Missed connections

In Sixteen Candles, Sam Baker is totally crushing on cutie Jake Ryan, but he barely knows she exists (or so she thinks). In reality, Jake is chasing after Sam throughout the dance and into the rest of the night, but they completely miss each other and Sam spends her night being unsuccessfully wooed by a pushy geek. Yikes! We’re hoping your Prince Charming has no trouble finding you come dance night.

Food fights

This movie packs a double-whammy! In Never Been Kissed, Josie is asked to prom by total hottie Billy Prince. But when he comes to pick her up, he reveals he asked her as a joke, then pelts Josie with eggs alongside his real date. Josie gets a chance at school-dance redemption when working undercover for the newspaper, but it still doesn’t go so great. Mean girls almost pour dog food all over Josie’s friend as an act of revenge, but she steps in and pours it all over the mean girls instead. We’re hoping you have an easier time avoiding food meltdowns during your big event. 

Lousy bets…with lame dudes

In She’s All That, Dean bets Zack that Zack cannot get a girl to be prom queen within six weeks. Dean says Zack must go with Laney, an independent and feisty art student. While trying to win the bet, both Zack and Dean end up developing feelings for Laney, but Dean is a pig and tries to make advances on her. Hopefully your story has a lucky ending like this one. (Spoiler alert!) Laney makes it out of Dean’s hotel room and ends up with Zack in the end.

A paid gig

In the classic 10 Things I Hate About You, bad boy Patrick is getting paid to win over—and date—bitter older sister Kat so that shy-guy Cameron can date younger sister Bianca. It’s complicated, we know, but not as messy as when Kat finds out the guy she’s slowly been falling for was only with her for some extra dough! In the end, everything works out because Patrick and Kat realize they have genuine feelings for each other. But talk about a total night-ruiner—finding out at the dance that your date was paid to be there? Ugh.

An MIA date

You’ve worked for months to grab the attention of the cutie from math class, and you were pretty sure you succeeded. He agreed to be your date, so you’re in for a night of fun, right? Well, maybe not so much. In Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon crafts a drawing of the girl he’s crushing on. She agrees to go to the dance with him only because her mom makes her…then promptly ditches Napoleon to (ouch!) dance with her buds. Word to the wise, ladies: If you say yes to going with a guy, at least have some respect and spend some of your night with him. And if a dude ditches you on the dance floor? His loss!

An unexpected crush

If you’ve got a BGF, you’re probably thinking the friendship is totally platonic. But careful, because he may just be crushing on ya. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hermione is thrilled to have been asked to the Yule Ball by one of the most in-demand guys visiting Hogwarts. But her night quickly becomes a bust when Ron, realizing he has feelings for Hermione, mocks her and her date. Poor Hermione leaves the dance shouting, “You’ve ruined everything!” We’re hoping your BGF has more common sense than that.