Elijah Azul was excited for Prom. This was his chance to go out with his childhood crush, Hope Mason.

Hope reminded Elijah of a timid deer. It was clear she never recovered from the abuse she had endured under her foster parents. The poor girl would shake and shiver at any social interaction.

A few months ago, Elijah almost punched that horrible substitute teacher for picking on Hope in class. He would have loved to wrap Hope in cotton wool if he could.

"Why don't you ask Hope to prom?" asked Kai.

"I want to give her the perfect promposal," said Elijah. "Maybe I can watch you ask Skylor to prom."

It was a very cringe promposal. Kai kept telling lame pickup lines. "Someone call security, because my heart has been stolen.

"You are so beautiful, Barbie is jealous."

Finally, Kai gave up and just blurted out, "Want to be my prom date?"

Skylor looked annoyed. "Why didn't you just ask that instead of wasting ten minutes? Well, yes."

"Here's a tip," said Kai as he came to Elijah, his face the same colour as his clothes. "Whatever you do, don't do what I did."

"Like I was planning to," said Elijah. "Maybe I can ask Jay for advice."

"I placed a note on Nya's locker asking her," said Jay. "The school bully saw it and made fun of her. Though she did say yes."

"What?" asked Kai. "Tell me who did such a thing. I'm going to kill them!"

Kai stomped off, not to actually kill the bully, but at least teach them a lesson. Elijah decided to ask the other boys in class.

"Wait. There's a prom?" asked Valt.

"Rose asked me," said Shu. "She just asked me casually."

"Ariel wrote and performed a song for me," said Eric.

"I took Jasmine on a romantic picnic," said Aladdin.

"I took Rapunzel to a festival and asked her there," said Eugene. "She bought her prom dress there."

"I don't plan on bringing a date," said Rantaro.

"I don't do prom," said Morro.

"I am going stag," said Daigo.

"I'm not going to prom," said Ken.

Elijah thought about the few suggestions he received. But none of them sounded like anything Hope would like. She was very shy and had to be handled gently. But then Wakiya told him he asked Kairi by giving her a note in a basket of roses, which gave him an idea.

Elijah went to the florist and bought a flower basket. Hope loved flowers, so it seemed right for her.

When Elijah found Hope, she was sitting all alone in the park, looking sad. He went up to her.

"You okay?" he asked.

Hope turned around, looking surprised. "Elijah?"

Elijah was worried. What was wrong with Hope? "I noticed you were sad. Why is that?"

Hope looked down. "It's... Complicated."

Elijah decided maybe it wasn't a good time to ask Hope to prom. "I was going to ask you something, but maybe this isn't a good time."

Hope looked hesitant for a bit, but then she started to talk. "It's just... I feel like something is wrong with me. I'm just so shy and timid. It's like something is wrong with me."

Elijah felt his heart break for Hope. "Hope... Nothing is wrong with you."

"Why?" asked Hope.

Elijah quickly gave Hope a gentle hug.

"Because... You suffered terrible abuse and came out stronger. It makes me sad to see the girl I once knew disappear. But this is you now. And I'm fine with that."

"Really?" asked Hope.

"Yes," said Elijah.

Hope smiled a little. "So... What were you going to ask me?"

Elijah decided it was now time. "Here," he said as he gave Hope the basket of flowers.

It went exactly like Elijah had hoped. Hope found the note in the flowers and said yes. Elijah smiled as he hugged her.