By Samuel Smith, Opinions Editor

Prom: A night of extravagant outfits and romantic tension galore, relationships put on display on the dance floor, occasional busting it down to the song “Hey Ya” by Outkast. What could possibly make such a memorable night even better?

Laser tag, bounce houses, roller skating and bowling. That’s what.

Beginning immediately after the dance was over, After Prom served as a safe and relatively supervised way to continue celebrating prom night, without the risk of parties… and there were prizes!

I stayed for the entirety of After Prom, accompanied by friends who found themselves immensely tired in contrast to my youthful exuberance once the clock struck 12. In much the same way as a manic werewolf, I began to come to life deep into the night.

Alongside my prom date and those who I dragged along with me during the After Prom’s exploits, we hopped into the provided shuttle and headed to laser tag. 

Draped in an open Hawaiian shirt and a laser tag harness, I prepared for war. Two of my friends were off to accomplish great, great things on the battlefield. Others were left behind by their fellow soldiers, receding into the darkness to avoid decimation. Blue team descended upon us. I made my sacrifice.

I was, by far, the most attractive human shield ever employed in laser tag. 

Laser tag over, a shuttle took our party back to the YMCA where we decided to take a break… or so I thought.

A massive inflatable was arranged in the YMCA gym with two lanes to allow for races. Not to brag, but my swift victory over the rest of my party in the races only speaks to my already established After Prom prowess. 

Egotism firmly in place, my party headed to the Ark Church in order to partake in roller skating.

I must say, watching everybody else fall was a massively fun time. Zooming in circles. Lapping my friends as they were stuck on the floor. Trying to jump and do a trick and subsequently falling on the floor. The night was rife with excitement.

Of course, the roller skating eventually came to an end. Stacking our group into the returning shuttle, we headed back and found ourselves seated in the YMCA gym. 

Filled to the brim with First Flight and Manteo students, raffle tickets were handed out to each After Prom guest as they were instructed to insert their 40 or so tickets into a given raffle number’s bag. Personally, I placed 39 in a skateboard raffle bag and one in the running for a subwoofer on the off-chance that lady luck was on my side.

The tickets placed, the bags collected and my tired party laying on the floor, the numbers were drawn. The car goes to blah blah, the concert tickets are won by blah blah. I wasn’t terribly concerned with quite literally anything that didn’t involve my skateboard.

Some friends wanted the skateboard as well. Hoping their luck could outlast my main character narrative’s chances of winning, they too waited for that skateboard. All of our tickets were red. We agreed to close our eyes during the drawing.

“The winner is… Samuel Smith!”

The crowd roared. Everybody’s hero had won his prized skateboard. The sea of students parted before me. They were devastated, but understanding.

More realistically, I got a round of applause. I had to walk around the crowd since I was in the middle back and I keep bringing it up to my friends because I think it’s funny. 

The night was over. Fun was had with good friends. The parties parted ways, everyone headed home, and I made my way back to the house I had moved into just a day prior.

Laying down, all I could think about was the fun. Sure, prom was great, but prom is prom. It’s an expected event. You go, you have fun and you leave. But After Prom? After Prom was an event, full stop. Sure, not everybody won a prize or was better than their friends at roller skating, but I’m not everybody. I am Sam and all of those things happened to me so I am killing it right now.

Oh. Also, I had Grinch socks that were bright green and orange and I took my shoes off to play on the bounce house but I stepped in a liquid and it made my sock soggy so I took my socks off and gave them to some friends of mine from Manteo.

Happy prom, everybody. See you all next year at After Prom.

Junior Samuel Smith can be reached at [email protected].