New Year’s is a time of partying and celebration as the year comes to a close with high hopes and anticipation for the next year. Most high school students would normally spend time with their friends and family or go to an event. However, this year was completely different for Lauren Masseth. 

Typically, Masseth and her friends would have a sleepover on New Year’s, but they decided not to due to restrictions and the global pandemic. 

“Every year we usually get together on New Year’s, but with COVID-19, we decided to do it over Zoom,” Masseth said.

Masseth was originally planning on just playing some games with her friends and hanging out virtually, but then came up with an Inside Joke Escape Room alongside Annaliese Harper. The pair started planning out everything. 

“Me and Annaliese Zoomed together one day, and we were like, ‘Hey! Let’s try an Inside Joke Escape Room!’” Masseth said.  

It was not just a normal virtual escape room where everything was online. Specific items were sent to certain members of the group. Someone got a deck of cards, while another got a picture of a vending machine with specific foods and drinks.

The escape room consisted of puzzles and questions ranging from how many times Masseth has dyed her hair to how many months have multiple birthdays. Then they used those numbers on a deck of cards to find specific corresponding letters. All of this to try and figure out how Masseth died. 

The escape room was divided into three sections, with the first section about all of the characters and where they were at the time of death. The second section was multiple games broken up into pieces that everyone had, but no one had a full game. The third section was full of the solutions, but also consisted of a second murder among the group. Everyone had fun analyzing the clues and trying to figure out who killed Masseth. 

Lauren Raupp, a good friend of Masseth’s, took part in the Escape Room. 

“I would definitely say that I enjoyed it, and I definitely feel like we found ways to make it work,” Raupp said.

At first, Masseth kept most of the puzzles and the main premise of the escape room a secret from Raupp and the others, only talking about a couple of the parts. It confused Raupp, but once she got started and everyone was working, she picked it up quickly. The game ran smoothly with only a couple of technical errors and glitches, but they were able to quickly recover. 

Masseth, Raupp, and all of their friends had a great New Year’s, kicking off 2021 on a creative and high note, and saying goodbye to 2020.