Graphic by Ben Koh Just a few of years ago, gambling was limited to the casino. Cards were played on cafeteria tables. People participated in friendly March Madness brackets or made weekend bets during football games. The risk wasn’t available on every play. Betting stayed connected to games of luck and never really seeped into daily life. But last year that boundary vanished. A new form of betting has emerged, driven by prediction markets that connect speculation to real-w

Photo Credit / Ifrah Naaz It’s test day, and every single student pulls out a calculator from their backpack, each with a similar interface, the familiar Texas logo and the words “Texas Instruments” inscribed. The students simultaneously press the same familiar buttons on their calculators to reset the memory, and the teacher walks around checking the identical screens for confirmation, then passes out the test. Nationwide, the story is the same: students just won’t stop usi

Although Bellevue has historically been known for its excellent football program, the boys swim team has gone under the radar. As a result of a first place finish in the 200 meter medley relay, as well as ten additional top eight finishes in different events, Bellevue stood top of the top of the perch at the state competition, the first time since 2016. This year, the defending champs are well on their way towards repeating their state title, with wins at all but one swim mee

Many Bellevue student athletes don’t just balance school sports and their regular classes but also balance their club sports as well. Club sports are rigorous and can take up significant hours of the day. Finding an effective way to balance school, extracurriculars, club sports and school sports practices can be difficult, yet this task is one that many students find methods to overcome. “Balancing lacrosse while being in school can be hard because sometimes it’s physically a

Bellevue High School’s girls basketball team is enjoying a stellar season as the 3A’s No. 1 team with a 15-3 record. With strong chemistry, plenty of talent, and daily practice, the Wolverines have established themselves as one of the best in the state of Washington. One of the Wolverine’s major assets has been the team’s younger players. Freshman Iyla Jones has quickly become an exceptional player for Bellevue, ranked #2 in the state of Washington for the class of 2029, and

Listen up Bellevue! This is a big controversy that needs to be discussed. Is the Seahawks defense this year better than their 2013 Super Bowl winning defense?   “Nothing will ever be as good as the Legion of Boom. The Seahawks D this year is really good, but Richard Sherman was the goat, the greatest of all time,” senior Myles Dochtermann said. In 2013, the Seahawks defense led their team to a Super Bowl win, earning the nickname “Legion of Boom.”  The LOB consisted of some o

For years, Bellevue High assemblies followed an unwritten order: roll call with upperclassmen booing the freshmen, the classic drum-and-clap, and finally, seniors rushing the floor for a mosh. Underclassmen watched from the bleachers, already imagining their own turn to experience these traditions. This year, that moment never came. Moshing was banned, seniors were told to remain seated, and assemblies felt noticeably quieter. For Bellevue senior Brody Gayte, the change was e

Student involvement is consistently dwindling. Every event or volunteer opportunity feels desolate, and food and toy drives seem to lack effort and involvement from participants. Students’ involvement and school spirit has consistently been a problem at Bellevue High School, so what can students do to help? Students involving themselves in school activities is essential, so it is important to know why many avoid getting involved and in what ways students are prevented from p

A painting can take decades to finish. A song can take years to reach perfection. A sweater can take months to crochet. While they are all around us, fine arts tend to have a quieter exposure than some other extracurricular activities of students at Bellevue High School. Although many students get dressed up and come for our football games, few people publicize or attend Bellevue High’s art exhibitions. Despite this, the projects that they've been working on teach the importa

Bellevue students have been busy putting their mark on the world. Some are utilizing their business skills to create clever ways to make a buck, while are passionate about spreading  important messages to those around them. These students aren’t just juggling school, but also managing costs, production, and communication. Seniors Rory Ritchie and Justin Lee decided to use their lacrosse and business skills to create their own small business of teaching a lacrosse camp for ki

ALL PHOTOS & GRAPHICS/FINLEY GERRON If you’ve ever powered on your TV to watch a Netflix show, then opened TikTok or Geometry Dash, you may be surprised to learn that you’re not alone. This practice, dubbed, “second-screening,” describes watching a movie or show while simultaneously engaging with a secondary device, often a smartphone. It’s become increasingly common in the last decade, and accordingly, production companies are accounting for it in their media.  According t

ALL PHOTOS & GRAPHICS/FINLEY GERRON 2026 is a turning point in fashion culture. This year is represented by a significant departure from radical silhouettes and loud trends, replaced by a collective agreement by consumers to slow consumption. A new phenomenon embracing anti-consumerism has emerged. Influencers on social media platforms have put their own spin on this concept, introducing “de-influencing.” Instead of pushing new clothing pieces onto their followers, they expo

ALL PHOTOS & GRAPHICS/FINLEY GERRON New movies and new stories release, but book adaptations stories seem to be receiving the most attention. The debate is always about which is better: the book or the movie. I read and watched both the books of the Prime Video show, “We Were Liars,” and the new movie, “Regretting You,” and I’ll explain some key differences about how the stories were told. “Regretting You” was published in 2019 by Colleen Hoover, and the movie was released

Graphic Credit / Ifrah Naaz Bellevue’s halls have been buzzing after discovering that Bellevue's very own juniors, Olivia Anderson and Chloe Coogan, have successfully created a small business. Anderson and Coogan’s new venture, C&O Charcuteries, is a business focused on creating handmade, intricate, and elegant food platters. Serving as the gold standard for any food arrangement, they have truly mastered the art of table centerpieces.  Anderson and Coogan's inspiration for

Photo Credit / Ifrah Naaz A lazy electronic chime is all that indicates the 11:40 AM opening of one of Bellevue’s most storied culinary institutions. A horde of hungry teens beckons its call, morphing itself into several lines which lazily snake around wooden sitting tables and block pedestrian traffic. Those in the longest queue patiently wait for today’s lunch special, while others, in an adjacent but much shorter line, are craving a slice of pizza. Nowadays, the Bellevue

ALL PHOTOS & GRAPHICS/BEN KOH Imagine it’s the end of the unit, and as you anxiously wait for your teacher to announce the final exam, they inform everyone that it’s going to be a group project. What a nightmare. Group projects are one of the most common methods teachers use to measure their students’ understanding of course content, but instead of assessing collaboration and better efficiency, group projects usually achieve the opposite result. “Group projects aren't effe

ALL PHOTOS & GRAPHICS/BEN KOH One of the worst parts of the day is waking up early. Hearing your alarm ring before sunrise and having to get out of bed, do your morning routine, and then endure an entire day of class is grueling at the least. For many students, waking up early can also offset their entire day through fatigue, especially if they don’t get enough hours of sleep. But there’s a super easy solution to this: make school start one hour later, which the American Psyc

ALL PHOTOS & GRAPHICS/BEN KOH With big movie releases like “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” “Marty Supreme” and “Zootopia 2,” it seems like movie theaters should be busier now more than ever.  However, a look inside Cinemark shows how, surprisingly, the theaters are emptier than ever before. “I just went to the movies to see “Song Sung Blue”, and there wasn’t really anyone my age there,” freshman John Bede said. With the lingering effects of the pandemic and the explosion of stream

A Bellevue High drop-off lane, with an rainbow. Image by Aimee Ni. There are countless points of frustration among students, most notably freshmen and sophomores, surrounding morning traffic congestion at Bellevue High School. Traffic congestion is affecting students’ ability to arrive at class on time. With two drop-off locations spread around campus, primarily used by underclassmen who do not yet have driver’s licenses or personal vehicles, traffic often becomes backed up a