OC HIGH : STUDENT NEWS & VIEWS : Dating Disasters : Some nights will live in infamy, and the horrible homecoming can formally be called a failure.

Dating disasters come in all styles, but the derailed homecoming date has its own special twists.

For many students, their school’s fall homecoming dance is eagerly anticipated. Dates are arranged, everybody dresses up, friends meet and whisk away--sometimes in limousines--for an elegant dinner and then off to dance the night away. Later, it’s on to the house of someone in the group where the whole crowd stays up all night socializing.

The homecoming dance is always a blast . . . or is it?

One high school senior, recalling his junior homecoming, said the dance was on his Top 10 list of things he wished he had never done.

“Everything was seeming to go fine. Dinner was great, and then we got in the car to go to the dance. Little did I know that my girlfriend of two months was about to break up with me. Everything went downhill from there.”

Santa Margarita High School senior Erin Avalos tops that with her junior homecoming story. Her date told her he would pick her up at 5 p.m. at the bus stop near her house. As if that weren’t bad enough--standing on the side of the road in a fancy dress and heels--her date didn’t show until 7.

By then they had missed their dinner reservations and had to go straight to the dance. Avalos left the dance a few hours later with a friend, showing her date how it felt to have a homecoming nightmare.

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Santa Margarita senior John Bamford got suspended on the night of his junior homecoming. Talk about ruining an evening.

“I was having a great time. We went to dinner and then came to the dance. We stayed until the very last dance because we were having so much fun. We then decided to go to the beach.

“Well, on the way out to the car, we spotted an opportunity we couldn’t let slip by. The bell tower on our campus usually has a locked door, denying access for students. But that night it was open. We all ran in and climbed the stairs to the top.

“In the excitement of everything, we rang the bell several times, not even stopping to think we could get in trouble. Well, seconds later the dean was at the bottom telling us to come down, because he was ready to escort us to the office. He notified us of our (impending) three-day suspension, and then told us to have a fun after we left. Yeah, right! It sort of put a damper on the rest of the evening, knowing my parents were going to kill me.”

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Erin Emmons’ nightmare was the first semiformal dance she attended at Santa Margarita High School.

“I can remember every detail about my sophomore homecoming dance. It was so terrible. My date showed up an hour late to pick me up. I was frantic, not knowing if he was even going to come. At this point I thought the worst of my fears were over. Not even close. He decided that we didn’t need to have dinner, so we went straight to the dance.

“At the dance, I had to beg him to take pictures with me. With that out of the way, I thought we were ready to have some fun. But no! He wanted to leave right then. I couldn’t believe it. We had barely walked in the front door to dance.

“We ended up leaving for a party before I even got to say hello to my friends. Once at the party, he was asking everyone else to take me home instead of just taking me home himself. I ended up going home with (the date of) one of my friend’s, and I got home two hours before my curfew. I avoided my homecoming date for the rest of the year. How much worse than that can you get?”

Another girl spoke of her junior homecoming dance with much regret, wishing she had not been asked.

“First of all, I was asked by a guy who’s last name I didn’t even know. He sat next to me in Spanish (class), and I was aware that he was a nice guy with no friends. When he asked me to homecoming, I was so shocked that I couldn’t think of a quick way to get out of it. Besides, I felt sort of bad, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

“The few weeks before the dance he would call me three or four times a day, for no particular reason. It was a complete drag because I had to (begin to) screen my calls through my sister. He must’ve thought I was out quite a bit on school nights.

“The night of the dance he picked me up by himself. We went to dinner together, by ourselves, with no other couples. This simply doesn’t happen--but of course it happened to me. When we finally arrived at our school, I thought I could go off with my friends. I had forgotten that they would all be dancing, and I couldn’t because of my broken leg. I was stuck at a table talking to my date, whom I barely knew, for three hours. The minutes dragged on forever. I’ve never wanted to go home so badly in my life before.”

Sometimes the homecoming dance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But isn’t it funny how everyone can clearly remember the worst dance they went to? The night can be adventurous--even when it’s not fun.