Everyone had nice cars, big houses, and went on expensive vacations twice a year. That was just how the North Shore of Chicago was. Each assembly was a competiton for the title of who was better than whom. So, when we were all gathered together for the common goal of the Powderpuff game, I really felt like we had joined as one. Everyone felt it. You could see it in everyone's smiles. .
About an hour or so later, the two captains of our team called the junior captains. .
The juniors huddled together and began walking towards us with fear in their drunken eyes. They were anticipating the worst, but no one could foresee what actually happened. Boys threw empty buckets into the circle of kneeling juniors, and girls scrabbled in terrible fistfights. My grade was creative with what ingredients we brought to throw on the juniors including fish, squid tentacles, and minnows, but contrary to later accounts no one made anyone eat them. They were only there to psych the girls out. My role in Powderpuff was not to "get" the girls who upset me, I was friends with all of the juniors and still am. At the end, I went around to each girl and wiped her eyes with the towels I brought and that seemed to be the end of things.
My role was to pass along the tradition that I participated in the previous year; just like my sister did five years before me. When it was all over we took three juniors to my friend's house and we all showered there. Then we hung out and talked about what happened. I found out about the two girls fist fighting, and the one girl had been hurt when a bucket had cut her head open. I didn't even know these things had happened because I was so busy talking to all my junior friends at the field. Thinking nothing of the event, my five girlfriends and I went on a drive around our small town, talking about college and prom, both of which were coming up soon. Hot tears were running down my face as by the time I got home-I was really going to miss High School.
