It is nine o'clock on a friday night. Your mother has said goodnight already and your brother’s video games and loud outbursts from the living room could be heard into your bedroom. Another weekend that begins with you in your room with no company, alternating from scrolling through your phone to scrolling through your laptop.
[[Facebook]] usually keeps you busy with articles and teen angst posts but this all feels like a routine. School by eight, work by four, home by seven, wasting time by eleven. Where are your promised crazy teenage years.Double-click this passage to edit it. You have arrived to the John Adam’s house at ten; greeted by John Adam himself! He shouts your name as if he’s been expecting you and only you tonight. Maybe now you understand why this guy is so popular, the man makes you feel like a best friend with a single expression.
“Hey! Your like was really unexpected, man,” he wraps his arm around your shoulders. Gosh, this guy is friendly. “Glad you came I could tell this is not part of your comfort zone. Proud of you!” he passes you the red solo cup he was holding.
“What’s this for?” you ask.
“I am going to give you this cup filled with toxins that will alter your brain. While you sip- or chug- on this you can decide on who you could spend your night with, ” walking you from the foyer to the living room.
“In the living room are the [[Self-Declared Nerds]]. They may seem like bores and awkward teens but once you get to know them they talk, and plenty.” he advised. You recognize these kids as they are playing board games laid out on the coffee table. They are all ranked the highest among the class. The first ones to have their hands up in class. Smart-asses, Valedictorian, teacher’s pets.
John guides you up the stairs where you hear shouting from the rooms. You realize it is dark in the second floor and a girl with her eyes covered by a bandana apologizes as she stumbles over you walking towards no specific direction. “These are the [[Self-Proclaimed Weirdos]]... There is nothing else to say about them apart that they are odd- fun- but misunderstood by most.” John professed. You recognize them from initiating town rally’s, most of their clique have no athletic talents or no remarkable GPA’s but everything from their fashion style to their phrases is distinguishable from the average suburban townie.
John navigates you through the dark to a balcony where you observe loud classmates in the pool area blasting music. “And finally, we have the well-known [[Notorious Popular Kids]]. You along with everyone in our high school is aware who these kids are. The jocks boys, the pretty girls, the elite, or at least everyone ranks them as is,” John announces. Of course you know these kids, they may not be the ideal scholars or unique but they are certainly the admired adolescents. All are attractive and trendy.
“You recognize everyone in the house, but now there is a choice to be made. Who will you spend the night with?” with the finishes tour, John leaves you with half an empty solo cup.
You descend the stairs to be confronted with the overachievers. They all pause when you sit along side to them. Unlike the loud music you hear in the backyard, in the living room pop music is playing as background noise to our board game chatter.
“You get the hat because you came in too late,” you realize you joined a game of monopoly. It's a calm game. No one is dancing their life away, no one is drinking themselves to unconsciousness. Just a couple peers cracking jokes with one another. Noticing the music choices changes throughout the night from pop to old school rap to jazz. Everything was a variety of choices.
We continue the game with plenty of large corporation humor, jokes about poverty and capitalism. You have yet to learn a single detail about any of the lives around the table nor any have asked you about yours. Conversation is general yet specific in topic. Hours on end.
[[Off to the Night..?]] You exit the balcony to bump into the girl with her eyes covered by a bandana once again. Instead of an apology she screams, “Tag! You’re it,” while confusion is written all over your face. A huddle of kids take off their bandana passing you another red solo cup.
“Um, no thanks I already had,” you kindly reject.
“You were tagged, now you have to chug the rest of the Socialist Juice and attempt to tag someone else while Gigi-” points at the bandana girl you bumped into twice, “guides you”.
You shrug it off, they seem interesting so let’s attempt this game. Chugging the rest of what seemed to be a disgusting content in the cup, Gigi wraps her bandana in you and spins you three times. Gigi is holding you and directing you but you are not understanding a word. As you blindly are walking beside Gigi she asks you questions chronologically.
“Your political party?” Gigi asks.
“It’s debatable-” she cuts you off.
