No senior prank in the history of California High school can rival the multi-stage June 6 prank that began during A-period and continued until the end of school. The intricate series of pranks touched all parts of the school, ranging from the parking lot to the main building to San Ramon Pool Complex attached to the school.

I was lucky enough to observe the majority of the acts of defiance and senior pride that took place on campus last week.

Stage 1: Parking lot mayhem

The opening act to this year’s senior shenanigans was to jam the senior parking lot. I saw over a hundred seniors and even some juniors park their cars across multiple spots, sideways and block entry to entire lanes.

Students began grouping up after parking and taunting administrators, even singing happy birthday to Principal Mark Corti.

It seemed that the purposefully bad parking evolved into a competition of placing one’s car in the most absurd fashion possible. A few vehicles with high ground clearances ended up atop parking islands before the first period began.

Administration responded by distributing parking tickets and rumors spread of the possibility of towing the worst offenders.

This was fairly effective, as I saw many students go back to their cars and park them correctly.

But at this point, the damage was done. Parking for many students was disrupted or impossible and the drop off lane for parents was blocked.

Stage 2: First floor rager and stampede

While watching the intentionally terrible parking jobs of my fellow seniors, I learned that the next step was to initiate a dance party on the first floor between first and third period.

Word spread extremely quickly of this event and there was a feeling of tension as soon as first period ended. Students wishing to avoid the prank rushed from their classes to get out of the building, and administrators were spread throughout the first floor.

A substantial gathering of students gathered into essentially a mosh-pit in the southern half of the main building. Administrators confiscated a large speaker beforehand, but some students used handheld speakers to blast music, which kicked off the party.

Standing in the middle, I saw students began jumping, shoving and dancing in front of teacher’s classrooms while others sprayed silly string and used sparkling apple cider bottles in fashion similar to champagne.

After about a minute, the surging mass sprinted out of the first floor and across campus. Some students rushed the administration building while others went all the way to the third floor.

Five minutes after brunch began, administration cut it short by ten minutes, sending everyone to their third period class. A few seniors were forced to clean up the mess they made in the administration building.

Stage 3: Water balloon bombardment

Third period was quiet, but the day was far from over. Lunch presented a special target for this year’s seniors.

Leadership arranged for six food trucks to park on the blacktop near the senior parking lot. Hundreds of students rushed to get in line before the others and get food before the lunch period ended.

Rather than rush to the food trucks, senior went to their cars. They put together an arsenal of water balloons and ran to the Iron Horse trail, a footpath that runs alongside the school and is blocked by a fence.

From a third floor classroom overlooking the food trucks, I saw seniors get through the gate and set up a position across the fence before assaulting the trucks and the students still in line.

Hundreds of water balloons crashed down windshields and roofs while students waiting for lunch fled for cover and the safety of the main building. One student was waving a large white flag for an unknown reason.

When ammunition ran dry, the seniors scattered back to the school and hid out from administrators.

Stage 4: Summer pool party

The majority of fifth period was uneventful, until Corti made an announcement over the PA. He warned teachers that students were planning on leaving class and to take down their names so they would receive a cut.

This perhaps made more seniors aware of the prank than beforehand, but many seniors came prepared for the final part of the prank.

Dressed in swimwear, hundreds of seniors left class at the symbolic time of 2:14 (meant to be 2014) and ran to the attached pool complex.

Their first attempt was to go through the PE entrance to get to the pool. However, administrators were already waiting there for the students to arrive. Some attempted to be students in a physics class that was testing cardboard and duct tape boats in the pool.

I tried to join these trojan boats, but was ended up using my press pass to get a vantage point overlooking the olympic pool.

While administrators were distracted with sorting real students from imposters, the bulk of seniors sprinted out the front of the school, through the parking lot, and to the front entrance of the San Ramon Pool.

Either breaking the gate to the pool, or convincing lifeguards to let them inside, they rushed down a small hill to get to the pool.

Less than half the students that left class ended up jumping into the pool, most stood on the side and cheered the others on. One student climbed the high dive and danced before doing a cannonball and landing atop one of the lane lines.

After some intense chanting of “2014”, the seniors left the pool the way they came and either went back to class or their cars.

At the end of the day, it was an exciting adventure of vandalism and hilarity filled with chanting and senior pride. Administration has yet to respond in full force, and it is unknown what the extent of the reprimands will be.

But it is known that if the response is not harsh enough, senior pranks in the future may be much worse than this year.