This year, a few brave students of Briar Woods High School broke out of their shells to ask their dates to homecoming. According to senior, Carly Fabris, "He [James Banks, Stone Bridge] made a map for me and we walked down the street looking at signs in his neighborhood and it would tell me which letter on the sign to write down and eventually it spelled out 'will you go to homecoming with me?'" Of course, she was happy; as were seniors, Brea Hewitt and Meaghan Leon, when their dates, juniors, Brett Colan and Dominick Caldwell, said "yes" to them after they sent them on a wild scavenger hunt. Junior, Casey Roche, bought a t-shirt and wrote “Homecoming?” on the front, along with the words “wash me.” On the back, she printed girls names in washable marker along with hers in permanent marker. Then, Matt Roush, also a junior, washed the t-shirt and discovered his homecoming date! Even with all of the creativity floating around, most students still opted to go with their friends to the jungle themed homecoming dance held on Saturday, October 18, 2008 at 8:00 in the main gymnasium of the school.



After students found their dates, bought their attire, and took their pictures, they arrived fashionably late to the dance and stayed until 11:30, when the DJ wrapped up the last song. Most sweated away on the dance floor and others split their time between the cafeteria and the dance floor. Their $15.00 ticket included a small smoothie from Tropical Smoothie Café, and in the cafeteria, students could pick up their smoothie if they presented half of their ticket. The hallway between the two heavily populated areas was covered in decorations consisted of cut out jungle animals, a blue paper waterfall over the main entrance to the gym and tall grass.

In the gym, students danced with friends and their sweethearts, but everyone was crowded to the middle as to avoid the on looking teachers and chaperones. Although it was their first high school dance, according to freshman, Sadie Mcgann, the freshmen were comfortable and blended in. Towards the end of the night, at 10:30, they announced the Homecoming King, Jamie Caldwell. Since he was not in attendance, the queen, Emily Jensen, shared her dance as homecoming queen with her boyfriend, Aaron Kakol. The two were completely wrapped up in themselves to notice all of the other couples joining in and friends also swaying the slower paced music.

In the end, each student left with the Jungle Fever, a fever characterized by spirit and love for their school and peers.