by Chris Smith
The pecking order at James’ school is quite unsophisticated in its structure. The super cool ’in’ kids are on top of the heap and treated like gods. In James’ year Pete is the recognised King of this group, with his appointed generals being Gus and Jake. Next in the command chain are their lieutenants who are seven in number and ranked among these so-called ‘in’ kids. This group of sidekicks jostle among themselves for next-in-line status to the generals. Their behaviour is predictable as they act like replicas of their leaders. For example, when Pete bought new runners they all followed suit, buying the same brand. When Gus began wearing his shirt out, all the lieutenants followed.
The lieutenants’ role is simply to execute the commands of their superiors (Pete, Gus and Jake) upon request. Being careful not to overstep their position the lieutenants occasionally promote their own plans and schemes to their bosses. Invariably, these ideas focus upon exploiting or demeaning the lower ranks, through which they hope to gain credit and elevate themselves above their peers. It’s a risky business because if a plan is approved and successful implemented, the reward is a step closer to the top; but if it is rejected or fails they are relegated to the end of the line. Pete, Gus and Jake play their lieutenants constantly, promoting or demoting them at will. But the lieutenants are powerful enough in their own right, since they are able to muster the might of ‘the pack’.
The pack is split into two groups–the wannabes and the geeks. All the remaining kids outside of the pack and the leaders are labelled Weirdos. James is relegated to this group. The wannabes are perhaps the most spiteful of the lot. Desperate to make the big time, they are almost painful to watch in their feverish endeavours to move a rung up the hierarchy. In the absence of being smart, or more probably because smart is just not cool, they reject learning and hide any hint of academic aptitude. In fact, they convey quite the opposite impression when, in attempting to be humorous, they answer the teachers’ questions with witless, dumb, insolent remarks. These wannabes will do almost anything to be acknowledged by the leaders - crazy stupid insane things - such as…when James witnessed one of this gang rolling on the ground in thick mud like a hog.
This episode happened on the day the longest drought that anyone in the area could remember, broke. Lightning and thunder filled the sky. At the end of school everyone just stood looking up at the sky while the rain washed their faces. James enjoyed the sensation and the relief from the heat. That was when a boy call Ben came running across the grass. He threw his bag under a tree. Pete was waiting with Jake for Gus on the path when Ben raced across the field in front of them and launched into a belly slide in the mud. A crowd formed quickly with Pete Gus and Jake at the centre, laughing and jeering the boy on as he rolled and slid in the mud. They egged him on and on, and Ben obliged until he was covered in mud. People talked and laughed about his antics the next day which gave Ben some status. But it was short lived, for within the week he was just another wannabe lost in the pack again.
Unfortunately for James, the wannabes seem to take it in turns to pick on the weirdoes. For the most part all they do is little annoying stuff like stealing bags, writing names on blackboards, and other frustrating but harmless acts. However, sometimes they progress to more affronting behaviours such as hitting the weirdoes with bogies: flicking or wiping the contents of their noses onto one of their victims. At other times they ‘play’ games that are violent and vicious, such as knuckle-rapping the weirdos with rulers. James is a constant target for the wannabes and a victim of all of this sort of conduct.
Next in the pack’s pecking order are the geeks or smart kids who are, in reality, no more than one rung away from being labelled a weirdo. But it is because they are smart that they will never be condemned to the weirdoes’ loony basket. Geeks they may be but weirdoes, never. Deep down, all the others (the pack, lieutenants and generals) know the geeks have something potent that they lack, or worse, pretend they lack – their intelligence. This means geeks have latent power even though they don’t know it. They have the potential to show up the rest of the pack, embarrass them by highlighting their stupidity. This is why, for the most part, if the geeks keep their heads low they are pretty much left alone.
The final group is quite exclusive — the weirdoes. In some ways they are not really a group because, unlike all the other factions, they don’t hang around together. They can usually be seen moping around on their own, looking morose and licking their wounded pride while keeping a furtive eye out for the next potential threat. Burley Blake and James are the only so-called Weirdoes in their particular year. However, there are half a dozen or so at the school. But being in his first year of senior school means that everyone knows James is the scum of the school. Along with Burley he is the lowest of the low.