The Quiet Ones

1. You're In The Clique

"Parker, what the hell is your problem?" Avery asked while sitting down at the desk next to mine. Her bubblegum lipgloss made her look both put together, as well as immature. It was a look often sported by a fourth grader, but somehow she pulled it off and made it look trendy.

Avery had always been my best friend, ever since second grade. We bonded by picking small buttercup flowers on the soccer field during recess, and selling them in bunches to kids for a dollar. I admit, it was a bit wrong at the time, but we made a lot of money in the end. Well, a lot of money for an eight year old.

"I don't have a problem, you do."

"Me?" Avery asked in a high pitched voice while holding a hand to her chest in defense. Her voice always reached a higher octave when she knew I was right. It was just another thing that I've learned to decode from her over time.

"And in what way do I have a problem? This is about you."

"Look... Avery," I said while turning around in my seat. "It's basically the last month of our junior year. Next year, we're going to be seniors. That means that we only have a single year to prove that we're fit to be popular."

"You are fit to be popular," Avery pointed out while taking a brightly colored pink pencil out of her backpack.

"You're not going to join me?"

"No way. Parker, we only have a small amount of time before we go off to college. In a few months, none of these people are going to matter."

"Yeah, but don't you think it would be nice to get some recognition while we're still in high school?"

Avery bit her lip and twirled her pencil around between her fingers. She knows where I'm coming from with all of this, I'm certain that she always wanted to be one of the popular girls in school. I mean, we can only take so much of the pointing and whispers about how intelligent yet unfit we are to be with the 'in-crowd.'

"I just want to be cool," I whispered.

"You're already cool. I mean, your name's cool," Nathan piped in while he took a seat at the desk in front of mine. I jumped at the sudden additional voice in our conversation, and how Nathan was clearly not getting the whispering memo. However, when did he ever really whisper?

Nathan is the third and final member of our small group of friends. He has the looks of a model and the agility of a professional athlete, but his genius mind makes the others see him as a nerd - one who doesn't deserve their time or energy.

"Nathan, my name's not cool. I have a boy's name."

"Parker can be a girl or boy's name. Besides, it's different and unique. I'd love to have a name like that."

"Well you can have it. I've begged my mom to change my name to something more generic since the day I was born."

"You need to relax, Parker. Don't worry about your name, it's perfect. Anyway, what were you saying about being cool?"

"I joined a group."

His eyes became wide as he leaned on the top of my desk to get closer so nobody can hear our conversation. If somebody who's not a part of a group heard that I was in a group, they would basically act as if it were a sin. You know, it's the whole 'rule-number-one-of-fight-club-is-not-to-talk-about-figh-club' type of deal. My two friends are the only ones who I can trust.

"As in, like, a team? The ones who vandalize?"

I smiled and nodded quickly. I didn't want him to get the impression that I'm still on the fence with the whole idea of being a member of one of the groups, even though I am.