One future Terp may have landed a Washington Redskins cheerleader as his high school prom date

When Old Mill High School senior Stephen Bieber saw that many of his friends had started securing prom dates, he realized he needed to get into gear and find one, too. But whom would he take?

The 17-year-old Terp-to-be (he’s still deciding whether to come to the University of Maryland, his “dream college,” right after graduating or after a stint at Anne Arundel Community College) recently had to face that crucial decision, as many high schoolers do.

While in the midst of his search, Bieber read an article about a high schooler who persuaded a Houston Texans cheerleader to attend prom with him, a feat that earned him national attention. That story inspired him to throw up a Hail Mary of his own.

“I just thought to myself, ‘Why can’t I at least try to get a cheerleader?'” he said. “So I took to Instagram and found Christa.”

The Christa whom Bieber is referring to is Christa Aiken, a Potomac native, a Terps fan herself (her mother graduated from the school, and she grew up watching the 2002 Terrapins men’s basketball national champions) and, most importantly, a cheerleader for the Washington Redskins for the past four years.

While Bieber is a Jets supporter, he knew his best shot at pulling off the improbable would be if his prospective date were a part of a local team. So on March 23, he made his move on Aiken.

“100% serious, how many retweets I gotta get on Twitter for you to go to prom with me?” he wrote on one of Aiken’s Instagram pictures. “10,000 enough?” After that, he waited.

“It took a day, but when I checked my phone after work, I saw her response,” he said, “and honestly was stunned that she responded.”

Luckily for him, Aiken said she does her best to reply to anyone who comments on her photos, so she saw Bieber’s comment and wrote back, “At least 10K!!” Aside from that, though, she didn’t make much of the exchange.

“I didn’t give too much thought to the prom request, since it was mid-March and prom is usually in May,” she said.

That’s all the approval Bieber needed, however. Now it was his turn to start a vigorous online campaign, one that would rely on thousands of strangers to give him a hand.

He immediately posted a tweet with his and Aiken’s conversation alongside a picture of her in her uniform and asked the platform’s users to “HELP A BROTHER OUT.” Within two days, he surpassed 1,000 retweets, but a deadline imposed by Aiken started to make him worry about reaching his goal despite the impressive start.

“She DM’d me and said I needed to get the 10,000 by Friday, April 1,” he said. “I thought that there was no way in hell I would get that. I was tempted to ask if she could extend the deadline a week or two. But I didn’t want to seem like a wuss, so I just started spamming every popular Twitter page.”

Bieber’s increased effort paid off.

During the weekend, he received an additional 7,000 retweets, thanks in part to NFL players such as Terrance Knighton and Antonio Cromartie copying the message onto their own timelines. All the while, Aiken monitored Bieber’s progress and called the popularity of the tweet “flattering.”

“I knew he was going to his 10,000 when I saw how much he was getting the word out,” she said. “I really admire the effort he put into it and the willingness to even ask and just go for it.”

Then on Monday, just five days after reaching out to Aiken, the tweet crossed the threshold. Bieber’s Hail Mary was caught.

“When I first told my mom my plan, she told me there was no way it would happen and to be more realistic,” he said. “My friends are in complete disbelief. I’m on top of the world.”

But will the deal be completed? Will Bieber, who has two free tickets for the event that’s being held May 21 in the Baltimore Inner Harbor, be capping off his senior year with an NFL cheerleader by his side mere months after setting out to do so?

“I guess you will just have to stay tuned,” Aiken said.