Random thing I thought of

I'm working on teen books, so I'm allowed to remember junior high memories like this one...

When I was in eighth grade, my family moved to a wealthier town than we'd ever lived in before. It was a huge New Jersey farm town with mansions and country clubs. The school system was one of the best in the state, which was why my mom liked it. We found an old house in the only non-new development in town, the only part of town we could afford, and moved in.

The kids at my new school talked about which company their dads owned, and only wore Guess jeans. I had always had a few friends in any school I lived in, even if we were all geeks. But in this new school, I had none.

So anyway, something happened there that really made me laugh - because it showed how popularity worked.

There was a kid in my homeroom named Bill Jakorsky. Bill was unpopular. But he was still more popular than I was (who wasn't?)

One day, we had a pep rally. After it, we all went back to homeroom.

Bill Jakorsky came up to me and demanded: "Caren, did you cheer?"

I thought he was asking if I was a cheerleader, just to make fun of me. So I said, "No." Because of course I wasn't a cheerleader.

Then I realized that he just meant, did I cheer for our teams. I wanted to correct what I'd said. But it was too late. I got a sinking feeling as he ran to report me to a popular girl in the class named Rachel.

"Rachel," Bill said. "Caren didn't cheer."

Rachel looked at him and said, "Who gives a shit whether she cheered or not?"

Hee hee. It wasn't that she cared about me at all, it was that she didn't care about what Bill had to say, either. I took satisfaction in that.

I just think it's funny that even the unpopular kids in a junior high will try to pick on someone less popular than they are, to score points with the popular crowd. And it always backfires.

Sorry, Bill. ;)