REDDING, CA – HARBOR HIGH – APR.9th, 2002 – TUESDAY

     “You can’t be asking me this.” Ashley said seriously.

     “What? What do you mean?” Kirstin frowned. She was still knelt down.

     “You can’t be asking to marry me.” Ashley said again and helped Kirstin to stand up.

     “But I am. I am asking you to marry me. That’s what I want.” Kirstin stared at him.

     “But you can’t.”

     “Why not?” Kirstin could not understand Ashley’s reaction “You…” suddenly tears started to form on Kirstin’s eyes “You don’t wanna marry me.” Kirstin affirmed, turned around and started to leave.

     “No, no, no.” Ashley held her wrist, not letting her go “That’s not it.” he turned her around so he could face her.

     “Then what is it, Ash? You can tell me the truth. I can handle it.” Kirstin’s eyes were watery, but she didn’t want to let her tears fall. If Ashley didn’t wanna marry her, she’d have to accept the fact that he wasn’t ready yet.

     “It’s just that… You don’t have a ring.”

     “What?” Kirstin frowned, obviously confused.

     “You don’t have a ring. But I do. So I should be the one proposing.”

     “What?” Kirstin was really confused. She got even more confused when she saw Ashley take a small blue velvet box out from his pocket.

     “Kirstin.” Ashley started “I’ve been carrying this ring around every since I bought it, waiting for the right opportunity to ask you this and I guess this is it.” he took a deep breath and continued “I had this whole proposal prepared for you, but after hearing yours, I noticed that what I wrote didn’t matter, because it was practically the same as yours. What we have to say to each other is practically the same. And I can’t even tell you how happy I am that we are feeling exactly the same at this point in our relationship. You are the one I know I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with. You are the one I’m always running to and the one I want more than life itself. I love being there for you and I love knowing that you know I’m there for you. And I only have God to thank for putting you in my life. I don’t know where and what I’d be doing without you, because I really can’t see a reason for my life other than you. So…” Ashley knelt down and opened the small velvet blue box. Now the tears were flooding Kirstin’s face “Kirstin Addams, will you marry me?”

     “Yes.” it took a while for Kirstin to recover from the shock and to reply, but as soon as she did, Ashley looked deeply into her eyes and placed the ring on her finger “Yes!” Kirstin exclaimed when Ashley stood up and hugged her tight. He pulled back and kissed her passionately on the lips.

     “I love you.” Ashley whispered in Kirstin’s ear after they separated from the kiss.

     “I love you, too.” Kirstin also whispered in his ear “But you were wrong.”

     “What?” Ashley backed away a little and looked into her eyes “About what?”

     “I do have a ring.”

     “What?” Ashley asked with a smile “You do not.”

     “I do too! It’s not as perfect as this one.” she rubbed her amazing engagement ring. The ring was beautiful, delicate, and breathtaking. In one simple word, it was perfect. It was made from platinum and there were three diamonds perched exquisitely on the top of the ring. The middle piece was round, extended on each side, was a leaf-like diamond making it look like a flower. The ring was every woman's dream, not huge, yet big enough, and when placed on her finger it would look positively royal. It was strong, the perfect ring to symbolize his love for her, it will never tarnish, never break, and will always be with her “And my ring is not exactly an engagement ring. But it’s a ring nonetheless.”

     “Oh, yeah?” Ashley still had the smile on.

     “Yeah.” Kirstin took the ring out of her pocket.

     “Oh…” Ashley smiled big when he saw the ring. It was gold and it had a ruby squared stone in it. At one side, it read ‘Harbor High’ and at the other, ‘Class of 1999’ “It’s our class ring!”

     “Yes. Well… you said you loved our class ring. I thought it was strange at first, but I was having this idea of proposing to you for a while now and when you told me you loved our class ring, I had my mom searching for mine and when she found it, that’s when I started to plan this proposal right. I had to have a ring to propose, so…”

     “I can’t believe you’ve put so much thought into proposing to me. I feel so… girly right now.” Ashley’s comment made Kirstin laugh.

     “Why?”

     “I don’t know. I just always thought of me asking you to marry me, not the other way around. And then you proposed and it felt so incredibly good, and then I thought, Oh my God, I feel so good. But I wasn’t supposed to feel this way. You are the one supposed to feel this good. The girl should always feel good.”

     “Nah, that’s just not right. Why should I be the only one feeling good?” Kirstin asked “Besides, I felt awesome asking you to marry me.”

     “I did too.” Ashley agreed “I felt great both times, hearing your proposal and proposing.”

     “See? This is the best proposal ever. We both felt the two sides of the story.” Kirstin smiled kindly at him “But, the ring!” Kirstin showed him the ring.

     “Oh, right.” Ashley showed his hand out to Kirstin.

     “Ashley Ward Parker Angel, will you marry me?” Kirstin asked him.

     “Yes.” Ashley smiled and Kirstin placed the ring on his pinkie.

     “I think that’s the only finger it will fit, so…” Kirstin informed.

     “That’s alright. It’s perfect. I love it.” Ashley wrapped his arms on Kirstin’s waist and Kirstin wrapped hers on his neck “Thank you.” he pecked her lips kindly.

     “Thank you, Ash. There is no one else in this world I would propose to.” Kirstin smiled big into his eyes.

     “And there is no one else in this world I would propose to, either.”

     They kissed passionately in the middle of the basketball court.