Senior year is marked with several distinct events used to bring the graduating class together in their final year as students: senior sunrise, harbor cruise, senior picnic, all culminating in graduation. 

But one event stands out from the rest; a war within the ranks of the senior class for a cash prize. A game where students chase, search, and stalk one another. A game where lifelong friendships equally strengthen and fracture: 

Senior Assassin. 

The game’s essence is simple. Teams of two are assigned another team to “assassinate.” The amateur hitmen then must eliminate their targets by splashing them with water and recording this elimination to progress to the next round. 

But these targets aren’t defenseless. Students are allowed to wear floaties, giving them immunity from potential water-gun shots. However, certain parameters exist. Floaties cannot be worn at school or on purge days, which are established by the game’s organizers. This year, Amy Zhao (12) and Lilah Nash (12) ran the game.  

Whatever team survives their assassination attempts and eliminates their targets receives buy-in money from all the students who participated; this year’s total was $1,800. 

This money was enough to set Noah Bell (12), Evan Erickson (12) and Mason Williams (12) on a quest that would consume the next seven months of their lives.

Erickson and Bell named their team Mullet Bros after their respective sets of luscious locks. Their flashy hairstyles illustrated the confidence they had going into this competition.

“We knew pretty much right away that we were going to win,” Erickson said. “We had this bond that just could not be defeated.” 

Williams paired up with Kiara Lutz (12) to create team Wetter the Better. The pair had been friends since sixth grade and knew that they worked well together in a competitive setting. 

“We teamed up because we’re both very stubborn and determined,” Williams said. “This kind of translated into confidence in ourselves and our prospect of a win.”

The game began Aug. 29. As the rest of the student body was prepping for school, seniors were rearing for war. Even before the 8:35-bell had rung, the game had begun. 

An apt description of the week that followed would be utter chaos. Twenty-three students were eliminated and twice that put on bounty. If on bounty, the team would lose the immunity their floaty previously granted.

Williams and Lutz immediately got to work finding where their target, Ishana Rahman (12), lived. They used a database called the Whitepages to find out where their target lived. Then, they took turns staking out their target’s house, usually right before and after school to catch her as she entered or exited her house. All they needed to do was wait for a moment where they could strike.  

And soon, there was. 

One day, Williams decided to follow his  target’s dad from her house. He knew through a friend that Rahman did not have her license, so he could be picking her up. The father drove around the block a bit before stopping in front of another house, a house whose porch his target sat on, waiting to be picked up. 

He realized he had his chance. 

Williams screeched his car to a halt. He jumped out of his car, sprinting over as he drew his squirt bottle and phone to record. His target instantly noticed him and dashed  towards her car. 

But she was too slow. Williams reached her before she could reach the car. With more than a few squirts of water, he was able to eliminate her. 

Wetter the Better was on to the next round. 

Bell and Erickson approached their first elimination with equal intensity. They used Instagram to figure out where their target, Cameran Casey (12), lived. They camped outside of her house until they could secure an elimination on her way to school. 

Rounds two and three were not nearly as difficult. Both teams were able to get their targets out with relative ease. But in round four, tragedy struck for Wetter the Better. 

As Lutz was waiting outside her target, Jaden Ong’s (12), house, she was ambushed by her assassin, Anna Yekhilevsky (12). 

She was then eliminated.

Williams was now on bounty. He had 24 hours to get Ong out or he would be eliminated from the game. With help from his friend Caitlynn Hauw (12) he was able to figure out  where he worked and waited until Ong got off his shift. A game of cat-and-mouse ensued around Carmel Mountain Plaza ending with Ong being eliminated in front of the In-n-Out sign. 

Williams was still in. 

Williams said that although the setback of his partner’s elimination definitely made the game a little harder, it gave him a stronger drive to win. 

As the number of teams whittled down, it became progressively harder to eliminate people.  Soon only six teams were left. 

At this point the game became a war of attrition. Four months passed, fatigue set in and people were becoming inconsistent in wearing their floaties. 

“That whole period was dreadfully uneventful,” Williams said. “It got to the point where I purposefully wouldn’t wear my floatie anywhere, hoping that someone would try and get me to make it a little more interesting.”

It was time for someone to make a move. 

Bell sat still in the bushes in front of North County Gymnastic Studio. He had been crouched there for around thirty minutes or so. He was nearly invisible to any passerby, largely due to his ghillie suit, a military camo covered with fake foliage to disguise troops—or in this case, assassins in brush. He heard plenty of voices pass by, but not his target’s, Brooke Gauerke(12). 

“I was just trying my hardest to be the best bush I could be because I did not want anyone to see me,” Bell said. “Then I heard her friend’s voice, so I popped up and sprayed away [with my water gun].” 

This first elimination in months reinstated a sense of determination in the remaining teams. Soon, only three teams were left, Rachel Greenstein (12) and Lauren Pollock (12), Bell and Erickson, and Williams. 

Nash and Zhao decided that the game had gone on long enough and needed to end soon. The next round, whoever got their target first would win. 

Williams realized that, at this point, the only way for him to get out of the game victoriously was to create a treaty, a pact where he could split the winnings. 

“Initially, I’d actually asked Rachel and Lauren if they wanted to make that deal,” Williams said. “And they kept telling me that they were going to wait and see if they could get [Noah] out. I had waited like two or three weeks and I hadn’t gotten an answer, so I texted Noah and Evan and asked them if they wanted to make a deal. And they [both] immediately responded and said yes.”

The afternoon sun shone down upon the Torrey Highlands Vons parking lot. The two teams readied themselves to confront one another. They stood on opposite sides of the lot. Bell held a water pistol in his hands; Mason held a clipboard in his. 

They met in the middle.  

There was no talking. Williams simply handed Bell the clipboard, which held the reason for their meeting. It was a contract he had made on RocketMortage.com, a legal advice website, that called for a three-way splitting of the cash winnings of the game between Bell, Erickson, and Williams. Bell signed the treaty and the two shook hands. 

Drawing his water pistol, Bell squirted Williams on the palm of his hand.

And that was it. 

After seven months of stakeouts and narrow escapes, the 2023 game of Senior Assassin was over. 

Bell said that this victory upheld the pact he had made with himself  during middle school. 

“I’ve known about this game since I was in sixth grade, just because my brother’s three grades above me and he talked about how sick it was in his freshman year,” Bell said. “Since I’m super competitive, I was [always] thinking [how] I want to win. I made a promise to myself that I would” 

Williams, Erickson, and Bell all said that the cash was meaningless to them at this point. 

“I mean, to me, it was about the money for like maybe the first four waves, but after a while, it was just really having fun with my closest friend,” Erickson said. “You just couldn’t let your other guy down. Our relationship prospered because we were counting on one another so much. ”