Upon return home from the Senior Rafting Trip, I received a Facebook notification on August 25th asking me to join the page “Assassins of Country Day.” Curious and intrigued, I immediately accepted the invitation, where I was united with about forty of my classmates. The first post I saw was written by Jordan Rosendorf, known on facebook as TheSeven Rosendwarves, who announced, “For the first game, it will be the 41 members who are currently in this group (I will not be participating as I am Gamemaster). I will message you all your targets before school starts. The game begins after advisory, may the odds be ever in your favor.” Minutes later a message box popped up from TheSeven Rosendwarves explaining to me that my first target was Ryan Macdonell. It then dawned on me that I had no idea how to play the game, Assassins, (I only knew you were safe if you covered your neck with your hand) since I had not participated on the class trip. I was unaware about the game until the last day when Terry Graham, also known as Terry Aki, lunged away from me as I approached him. After gaining his trust he explained to me that Shalini Chandar suggested playing the game, and even asked the brave Mrs. Aronson to be “gamekeeper” for the first round; the “gamekeeper” is the person who assigns targets and receives the inside scoop on who has been killed. Interest in the game over the course of three days grew exponentially, thus the facebook page was deemed to be made and it was certain that the game would carry on to the following school week.

On Monday, after advisory ended, I hurried to my first classroom – a safe zone – once the class commencement bell rang. Time moved slowly as I waited anxiously for the class to end. As I gathered my belongings to head out for break, I dropped my hand for two seconds and was immediately slaughtered by Jahmiya Cooper – two minutes into the game and I was already taken out. Throughout the day, seniors were dying left and right, leaving only a few to survive day one. The game continued for two more days, however those who were killed early on became frustrated by their lack of participation. It became clear that holding your neck was actually a very easy task if you set your mind to it. Therefore, for game two, the gamemasters agreed that instead of holding our necks, we would have to raise our hand over our head if we want to be safe and survive. Although game two went by much faster than game one, the seniors were unsatisfied with the change in rule. Sidney Thomas voiced, “There is too much discrepancy – people are saying their hand is over their head when clearly it is leveled.”  However, the hand raising brought a lot of attention as lower classman were interested and fascinated by the game. The facebook page expanded to fifty one members as more seniors wanted to get involved. And after the rules reversed back from hand raising to neck holding, previously disappointed seniors were now pleased. Assassins has continued to bring the senior class closer together through the killing of one another, and it is assured that when walking through the halls, one can spot a senior with their eyes wide open and neck covered tightly.