Clique Here

           Every high school has its cliques, from the social elite, down to the unknown geeks. At Harrisburg High, it can be broken down into the following categories…

           At the top of the food chain are jocks and the cheerleaders. They have the looks, the physical talents, and the popularity. Although, the popularity of a few comes from their promiscuous behaviour off the field or court.

           Next on the ladder of popularity are the rich kids. The ones who have a select group of friends simply because they bought their respect. They can do pretty much anything they want in school and get away with it, because they know that mommy and daddy will make it all disappear with the opening of their check book.

           Down from there, we have the shop kids. These are the ones who are skilled at woodworking, electronics, welding, and especially automotive repair. The auto shop crew usually drive around in souped up muscle cars with very loud and fast engines.

           Then come the geeks. These are the highly intelligent, yet somewhat unattractive group of students who focus on getting high grades so they can go to the best colleges. My story begins with two geeks by the name of Walter and Barry, both highly advanced in computer science and biochemistry.

           Like most geeks, Walter and Barry suffered the abusive behaviour from the jocks. The captain of the football team, Rex “Mr. Sex” Robertson made it his daily duty to torment Walter and Barry. Rex would tape messages to their backs which read things like, “Kick Me” or “I sleep with sheep”. He also made a habit of stealing their lunches or toppling their trays of food as they walked through the cafeteria. Barry tried to stand up to Rex once, and it made the whole room go silent, but Rex took his rage out on the poor boy by knocking him out cold with one punch. Rex was suspended for three days, but he didn’t care. He was only concerned with showing everyone that he was the Alpha male.

           Walter had a crush on one of the cheerleaders, even though he knew that she was off limits to anyone that wasn’t part of their elite clique. Her name was Tracy Perron, a sixteen-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed bombshell. She was by far the most popular girl in school, and she was Rex Robertson’s girlfriend. If Rex ever caught Walter even staring in the same direction as Tracy, it would be lights out for him.

           Walter was determined to make Tracy notice him though and sat Barry down one day to explain his plan.

           “It’s like this, Barry. We have something that blockheads like Rex don’t have…brains. I think we need to put our brains to work and come up with a way to make ourselves part of the elite and start getting people to take notice of us.”

           “How do you plan to do that, Walter? I mean, we aren’t exactly physically fit, and we wouldn’t exactly make the cover of GQ Magazine. How do you propose we go about becoming popular?”

           “We use the skills that we already have and create a new version of us.”

           Walter filled Barry in on his plan and Barry reluctantly went along with it. He felt that they were fine just the way they were.

           Over the summer break, using their knowledge of biochemistry, they started to work developing a formula that could alter their DNA using nano technology. The first few experiments had less than favorable results. The first one melted a hole in the metal table. The second one exploded, and the third made Barry’s hair turn green. He had to steal his sister’s hair dye and change it back.

           The fourth test appeared to be successful. Barry was fearful after the hair incident, so Walter volunteered to be the guinea pig. Moments after injecting the formula into his blood, Walter noticed immediate reactions. His voice became deeper, and his muscles began to tighten beneath his plaid button-up shirt.

           Soon after, his face began to tingle. He felt his jaw moving. Barry recorded the changes on his video camera as they happened, though he almost dropped the camera when he witnessed the transformation.

           After roughly three minutes, Walter felt nothing else happening. When he looked at Barry, there was a look of shock upon his face.

           “What’s the matter, Barry? Did it make me hideous?”

           Barry stood there silently for a moment, then held a mirror up for Walter to see for himself. What Walter saw was unrecognizable to the boy who looked back at him in the mirror that morning. Instead, he saw a strong, handsome teenager. Barry, now changing his decision about becoming a popular kid, told Walter that it was his turn next.

           Walter injected Barry with the same formula, and the nanobots instantly went to work. Five minutes later, it was Barry’s turn to look in the mirror. His vision was blurred at first. Then he realized that he no longer needed his prescription glasses. His eyesight was perfect. He too had the body of a football player, but the agility of a gymnast. His now long blonde hair cascaded toward the floor as he launched himself up into a handstand and began walking around the room on his hands.

