Counties may be a dance that first enters a girls mind their freshman year, but this certainly doesn’t curb the hype about the dance in the very first days of every grade’s junior year. Junior girls are beginning to feel the pressures of finding a date as many people join in on the excitement.

Counties has been the greater part of many conversations among junior girls for the past couple of days, and a number of people have already found their dates. As Alexis Texiera ’13 pointed out, “I think people forget it’s in January.” It seems that as soon as the first couple was revealed, a frenzy of asking and reserving boys began.

Mary Courtney ’13 was one of the first girls with a date, and it looks as if she was able to dodge the panic that some people are feeling. “I wasn’t that concerned about other girls asking, I was just excited about asking someone,” she said.

She says she settled on a date right at the beginning of school, and didn’t waste any time asking. “I decided to ask earlier because I knew I wanted to go with him and I wasn’t really looking to ask anyone else anyway.” She says she’s happy about resolving to act early.

Texiera decided to “pre-ask” her date because she knew other people were thinking about asking the same boy. “Now I just have to figure out a clever way to ask him,” she said.

This reserving of dates seems to be a popular occurrence this year as the usual ways of asking have not been used. Many people agree that they will make sure they have a date and then go through with asking in a “cute” way.

“Now I’m relieved because the rest of my friends are still freaking out so I just get to sit back and watch them,” Texiera said.

Although many juniors have given their first high school dance some thought, there still remain many people without dates. Catherine Lane ’13 feels that it’s “crazy” that people have their dates within the first week of school. “I hadn’t really thought about whom I wanted to take until everyone was asking,” she said.

Indeed, the pre-Counties hype is four months early, but that doesn’t seem to end the anxiety. Lane sympathizes with other girls in her position. “I know I am not alone when I say this, but wow, it feels like Counties is coming much faster,” said Lane.