Student story: Just-right ratio (if you're a boy)

By David Weiner

Happily caught in a sweaty dancing sandwich, Chad Phillips, an Andover junior exuded pure confidence while enclosed by a couple of energetic blondes in booty shorts.

Slender is his 5’5” build, backwards is his ball-cap and magnetic is his attraction.

There are 139 students at the 2011 Flint Hill Publications Workshop -- 38 of which are boys and about 15 of whom were at the dance.

“I’m a ladies magnet; my hair attracts girls,” Phillips said as he lifted his sweat-stained hat to expose a matted-down heap of curls.

Trapped in the doldrums for nearly an hour, wind finally caught the sails of the party as large numbers of girls slowly filed in.

For Brandon Smith, a senior at Pittsburgh with a self-described “big and manly” appeal, the girl-to-guy ratio was just right.

“Girls like me because I’m a football player,” Smith said. “I also get girls with the sound of my truck.”

Although trucks weren’t allowed on the dance floor, Smith was able to “grind on a couple girls.”

For the few males at the late night shindig, getting girls to dance was a fairly easy task.

“Basically all of the ladies flocked to me,” William Reid, a senior at Salina Central, explained as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

Scoping out prospective guys with her head on a swivel, Katie Schneider, an Andover senior spotted her prey -- one of the “many hot guys from Salina Central.” Edging to the front of her chair, she was ready to pounce.

“Across the dance floor our eyes met,” Reid said. “We were destined to be dance partners.”

Wearing a muscle bearing tank top with a deep neck line -- for “chest breathe-ability” -- long socks with Sperry’s and a white trucker hat, Reid describes his style as “a mix between Usher and Jesus.” With that look, Schneider was hooked by Reid.

“The dance was really as much fun as you made it,” Schneider said.

David Weiner is a senior at Salina Central High School and a student in the advanced writing class.