by Celeste Good

Laser tag, go-carting, arcade games, and pizza are not typical Brentwood Saturday night activities on campus. Last Saturday, however, the Mackenzie girls had a special “midnight” run to Cyber City in Nanaimo, where they embarked on activities that reminded the participants of carefree childhood fun and games.

As a kid, I was never very interested in Chucky Cheese, like so many of my elementary school peers, and I was always afraid of the laughing clowns and the group of boys gathered around Mortal Combat. I haven’t gone go-carting since I was eleven and I’ve never played laser tag before. With that background, you can imagine my doubts as we peeled off campus late that evening en route for Cyber City.

When we arrived, we were greeted by a friendly couple who issued everyone with neon-colored bracelets and directed us towards the pizza that was already waiting in the dining section. Houseparent Mrs. Flynn then issued ten tokens for each of us, and we were free to roam the arcade, the adjacent laser tag room, and the go-cart course outside. Since the place was closed to all other customers and was privately ours for the night, we competed against one another in arcade games, and on the go-cart course. We teamed up to challenge each other in laser tag, and to score optimum tickets for cool prizes. The overall winner, after a very competitive race to the finish line on the go-cart course was Ms. Lauren McKallor who had a very impressive lead foot.

I will admit that I steered clear of the Mortal Combat game, but all in all, the outing was a complete success. By the end of the evening, after I had won enough tickets to buy a very stylish necklace and four mini Tootsie rolls (200 tickets in total!) all of us were barely standing and could hardly wait to get back on the bus and head to our cozy beds back on campus. This was definitely a night to remember – Mackenzie girls will look back fondly on our mid-winter, midnight trip to Cyber City!