Fancy dance invitations make comeback

Lewis and Clark High School’s Kayla Morrison was thumbing through clothing racks at Value Village with her boyfriend Cole Poland when she stumbled on a T-shirt with an intriguing proposition.

“Will you go to homecoming with me?”

University High School’s Kaylene Bell followed a trail of rose petals left by Tri Tran and found a poem saying, “If I had a rose for every time I thought of you, I’d be walking in a garden forever.”

Teenagers across the region are getting sweet invites to school dances thanks to a courting craze inspired, in part, by the film “Napoleon Dynamite.” In the popular movie, Pedro asks a girl out by baking a cake, embellishing it with a message and leaving it on her porch. Napoleon, a gangly nerd with few “skills,” draws an unattractive portrait of his chosen girl.

As homecoming and other dances near, cryptic messages appear on trees, tea lights sparkle in the street and store clerks get asked to hand out messages.

Tess Clowe, a health teacher at U-Hi, said kids recycle ideas, work with friends or get creative on their own – some holding elaborate scavenger hunts at malls.

“It’s so romantic and cool. It makes me wish I was 15 or 16 again,” Clowe said.

Ashley Clanton, a junior at U-Hi, said the craze is social. “It’s like what everybody does now. It brightens up your day and you have stories to tell.”

Central Valley High School’s Brittany Schuler said when school dances draw near, boys show up with flowers, posters and candy.

“It’s really big. Boys go crazy with it,” said Schuler, a junior.

Lisa Haley’s boyfriend hung a poster in CV’s hallway asking her to homecoming and stood underneath it holding flowers. For the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance, Haley plans to decorate pink helium balloons as pigs and stuff them into a box. When the box opens, the balloons will go airborne and her boyfriend will get a message saying, “I’ll ask you to Sadie Hawkins when pigs fly.”

Brandon Arnold, a senior at LC, wowed his date with dinner at a Chinese café. Afterward, she cracked into a fortune cookie and found a tiny invitation to homecoming.

“I talked to the waitress before. She was like, ‘That’s a good idea. I’ll be glad to do that,’ ” Arnold said.

Creative courting is nothing new. Teenagers belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have done it for years. Not coincidentally, the creators of “Napoleon Dynamite” were Brigham Young University students.

Garry Borders, president of the LDS Spokane Washington Stake and father of six grown children, said the church encourages teenagers to have wholesome fun.

“They need to learn how to treat a member of the opposite sex and be creative and be respectful,” Borders said, adding that the courting gestures break the ice for self-conscious teens.

Teens pick up ideas from church peers, sometimes competing among themselves for the most innovative plans. Some ideas are so good they make adults appear romantically challenged.

“Guys will hear about this and they’ll hear about that and they think, ‘What Can I do to really impress the girl?’ ” Borders said.

For high school students, some pranks become legends.

Ferris High School’s Tom Giardino dressed up as Batman to ask a girl named Robyn to tonight’s homecoming dance.

“I just thought it would be a great way to embarrass her, but I knew she would like it,” Giardino, a senior, joked.

At a Friday night Ferris football game, the entire student section went from a screaming standing mass to a sitting, silent gawking group. A costume-clad Giardino and two friends stood in the back of the section with posters saying: “Robyn, I think we’d make a good team” and “Homecoming? (heart) Batman.”

She enthusiastically agreed.

“When you ask a girl publicly, it’s always good to know the girl is going to say ‘yes,’ ” Giardino said.

After he and a potential date mutually backed out of a botched public proposal, Ferris High School’s Jace Mattinson, a senior, fine-tuned his approach.

Mattinson held a scavenger hunt where the girl, a Shadle Park High School student, found messages. One was hidden in a dirt concoction made of gummy worms, pudding and other junk. He asked her to Shadle’s homecoming. She said “yes.”

Jacob Schnibbe, a sophomore at U-Hi, asked a girl out by leaving a pink rose in each of her classes.

Roses, left on desks where she sits, were accompanied by one or two word notes, beginning with “Will you” … “go to”… “Homecoming” … “with me?” The last note said, “Meet me in the commons, I’ll be the one with the flowers.”

“She was pretty stunned, I guess. She was pretty happy. Everyone was talking to me in the hallway,” Schnibbe said.

Prompted by a friend with a head for romance, Drew Harper, an LC junior, filled a room with pink balloons, Hershey’s Kisses and a handmade poster.

“I loved it. It made me feel really special,” said Jill Cowden, a senior.

Christy Luby, a senior at LC, found the word “homecoming” mowed into her parents’ back lawn. Her boyfriend, Shane Hughes, who has a lawn mowing business, stood waiting with flowers.

“He was original,” Luby said. “It looked pretty cool. All the letters were symmetrical.”