From Dateless High School Nice Guy to Confident Male in 5 Simple Steps

12:42 PM. You're sitting in your fifth-period Spanish class, as La Maestra busily scratches today's homework assignment onto the upper-left-hand side of a dark green chalkboard, half-whittled-down piece of chalk in one long-nailed hand. On the other, you see a wedding ring. And you sigh.

12:44 PM. As you wait for class to get out, you ward off the temptation to sleep, by engaging in some people-watching. As you look around, the same old story plays itself out right in front of your eyes: Cocky alpha-males smirking and picking on the pretty girls, teasing them, throwing things at them, and generally giving the girls a hard time. And the girls continue to flock to these guys, daily. Their names are the ones called out by las chicas in the middle of class for some idle small-talk. Your name is never called.

12:45 PM. The bell rings, and a minor stampede occurs as 35 starving teenagers shake the floor on the way out to get some of the infamous lunch-lady gourmet for the fourth day this week. What ends up happening come lunch time is the same old story - girls flock to the cocky smart-asses. They don't flock to you.

Actually, let me backtrack. There ARE girls who talk to you during lunch... Conversation usually consists of a "Hey, how's it going?" "Good, how are you?" "Not bad." and other similar talk.

There's a girl you really like, and conversation with her goes very similarly. You're too nervous around her to ask her out, afraid she will fly into a screaming rage, or make fun of you, or just that conversation, what little of it there already is, will become awkward. Yet you know she's in high demand, with the "jerks" and the cocky males all wanting to get with her. You resent them for it, yet you still won't ask her out. You hope that by hanging around her and being her friend, and listening when she tells you her problems, she will eventually see what a great guy you are, and somehow, the two of you will end up dating, then marrying and living happily ever after.