For Friday, October 12th, most students are busy preparing for the upcoming homecoming dance by picking out the perfect dress, getting a group together, or finding a date, but others have something a little different in mind.

 The night of the dance, senior Hayley Tilghman will be putting on her homecoming dress and perfecting her makeup just like every other girl, only instead of spending the night dancing among the DJ’s laser show, she will spend the night dodging lasers.

 Rather than attending the dance, Tilghman and her group of friends are planning on heading down to the local laser tag arena for a night of exciting  tactical maneuvers and good natured competition. However, unlike a normal laser tag game, Tilghman and her friends will be running through the laser tag course dressed from head to toe in homecoming attire.

  The group, which includes seniors Haley Tilghman, Nicole Thomas, Jessica Moore, and Alexis Knutson, had always gone to previous Homecoming dances, but this year they had no intention of spending the money for a ticket to go to a dance that they had already gone to one time too many and that was really only memorable freshman year.

“You only need to go to freshman Homecoming and senior Prom anyway,” said Tilghman.

  Since going to the dance was out of the question, as an alternative they came up with the laser tagging idea to keep the night from becoming just another Saturday spent surfing the web. The idea was to incorporate the Homecoming dresses, not only in order to give the night a Homecoming theme but also to give the event an unique spark to make it memorable. When asked why they had decided on such an odd plan, their answer was simple.

“Because we can,” said Moore.

  While the the event is an open invitation and Tilghman is unsure exactly how many people will be coming, she anticipates at least twenty people will show up. They are also expecting a few of their old college friends to show up at some point of the night.

  Even some students who are planning on going to the dance may eventually find themselves joining the group later on in the night like junior Lexus van Es who is going to the dance for the first part of the night and then bailing halfway through to meet up with his friends at the laser tag arena.

  “ It’ll be great to let off some steam after the formal environment of the dance,” said van Es.

  Along with van Es, his girlfriend Knutson is equally excited for the dance as well laser tagging.

“I honestly cant wait for the dance too because its going to be senior year,” said Knutson. “I am a dork. I always love the spirit week and I always love the dances.”

  Additionally, other students have decided to come up with their own homecoming substitutions. Whether they may be something simple like sophomore Jack Taylor’s plan to stay at home playing Xbox or a little more rebellious like junior Lindsey Oteyza’s plan to go to an anti-Homecoming party after the dance, students are sure to have a memorable night.

“I’m really excited,” said van Es.