Getting the scoop on homecoming before the big day

The school year is flying by and I can hardly reach up and latch onto it fast enough. Already, girls in the bathroom are asking each other if they’ve gotten their dress for homecoming, if they’ve gotten their shoes, their jewelry. Already, the class floats are being built, hammered and nailed, covered with paint and papier-mâché, electrified with color and light and sound. Already, the seniors have chosen their King and Queen candidates and already, the word is out that Ethan Cohen, Niko Conner, Steve Filippi, Mike Mulas and Bradley Ramirez might be King for the night; that Kaitlyn Hanna, Stephanie Lyon, Jenni Marioni, Hannah Petroni and Phoebe Tillem might be queen.
Homecoming is a big deal. Not so much the game or the dance or even who wins King and Queen, but the spirit of it all, the underlying current that tickles us and binds us all together. We are Sonoma Valley High School. Without us, well, it’d just be a bunch of empty buildings, a bunch of teachers sitting around in the faculty lounge discussing their subjects, a bunch of administrators with walkie-talkies and no one to catch, no one to reprimand for wearing the wrong color, for being late to class. What a lonely place it would be.
Last year, it rained on the float parade down Broadway. Our shoes squeaked when we walked and the speakers were covered with black garbage bags and water dripped and drizzled down our cheeks and necks and arms. That was fun. How many times in your life do you get to parade around in the rain? I remember the dye from my bag soaked into my binder and ruined a few of my pages, turned them red.
This year, I’m excited. I’m not the only one.  Says Miriam Magana, junior, brown hair, petite, “I’m excited to attend the dance, football game, Float Fest and everything else because it seems like it will be fun. It’s a good thing to start off the year with.” We’re sitting at soccer practice, picking grass and ripping it in half, then tossing it away. Float Fest is always entertaining: the night when the parking lot bulges with people mingling, drinking hot chocolate from the Interact Club booth, checking out the freshly unveiled floats, waiting for the bonfire to start, for the car to get smashed by the football players. This happens on Thursday. Then Friday is the football game at Arnold Field, Saturday is the dance at Jacuzzi Winery and Sunday–Sunday’s the day for uninterrupted relaxing rest. And homework.