Select seniors have danced by themselves in the hallways, lunged to class, and lurked around corners to film others slacking off on a challenge. “Gotcha!,” the annual school-wide senior game, asks students to take on silly tasks each day between the bells. Each student is also assigned a “target,” or another student to keep an eye on, and record if they are not completing the assigned task. 

If a student can successfully get their target out of the game, they send the video to the Gotcha Girls on Instagram, the anonymous game organizers. The Gotcha Girls assign targets, release the themes each morning, and run the popular Gotcha Instagram account. A staffer with The Muse had two exclusive interviews with the Gotcha Girls, the transcripts of which are below.

Q:What are the greatest challenges that come along with being a Gotcha Girl?

Gotcha Girl #1 

A: The biggest challenge that we’ve faced so far has been (using) the accounts. Because they are linked to past seniors’ emails and phone numbers, it took us so long to get verified, and then we got locked out of the account. Another thing that’s been challenging has been when people send us their submissions, and it’s never clear who they are and who they are eliminating. They just expect us to see and know who every single senior is.

Gotcha Girl #2 

A: There are a lot of challenges to running Gotcha. Not only do you have 200+ seniors all emailing and DMing you at the same time, but you have to go through all eliminations and watch all videos, because some people don’t send in accurate videos. It’s just trying to keep everyone happy. A lot of seniors were unhappy with some of the decisions that we’ve made as far as the eliminations or accepting their videos. I think managing all the seniors as well as keeping them satisfied and having fun with the game is probably one of the greatest challenges.

Q:How do you choose the themes for each day with the other Gotcha Girls?

Gotcha Girl #1 

A: The themes aren’t really chosen. They had to all be pre-approved prior to the starting of Gotcha. We honestly just copied previous years because we feel like that’s what seniors look up to the most and that’s what they’re expecting. Why fix something that isn’t broken? A lot of the challenges are something that you guys (seniors) are wanting to try, and now, it’s your turn to try it.

Gotcha Girl #2 

A: We do it based on what the challenges were last year and creativity as well. We also think about what would be cool to see all of the seniors do in the halls. For example, we did a Naruto Day, and that was a day that was a challenge last year, but we did something different, which was dancing day. We thought it would be really funny to see all the seniors dancing in the hallway.

Q:How do you deal with the complaints from seniors about the management of the Gotcha account?

Gotcha Girl #1 

A: Although some of them are valid, we try not to let it get to us, because at the end of the day we know we’re not slacking on purpose. When things aren’t being posted on time or when we’re behind on the account, it’s not because we think it’s funny to mess up Gotcha for the senior class. It’s because there is genuinely an issue, and we aren’t able to solve it right away. So, honestly, the complaints are very easy to ignore. 

Gotcha Girl #2 

A: With anything that is student-run, there will be some complaints, and that’s expected. We knew from the start that some seniors would not be happy. If there are some complaints, we look into them with a fresh set of eyes and see why they might be frustrated.

Q: What will you take away from being a part of running Gotcha this year?

Gotcha Girl #1 

A: The biggest thing is (there needs to be) just more organization. One day of being kicked out of the account and we’ve been backlogged for an entire week of posting. It really translates into all areas, not just Gotcha, that you need to stay on top of your stuff, especially when it’s a lot. 

Gotcha Girl #2 

A: I learned a lot about managing people with different opinions. Running Gotcha is incredibly hard. I think I’ve learned the most from having a lot of things to do and getting them done regardless (of) people’s criticism and taking hate and obviously dealing with it. I’m lucky to have the rest of my Gotcha girls to help me.”