"Prom?"

In the middle of getting through a yearbook deadline, Mariah Linnett received a text message from her boyfriend, Donovan Lowkeen. Come outside, it read. She did and stood in silence as he began to strum his acoustic guitar and sing "When We Say" by Aj Rafael. 

He blushed, turning a slight shade of pink, as he struck the wrong chord in the darkness but played on. After he had finished his version of the song, Lowkeen flipped his guitar over, where he had put a sign: "PROM?"

"Of course," Linnett answered and sealed it with a kiss.   

Redondo Union High will hold its Masquerade Prom on Saturday at Santa Anita Park and there has been a rush of anxiety and hopes of being asked to the dance. This is the time when guys can stand out with their unique schemes to ask a girl to the prom. The right approach can melt a girl's heart.

There are a thousand ideas on how best to ask that special girl to prom and a million missed opportunities where a guy chickened out at the last second.

Though Lowkeen did not have the courage to sing to his girlfriend during school hours, he was able to fulfill her love for acoustic music and romance.

"I'm proud of the guys and girls who are gutsy enough to put their heart out there in front of everyone," Lowkeen said. "I missed a chord, but you just have to carry on and hope she doesn't notice, because it's the thought that counts more than anything."  

Most high school guys go for a more straightforward approach: a clean shirt, a couple of flowers picked from the garden closest to the school and a simple sign. "Will you go to prom with me?" Some may even go through such lengths as to iron their shirt that day.

Ryan Greenberg was more spontaneous.

During an around-town Easter egg hunt, Greenberg and Nicole Olson stumbled upon one last egg. Greenberg stowed it away and later, after they had grabbed some food and settled down at the park off of Avenue I, he quickly scribbled out a message and stuffed it into the egg.

He hid it directly behind her when she was looking the other way and when she found it, she discovered a note inside.

"The little ripped piece of paper read, 'Prom?' and it was the best egg I found all day," Olson said.

"It was a spur of the moment kind of thing,'' Greenberg said. ''I knew I had to ask her, and I hadn't really given it much thought until that very moment."

As the sun set and they enjoyed their picnic, they looked forward to more good times at prom this weekend.