Chances are that by now, you or someone you love has been affected by the epidemic.

You know the one.

Students watch eagerly as a lone hero flicks their wrist, their face contorting into a picture of concentration and effort as time seems to slow all around them. The crowd screams in disbelief and absolute hype as the hero is egged on by dozens of cheering, dabbing onlookers-turned-orangutans jumping around in celebration of a plastic water bottle coming to rest on whatever poor tabletop had the misfortune of being surrounded by such a mob.

Or, you’ve been the one flipping the bottle.

2016 was, by general consensus, an interesting year to say the absolute minimum. This country alone saw the tragic rise and fall of an almighty gorilla, even more dance trends, which made people want to board the next one-way spacecraft to Mars, and the entire world tuned in to witness some of the most legendary political events of all time. Oh, Trump and Clinton screamed at each other for a bit too.

But by far the most persistent trend of this year, born out of the unholy, meme-ridden depths of the internet, was the bottle flip challenge. It’s simple enough: Take a plastic water bottle, drink it down most of the way, and spin it over itself in that beautiful arc before it drops down ever-so gracefully onto a flat surface of your choice.

So why has it taken over schools everywhere?

It seems not even our brightest scholars can comprehend such a question.

Latin teacher Mrs. Sapsin was intrigued to know whether there is some sort of competition going on around the school.

“Why would one flip a bottle?” she inquired. “I can’t say I detest it, but I question the motivation.”

Honors Biology teacher Mrs. Halloran thinks the answer lies in the human psyche.

“Any game can become addicting,” she said. “You just keep going until you succeed. It’s like that dripping water faucet in your house. It drives you crazy ‘til you go turn it off.”

Mrs. Halloran doesn’t believe in said game’s benefits herself.

“It’s distracting and creates noise,” she said. “It’s also very repetitive.”

Geometry teacher Mrs. Sanborn is among those who think bottle flipping needs to go.

“I wouldn’t care if it wasn’t in my class,” she said. “We need to find something else to waste our time.”

The student populace of LHS opined rather variously. Freshman Timothy Gore agreed that bottle flipping is entirely unnecessary.

“It gets water everywhere and makes weird noises,” Gore said.

Sophomore Adrianna Belanger thinks it’s detrimental to the student’s own image.

“Guys do it in an attempt to look cool,” she said. “I think we should ban it to preserve their dignity.”

Sophomores Jimmy Toomy and Emily Hatem begged to differ.

“There’s nothing wrong with it,” Toomy stressed.

“It’s great,” Hatem said. “If you don’t do it, you don’t have a life.”