Spirit Night: A Short Story

The students at the Hillsborough High School were chanting and screaming with pride.

Each grade had its own theme, including the Senior Sightseers, Junior Justice, Sophomore Storytime, and Freshman Force. We began to stomp on the bleachers “Let’s go Sophomores,” we cheered.

To the right of us, the Freshman Force grade screamed, “Let’s go Freshman.”

We looked towards them and cheered even louder, enough so that they were barely heard. My ears were bleeding with the overwhelming amount of spirit in the school.

“Alright, let’s quiet down please,” Ms. Bingert, the Principal, communicated to the crowd.

We had already finished all of the dances, the balloon contest, the garbage can race, the obstacle course, tic tac toe, and tug of war.

I was

I couldn’t wait to hear the results.

“I hope we’re doing ok,” I said to my friends. They nodded. We had put so much effort into the theme this year, no matter how difficult it was to make this theme work with every aspect of Spirit Night.

“In 4th place…….. THE SOPHOMORES!”

The crowd grew silent. I looked around the stands. Many people were looking down, others sat down in defeat. No one said a word. One of the choreographers began to cry. I felt betrayed by the Judges. It felt like they had no idea how hard we worked with this theme. The Freshman were not supposed to beat the Sophomores because the Sophomore are supposed to have more Spirit Night experience. I still couldn’t believe this was happening.

As they announced the Freshman as 3rd place, they screamed, facing us and pumping their fists. I couldn’t believe how competitive they were as Freshman. I admired their Spirit and determination, but I knew I wouldn’t hear the end of it. They did not exhibit good sportsmanship this year.

As we walked out of the gymnasium, none of the Sophomores talked about the 2nd year defeat. It was overwhelming how much of a change we would need to make if we didn’t want to place last for next year’s Spirit