Aaron walked slowly to Mary. She was bent over her work- more math. He pencil gracefully scratched numbers on the paper. He tapped her shoulder and she looked up. She smiled at him.

"What are you doing?" she asked. He raised an eyebrow at her and squeezed onto the chair along side her. She didn't push him away.

"You didn't think I'd forget your birthday, did you?" he replied. She looked back down at her work.

"I wouldn't run it past you..."

"Oh Mary, come on! Please don't be mad at me!" he pleaded. She looked at him skeptically.

"What did you do?" she asked. Aaron looked at her and immediately regained his cool, seeing that she obviously had no idea about his plan.

"Oh nothing-" she cut him off.

"Not nothing, spit it out!" Mary said, crossing her arms. She was tired of him having to apologize for messing stuff up, forgetting about meeting her, etc.

"Okay... Maybe I possibly forgot your birthday present in my car."

Mary sighed in relief. She thought he'd actually done something wrong.

"Aaron, you don't need to get me anything. Just spend time with me; I don't mind if you forgot," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. The bell rang, signaling the end of the day.

"Why don't you come to my car with me and find out what I got you?" Aaron asked quietly. She pursed her lips and looked him over.

"Aaron, you know I hate surprises, just tell me what it is," she said. He smiled nervously, but answered firmly, "No."

--

"Take your hands off my eyes; you're such a goof!" Mary said. Aaron let her wrestle his hands off her face as they reached his car. She opened the door and sat down. As she went to buckle up, she saw a glint of something sparkly in the back seat, hidden under a pile of sweatshirts.

"What is it? Come on, what's the big surprise?" she asked as Aaron sat down in the driver's seat. He just laughed and shook his head.

"I'm not telling you..." he said. Mary noticed that his voice wasn't the usual tone of "universally-cool-with-life" that he normally put on. It was sweet, and just... not Aaron.

As they drove in silence, Mary thought about where they could be going and what was the sparkly thing. She thought it might have been one of his watches. Mary knew that Aaron wasn't "classically" romantic, but he tried hard to impress her. He'd stopped skipping classes and he had good grades again. He had kept his promise.

"We're here," Aaron said. They were at the Youth Centre. Mary didn't know what was going on.

"Come on, out you get," he said as he opened her door for her. Mary was a little aghast at the gesture as the Aaron she was familiar with would never hav done something so simply sweet.

Aaron went into the back seat of his car and produced a necklace. Mary was shocked- the actual, real live romance she'd dreamed of was coming from a boy she had almst disagreed to date! Someone she had disliked for a long period of time!

"Thanks so much!" she said, hugging him. She put the necklace on.

"Wait, wait I'm not done yet!" Aaron said, fishing around in the back seat for something else. He finally produced a brown package tied with baker's twine. Mary took it and gently unwrapped it.

It contained none other than Aaron's favourite leather jacket. The one that Mary loved to steal and wear. The one that smelled not only like fresh, real leather, but Aaron.

"Oh no, I could never take it!" Mary said, turning to him. Aaron just smiled sheepishly.

"No, take it! See, I've got another one," he said, producing a similar coat from the pile of sweaters.

"Thank you," she said. Mary was so pleasantly surprised, somehting that she had thought to be next to impossible, that Aaron had planned all of this out just for her. She kissed him softly on the cheek.

Aaron's heart gave a slight tremble when her lips touched him. He really did care about her, even if he was an idiot sometimes.

"You're welcome. Now put your hair up in a high pontytail and put on my- sorry, your- coat," he said. Mary just looked at him, wondering what was up and did as she was told. He put on his new jacket ran a hand through his hair so it stood up a little to the side. He handed her a red lipstick he'd stolen from her bathroom last time he'd been over at her house.

"So that's where that went..." Mary sighed, smiling to herself. She played along with whatever his scheme was and put on the lipstick. She had on a pair of simple capris and a white T shirt. She noticed that he too was wearing a T and jeans.

"Okay, the jig's up, why are we at the Youth Centre?" asked Mary. Aaron turned back to her from playing with his hair.

"I'm not telling you. Now come on. Just trust me," he said. The way his voice sounded in that moment made Mary lose her usual skepticism. She was starting very slowly to succumb to Aaron's geniune sweetness towards her.

"Alright," she said, following him inside. He put a red wristband around her wrist and held up both their wrists for the lady behind the events desk. She nodded at them and smiled.

Mary was lead by a very exciting Aaron into a dimly lit room. There were streamers hanging from the ceiling and the music playing was some of Mary's favourite. All retro. There were other people, similarly dressed dancing a little ways away. It was suddenly dawning on her...

"It's a retro dance!" she cried, latching onto Aaron. He laughed, picked her up and swung her in a circle.

"Yeah. But it doesn't stop there," said Aaron.

He picked up her hands and they danced. They really danced. Classical, Dirty Dancing style, jive dance. He had stood her up accidentally when he forgot about the dance lessons he'd bought so he could jive with her. She had been talking about wanting to learn to jive for ages. Mary had never had a better birthday.