The week before spring break can be both exciting and stressful, with tests and deadlines looming. But the PLS Scroll team decided to have a week of games and snacks. I had only been here at Papillion La Vista Southside for a week and a half at this point. I felt like I wasn’t really a part of the group and was honestly nervous about an entire week of bonding. But on Monday, we were playing my favorite game as a kid: Capture the Flag. I started the day a little shy, but the high-intensity activity made me almost instantly forget my fear of not fitting in. The rest of the week was filled with learning about others through competition and finding out about their go-to snacks for a game night. By the end of the week, I genuinely felt like I was a part of the group. Even though I was excited to go on spring break, I was also disappointed that the game week would end. -Caleb Madsen

MONDAY

Capture the Flag was the game I chose for Monday. I’d argue it was a good way to start off the week. Typically Capture the Flag would be a game for elementary schoolers in P.E. class, but I wanted to bring it to the Journalism students with some spin. 

We were able to hide our “flags,” which were actually Ms. Albracht’s birthday capes, anywhere we wanted, so the opposing team couldn’t see them. This made the game more challenging, strategic, and overall more fun to play. I highly recommend hiding the flags, instead of both teams displaying them in a designated spot each round. 

While the aspect of hiding flags made the game more enticing, the limited number of players caused too much lag in the gameplay. When one person got tagged, it was a challenge to get them back in. There was a lot of standing around, waiting for the other team to get distracted, but with the limited number of players, there weren’t many people there to distract. 

In order to get the game to move more fast-pace, serious strategy was needed. At one point the opposing team had hung their flag on the side of the tennis court fences (which are more than 6 feet high). My teammate Ryan knew he wouldn’t be able to climb the fence without getting tagged, so he ran inside the courts and grabbed the flag from inside the courts. 

Some would view certain strategies as “cheating” but in a small group of people as close-knit as we are, this strategic play just made the game even more enjoyable. If we had another chance to play Capture the Flag, I would take it.  -Addie Kastens

TUESDAY

When look back on week of game with staff, the game “Poetry For Neanderthals” was no like by me. The rule of game is to say no more than one part of word say on a card you pull. You must tell group peer what the card say with no more than one part of word. If you say more than one part of the word, you get hit in the head with a soft bat. The card go to “wrong” pile and you and team get point gone from score. The word will have two part, and if one part of word was guess by team, you can try for two point. There are no hand move or you get point gone. If one has guess part of the word, you may then say the word ‘till it is guessed. When time is out, the next pal on not your team goes and once the round is over, all card will be add or take based on point. Team with most points wins. I do not like this game, pals on my team get way too heat over this, it stress me out to think of word with one part to it in small time while pal on my team is press me to say a word. The word on card is hard to tell team what it is. Pals on my team give same clue lots which make me mad, they mad when no else can guess it. -Kenna Hixson 

WEDNESDAY

At first I was skeptical about playing Gartic Phone; I don’t really like to play games involving drawing because I tend to take loads of time, and games like Gartic Phone have a set drawing length…  more or less making the game not artist friendly. Oddly enough the game was very fun to play and pretty simple at the same time.

The rules of the normal gamemode are simple and fun. You first start by making up a prompt, then after you’re done you draw someone else’s prompt. As the game progresses you have to guess what other people drew… sometimes you will have no clue what it is, but you must guess something!

The controls took a little bit to get the hang of at first, but with patience I found that it was very easy to locate every drawing tool — a large amount of tools at that; And with the amount of tools available, it allows artists to make surprisingly detailed drawings, while being limited to a phone.

In the match that I was in, a lot of the time I struggled to guess what in the world were my classmates drawing, But both the struggle and the guessing is what makes the game more fun. There are many other game modes as well, like “Draw and Guess” with each player adding on top of the others art in a chain. -Ryan Erickson

*NOT JUST ANY DESSERT*

When we were discussing what snacks to have for our game week, lemon posset wasn’t the first thing to come to mind (mostly because I was having a craving for jalapeno poppers), but it ended up making the most sense with preparation time and portability. My step-dad and I could make them the night before, and, because lemon posset needs to be refrigerated, I could bring a cooler to the school and keep them good until the designated period. Anything hot would have been impossible to preserve late in the day, and especially overnight; so even with the hassle of a large cooler, the posset ended up being the perfect choice. They’re easy all around, and a normal recipe yields around 10-12, so they’re great for a big group. Even if you don’t make dessert often, lemon posset is a fun, kind of messy, and simple way to make something good pretty fast.

I’ve never dealt well with sourness, so when my friend offered me a “lemon posset” on a random summer day, I wasn’t convinced I’d love it, but I still took it for the sake of being polite. Imagine my surprise when, despite a lemon-y flavor, it was more of a sugary custard, and was barely sour at all! Being somebody who tends towards chocolate desserts, it was a surprising experience for me, and that’s how the desert ended up on my radar. For another friend’s birthday party, I remembered back to the lemon posset I’d had that single time, and I took it upon myself to try and make them as a gift. I realized that day that it had only three ingredients: lemon juice, heavy whipping cream, and sugar, and had no difficult assembly outside of cutting lemons in half and scooping out the insides with a spoon. It immediately became one of my favorite homemade foods, because it never felt daunting to make, especially with the help of my step-dad. -Iliana Vega

THURSDAY

Chameleon is a game of a person blending in, being a chameleon, while knowing nothing except the round’s category and based on the roll of two dice the topic is chosen for everyone to go around and say one word about the topic. After everyone says their word the group goes around and votes for who they think is the chameleon and doesn’t know the topic.

