To spice up their final year and finish off with a fun schoolwide (but not school sanctioned) activity, many seniors are currently participating in one of the most anticipated and chaotic GHHS traditions as the final months of high school slowly arrive: Nerf Wars. Forget prom plans and hanging out with friends; the Class of 2025 is more focused on foam darts, strategic moves, and the rising tension of not knowing who might be stalking from a bush. Nerf Wars, formerly known as Senior Assassin, has officially begun.

Seniors are organized into teams of 4-8 and within several confinements and conditions, spend several months hunting down members of other teams to shoot them with a nerf bullet, all of which has to be recorded on video to count. Students cannot be shot at PSD, TCC, and WST locations, hospitals, practices, outside of practices, work, scheduled volunteer work, and churches during church hours, along with specified locations throughout the harbor.

The game makes people more aware of their surroundings, and they slowly but surely start to get paranoid. People start moving differently. They check corners, walk faster, and suddenly, everyone’s backpack is suspiciously bulky. Someone runs across the quad, and no one blinks because they understand. Ty Rushforth (12) says, “Ever since the games have started, I’ve begun to hear noises that always get my attention. I’m paranoid, man.” The war doesn’t care if you’re tired, if it’s raining, or if you just want to chill with your friends. The war watches; the war waits. And when you think you’re safe, boom, you’re out.

And yet, beneath all the tension, there’s a sense of unity. The game is competitive, however, it’s also a shared experience. Seniors bond over unexpected ambushes, near eliminations, and the occasional sprint through a parking lot. Some take a strategic approach, studying others’ teams’ moves. Others lean into the humor, pulling off over-the-top surprises and recording dramatic elimination videos for social media. “I feel like I’ve been on a military team. It’s been pretty fun so far,” Jaron Simmler (12) says.

While every player enters the game with a different approach, what ties them all together is the knowledge that this is one of the last big things they’ll do as a class. It’s the final shared experience before graduation, a mix of chaos, laughter, and connection. Nerf isn’t about who wins; it’s about the way it brings people together through something simple and unforgettable. It’s about the creativity, the unpredictability, and the thrill of the moment. And most of all, it’s about making the most of these last few weeks while everyone’s still here, and everything still feels like ours.