If you made it through high school, you probably know how brave you must be to ask someone to dance wildly if you’ve never done it before and aren’t famous.

Dakota Nelton, a sophomore in high school from Gray, Louisiana, worked up the nerve to ask his friend to the homecoming dance at their school. Since he had never done so, the occasion was significant for him and called for a lot of courage.

She declined as it was. Just fine, no? She is free to. The fact that it occurred in front of their classmates, who laughed and made fun of Dakota for the rejection, is not okay. They damaged the homemade poster he had used to propose by stepping all over it, which made matters worse.

Dakota backed away from the students, desperately hoping for the ground to give way and swallow him whole. A situation from a child’s worst nightmare, he fled to a cacophony of laughter and jeers.

He recalled the difficult situation to WGNO New Orleans, saying, “It was a pretty tough moment standing in a small circle with that one shake of the head, and you just got to find your way out of that circle.”

When he thought things couldn’t possibly get worse, it turned out that the entire incident had been captured on camera. The video was posted to Facebook and received hundreds of views after that. People from all over the US could see Dakota being made fun of for merely attempting to have a date.

A few days later, Dakota showed up to the school, unaware that he would soon take part in an incident that would go down in history.

He was stopped by a group of at least 13 girls, each holding a placard as he moved along the corridor.

It turned out that the girls had come together to convince Dakota that he was deserving, loved, and had no need to doubt himself. They intended to invite him to join them!

Dakota added, smiling, “I felt like one of the popular kids in school, which I’m not.”

Check out the incredible video below:

What a wonderful act of kindness from these fantastic girls. Dakota, we want you to know that what you did requires a lot of courage; don’t let others making fun of you bring you down.

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