sorry!" She cried out and finally pushed herself off the bench. "It's just so..."
"Embarrassing?" Gale finished.
"Sweet!" Madge grinned.
"Sweet?!" Gale choked.
"Gale Hawthorne, will you come to the Sadie Hawkins Dance with me?"
"Sweet?!"
"Get over it." She said and rested her hand on his arm; he stared down at her pink fingernails against the backdrop of his navy shirt. "Sorry..." she pulled her hand away, "so will you?" she asked again. Gale stared at the freckles covering her small heart shaped face for a few seconds. "I mean its okay if you..." Gale blocked out the words coming out of her mouth and watched her small lips move together.
"Can I kiss you after I say yes?" he murmured moving his eyes up to make eye contact. She blinked, her long black lashes bouncing off the pale skin.
"Gale?" She whispered.
"Yes." He said, "Sorry." He turned away from her, "see you Saturday." He grumbled.
"Hey Hawthorne!" She called; Gale stopped and looked over his shoulder. Madge propped her hands on her hips and cocked a hip out.
"You said yes- so where's that kiss?"
"I said after- I didn't say how much after!" Madge's jaw dropped and she blushed scarlet. "See you Saturday, Undersee."
"I hope I see you before then!" She called.
"I'll come to your class." He started walking backwards.
"Just as long as you get to the right one on time." She teased.
"No promises."
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Erin