“Community participation” received a whole new meaning last Friday as an all-out game of Tag consumed the entire town.
James, head boy of the local Primary School, says this was the best recess he’s ever had.
What started as a simple game of “Gang Up Chasey”, a branch of the traditional chasee game where once you become “it” you “stay it”, quickly became something more.
“All kids in my year got tagged first, and the fastest it’s ever been done too,” James claims. “It was probably a record. Jeremy was the hardest, but he’s always the hardest. He’s the fastest in our class. Actually, the whole school. He always wins the cross country. My mum says I’m a really good runner, and I try my hardest. But no matter what I do, he’s always faster. It’s so annoying. This one time…” Head Boy James blabbered on.
“Rules Of The Game state that being the winner, I should start the next as the first person being it,” Winner Jeremy stated. “But, we still had over half of recess left. So we decided to gang up on the adults instead.”
The poor librarians were first to go. To be honest, without having completed their morning stretching session, they didn’t stand a chance. Nor their hamstrings, to be honest.
Then they targeted the Maths and Humanities teachers, followed by the rest of the departments, and as a way of intimidation, circled the principal’s office last.
Local Principal Peterson (also unrelated, actually the son of a man called Peter) did what he does best. Instead of seeing a problem, he saw a solution.
He threw his white hankey out of the exterior window of his locked office.
But, students were to quick to state that there is no mention of white hankeys in the Rules Of The Game, and his office door was brought off it’s hinges by a endangered Yellow Spotted Rhinocerous, native to the region.
“I was in reception to pick up my child, who fell ill that morning,” Zookeeper Charlie stated. “I think my little boy was just trying to avoid getting tagged, to be honest. We were in the middle of feeding at the zoo, but I couldn’t just leave old mate Rhino by himself, so I brought him with me for the pickup. I’m just glad I can bring my work with me when the opportunity arises”
After the Principal got tagged, things escalated. Caught up in all the emotion of playing their first game in decades, the adults thought it would be a great idea to open the school gates and declare the day the school’s first ever Snow Day.
Note that it has never actually snowed in Cow Texas, but it was the only caveat Principal Peterson could think, cornered by a rhinocerous, and without a hankey to wipe his now quite sweaty brow.
The children, sensing an opportunity that may never come again, jumped at the opportunity. The BMX kids were out the gate first, they were lucky enough to inflict the most influence in the remainder of the game. The kids who lived in town went running into town next. The kids who usually caught buses to local farms had to wait at school to catch their bus. “Serves them right for living on the bus,” one ‘Townie’ child stated to local reporters. “Go eat boogers,” the Bus Kid’s representative stated as their official response.
The local retirement village presumed it was a zombie apocolypse. It has been said money was even exchanged in settling of bets. Of course, it was was easy to convince a person with a forgetful memory that they had made a bet, a retired resident boasted, who’s name has been redacted due to him also forgetting what it is.
