Students at Palo Alto High School await the results of Friday’s lunch and after-school rallies after a long week of tight competition between classes. The seniors will perform their winning dance during the Homecoming football game tonight.

The theme today was “Paly Spirit,” and classes showed their unity by wearing Paly colors. Juniors, sophomores and freshmen wore green and white, while seniors wore camouflage.

The lunch rally consisted of two events: “Pumpkin Carving” and “Hula Hoop.”

In “Pumpkin Carving,” each team was handed a pumpkin at the beginning of lunch and carved a jack-o-lantern. Pumpkins were graded at the end of lunch based on creativity; results will be revealed later tonight.

Junior Ibby Day participated in pumpkin carving for the juniors and expressed confidence over the junior design.

“Overall, I think juniors will take first or second place,” Day said. “I attempted to carve a pharaoh, however, the knives became a problem because they bent while carving.”

“Hula Hoop” consisted of teams passing a hula hoop through a line of people holding hands. Seniors placed first in “Hula Hoop,” narrowly beating the juniors. Freshmen and sophomores placed third and fourth, respectively.

Following the launch of the “Pumpkin Carving,” the teachers performed a dance on the field. Economics and Social Justice teacher Eric Bloom enjoyed performing for the students.

“I just love that all the staff came out to do it [dance],” Bloom said.

At the after-school rally, each class presented its float that they created throughout the week in the auto shop.

Additionally, the classes presented their Spirit Dances during the after-school rally today. The freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors choreographed dances based on their themes: the Lorax, Lifeguard, Ancient Egypt and Out of This World, respectively.

“It was really nice to see it [the dance] come together,” sophomore Simone Shaw said.

On Thursday, the seniors were at the top of the leaderboard with 12,000 points. The sophomores regained their lead on the juniors with 9,780 points and the juniors and freshmen have 9,390 and 7,370 points, respectively.

After a rough first day, the seniors climbed to the top of the classes throughout the week and retained a steady lead. The sophomore and junior classes are in a close race for second.

“I actually think it [Spirit Week] is going to be pretty close this year,” junior Aman Mittal said.