Warmhearted

The fire clawed the iced sky, warming the city of Texarkana. The audience staggered on the hills, creating an uninhibited pantheon. Students bundled up on the ground, lettermans cloaking their backs, smiling at classmates, awarding the hollow “15” silhouette in the sky their acknowledgement. They understood their future. The flames who warmed families and friends ignited a celebration in the world.

With over 200 in attendance, the annual play off bonfire commemorated the football season. Tonight the students and faculty welcomed locals to participate in a small pep rally accompanied by the band, Highsteppers and cheerleaders. Though temperatures reached 37 degrees, the visitors stuck it out.

“My favorite part is enduring the cold in preparation to fire,” senior Jordan Addison said. “I am grateful I got to witness it.”

The bonfire warmed many noses, but the true admirers would bid their final goodbyes to the mass spectacle.

“It’s kind of like a special event to the seniors,” senior Zack Norton said. “It has a special meaning. It’s our last pep rally, our last football memory. We all shared this together”

Cheers, songs and fire assembled one of the biggest public turnouts of the year. That being said, the mega inferno was not assembled with the flick of a wand.

“We showed up here Tuesday after school with a bunch of pallets,” senior Gage Martin said. “Some people said we wouldn’t get done until the day before the pep rally.”

There were splinters and the cold pierced skin. The largest obstacle: stacking.

“I tried to help carry the pallets,” senior Mary-Stewart Shores said. “But I don’t weigh very much and I’m not very strong.”

Though some felt meager in construction, the bonfire was built in record time.

“We used trucks to stack about 20 pallets to drop them off,” Martin said. “The guys would load and drop off and the girls would stack. It was just a big group effort.”

A smoky haze and a starry night. The newest ornament in the sky? Not a plane, not a bird, but the new drone, “Al.”

“The coolest part is the drone,” senior Chandler Thomas said. “It’s insane that we have a different perspective from above then just on the ground.”

Of course the big show was the bonfire, but the cause for celebration lies in tomorrow’s first play off game.

“I think we will take a W,” sophomore quarterback Cade Pearson said.

Fall football came to a close. The flames blew out. The seniors stood in acceptance, hoping to continue the unity for the rest of the year.

“I think our class kind of makes it happy because we are a happy class,” senior Nick Richter said. “We are all together and we don’t let little things keep us down. I will be sad [when we graduate], but life marches on.”