A Lot To Live Up To

by Carolina Downie

We were getting a new kid on Monday.

It was Friday, first period, and we were sitting in our honors English class when Miss Tucker broke the news to us.

We were in the middle of passing our homework forward when she said, “Okay, I’ve got something to tell you. We are getting a new student on Monday. His name is Sam Thermopolis.”

We were all quiet for a few seconds, thinking about what this meant. The new kid was a boy, and I secretly hoped he was kind of cute. I would never say it out loud, but that’s what I was thinking. My friend Corrine, however, didn’t feel the need to keep quiet.

“I hope he’s hot,” Corrine said.

Everybody laughed. Corrine has brown eyes, those $50 jeans you saw at Abercrombie and Fitch that you knew your mother wouldn’t pay for, and sandy colored hair. She was skinny, but she didn’t look too skinny either. Corrine was confident in herself and her athletic abilities, and everybody liked her. So, we all knew that if the new kid was the type of boy who cared about girls at all, Corrine would naturally be the one he’d like. That’s the way things are. It isn’t as though everybody gets to vote on The Unwritten Laws of the Popularity System of Middle School, but everybody seems to follow the rules anyway.

“Well, good looks wouldn’t hurt, would they?” asked Miss Tucker. She is 30 and still not married, and I think she is getting pretty desperate. Then, trying to sound more professional, she said, “However, it’s the inside and intelligence that count, so I’ll tell you that he’s in all your honors classes with you guys.” Everybody in honors English is in honors everything else, so we travel around in a pack all day.

“He’s probably a nerd,” said Andrew Cullman, star lacrosse and soccer player and wearer of long blonde hair.

“Andrew, don’t make any judgments until you’ve met him. Now, let’s move on,” Miss Tucker replied.

We didn’t talk about the new kid again until we were at lunch. I was sitting at our usual lunch table with Corrine, Emma, Amber, and Nora, breathing in the smell of under-cooked fish sticks. These girls were all in my honors classes, so we all knew about the new kid, and that was who was on our minds.

“I do hope he’s cute,” Corrine said. “I mean, sure, smart people are fine, but they are really more interesting when they look good.”

“I think you’re just a teensy bit obsessed, Corrine,” I said.

“Lilly!” Emma exclaimed. “We’re only trying to make this new boy as important and fascinating as he will be,” she said to me.

“Yeah!” said Amber. “I bet that he is very interesting,” she said with that tone that suggested that she had more to say.

“This is going to be a good one,” said Nora, seemingly anxious to hear another one of Amber’s ideas.

Amber has recently read some of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and she finds drama very intriguing. If she didn’t have clothes from American Eagle and Hollister, use a Conair hair straightener, and wasn’t excellent at softball; she would probably be considered a nerd. Because reading is pretty much not cool, and she reads a lot.

“I think that the new kid will be a hero. I bet he’ll jump in front of a bullet or something and he’ll die before we even get to know him,” Amber said.

This boy was going to have a lot to live up to.

“We could all go to his funeral together and tell the public how wonderful he was,” Corrine said.

“Wait. Stop.” I raised my hand in the air in a stopping motion. “First of all, I thought we just said he was gonna die before we even got to know him. What would we tell the public?” I asked.

“That he was attractive and probably nice, I guess,” said Nora.

“Okay. Second, let’s call this boy by his name. We know what it is. It’s Sam Thermopolis.”

“Sam Thermopolis has a nice ring to it. I bet he’s a very cool boy,” said Emma.

And as if the word “cool” had a magnetic pull of some sort, Andrew Cullman, Will Paterson and Garrett Madison came towards us right then. In our middle school, Andrew, Will and Garrett are the “masters of cool”. They’ve got the American Eagle polos, the baggy-but-not- too-baggy jeans, the long hair, and the lacrosse/soccer/basketball/football abilities. And they’re also in honors classes, so it means that they get approval from adults, too. They “have potential.”

“So, what are you talking about?” asked Andrew.

“The new kid,” we all chimed in.

Andrew, Will, and Garrett didn’t say anything, but you could see their jaws tighten up a little. They weren’t so thrilled about having another boy come and possibly replace them. I mean, if Sam was in fact cute, and did play sports, he could cause some serious damage to their popularity status. He might become the newest leading scorer of lacrosse/soccer/basketball/football. If he was the second leading scorer, that would be okay, and they would like him, and he’d join their group. But if he was first leading scorer? Nah-uh.

“What do you want?” asked Emma.

The boys shrugged.

“I got a sticker,” Garrett stuck out his hand, on which a smiley face sticker was placed. What that had to do with anything, I don’t know. Garrett can get away with doing things that are kind of stupid, but as The Laws state, he is allowed because he is already “in”. Once you’re in, you can do a lot of stupid stuff and not fall out. On the other hand, I’ve never seen a nerd make it in to the “in” group, no matter how hard he tries. Once a nerd, always a nerd. I should know.

“Wow. I’m so excited,” I said sarcastically. “Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Garrett stuck his tongue out at me. It was the first time today he’d actually noticed me.

Slowly, the boys drifted away.

“I really do wonder what Sam will be like,” Nora said, biting into her sandwich.

“What if Sam is really violent, and attacks someone here at school? There have been a lot of school shootings lately. What if he causes one or something?” I asked. We were all silent, with creepy images we’d seen on the news running through our heads, scaring us. When you live in a world full of murder, war, robbery, rape and abuse, it’s hard not to be scared.

“Well, we do know that he’s in honors classes. Chances are that since he’s smart, he isn’t going to be someone always getting detention for swearing and causing destruction and stuff, ya know?” Emma contemplated.

We nodded our heads in agreement, hoping that was true.

“Yeah. I mean, violence and swearing usually doesn’t come with the ‘honors student.’ It just doesn’t fit,” Nora decided.

“Right. And so he’s probably just going to be a typical kid,” I said.

“No, he isn’t,” Emma declared, refusing to believe this could be true.

“How do you know?” I asked. “I mean, chances are that he’s not going to be some hero, or some incredibly gorgeous, talented guy, or some mass-murderer. He’s probably going to be pretty much like us.”

“So, you think he’s going to be normal?” Amber asked, disappointedly.

“Maybe. Normal, I guess, is to be the same as the crowd. I don’t know if that’s always a good thing, you know, to always follow the crowd. I mean, we want him to be different and amazing, but then if he really is different when he walks in on Monday, and doesn’t wear the ‘right’ clothes or play the ‘right’ sports, then we don’t want him to be different. So we want him to be normal, but at the same time, we don’t,” I said, worrying that if I said anymore I’d sound sappy.

We all frowned a little, as we accepted this reality. I think what we wanted from Sam Thermopolis, was something that couldn’t be found. We wanted someone who was cute and athletic. We wanted someone to be a hero to us, to make the world a better place for us to live in. We also wanted someone who would always keep us entertained, and someone who we would never be bored around. We wanted someone new and different.

But, we wanted someone who wasn’t too different either. We wanted someone who would fit right in with the group and wouldn’t upset the order of things. I think that what we wanted from him was what we wanted to find within ourselves. Someone who stood out, yet fit in. We might have to wait our whole lives to find out what we are, but as for Sam Thermopolis, we’d only have to wait till Monday.

-End---