Fads are nothing new at PCM High School. Every year, it feels like there is something new that takes over students’ lives. In 2019 it was TikTok in its infancy, in 2020 it was Among Us, in 2021 it was Retro Bowl and now in 2022 the fads are finally coming about again. Currently, numerous students have started playing Chess as well as an app game called “I Want Watermelon.” 

Senior August Stock gave insight about his brief time with chess. 

“It’s fun. About three days in of learning. I feel like I’m ready for Harvard,” said Stock. 

Senior Aydan Camu has been playing with Stock, but the game of chess is nothing new for him. 

“Chess is great for the mind, soul and body,” said Camu. 

“I Want Watermelon” (produced by Lazy Cell Inc.) is relatively new, and the game only started taking over at the beginning of the week of Nov. 7. It involves dropping fruit and stacking them on top of each other, with each match making an even larger fruit. It functions very similarly to classic flash game 2048. The goal of it is to combine enough fruit to form a watermelon that clears out a large chunk of space on the board. Gameplay of “I WantWatermelon” can be viewed to the right. 

Senior RaeAnn Duinink is credited with showing the game to everyone after she saw it in an article. 

“I feel really supported in my community because people like the things that I like,” remarked Duinink. 

Senior Kiera Nelson loves spending her free time with the fruit-dropping game. 

“It’s a good distraction from my everyday behaviors. I do it when I drive; it’s kind of a guilty pleasure,” explained Nelson. 

Senior Paige Steenhoek can’t seem to put the game down. 

“Fruit game is nice because I do it when I drive and sit in the tanning bed,” said Steenhoek. 

Those players of I Want Watermelon all simultaneously rated the game an 11/10, praising it for its soothing nature. Duinink gave it a few weeks before people are sick of it, Steenhoek gave it about one week and Nelson refused to say the game would stop trending because didn’t want to talk crap about “the fruit game.” These trends seem to lack the school-wide participation that the trends of previous years brought, so it is clear that they will not be as year defining as other fads were.