The car sat in the dark alley, lights off. Three figures could be seen silhouetted inside, unmoving. A moment passed, then the back door of the house opened. Zach and Gavin paused in the doorway before quietly slipping out and into the shadows. Suddenly a car door opened, and three figures moved to the back gate. The air was thick with tension and a sense of impending doom as every rustle of the leaves seemed to herald the approaching menace. Heart pounding in his chest, Zach was beginning to think this wasn’t part of the fun grad activities he had signed up for.
The pair pushed up against the house, slowly moving to the corner. Time slowed to a crawl, and the darkness that had at first offered them a sliver of hope now felt like a suffocating shroud, threatening to consume them entirely. Each step they took felt like a gamble, their survival hanging by a delicate thread; the sinister chase could end in an instant, transformed into a deadly game of hide and seek where the price of failure was a bullet in the back.
The Trap
A black car pulled up to the front of the house and shut off it’s engine. Inside, two more dark figures moved. The doors opened, and the figures stepped out, quickly moving to the shadow of the fence. Weapons glinted in the wash from a street lamp. The trap was set.
Crouching low against the house, Zach pointed toward the back alley. Gavin could now see the three dark figures slipping through the gate. They looked at each other, and Zach motioned toward the front of the house. Together they moved quietly, quickly, unaware of what awaited.
Zach peered around the corner of the house. The two assassins couldn’t be seen, crouched down behind the front fence. Gavin, impatient to get away from the three intruders in the back, stepped away from the house. “Come on, let’s go”, he whispered harshly. And then he sprinted toward the front gate. “Wait!” Zach shouted, but it was too late. The assassins jumped up and over the gate and raised their weapons.
Gavin stopped in his tracks, shocked and angry at his fatal mistake. He tried to turn around, to run back to shelter, but he was caught in a stream of cold, icy water. “Ha! Gotcha!”, the assassin shouted. Gavin’s shoulders slumped. “Aww man!”
Yeah, I know. I’m no Robert Ludlum… Maybe I should be letting an AI replace my writing?
Fun Grad Activities
Don’t mess with a Badass Zachinator…with a water gun
It’s the last few months of grade 12 for Zach, and that means there’s lots of different activities set up by and for this year’s grads. One of them is called “Shoot to Kill”. And despite what you read above, there are no real assassins or weapons involved. They’re using water guns… Filled with water… So please don’t get your knickers in a knot!
Every grade 12 student who paid their ten dollar fee participates in Shoot to Kill. That means each student has the name of another student as their target. So each one is a target to someone else as well.
If a grad squirts (kills) their designated target, they take over that person’s target, and so on, until there’s only one person left. And that winner takes the pot of entrance fees, somewhere around $400.
So far, Zach hasn’t gotten his first target yet. The guy’s on the football team, and apparently he runs fast. A couple of weeks ago Zach tried ambushing him in a back lane, but his target spotted him and ran. A foot chase ensued, all the way to his target’s front door, which he got behind before Zach could spray him. Zach came home panting and out of breath, but exhilarated. The thrill of the hunt!
Backyard Drama
During the first week of Shoot to Kill, a scenario similar to what I wrote in my intro occurred. Zach and his friends were at our house. Meanwhile a couple of cars filled with people had pulled up to the house. One in the laneway and one in the front. They were waiting for one of his friends inside the house.
Zach and his friends were pre-warned, so they knew they were outside waiting. A plan was formulated. They had one of their buddies of similar build dress up in the other’s clothes, and he acted as a decoy. The decoy took off running, with everyone in pursuit. Meanwhile the intended target was able to sneak into the backseat of a waiting car, out of harm’s way. And the whole time, I stood outside watching, laughing.
More Fun Grad Activities
Throughout the last semester of grade 12, students have participated in a bunch of fun grad activities. Another one was called “Everything But A Backpack Day”. The students carried everything they would normally carry in a backpack…in something other than a backpack! So where did this idea come from?
Well, believe it or not, this didn’t start out as a fun, student-led, school spirit activity. It originated in September 2021 at a school district in Idaho, after a student showed up at school with a loaded handgun. The second gun incident in less than a year, the district instituted a “no backpack policy” as a bit of a kneejerk reaction.
But the students took it on and came up with some pretty creative ideas to deal with an otherwise serious situation. Some kids brought their books in cooler bags, little red wagons, shopping carts and baby strollers. And the idea caught on as school spirit activity!
Back in my high school days (there I go sounding old again!), we didn’t do much in the way of themed days. At least not geared specifically to grads. We had things like Crazy Hat Day, which was highlighted by my English teacher, Mr. Trickey, wearing a margarine container on his bald head. It’s these kinds of school activities that really bring out the spirit and community of a school. But our kid’s high school does a lot of them, to their credit.
Bad Dad
And it seems like I get to live vicariously through my kids activities at school. What do I mean by that? Well, one day I drove Zachary down to the bank, before he had to return to school for an afternoon activity. On the way to the bank, we saw his target, walking down a side street.
So after he finished up at the bank, I drove him slowly around the neighbourhood, looking for his prey. We couldn’t find him again, so I took him back up to school. We laughed about a kid and his Dad, the getaway driver, scouting targets for his Shoot to Kill.
Does that make me a bad father?
