Undercover

High School Popularity by Evelyn Parks

Of course, since I was no one, I ended up in almost all of his classes in middle school. I sat next to him in at least one class every semester. He talked to me a few times, but we weren't close friends or anything.

We were both on the mathletes. Yes, I was on the mathletes, and so was the coolest kid in school. When we went to the competeition, the whole team laughed and joked, and we helped each other during practice. 

We'd ask each other for the homework, or for help on it when we were the only two in the class with honors. 

I didn't have a problem with him. He was a good guy. I had a problem with the fact that they worshipped him. Think I'm exaggerating?

Since he was African American, a lot of the guys in the class called his birthday "black Christmas" because he was "black Jesus." 

Everyone he saw wanted to give him a high five. All the girls wanted to hug him when he walked in the room. He never tried to get one from me or anything. I was friends with a girl that you could consider popular. I thought that they were pretty good friends. One time while I was hanging out with her I made a joke about him being the God of the school and she rolled her eyes and shook her head. Not at me, but at the fact that it was true.

Neither of us could understand why anyone would worship him. He had followers. He thought they were his friends, which they were, don't get me wrong.

Anyway, he was like that for all of middle school. So, during the last week of school, I was talking to a friend of mine and we made a joke, and we used his name. 

Someone asked us what was so funny. So I said the joke again, and she said "Who's Marcus?" 

We were shell-shocked. Everyone knew Marcus. Everyone. My mom knew who he was! 

He went to a different high school. I heard from a friend of mine that he was still popular there. Most of his disciples went to my school. 

His popularity hadn't come from anyone else. He wasn't popular because of how he dresed because let's face it, in middle school, all the guys dressed alike.

He was popular because he was confident. But, even that didn't make sense. There are plenty of confident guys! In fact, confidence is the reason there are so many tools. 

So why was he popular? And my answer to you is, I have absolutely no clue. So let's not use him as an example. 

Let's use me. 

I was nobody. I had friends, but those outside my immediate circle didn't really associate with me. I wasn't anti-social. Well, okay, I was. But how did I become so popular so fast?

Initially, I thought it was because I changed my clothes. I thought you guys were shallow and saw me when I changed. So once I started acting the way I thought the popular kids acted, the popular kids would accept me as their own. 

That's what happened. But for a different reason than I thought.

I thought that I was acting like the popular kids in that I wore trendier clothes, and acted like an airhead that's in to the trending music , that you would like me so that you would accept me. I acted like the popular kids, so they let me in. That's not it. 

What actually happened was that I was acting like the popular kids in that my shoulders were straighter, my head was up higher, and I was walking in a way that would let people see me. I acted like the popular kids, so they let me in.

But isn't that how it works? You gravitate towards the people that act and think like you. It's human nature. The geeks act like geeks and the geeks let them in. So why isn't everyone popular? Well, there can be people in the "popular" clique, but maybe they aren't popular. Webster says that they hold a positive opinion with the majority. 

A lot of the people that act like the popular kids are tools, because they overdo it. So they don't really act like them, do they? What about the followers that want desperately to be popular? They don't act like them either, because they can't think for themselves, and they try to be exactly like the "popular" kids. 

So that's it then. I solved it. I know how popularity works. To be popular, you have to act popular. 

Well, if you decide to try that, I wish you luck. But I'm afraid that it doesn't seem very plausible. 

So, instead, I'm gonna give you some advice. 

Find a group of friends that likes you for you. Ones that'll like you even at your very worst, help you even. Be popular in that group. Don't worry what anyone else thinks. Don't bother with anyone else. 

If you want, branch out. Grab a few friends from other groups, and make even more friends. 

So no, I can't tell you the secret to popularity. I can't tell you how it works, or how to obtain it. So you wasted your time, I'm afraid. I'm sorry, but I hope that maybe, just maybe, this article taught you something too.

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Ok, so in my head I thought that would turn out really well, and it didn't quite get there. Sorry. But you guys wanted an epilogue, so now you have one. Sort of.