The war between the 7th Grade and the Seniors

Throughout the Homecoming week, it was pretty clear that the main combatants in spirit competition were the Seventh graders and the Seniors. At the beginning of the week, the Seniors had a solid lead over all the other grades, starting with 170 points transferring over from the spirit week last semester. In second were the 7th graders, who started with 135 points from the previous spirit week. Next up were the 8th graders, starting with 110 points. Then came the Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors, with 95, 65 and 60 points respectively.
If there were any point in the week when the 7th graders could have overtaken the Seniors, it would have been Wednesday. By the end of Tuesday, the 7th graders trailed behind the Seniors by only 25 points and, should they have won the Scavenger Hunt or had more dress spirit, would have been poised to take the lead for the rest of the week. However, the Seniors bolstered their lead, earning 202 points on Wednesday, compared to the 7th grader’s 135 points, and positioned themselves for smooth sailing for the rest of the week.
The Seniors were coming in hot and by the end of Thursday, it was clear their odds were in their favor, leading with almost a full 100 points over the 7th graders, despite a valiant effort from the 7th graders during the Decades day dress-up. Both grades were awarded about 190 points on Thursday and it looked like the 7th graders weren’t about to give up.
However, the deal was sealed during the Homecoming Lip sync when the Seniors went all out, winning first place in the lip sync competition. It was a glorious and nostalgic moment for the seniors. Still, the 7th graders showed their true colors—their spirit shall not be forgotten. They came in second place with 1151 spirit points, 332 points behind the Seniors and a full 262 points ahead of the Juniors, who won 3rd place overall in the Spirit competition.
A Struggle for Bronze
Surprisingly, the Juniors, notorious for their atrocious lack of school spirit won 3rd place in the Homecoming competition. They began the week dead last, with a measly 60 points from the previous spirit week. And for the first half of the week, it looked like they were going to fulfill their fate as the least-spirited.
For the first three Homecoming lunch events, the Juniors made no significant gains, earning 0 points on Monday for the space race, with not even a single participant, earning 10 points for the Tuesday eating contest with one participant and 0 points for the Wednesday Scavenger hunt with again, no participants. But things were about to change.
Up until Wednesday, there seemed to be a brawl of incompetence between the Juniors and Sophomores, over who would come in last place for Homecoming. And, as everyone expected, neither grade really made any gains. But very slowly, the Juniors began to overtake the Sophomores in the dress spirit competition and by Wednesday, they had accrued 22 more spirit points than the Sophomores and began their move towards redemption.
By Thursday, the Juniors, who had earned 80 points from the Dance-off and 104 points from the Decades dress-up, had overtaken the Freshmen with a 64 point gap, putting the Juniors in third-to-last place. But the Sophomores had also awoken and they too overtook the Freshmen, earning 161 points on Thursday and leading by 19 points over the Freshmen. At this point, it looked like the 8th graders would take third place, followed by the Juniors, Sophomores and then, in last place, the Freshmen.
On a side note, I know what you’re thinking. The Juniors had it easy for decades week because their decade was the 2000’s. In reality, however, the Juniors floundered in terms of dress-spirit on Thursday, having the second-to-lowest number of dressed-up students. They earned an unremarkable 104 points for dress-spirit, put to shame only by the Freshmen’s 73 points for decades dress-up. The most dressed-up grade for Decades day was the 10th grade, and they earned 161 points for their exquisite tie-dye funkiness.
Homecoming Lip Sync and the #miracle (at least for the Juniors/Sophomores)
The points awarded during the lip sync changed the standings drastically. Prior to the lip sync and color day dress-up, the 8th graders were ahead of the Juniors by 127 points and behind the 7th graders by 219 points. The blue-colored Juniors, who were the second most spirited grade behind the 7th graders in terms of dress up for color day, were awarded 208 points for color spirit, giving them a solid advantage coming into the lip sync.
During the lip sync, neither the Juniors nor the Sophomores were ready to admit defeat and the Juniors, who had been coordinating their lip sync for around a month, won third place, winning an additional 150 points, putting them ahead of the 8th graders, who won 5th place in the lip sync. Similarly, the Sophomores made big gains with their unconventional yet well-choreographed lip sync featuring multiple grades, winning second place and an additional 200 points, putting them, also, ahead of the 8th graders by 6 points but behind the Juniors by exactly 80 points.
Had the sophomores had more color spirit and or had participated in the Dance off, they would have had a chance of overtaking the Juniors, as they were awarded 50 more points for the lip sync than the Juniors. Also, had the 8th grade dressed up more for color day (for which they were only awarded 70 points), they could have easily sealed the deal for bronze, as they were going strong for the entire week, up until Friday.
Although the Freshmen suffered from their lack of Homecoming participation prior to Friday, they finished strong, earning 264 points on the last day—a valiant effort to bring it back and avoid last place overall but, alas, it wasn’t enough.
In addition to feeling accomplished, the Seniors will win an Ice Cream party some time in the near future. Details will be revealed soon.
And though not everyone will receive the spoils of war, I think we can all agree that it was a good week.