I was nervous to play this game because I am a really bad liar, but I always see videos of playing Imposter, which is similar to Chameleon, and wanted to know if anyone would notice if I was lying. 

The staff played over 10 rounds, but I was only the chameleon once. I got lucky and ended up being last when I was the chameleon and already knew the word so no one suspected me. The word I was chameleon on was photography under the category hobbies, but the first person that went on the round said rule of thirds, so I knew the word right away.

A significant part of the game is choosing a good word to be specific so other people didn’t suspect you, but not being too specific that the chameleon can figure out the word which I feel like a lot of people struggled with. 

I do wish I would have got to be the chameleon more than once, but it was fun to see other players under the pressure of the game. Many times I was surprised by who was the chameleon, with one staff member guessing China for gunpowder when they were second and no one suspected them at all. 

After getting more into the game, one sign that someone was the chameleon was someone who kept looking at the card and using other people’s clues to narrow down what the topic could be on the card. Some people were also just unsure about what they were going to say that was usually a give away on if they were the chameleon.

Playing this as a staff was beneficial in bonding with seeing how some people were good at lying on the spot while some were poor at deceiving people. It was also nice to see some people’s vocabulary and ideas about the topics. Overall, this game was enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it for a decent sized group of people. -Marlie Best

*SWEET IDEA*

The biggest problem that people have in their everyday lives is trying to decide whether they want to eat too many cookies, or if they want to eat too many brownies. Luckily there’s a solution for this issue. Some may already be aware of them, but for those who are not, the newest dessert craze is brookies. This wonderful combination combines a layer of cookie dough topped by a layer of brownie batter, followed by yet another layer of cookie dough on top. I personally am not particularly gifted at baking, however, I do have a girlfriend who is! The two of us bake “together” which often really means she does the majority of the work actually baking while I do dishes. As far as the brookies themselves, they’re one of my favorite desserts. The texture combination from the sort of crumble that comes from the cookies pairs really well with the softness of the brownies. I recommend pairing this one with a glass of milk to help balance out the chocolate from both parts of the recipe. The recipe is fairly simple and does not take very long at all, I would definitely recommend trying this one out if you have the opportunity. -Trey Lovings

FRIDAY

The game Spoons was fairly new to me, and I was a bit confused on how to play at first, but once I figured it out it was fun. Everyone starts with 5 cards, which everyone passes a card around in the circle and the first person to get 4 of the same number has to grab a spoon in the middle, and the person who doesn’t get a spoon gets eliminated. This goes on until one person is left. 

It was a very chaotic game but it was really fun! It was nice to laugh with the other people in Journalism about how slow some of us are at grabbing spoons because a lot of the time we’re in work mode. -Delaney Gordon

*SNACK TIME*

What started as a simple experiment in our kitchen quickly turned into something my dad is now known for: his savory snack mix. Over the years, he’s made it countless times without changing a single thing and honestly, he doesn’t need to.

The recipe is surprisingly simple. Just 1/4 cup of canola oil, a mix of crunchy snacks (our go-to combo is Cheez-Its, Goldfish, and pretzels), and the star of the show: ranch seasoning. After everything is mixed together, it’s baked until crisp, giving it that extra crunch. Somehow, these basic ingredients come together to create something addictive. It’s salty, tangy, and packed with flavor.

The first time I brought it to a staff bonding event at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch, I wasn’t sure what people would think. Within minutes, the bowl was empty. Everyone kept asking for the recipe, amazed that something so easy could taste so good. The same thing happened during our fun week of games and snacks. 

After a week of reviewing snacks and games, this one still stands out. It’s easy, simple, and delicious. Sometimes, the best snacks aren’t the ones you buy at the store, they’re the ones made at home and shared with others. -Kyleigh Hughes

LOOKING BACK

The week of games was also a chance to bond with the group. Many stated that they felt a strong sense of connection while playing Gartic Phone. Some even mentioned that they learned who was gifted at drawing and who was not so gifted. Capture the Flag was also noted as a strong group effort, having teams where players would help one another. 

 Gartic Phone was the clear favorite, with seven participants voting it the most fun. On the other hand, Poetry for Neanderthals and Spoons tied for last, each receiving three votes as the least fun. Most were satisfied with the selection of snacks but multiple participants voiced a preference for having more salty instead of sweet snacks. 

For future bonding activities, more physical activities were a fan favorite. The overall rating of the bonding got 8.5 out of 10 stars in total. One person shared that they felt the week felt relaxing and the games were something to look forward to. Another wrote that they enjoyed having an excuse to talk and spend time together. -Alexis Bell