As senior year comes to a close and stress levels are high, the tradition of Senior Assassins begins. Only seniors can participate, and they use water guns to get their assigned targets. The game includes betrayal, perseverance and a desire to win. Seniors Hyland Wright and Emily Lara Perez began their journey as BV Assassins.

“I thought it’d be fun,” Wright said. “I could win and make some money.”

Both seniors described the experience as exhilarating and full of surprises.

“I saw in the past years all the seniors doing it,” Lara Perez said. “It seemed super fun to get involved and for the extra adrenaline.”

Assassins isn’t just about fun but the need to be prepared with strategies.

“I just was never home,” Lara Perez said.

Wright used a similar strategy, going where the assassins would least expect him to be.

“My whole thing was [to] use all the places that were not allowed — I would go there so I couldn’t get shot,” Wright said.

Their strategies didn’t go as planned, with Lara Perez getting out in the first round and Wright in the second.

“I was going to go stalk my target, and then my assassin was in my house,” Lara Perez said.

Alternatively, Wright was paid $30 to self-eliminate.

Both seniors, despite being assassinated, experienced some unexpected encounters with their assassins.

In a failed attempt, Wright barely escaped elimination.

“At one point, someone was in the bed of a truck trying to chase me through a neighborhood,” he said. “Then I got in my car, and they started chasing me on the roads.”

Lara Perez might not have been chased, but betrayal hit her harder than the water gun.

“Finding someone in my house was a surprise,” she said. “Finding out that it was actually my mom who invited them in was great.”

Lara Perez also explained how her mom had felt bad for  her assassin Masha Kinder being outside for an hour in a bush, which was the reasoning for letting her in.

“I got chased, and it was really scary,” he said. “I thought it was really fun, especially when the guy who had me picked the lock to some random person’s house and started chasing me through the house.”

A common strategy to stay in the game is by making allies.

“I teamed up with a lot of people — 20 kids [or] maybe more,” Wright said.

This helped him get information about his target and know when to watch his back. Lara Perez approached Assassins with little help and used a solo strategy to avoid future flaws in her plan, such as showing distrust toward other players.

“Mikey actually told me he would have sold me out,” she said.

Both seniors learned a lot from this experience and reflected on how they could have improved in the game.

“I’d take it more seriously on stalking my target,” Lara Perez said. “I actually ended up finding my target at QuikTrip the next day.”

Wright said he would focus more on getting his target out and not just get out with the bribe of money. The game is hardcore, and there are a lot of challenges to winning, but it depends on the lengths seniors are willing to go.

“You just got to be ruthless,” Wright said. “You’re going to have to break truces and betray a lot of people.”

Both seniors experienced Assassins in different ways but enjoyed playing this game with their peers before the school year comes to a close.

Lara Perez had one last piece of advice to future players.

“Definitely have a good talk to your parents,” she said. “Make it clear not to let [your target] in the house, and do some hardcore stalking.”