Isabella Romero-Ellis, 10

“I was supposed to go on a date with my boyfriend…our one-month anniversary dinner. I’m getting ready and when I’m about to leave, he calls and asks ‘Is it okay if I invite two of my best friends and we do a huge cookout? I was shocked, but I said yes anyway.” 

Gabriella Monteiro, 11

“I had been talking to this guy for over a month on the phone and I was grounded at the time so I had to make an excuse to my parents that I was going to be tutored for math class by one of my friends. So we were meeting up at the library, it was awkward because he stood there and ended up actually tutoring me for my math instead of us going on a date. We were supposed to meet up at the library and just leave but I guess he thought we were actually going in, so we sat inside and he helped me with stuff for my class.”

Football Coach Thomas Caporale 

“A couple years ago I met someone through a friend. I went to pick her up and I had to wait an hour downstairs and she told me to come up and wait in her apartment. When I got there, I had to wait another 45 minutes. An hour and a half later we finally left to go to dinner, but on the way there she had to stop at CVS and her hair salon. Then we got there and I had to change the reservation three times and grease the guy $50 to get us a table. When we sat down, she ordered lobster, king crab legs and some expensive Surf-N-Turf. I don’t eat seafood and I told her that, but she ordered for me so I had to get something else. Then she basically didn’t eat any of it and didn’t want to take it home. Later I had planned for us to go on a night boat tour, we got there and she said she didn’t want to do it anymore, but she wanted to go to the beach. Afterwards, she asked me to drop her off at her friend’s house and after everything I was like ‘What just happened?’ The next day, she told me she had an amazing time and wanted a second date. I did not.”

English Teacher Joann Vilella-Howell

“There was this gentleman, he went to a different school while I was in college. He was the cutest thing since cheeseburgers. He came from his school to visit me and I was so excited. We went to eat at this neighboring diner, we had a couple things in common so we had a nice conversation. Dinner ends and we’re about to walk out. He’s walking in front of me and the waiter runs after us. I turn around immediately to look at the waiter and the waiter throws something at us. It doesn’t hit me, but I’m still confused so I duck and realize he’s throwing change. So I have frowns, thunderclouds about to go down: ‘Why are you throwing change at us?’ and then it filters through my mind what the man is saying: ‘Thank you for your tip!’ I didn’t pay for the meal so I look at my date who’s acting normal. This isn’t normal for me, men don’t normally take me out and have other men chase me throwing coins.

Science teacher Lolithia Otero

“I was in my early 20s bartending at a restaurant and one of the waiters asked me out and I said yes even though I really wasn’t interested. As soon as I got in his car I knew this wasn’t going far so I looked at him and laughed… I couldn’t help it. I picked up his CD book and the first CD was ‘BackStreet Boys’ and I immediately knew this wasn’t going to work and then I laughed at him some more. It was basically downhill from there. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and went for a walk on the beach where we ran into some of my friends. I was so thankful to see my friends because I was finally rescued from this horrible date. The next day we both agreed it was the worst date we’d ever been on but we agreed to be friends and he ended up being one of my best friends and was the best man at my wedding.”

English Teacher Deborah Anderson

“An older gentleman invited me out and said he was going to take me to dinner and picked me up. Things seemed to be going well. We went to the restaurant and he said ‘Oh my! I forgot my wallet’ so we had to turn around. He asked me to go back with him to his place. Red flag went up with that one, but I went with him. Sure enough, he had his wallet there but then the restaurant had now canceled our reservations and he decided he would attempt to cook something. He burnt everything and then we ordered pizza, pizza just didn’t get there and it was a bad date all around.”

Mental Health Counselor Amanda Cohen

“I was on a date with a guy at a restaurant and he was saying that women should never make more money than a man and that if a woman is making more money than a man they are just trying to compensate for the fact that they are lacking a man in their life. Then I asked, `What if you are with someone who doesn’t want to be a stay-at-home mom?’ He replied ‘No they don’t have to be a stay-at-home mom, they could work by feeding the homeless or working at an animal shelter.’ But when I asked about someone who has a career he said ‘ No they shouldn’t have a career because women aren’t supposed to have a career.’ There was no second date.”