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In the climactic scene of Never Been Kissed (1999), Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore) stands on the pitcher's mound of the baseball stadium of South Glen South High School, waiting anxiously for Sam Coulson (Michael Vartan) to step out of the bleachers and onto the field to give her the kiss she's been waiting for all her life. Whether Sam will actually appear is the big question. A high school English teacher, Sam has resisted acting on his romantic feelings for Josie, believing she is a seventeen-year-old high school student. Having finally discovered that she is a twenty-five-year-old Chicago Sun-Times reporter working undercover to do an exposé on sex and intrigue in high schools, Sam has withdrawn from Josie in anger, especially since he has also learned that the exposé was to have been on him and his relationship with her. To make amends and, she hopes, begin the romantic relationship that was impossible when Sam was her "teacher," Josie has written another kind of story for the Sun-Times, an apology in which she expresses regret for having hurt a "certain teacher" and also claims, "I think I am in love with you." Hoping Sam feels the same way, Josie concludes her story with a bold proposal. She will stand on the pitcher's mound for five minutes before the championship game of South Glen South High School's baseball team; if Sam accepts her apology, she asks him to join her before those five minutes are up to give her her first real kiss, thereby affirming his love.
That the...