High school days can be awful tough on us. I remember mine and some days were just plain painful. The awkwardness, the dances, talking to…. girls…. uggghhh… not easy. Fortunately, life can start moving at a quick pace, and trust me, before you know it, it really Does get better.
The homecoming is always a big deal and you have to work up the courage to ask a girl out to it. 17-year-old Daniel did just that. And she turned him down. But he kept his head up, and he asked another girl. And she turned him down as well. And all the girls he asked after that did the same thing… they turned him down.
Daniel was looking at going to that dance all by himself… and being alone. Daniel has Down Syndrome, and the girls he went to school with looked at him differently than they did other boys, and Daniel was certainly starting to feel the pain of that. But then, just as Daniel decided he was done trying to get a date, a 10th-grader showed up from out of the blue and asked Daniel if he would go to homecoming with her. Her name was Kylie. And when Daniel’s mom found out about Kylie asking her son to the dance, she burst into tears.
But there was something extra special about Kylie asking him to homecoming; she wasn’t doing it out of sympathy. She honestly WANTED to be with Daniel at the dance.
Says Daniel’s mom: “It’s not about that Daniel has a disability. It’s that Kylie didn’t SEE any disability. That is what your heart wants as a mom.”
So the big night came, and Daniel and Kylie quickly found out there was a special surprise in store for them. When the Fox 5 surprise squad learned about Kylie asking Daniel to the dance, they showed up to take the couple to the big event… in a Rolls Royce. Then, they took the couple to a fine restaurant and bought their dinners. And then, once they arrived at the school, the surprise squad rolled out a red carpet for the very surprised couple. As they walked toward the entrance on the red carpet, their classmates greeted them with cheers.
After dancing a little inside, the surprise squad had one more thing for the couple. A spokeswoman for the squad took a microphone and announced to the entire class that the squad was sending Daniel and his family and Kylie and her family… to Disneyland.
And If that wasn’t enough, a local car dealership presented Daniel with a $10,000 scholarship after he’s done with high school. And for Kylie? They took Kylie’s hand and walked her outside. And there, was her very own brand new Nissan Sentra, an absolutely beautiful car.
Needless to say, everyone was shocked… and thrilled. And it’s hard to imagine a better date for either one of them.