“GPA?”
“Not a 4.0”
“Favorite color”
“Anything that looks good that day,” you finally bump into something, or someone, stopping your questionnaire midpoint.
“You finally caught someone” handing off the assigned solo cup and bandana. They repeat the steps to the tagged victim: chug, blind, spin, walk. For what seems like hours you and your new friends play tag like kids. While you're at it, players ask you personal questions in the dark. And maybe it's that you're in the dark playing a kids game or the fact that you're not able to see their faces when you respond, but it truly is an honest judge free zone.
[[Off to the Night.]] Descending down the stairs into the backyard where you are greeted by the school quarterback in sunglasses even though it is close to midnight and it is pitch black apart from the string lights. As you sit along the poolside everyone is attempting to get intoxicated while exposing their Friday night through drunk selfies and smoking snapchat videos.
A pretty cheerleader you recognize from the pep rallies approaches you. She introduces herself as Ava. She points out everyone in the backyard from her “day-one” best friend to her “off-and-on-but-still-mine” boyfriend.
[[Off to the Night!]] John Adams shouts from the bottom of the stairs, “You don’t have to go home” and in unison the rest go along as the light goes on , “but you can’t stay here!”
We venture out of the house walking in no particular direction. We are standing alongside of all the groups but only interacting with our own. We have left John Adam’s house but have yet to finish the night.
[[Midnight Political Debates]] John Adams exits to the backyard and announces, “You don’t have to go home” and in unison the rest go along as the light goes on , “but you can’t stay here!”
[[The Woods]]
John Adams enters the living room announcing, “You don’t have to go home” and in unison the rest go along as the light goes on , “but you can’t stay here!”
We venture out of the house walking in no particular direction. We are standing alongside of all the groups but only interacting with our own. We have left John Adam’s house but have yet to finish the night.
[[Options]] Gigi stand besides you with her arms around your shoulders balancing herself to walk properly. “So in the house we were discussing the Mayor’s plan to sign a deal with a famous toilet paper company to build another factory in our town and now would be the perfect time to [[protest]]!” she pauses to burp. “or we can go to the famous bagel shop in town and have a [[march]] against their butter which works with a factory farm”. Gigi is intoxicated but the rest of the crew seemed to be in serious in their bizarre proposals.
We venture out of the house walking in no particular direction. We are standing alongside of all the groups but only interacting with our own. We have left John Adam’s house but have yet to finish the night.
Ava confronts you again she and her boyfriend holding hands. “Hey kid, so we’re heading to the woods! So which sounds more appealing? We could either have a [[woods' dance and sing along together]] or-” she pauses and giggles at her boyfriend, “we could try [['Shrooms!]]”
“Where are we going?” you ask one of the kids you were playing with.
“Well it has been a long night but we got options, dude,” he raspily disclosed. “We could either [[go home]] or we could go to the [[cemetery]].”
Arriving to the major’s big house in the center of the town, you realize loud garbled voices all around you. Although it was only about fifteen kids, as we walked down the streets of this quiet suburbia, the lights around the house lit up at the sound of our arrival. Gigi led our chant, “Clean your ass with other’s grass! Clean your ass with other’s grass!”. After several minutes of us chanting and neighbors slowly exiting their homes to see the ruckus on their porch, the notorious major came out of his high-middle class delicate Victorian home in pajamas and his wife.
“What is this about this time kids?!” the major sighed at our presence.
Gigi seemed to be the leader of the march and came forth to say, “You know what this is about. That toilet paper company you want to sign to build in this town! And to that we say, CLEAN YOUR ASS WITH OTHERS’ GRASS!”
Neighbors rolled their eyes and phones are taken out to either record or make calls. As if it were queue to your observations, you hear police sirens. This night was sure intense and different, but do you think it is worth handcuffs to be officialized as a weird kid?
[[Are you a Weirdo?]] Walking towards downtown we were singing and dancing in unison to childhood tunes. Arriving to the bakery, you were confused. As a citizen of this town you love this bakery’s well made gourmet pastries and desserts but on the other hand you also want to join a group of kids who are different and will give you a new sense of thrill.
