A group of students gathered around the quad steps during lunch in anticipation on May 13. Suddenly, senior David Mandell stepped out from behind a bush and pointed at senior Mikaela Burton while maintaining direct eye contact, singing: “You’re just too good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of you.” Executing a flawless dance move, he continued, “Hit it!”
“1, 2, 3, 4!” answered a voice, fellow senior Jason Schiuan. Marching to the top of the quad steps, 50 members of the marching band entered and accompanied Mandell’s singing with a loud fanfare as he executed his plan to ask Burton to the May 21 senior prom.
Mandell continued to sing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You,” a song by Frankie Valli. Senior Jay Lee, dressed in a convincing police officer uniform, ran toward Mandell, jokingly scolding Mandell for “disturbing the peace,” as a police officer did in the 1999 movie “10 Things I Hate About You.”
Mandell gained laughter from the captivated audience with his feigned surprise and continued to sing. In the end, Burton and Mandell shared a hug, and Mandell announced triumphantly, “She said yes!” to which the audience replied with booming cheers, whistles and a resounding, “Aww!”
“I thought it was really sweet,” Burton said. “I’m obsessed with that movie … I had no idea [the prom proposal] was going to happen and it caught me totally off-guard, and I thought it was so neat how he got almost the whole band involved.”
“I saw the movie when I was really young,” Mandell said. “I thought about how cool it would be if I could do that when I was older. I’ve always wanted to do this. I am just happy I was able to do this for her.”
A lot of planning and plenty of organization was required to make this elaborate plan a success. Mandell, with band director Seth Jones, asked various band periods to help with the prom asking. Any band students who wished to participate were allowed to, but needed to attend a practice session during the tutorial on May 13.
“I want to give a shout-out to all the band people who helped,” Mandell said. “It was great, so thank you to them.”
Mandell then concocted a plan with Burton’s friends, in which they kept her away until he was ready. Burton said that her friends were all privy to Mandell’s plan and hid her in the Little Theater before dragging her outside for the spectacle.
“At first I was kind of annoyed because it was so hot inside,” Burton recalls with a laugh. “Then they somehow took me back outside and I was like ‘oh my god’ because then I knew [what was happening] when I heard my name.”
Despite all the preparation, Mandell said that he still had pre-proposal nerves.
“Was I nervous? Yes,” Mandell said. “I wasn’t nervous about whether or not she’d say yes—I assumed she’d say yes. I’d probably be upset if she said no, but it was a little nerve-wracking to make sure it went smoothly.”
