On April 19, senior assassin kicked off with a bang. My partner Madeline Murphy and I were ready for action.

The goal of the game is to either last the longest without being “killed” or have the most “kills.” Pairs are given a set of silly string to attack weekly targets. If a pair does not “kill” one of their targets within three days, they are put on a bounty list where anyone can “kill” them. If one of the partners is killed, the whole pair is out. No “kills” could be taken on school property, while at school events, or as students are at work. Each pair had to pay $20 and pick up their silly string from organizers Lydia Nolin and Tarek Elsabbagh prior to the start of the game.

On Thursday, May 26, we had a winner. Vivi Vergara and Hannah Parker took the win from Justin Chong and Hunter Long.

Hannah said, “The key was definitely to never let your guard down! It got to the point where every day I would carry my string uncapped at all times and check my car for trackers every time I got into it. Any time Vivi and I hung out with friends, we did it on school property, like the tennis courts, so we were safe. The reward was split, so Vivi and I ended up with around $260 each. We knew from the beginning that we didn’t really care about the money–we just wanted to win, honestly.”

Justin said, “There was an elaborate set up. We underestimated Hannah and Vivi because we thought they weren’t after us. [I was told] that Hannah and Vivi go to the Willow Grove YMCA to work out at 6. I walked in and saw someone in the hallway and walked towards them since they looked like a man. They whipped out silly string and shot me. Vivi took off her mask and disguise and I was in shock.”

Even with Hunter and Justin’s loss, they still enjoyed participating in assassin and made it far in the game. “Our favorite part of the game was getting kills. It was so invigorating and gave me such an adrenaline rush,” Justin said.

I was hesitant to sign up because of the nature of the game. In years prior, I have heard crazy stories of students getting up at ungodly hours in the morning or climbing through windows to their house to prevent being “killed.” 

This year, Abigail Keegan said, “We found out that our target works at the movie theater, so we called and pretended to be his mom and asked if he got to work. We found out where another target worked from one of her Tik Toks and used the timestamp on that to get her.”

After some deliberation, I felt that it was time that I participate in a class-wide activity. Since this is my final year of high school, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone.

The day after Madeline and I were given our targets, we soon discovered who was targeting us through word of mouth. We devised a plan to try to best avoid them when going to school in the morning and returning home. In the mornings, we decided to wait in our cars earlier than when we expected our assassins to arrive at our houses to ensure that we were safe. At 5:30 in the morning, she and I were stationed in our vehicles. 

About an hour later, one assassin had arrived at my house then quickly drove away once I had made eye contact with him from my car. His partner had gone to Madeline’s house and had attempted to get into the bed of her truck.

Madeline said, “He kept trying to figure out how to get up into the truck and decided to just hide behind it. I turned it on and then saw him run to the side of my mom’s car, and he didn’t realize it was me who was driving the truck. I had to yell to him that I was in the truck and tell him I was leaving so he wasn’t late to school that day.”

The day before, we had tried to get our targets out, but had difficulty tracking them down. After waiting at their house for an hour, our target had not come home. We figured it was best to head home and make a plan, but our time was limited.

The following day, we were eliminated after our assassins caught her entering her home during her early release period.

While Madeline and I got out earlier than we had hoped, we ultimately had such a fun time participating in senior assassin. I was able to work with one of my best friends and be a part of an experience with classmates that we would never have the opportunity to have again.

“We thought it would be a fun senior tradition. It was fun to have the thrill of planning out a strategy to prevent getting killed,” Madeline said.