In movies, winning prom king and queen is a highly romanticized event.It is a once in a lifetime award given to two lucky high school seniors. To AJ Raponi and Shelby Hopper, winning prom king and queen was a complete shock, even the nomination floored them.

“I never really thought that we would be nominated for prom royalty and just being nominated was so cool,” Hopper says.

The nomination process, as explained by Junior Kati Gloss is as follows: “We have nominations two weeks before prom, so we have a table in the cafeteria that the juniors who plan prom sit at and any upperclassmen that go to prom can write a nomination for a friend or anyone.”

Then Stugo counts all the nominations and the top three get presented at the Prom assembly. They are voted on, tallied, and announced at the dance.

When the pair was nominated, winning never crossed their mind.

“I never ever would have thought that I would be the prom king,” says Raponi.

Hopper agrees, “I really never thought I would be the prom queen, even when we were nominated I honestly didn’t think we were going to win.”

At the dance, the three couples up for the title were set on stage, and a hushed tone fell upon the crowd as the winner was announced.

Both Raponi and Hopper agreed that winning this prestigious title was one of the most exciting moments in their high school career.  

“I was so excited, I just started smiling right when we won,” Raponi says.

Hopper claims, “it was just such a cool experience.

For this lucky couple, the fairytale-like dream of winning prom king and queen came true, dancing their first dance as prom king and queen to “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey, making a lifelong memory that they will hopefully keep with them for years to come.