Assassins...Nerf Assassins

Let me begin by saying if you aren't a fan of guns of ANY kind, move along...nothing to see here.  If you are a fan of kids finding imaginative, clean, non damaging (permanently anyhow) summer fun, read on.

My (now) senior son and 48 of his classmates got together last week and set up a game that has me chuckling each and every night.  They actually got together last Thursday night and set up the ground rules for...Nerf Assassin.  The rules are fairly simple:  no attacks at one's place of work, and no attacks in one's house.  Shot must to be the head (which immediately puts the boy at a disadvantage because he has an enormous noggin' and explains why he wanted me to take his hair down with a number 4 blade on the clippers) and witnessed by two people. The boys are divided up into 8 teams of around 6 boys each.  Last man standing...their team wins.

When I first heard of the game, I assumed that it was a one night thing.  OH, NO.  This is an ongoing  game intended to last all summer.  And of course, there's money involved.  Incentive for the 17 year old boy (who is currently without summer employment, hoping that changes at the end of the month with his birthday).

What he quickly found out, not being a Survivor fan, was that there are alliances to be made, pacts to be negotiated...basically ways to pick off "weaker" teams.  The first night of the game, he came home to an ambush of his two friends (different team) who laid in wait (for over an hour) in our yard, dressed in ski masks (I probably should be worried about the obvious skills they're acquiring, but I'll take the optimist view and call it patience) waiting for my son to arrive home.  The friend who dropped him off heard what was happening before the boy and managed to call out a warning with enough time for him to get to safety.  Luckily, the only thing we heard was the dog bark when he came in.  The dog never barks at night.  So the boy lived to shoot another day (and has since made an alliance with his friends).

He has now made alliances with other teams AND the graduating senior boys have joined in the game.  He also knows, he goes nowhere without his gun (not sure if he needs a CC license for nerf guns).  Thus far there have been 2 ALMOST kills.  One ambush.  One situation where the gun jammed.

I think, however that the boys have notched it up a level, given the condition of my son's car this morning.  Behold:

Now, I'm not an assassin, but I believe my son is now a marked man.  I'm just sayin'.