Jacqui, I'm sure it happens a lot. But said girl could ditch that boy and get another one any day. The sad fact there is that they don't realise they're the ones who could be in control, just because they're not used to the idea.

But try being a lad whose contact with girls is a string of "you gotta be kidding?! go out with you?!" reactions, especially when the source of that is likely because you're at the bottom of the male pecking (or punching-and-kicking) order. And even that puts you in the minority of being a lad who'd have the guts to ask a girl out - all too many have such low confidence that they wouldn't dare to think of it.

I guess the bottom line is that for a lot of kids, adolescence is the worst time of their lives, not just with the opposite sex but also with bullying from the same sex. The best you can do is survive it and spend the next 5-10 years healing.

Graham.