Every year, on the last day of school, there’s a tradition, called “Freshman Friday.” All of the new freshman who were just promoted from eighth grade become targets for the seniors, who will soon depart for college. These seniors, as a finale to their four years of high school, roam the streets near all the junior high schools, after-school hang-outs, and common routes that the freshman have to take in order to get home from school. Their goal is to pelt the freshman with eggs, drive them away from their houses, and all manner of other pranks the seniors could think of. On this occasion, when it was my turn to get attacked, two of my friends and I coincidentally had to walk all the way across town in order to reach one of our houses. The route to get there was swarming with kids, an obvious target for the seniors, and so our chances did not look good. We had a plan: pretend to be seventh graders, and make it halfway. Halfway home was an office, owned by my friend’s father, that we could hide in until the seniors had pranked their fill of freshman, and would decide to go home.

Shaking with excitement, we exited the school gates and started walking. We hadn’t walked more than ten yards, when a black truck came screaming around the corner, with a barrage of water balloons flying out the window, splashing gallons of water onto the huge groups of kids. We were barely ahead of the kids they had soaked, and thus had our first near miss, which would be repeated, all the way home. For another couple of blocks, we saw nothing, but we eventually came upon a van parked right next to the sidewalk, the engine on, but not moving. It was inevitable that the van was filled with seniors, so we waited, as groups of kids behind us walked past warily. We urged them on, assuring them that the van held only our parents. They walked past and as they passed the vehicle, 4-5 seniors leapt out and started throwing eggs, covering every inch of their bodies with yolk and bits of shell. We waited until they exhausted their supply, and then hurried past, nodding nervously to the seniors who had appreciated our deception of the other kids.

After sneaking around the other freshman who we had used has scapegoats, and sprinting foolishly ahead of them, we walked around a corner straight into another group of seniors. Grinning, they nudged us toward their car, presumably to drive us far away from our houses, a long walk back to home. Though they were numerous, they seemed nervous, like they weren’t quite sure if they wanted to be doing what they were doing. Sensing this, I quickly blurted out an excuse, “We’re not freshman, we’re seventh graders, but there’s a big group of freshman back there…” I pointed to the same classmates who had gotten pelted with eggs because of us. The seniors seemed eager to postpone the actual prank, probably due to their nervousness and uncertainty. Thanking us, they passed us by, walking slowly towards the egg-covered, somewhat grumpy group of freshman who, once again, would be our scapegoats.

We continued on, and as we neared the last few blocks before the office, we noticed a pair of guys on bikes. They were too far away for us to see how old they were, but as they started pedaling quickly and purposefully toward where we were walking, we decided not to leave it to chance, and assume the bikers had naught but ill intentions toward us. We sprinted the remainder of the distance, glancing back at the quickly approaching bikers as we tried to go faster and faster. Making it to the office, we dashed inside the building and slammed the door behind us, hearing the bikes buzz past from the half-open window. Breathless, we caught our breath, and settled in, safe, waiting for the streets to clear of kids, and for the seniors to finish their hunt and go home, so we would be safe to walk home. An hour later, we deemed it safe, and left. Seeing no one, we walked safely home.