By Maiya Tomlin
If you have been keeping up to date with the OnLion, you might have stumbled upon Bridget Valls’s article about Winterfest. While the article mentions the senior faculty basketball game, it overlooks the best part of the game.
The best part was not seeing the teachers get dunked on, although it was a close second. The best part was the eminent presence of the mascots.
First of all, those were not actual lions in uniforms walking around on their hind legs.
It was me and my friend Caroline Nelson (10) dressed in lion costumes. And let me tell you here, the experience was anything but joyous, I’d call it traumatic even. A few days later, after recovering from our experience, I found Caroline in English, and we began the retelling of our horror story.
“I would not wish that on my worst enemy,” Caroline said.
Let us walk you through our experience so you can understand that being the Lovett mascot is only a task for the brave (no Cowardly Lions need apply), which is evidently neither Caroline nor me.
We got ourselves into the situation in the first place because of sophomore SGA. All four positions of president, VP, secretary, and special events coordinator are filled by our friends. The secretary, Cate Turner, approached me and a few friends at the cafe tables in the plaza a day before the game and made me an “offer” I probably should have refused: “Is anyone interested in being the mascot during the basketball game for a $25 cafe gift card?”
The table went silent. Cate has been one of my best friends since Kindergarten, and she and the SGA had been working their tails off organizing this game for weeks. I felt like I owed her one and should walk around with an actual tail. Plus, at the time, I was craving a cafe California club on naan bread (which costs a whopping $8).
After a quick calculation in my head processing that the $25 gift card could buy me 3 days’ worth of Califonia clubs, I responded, “Fine, I’ll do it.” Pro tip: Never make a decision when you’re hungry.
Since the rest of the table was much more intelligent than me, they all said, “Oh, heck no.” I brought it upon myself to recruit another victim to participate with me because, after all, there are two lion suits to be filled. Cate and I went into the high school to scout out more victims. Cate silenced the crowd of our friends and proposed the idea. After receiving a few giggles, Caroline responded, “I guess I’ll do it.”
“I mean, they offered up a free cafe gift card. I had to jump by that. The cafe is not cheap,” Caroline said. “Which we never got by the way.” Caroline and I decided we’d take that up with SGA after English class.
We were retelling our story in front of Tess Horner (10), who let out a giggle at what Caroline said. To which Caroline remarked: “It’s actually not funny.”
The day of the game, Savannah Jones (10), the sophomore special events coordinator, brought us across from the girls’ locker room and unlocked the door to a room I didn’t even know existed. “It was some sort of athletic closet with like basketballs and such,” Caroline explained.
Savannah led us to a black trash bag on the ground. She lifted it up and dumped out both the lion and lioness costumes. We decided that Caroline would be the lion because she’s taller than me. At that moment, I thought I had lucked out.
We put on the costumes, and I could see absolutely nothing. Caroline could actually see through the lion head, so in actuality, she lucked out. However, I did see a clear view of the ground pointing diagonally outward.
We entered the gym after the game had already started. (I had Caroline and Savannah lead us towards Wallace because, in case you forgot, I couldn’t see anything.)
We walked through the doors, and instantly, Mrs. K, our English teacher, knew it was us. I realized it was probably pretty obvious, given the onesie barely covered my ankles and shoes. I’m not sure how she knew it was Caroline in the other suit, though.
“It was really hot in there,” Caroline recalled. “We had to step out multiple times,” she added. I can vouch for that. We felt like we were dying. After saying ‘hey’ to the lower schoolers on the opposite side of the gym, we had to step out and take a breather.
Outside of the gym, we took off our lion heads and saw Savannah’s mom, Mrs. Jones, who works in the athletic office. She was holding two ice-cold blue Powerades, and I began to see the light. Cate also came out of the gym to find us and tell us to “be more entertaining.” Caroline and I were offended, given that it felt like we were burning alive for the first half of the game.
Caroline and I decided to plan some tricks we could do to obey Cate’s wish. “You can’t do the worm in it. I’ve tried. It doesn’t work,” Caroline told me. I witnessed her attempt, and I can vouch that she almost pulled it off.
We suited back up and entered back into the trenches (Wallace Gym).“Yeah, we weren’t doing a good job, even though we did what she asked. We just got beat down by SGA the whole time,” Caroline recalled.
Safe to say that during the second half, we were much more entertaining. Our friends on Varsity Winter cheer had finished their halftime performance, and we hung out near them. All of our friends were asking, “Who’s in there?” Good thing they didn’t share the same sleuthing instincts as Mrs. K.
Caroline and I threw the basketball around and high-fived everyone in an attempt to be ‘more entertaining.’ “It was traumatic when the lower schoolers tried to take off our heads,” Caroline said.
After the game was over, we were thankfully led back to the closet. However, the door was locked. Caroline and I were so done at that point; we just plopped ourselves onto the ground, took off the lion heads, and prayed someone would find the key. (Hopefully, no lower school students saw us with the heads off and became permanently scarred and disillusioned.)
Thankfully, after 15 minutes and being spotted by everyone in passing (which we did not even care about at that point), we were let back into the room. “I am NEVER doing that again. Are you kidding me?” Caroline said, and I certainly agreed with her.
Tess asked Caroline and me in English, after we most likely blew off some steam, if we would ever consider doing it again. “I didn’t get what I was promised. I did not receive my incentive, so, no,” Caroline said.
After reading this two-page-long rant, I hope you understand the moral of the story.
- Never do a favor for your friends on SGA.
- Mrs. Jones is our guardian angel.
- I have had to pay for all of the California Clubs I’ve eaten since the game.