“Take cover,” a voice behind your ear says but then a quick figures runs in front of you and break the glass of the bakery. An alarm had gone off that could be heard from a mile away. Along the windows that weren’t completely shattered, Gigi and someone else are holding spray bottles spraying the words “stop killing animals”. As multiple others scattered inside the bakery and came back holding dozens of cartons of eggs and milk.
This wasn’t what you thought you had signed up for.
[[Are you a Weirdo?]] Your idea for joining the weirdos tonight was to observe know what was going on in their heads. These kids aren’t exactly living their ideal lives but that doesn’t stop them from acting diffrent although everyone else is giving them questioning looks. They are far more set in learning to identify themselves along side with others that are distinguishable among the rest.
Is this the behavior you wanted to adapt as a weirdo? Arrival to the woods with an entire football team and a cheer squad. The guys lit the campfire while the girls organized the logs to sit around. Then you notice one of the guy removing something out of his bookbag to what seems like a scissor then going off into the dark.
Ava leans towards you. “You’ll see it's something that’ll change your body!”
The guy returns holding to what seems like plants. To be specific, mushrooms.
“I read on the internet you can have an ego death with this. We’ll be completely different people by the end of it.” the kid informs the rest.
“Have any of you ever tried it? Is it a real drug?” you ask Ava privately.
“No one knows. There’s only one way to find out” she responds confidently.
You question this peer pressure, if you do end up eating this suspicious substance, you can either transcend to a different dimension in the dark far away from civilization or return home with serious food poisoning. Is it worth it?
[[Are you a popular kid?]] Arrival to the woods with an entire football team and a cheer squad. The guys lit the campfire while the girls organized the logs to sit around. Then you notice one of the girls removing things out of her bookbag.
“We want to welcome our newest member with an initiation ceremony,” you look around to see who the person they are referring to then quickly realize it was you. She continues, “Welcome! For it is our pleasure to assign you to our brand renovation of Puritan society in the 21st century!”
The cheer squad begin to dance in unison while the guys stand like statues holding on to something that looks like a rope. You are now extremely confused and uncomfortable.
Is this what it means to be in the popular kids environment?
[[Are you a popular kid?]] You are now walking back home in the dark feeling buzzed after a small social quality time. At least you made a safe choice that will guarantee security. Although you didn’t even get to catch their names tonight, you had fun and it was in fact a light teen night.
[[Are you a Nerd?]] On our way to the cemetery you walk side by side to what you only know as the student body president. The walk there was quiet but a comfortable silence. Entering the cemetery wasn't much work being that it was open and we directly sat under a mysteriously dark tree. Accommodating our area to suit us, the lack of light barely allowed us to see each others' faces. Someone coming from your left broke the silence, “Do you think Kim Kardashian's butt is real?”.
While another hidden figure responds and everyone seemed to break out into conversations about pop culture media, you are confused. How come the cream of the crop are like this. Superficial and noisy. Weren’t they suppose to be deeply emotional? Everyone including the students notice these kids for their perfect image but how come once alone, they seem to talk about anything and everything that does not concern them? How come you have yet to know any of their names? Do I want to feel this vacant?
[[Are you a Nerd?]] Your idea for joining the nerds was to learn from their behavior. They seem like the ideal kids. Always prepared, responsible, liked by adults, perfect grades and the reputation of perfection. But you realize although they are fine right now, they don’t have much time or substance to talk about themselves. Everything else entertains them because they are exhausted of actually having to be occupied to build their better futures. They are far more comfortable when labeling everyone else because they have yet to figure out themselves.
Is this the behavior you want to adapt as nerd? Your idea for joining the popular kids tonight was to see the view from the pedestal they seem to be on, but you realized they aren’t much distinguishing from the rest. They are far more set in describing themselves in hopes of convincing of their normalcy.
Everything is not what it seems. Is this the behavior you wanted to adapt as a weirdo?