Assassin

The Ault boarding school which is the setting of Prep, had an interesting annual game while the author was a student. This game was called Assassin and required only a sheet of orange stickers, the willingness of competitive students, and an index card with a single name on it. Each student is given a target and a collection of these fluorescent stickers. The name on the index card is your target and your objective is to
 "kill" them by tagging them with a sticker anywhere on their body. Sounds easy right? WRONG! You have to kill them without anyone seeing you. If any person witnesses your assassination attempt, you must wait a full 24 hrs before you may reattempt. However, you've then lost your element of surprise and your target will inevitably avoid you. If and when you successfully assassinate your target, you take their card and adopt their target. The game continues until there is only 1 survivor.

This game sounds ridiculously fun and it allows students to be creative and inventive in assassination methods. I initially thought our high school could benefit from such a game because, although it pits students against one another, it creates a spirit of camaraderie and competition. Upon later thought, I decided that the game would not be nearly as successful in our school, simply because of our small campus. We are constantly near each other. Ault boarding school offers a much larger campus on which to hunt.

To get back to the story, Lee uses the game to get closer to Cross Sugarman, for whom her crush has become even more intense. She describes her actions as Machiavellian because she is using the game as a means to an end. Her "end" is ultimately being noticed by Cross once again. Lee hopes to be either his assassin or target as the game progresses. She becomes nearly desperate to speak to or be seen by Cross. She goes so far as to hide under a table for nearly 45 minutes so that she may kill her target. Lee uses her status as "the girl no one notices" to her advantage. She kills many people and finds herself within a very small hunting pool with Cross.

Unfortunately, she is killed by a surprising assassin. To prevent any spoilers, I will not share the assassin's name. I will however say that the kill will leave you feeling the same emotions as Lee, betrayed and mildly understanding.

It seems Lee will have to find a new way to meet up with Cross once again. A cynical adult might say, "Walk up to him and say hi, " but members of the angst-y teenage category will agree that doing so would be self-destructive. The unpopular girl can't just expect to become friends miraculously with the most popular guy. It's almost humorous because such a statement is ridiculous. "Who does she think she is?!" Isn't it a tad funny how stuck in our cliques we are? Why can't she talk to him? Why not?!

....Because teenagers are confusing and we don't really make sense. Many times I can't understand myself, so I definitely don't expect others to. Chalk that up to another thing I share in common with Lee.