Seize the Homecoming

Amber & Kate modeling mums

This past week was homecoming for all of us at Ray High School. Being a freshman I'm new to a lot of these things. One of them being mums. The Wikipedia definition of a homecoming mum is this: "Southwestern United States.The garters are then worn to the game and dance. These are usually very elaborate and consist of many ribbons and ornaments with a chrysanthemum in the center. The decorations are usually related to the wearer's interests and school." and the Urban Dictionary definition is "a big ass bow thing made out of ribbons, that you get for homecoming from your date." 
     I am one of those forever-alone girls so I figured I would just make my own mum. I am also one of those creative, outside of the box, kind of girls. So the part about my own interests really let me be creative. I don't  do sports and that's usually what is on mums so google helped none. Who wants a mum with football crap on it? Umm no one, that's who! 

     Most Fridays we have school-wide pep rallies. All the grades sit in specific sections and at the end, there is a battle cry contest. Whichever grade has the loudest and best one gets bragging rights. It's really competitive and intense. So when it was the freshman's turn, we did our best but all the upperclassmen began boo-ing us. The boo's were louder than our cheers and sent us down to the bottom. Not a cool moment for the class of 2016...
     That day on my way home I was still peeved about the pep rally. I was listening to my iPod and Newsies came on. Then it hit me like a pape to the face. Freshman are just like Newsies! Our Pulitzer is all of the upperclassmen. We have to be brave like the newsboys and let the school know that we been here!
     The following week all the freshman got their act together. We organized ourselves with the help of our Human Geography teacher, Mr. Roberts (shout-out!),who donated his classroom for all our pep rally supplies. We made signs, shredded newspapers and had lots of air horns. I also got to work on my mum. I decided it was going to be a Newsies mum. The ribbons were newspaper, the logo was on the middle  bow and the word Newsies was spelled along the center. It came out pretty well.
     Friday finally rolled around and everyone was ready for that pep rally once and for all. Right before it my friend, Amber, surprised me a mum she made for me. It was a traditional mum and when she saw the one I had made, she loved it. So did all my other theatre friends, they said they totally got it and "that's rich"! 
     So when it was the freshman's turn to do our battle cry, we threw shredded newspaper in the air, yelled at the top of our lungs and jumped up and down. We really gave it our all. Even the seniors stood up in surprise. Freshman don't do this sort of thing! When our principal was announcing the winning class she said, "This week's winners went from the bottom to the top! It's the freshman class!" The announcement was met with another flurry of newspaper and cries of joy. It was the first time ever in the history of our school that the freshman class won the homecoming pep rally. Put that in your juice box and suck it, upperclassmen!