Imagine walking into the lobby and seeing six people there, five holding signs that spell out “Prom?” and at the end is a boy with flowers.

Prom proposals were never popular before the 2010’s. According to the Washington Post, the first public prom proposal was in the Dallas Morning News newspaper, in 2001. Prom proposals over the years became more popular.

Boys work hard and secretly plan out a proposal.

Senior Bailey Fontaine is planning on going to prom this year. He understands the stress and pressure.

“I think the pressure is making sure that what you do or the way you ask is good enough for that person that you ask,” said Fontaine.

Junior Kirsten Lebreux, who went to prom last year, feels that no one should be pressured into saying yes to a proposal.

“I don’t think that anyone should feel pressured into saying yes to a prom proposal, especially since most people ask their girlfriends/boyfriends or their good friends,” Lebreux.

Last year there was a contest that was put. The contest was to see who could come up with the most creative prom proposal. English teacher Jayne Sheltra found the idea a smart way to advertise prom.

“Somebody had seen it either at another school or online or something and there had been some of that done previously in biddeford but never as a contest, so when we were planning for prom we decided to do is sort of just advertise proms coming up and that tickets will be going up on sale,” said Sheltra.

But some types of proposals shocked Sheltra.

“I was surprised that there was a lot of prom proposals that also showed up with boys buying their potential date a gift with the asking,” said Sheltra. “I didn’t know you got a gift when you were asked to prom…and there was a lot of those.”

Most prom proposals vary between being thrown together and thought out.

“Some look like they were thrown together fairly quickly but other ones looked like they took a while, took a lot of planning, the gift, and how to do it, how to hollow out a softball, lots of kinda different things, so some, it varied,” said Sheltra.

Senior Briana Collard who attended prom last year, appreciates how her boyfriend, Jeff Thompson, asked her to prom.

“Yes I expected to be asked in a cute way because it really lives up to the moment and it’s so cute to know you’re expecting something,” said Collard.

Since prom is in May, the seniors have a lot of time to prepare. The tickets for prom go on sale in April since that is when the contest started last year.

”Yes I have put some thought into it, but there’s still some time so I need to work out the details,” said Fontaine.

Collard thinks that even tho everything was very stressful, everything at the end was worth it.

“It started out very stressful…” said Collard.  “But by the time I stepped into the building and saw how beautiful it was, I knew it was going to be a perfect night!”