A new senior tradition has sprung up over the past few years; Senior Assassin, also known as Senior Tag or the Killer Game, takes a list of participating students and assigns targets to each member. The goal is to shoot each target with a water gun to win the game.
As the game continues, assassins take on new targets depending on who they have gotten out, and who their target’s targets were. Immunity can be granted by wearing goggles or carrying around a pool floatie.
The first to get out was Penelope Heidy (12) by Ashtyn Klusmeyer (12) during the solar eclipse. Eclipse glasses can’t exactly replace goggles.
In the interview after the assassination, Penelope said, “I wasn’t prepared, I thought no one would catch me out here.”
After each assassination, a video was sent in to be posted on the Senior Assassin Instagram account; records of friends betraying each other and high-speed chases around the gym were posted.
Ryan Renoe (12) was caught lacking at Crunch Fitness by Weston Howe (12).
“Not how I wanted to go out, but good game,” Ryan said.
This wasn’t the only back-stabbing Seniors saw this year, many people had to turn against each other to get ahead in the game.
Luis Lara (12) eliminated Zaydie Bordere (12) next to her in the car.
“I’ve been in this car for two hours, [and] I took these [goggles] off for a second. He’s been lying to me,” Zaydie said.
Many eliminations took time and planning and had to be kept secret.
One evening, Chris Perez (12) eliminated Lucas Vessel (12) in the Target parking lot.
“It took time honestly, waiting, now I got him. Hug it out?” Chris said.
To which, Lucas responded, “I can’t bro, I can’t do this. It’s gonna be a silent ride home.”
As the game narrowed down, fewer students dedicated their time to finding their targets. With seniors only having two weeks left in school, the game was almost abandoned aside from a few students wearing goggles around town. Staying vigilant at all times was exhausting to some players, and they planned times to get out of the game. They asked around to find out who their assassin was and asked them to meet up so they could get out of the game.
After Angela De La Paz (12) was taken out by Chris, she said, “Finally. I was kind of over it.”
This attitude of exhaustion came with the infection of “senioritis” that was spreading. Classes have slowed down and absences have gone up, the Class of 2024 was ready for the end of four long years of hard work.
After Chris got Angie out of Senior Assassin, he said he was “happy, I don’t know how to explain this feeling.”