           Walter laughed and tried to do the same but fell over clumsily knocking over a metal cabinet. When he reached down to stand the cabinet upright, he half expected to ask Barry for assistance, but he lifted it with no effort whatsoever.

           The first day back at school, Walter and Barry strutted their way through the halls. They could feel eyes all around them staring at their new looks. One of the teachers stopped them and asked who they were, then called them liars and sent them to the principal’s office. The principal called up their parents who had to explain that the boys had gone through a transformation over the summer, though the details of how it happened remained Barry and Walter’s secret.

           They were permitted to rejoin their classes. Suddenly, the attractive girls in class wanted to talk to them and it caused quite a distraction in class. The teacher finally had to send them back to the principal for causing a disruption. This went on for each class the rest of the day until the principal had enough and told them if it there were any more complaints, then she would be forced to suspend them.

           The last class of the day was uneventful because Walter and Barry purposely ignored the advances of their female classmates, though they did get passed a few phone numbers.

           As they were getting their books from their lockers at the end of the day, Walter looked over to see Tracy with her cheerleader friends grouped together by the water fountain. They were all giggling and then Tracy looked over at Walter and smiled. Despite his new look, he was still self-conscious inside when it came to Tracy. He quickly turned away. That was when he heard Rex.

           “Tracy,” he bellowed. “Who do you think you are smiling at? It sure wasn’t at me!”

           “Oh, Rex, chill out, will you? You don’t own me. I can smile at other people if I want.”

           This made Rex furious, and he punched the locker behind Tracy, leaving a fist-sized dent in the door. Then he looked at Walter and yelled out, “Hey loser! I’ve got a score to settle with you!” Walter ignored him.

           Rex marched down the hall and grabbed onto Walter’s shoulder, spinning him around. Walter closed his eyes in preparation for a fist to his nose, but what happened next surprised everyone.

           Using his new and improved reflexes, Walter spun his right arm across his chest in an upward motion and blocked the punch from Rex, then in the same motion, he launched his left hand toward the diaphragm of Rex causing him to drop to the ground and gasp for air.

           The other students in the hallway stood in shock as the mighty Rex Robertson fell to the ground defeated. Barry was the first to start cheering, then everyone else joined in, including Tracy. Walter smiled at her, and she smiled back before turning to her friends and giggling again.

           When Rex was able to catch his breath, Walter and Barry had already left, and he was left with the sound of laughter surrounding him. His pride was hurt, and he reacted by shouting insults at everyone he saw laughing, though the laughter continued, along with many whispers. He pushed his way through the crowd and headed home.

           The following day, while waiting for the bus to pick them up, Walter and Barry were surprised when a convertible Mustang pulled up beside them and a female voice called out, “Do you boys need a ride?”

           They looked over to see Tracy and one of her friends in the front seat. Walter gladly accepted. Tracy and Walter rode up front, while Barry and the other cheerleader, Sandy, climbed in the back. Tracy stepped on the gas, and they were all thrown back into their seats. Walter held on tightly to the door handle. When Tracy noticed, she said, “My driving doesn’t scare you, does it?”

           “No,” Walter lied with a shaky voice. He tried his best to not show any fear, but she wasn’t making it easy for him. Tracy just laughed out loud then screamed into the air. Her friend, Sandy soon joined in. Not wanting to seem like wimps, Barry and Walter began to yell as well. Barry, feeling slightly braver now, half-stood up in the backseat. Sandy wrapped her arms around his legs to steady him.

           They were almost at the school when Sandy’s homework blew out of her hand and landed high up on the branches of a tree. She began to panic because she had worked so hard on her assignment. Barry offered to climb the tree and retrieve it for her. With cat-like agility, he leaped up, and grabbing hold of a lower branch, he pulled himself up. From there, he scaled up the tree from branch to branch until he reached the missing homework. After dropping the paper down to Sandy, Barry then swung back-and-forth on one of the branches, then hurled himself into the air, did a backward somersault, and landed on his feet in front of Sandy. She was so impressed and grateful, that she ran up to him, wrapped her arms around his strong chest, and kissed him passionately. This was Barry’s first kiss from a girl, other than his mother or grandmother, that is.

