The Rules of Society

Chapter 1 - Rule 2

Rule No. 2: The struggle to uphold the standards of your peers.

I stood next to the teacher as she was telling me to introduce myself. Looking around the class, I saw all eyes on me. Staring at me, expectantly. The sounds of a clock could be heard amidst the silence of the watching students. You could tell that there were certain friend groups already formed within the classroom. This moment determines their first impression of me. If I mess up, they may not want to befriend me or even interact with me in any way. I don't want to be dubbed as the class loser. Anxiety washed over me. Was I taking too long to introduce myself? What do I even say? Everyone is waiting for my response. Watching, waiting. Some students start whispering to each other and others fiddle with objects on their desks, while some go on their phones thinking the teacher won't see them. They are starting to get disinterested, bored. Bored of me..? I stood there not knowing where my eyes should be looking. At the class? The students staring back at me? That might be weird if someone thinks I'm looking directly at them. I freeze in place and start looking down. Maybe it's better if I don't look at anybody. I murmur my name and before I know it, the teacher ushers me back to my desk. That was so embarrassing. I think that was my worst introduction yet. Now will anyone even think of talking to me?

Hey daddy, are you going already?

I'll be back in a month or two. Don't worry.

But I'll miss you.

Don't worry, you can call me.

What is Italy like?

I'll send you pictures.

Can I have a hug?

Of course.

Bye, daddy!

Goodbye.

Sitting at my desk, everyone was talking with each other but nobody had said a word to me. I looked around, observing how everyone interacted. I hated being the new kid. It's so hard just to make friends since everyone was already in friend groups. Nobody even looked at me during lunch. I ate alone, it felt weirdly cold. Being alone made me notice things, how it feels to be quiet amidst the chatter, the loneliness of truly sitting alone when all around you others are socializing. The fact that even though everyone can see a sitting duck, surrounded by empty space in an overfilled room and so easily act like they were never there, it's quite astounding. "Make sure the new student feels comfortable" I remember the teacher saying earlier. Well, it's not like they are obligated to do that anyway. Class started and this girl came up to me. She was part of the group of girls that interacted with the majority of the class. I discovered this earlier when observing the class. I guess you could say they were pretty popular. She was one of the girls that would smile the most in all their conversations.

Hey, your name is Laura right?

Yeah.

My name is Eleana, are you new around here or have you gone to school here before?

Uh I'm pretty new.

It's nice to meet you!

Eleana gave a cheery smile to me. She really looked pretty when she smiled. I wished I looked that pretty when I smiled.

It's nice to meet you too.

I gave her a sheepish smile. I was surprised she came up to me, she seemed pretty nice though. What did she come here for?

Do you wanna hang out with me and my friends during recess?

Oh, sure.

I was even more surprised now. She just saw me and invited me to lunch without a second thought? When everyone hadn't even looked my way, she just invited me to be her friend? That's so nice of her. I guess I won't be alone anymore, I'll have a whole friend group!

At lunch I had walked up to where Eleana and her friends were. To my surprise, I saw the whole class surrounding them. I knew they were popular, but I didn't know they were popular to the point where everyone would hang around them. It seemed so unreal, like something you would see in a tv show. It felt awkward to walk over to them with all these people surrounding them. It took a while before I could push through the crowd of people to get to them. They were laughing, and making jokes with each other while everyone else tried to get as involved as possible. It was really crazy. I waved to them. I assumed since Eleanor asked me to hang out with them, she gave her friends the memo. None of the girls noticed me for a few minutes as they were caught up in their own thing. Chasing each other, teasing each other, etc. It was really hard to get their attention until Eleana finally noticed me.

Hey, Laura!

The group was quite huge but it was easy to tell who were the main girls part of this huge friend group. Everyone surrounded them. The first girl was a girl with curly long hair, the ends of her black hair dyed a dark blue. A blue that started to fade, but only just started. She was tall, but just the right amount. She wore crop tops with an unzipped hoodie on top covering her shoulders as well as some jeans. She had dark brown eyes like me and also had brown skin, but she seemed to speak Arabic as well. Though she didn't speak it often. She looked to be the "cool" but intidimadting part of the group. She had sass and would always be seen rolling her eyes. I heard her name when Eleanor was teasing her. Her name was Jane. Jane and Eleanor seemed to be best friends as they were never seen without each other. The second girl was white skinned, with orange-blonde hair, tied up in a ponytail. I would always see her untying her hair and redoing it during lunch. She would always act like she hated being teased while at the same time having a smile on her face. She had moderately pinkish lips and white skin. She was about Jane's size. Her name was Mina. Mina was never seen without Kelly. Kelly was smaller than her in size, and would always follow Mina around. They seemed to be the best of friends as well. Kelly would help Mina collect her stuff when Mina left the classroom. Finally, the third girl was the one who invited me there. Eleana. She had white skin, long wavy brown hair, and a pretty face. She was shorter than Jane and wore a brown crop top with black jeans, revealing skin around her belly. She looked cute and would talk with everyone, often relating to others and spoke about clothing and shoes that she thought looked cute as well. She would always get along with everyone. The 3 seemed to be a hit with the students in class. (Kelly was standing in the crowd). Jane looked me up and down, while Eleana excitedly encouraged me to come into their "inner circle". Jane introduced everyone, taking a friendly front. After introducing everyone to me, they all went back to their usual banter and play. I tried to get involved in the conversation but I didn't have much luck since everyone was already distracted with speaking to each other. I didn't know how to get involved, but I knew I wanted to make friends with everyone so I tried my best. I made a joke that got everyone to laugh and it made me feel good. Maybe things were turning out to be better after all. Maybe I made some new friends. They were all so friendly. For once I smiled a genuine smile since I got here. Jane put an arm around me and we all laughed.