I walk into my new middle school in Georgia and enter room 409.  Some kids are new and some are old. I see kids sitting down at their desks and fidgeting with their hands, a common habit. I sit down in the corner of the classroom and take out my book. Even though I’m not looking at anyone, I feel people’s eyes wandering up and down me. I am immediately wondering if I am wearing the right thing. I am wearing black pants with little fringes at the bottom and a white top with the Coke logo printed on it. It took me hours to choose this outfit.

Chatter soon swarms into the room, and three girls and two boys walk in laughing. One girl has dirty blonde hair, the other has frizzy brown hair, and the last girl has straight short black hair. The two boys both have light hair: popular.  Whenever I’m talking to a “popular” person, I’m always careful of what I say. Popular kids have some kind of unsaid intimidating stare. 

In my head, I start to categorize everyone in the classroom: quiet, nerdy, shy.  I then categorize my targets for friends and go for the friendly ones. I feel like I can get to know everyone in the class just by looking at them. I see one girl flipping her hair and crossing her legs: sassy. We get paired into groups, and I’m with a nice girl named Franchise. She has dyed purple hair and green eyes. She likes to talk a lot. 

“Hi, I’m Katherine, but I like being called Kitty,” I say to her. 

“I’m Franchise. I like your name,” she says shyly. 

“Thank you,” I respond. 

The project we have to do is a family tree. I have two older sisters and a father. My mother died when I was a baby. Franchise has no siblings at all and has adopted parents. Her father died in a car crash, and her mother died of cancer. Franchise and I talk a lot about what we like and how boring this class is. Yay, I have a friend nailed.  Good, now I don’t have to panic during lunch……Lunch. 

Lunch is where everything gets defined. Lunch is where friend groups are decided, where everything gets organized. Lunch is where everyone separates into different tables, and that is like your assigned seat for the rest of your time at your school. Once you sit down at a table, there’s no going back. Lunch is where my friend group is decided. 

Movies like Mean Girls kind of explain the whole lunch chart situation. You separate into groups that have the same hobbies or interests. Sports, fashion, puzzles, emo, popular. You stay with the group that you join and ignore all others. Now, it’s a little different. All the groups separate, yet people have different hobbies and interests in the group. Art, social media, drama, fashion, gamers, etc. It’s still the same idea where you hang out with the group you eat lunch with. I just hope I don’t embarrass myself during lunch by sitting alone. I hope I will find my group to stay with forever. Like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. 

“Katherine! Oops, I mean Kitty! It’s lunch!” Franchise calls. For now, just Franchise is fine, though.