           Tracy reached out during this moment of passion and held onto Walter’s hand. He looked down at her hand, then up to her face. Her eyes were lustful, and she was biting on her bottom lip while twisting her long hair around her finger. Walter wanted so much to kiss her at that moment, but then he remembered Rex.

           “We can’t do this, Tracy. As much as I would love to, you are already in a relationship with Rex.”

           “Firstly, what Rex and I have is hardly what I would call a relationship. Rex treats me like one of his trophies. He puts me on display for all his friends to see. I only stuck around this long, because he is the most popular guy in school, and I am the most popular girl in school, but that is as far as it goes,”

           “So, what are you saying, Tracy? Do you plan on breaking up with him?”

           “Well, that all depends.” she said.

           “Depends on what?” Walter responded.

           “It depends on if you want to be my boyfriend, or not.”

           All of Walter’s fantasies were coming true in this solitary moment. He was finally going to have the girl of his dreams.

           “Well?” Tracy asked. “What’s your answer?”

           Walter thought about it for a moment before answering.

           “Let me ask you something first, Tracy. Why are you suddenly interested in me? We have been going to school together for the past six years, yet you never gave me a second glance all that time. Is it because I no longer look like a geek?”

           Tracy was taken aback by Walter’s question, and it made her stop and think. She began to realize how poorly she had treated Walter and Barry all those years, and a tear began to form in her left eye.

           “I am so sorry Walter. I know that my friends and I treated you and your friends like trash, and if I would have taken the time to get to know you better, then I would have seen how good of a person you are. I admit, at first, I was attracted to your new look, but then I began to see how respectful and kind you were. I never had that with any other guy I’ve dated. It made me feel good.”

           Walter listened intently as Tracy expressed her true feelings for him. He pulled her close and leaned in for a kiss. It felt so natural to him. He imagined their kiss so many times in his mind, that now that it was happening for real, it felt perfect, at least to him, but when he pulled away, Tracy needed to wipe saliva off her mouth.

           “We can work on that,” she said with a laugh.

           Whistles started off to their right. When they looked over, Barry and Sandy were clapping and hollering out their approval. They climbed back in the car and headed to school. As they arrived in the parking lot, Rex was waiting for Tracy. You could see his blood pressure rise when he saw Walter and Barry in the car with her.

           “What are you doing with these losers, Tracy?” Rex shouted.

           “Get lost, Rex. I don’t want anything to do with you ever again,” Tracy replied.

           Rex ran over to the car and started to open her door, grabbing at her left arm. Walter instantly jumped up onto the seat and leaped across the car landing behind Rex. He grabbed hold of Rex by the shoulders and pulled him back, breaking his grip from Tracy’s arm. Rex stumbled back and lost his footing. He landed hard on the pavement beneath him. One of the teachers witnessed the incident and ran over to break it up.

           Rex jumped up before the teacher arrived, and tried to take swing after swing at Walter, but he ducked every punch. The teacher grabbed Rex from the back and pulled him back toward the school. Tracy was rubbing her arm where Rex had hold of her and Walter leaned over to give the bruised arm a kiss, then a second kiss to her lips.

           “My hero,” she said.

           “Get a room!” shouted Barry from the backseat. They all laughed and headed into school together.

           Later that day, they found out that Rex had been expelled from Harrisburg High. They no longer had to deal with his harassment.

           Walter and Tracy continued to date, as did Barry and Sandy. The girls taught the boys how to be more socially acceptable, and the boys in turn, helped the girls to study and bring up their GPA.

           What you see on the outside might allow for an initial attraction, but after the looks fade, if you are still interesting and have a beautiful heart and soul, that will keep the attraction going on for eternity.