Freak to Friend to Foe

 Because who doesn't love remembering the awkwardness and friendship politics that define middle school?

One day we had a new girl come into our core class in the 6th grade. Her name was Shauna. Shauna had medium length blond hair that always looked like she had just taken it out of a braid, and bangs. She was built like a boy, walked like a football player, and had huge, muscle-bound thighs. (At this stage in life, I'd probably kill for thighs like that, but in 6th grade they were obscene.) Her perfectly straight, white teeth were overshadowed by the thick glasses that were supposed to allow her to see better and uncross her lazy eye. Unfortunately for Shauna, this didn't always happen.

Shauna annoyed everyone from the start. Not only did she disturb the equilibrium our class had developed into the school year, but she was distracting. She was funny looking, and everyone wanted to figure out what her lazy eye was looking at. I played this game once, watching the eye and guessing that it was zoomed in on the chair next to me... until Shauna fiercely whispered, "What!?" Apparently that time it was looking at me.

Shauna also thought she knew everything. At least as much as a freshman in high school. In history class, Mr. Lanes asked one day what we knew about plate tectonics. Shauna raised her hand and, with her nose in the air, replied, "Plate tectonics broke apart the original super continent, Pangaea."

Pan-what?

My friends and I looked at each other furiously as if to say, "who does One Eyed Willie think she is?"

When no one else was tolerant enough (or brave enough) to hang out with Shauna, my close-knit group from that particular year: Lauren, Anita, Tarah, and I found it in our hearts to let her into our squad. It actually worked out quite nicely for awhile. Shauna also liked volleyball, and had a pretty good sense of humor under those glasses. She also let me know when it was about time for me to start shopping for a training bra. That's real camaraderie. (Even if her tactic was whisper-screaming "OH MY GOD! YOU NEED TO BE WEARING A BRA!!" in front of half the class when I showed up to school one morning.) We had fun with Shauna and never treated her like the foreigner we had originally wanted to when she barged in on our class. She was our friend for a hefty chunk of the year, until she started to notice who the popular sixth graders were.

Little by little, we saw less of Shauna. She still played volleyball with us sometimes, and of course we saw her in class, but as the year went on our friendship with her fizzled out. Shauna, the cross eyed boy-girl with big legs, had been initiated into the cool crowd!

She got contacts and grew out her bangs. She started coming to school with brand names splayed across her blooming chest, and Airwalk shoes. She got to dance with the English Twins to Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You" without getting ditched at the Valentine's Dance. My experience with them wasn't quite the same. (Chris told me he had to go to the bathroom and would be right back, never to return again... at least Pat danced with me for a whole song.)

We were amazed and slightly offended that after our extension of grace, Shauna would so easily pack up and leave us. Despite this, we went about our daily business, content with our original group.

The problems arose when Shauna decided she had suddenly been ordained with the authority to treat us like the dirt that the popular crew must have assumed we were. When we walked by, she'd make fun of us, and in class she'd shoot us death looks with one of her eyes. I couldn't believe it. Shauna had made the Transition and completely forgotten her dorky roots!

My first lesson in middle school politics was taught to me by this former friend. It was about getting to the top and looking good doing it... something Anita, Lauren, Tarah and I were just too naive to care about yet. I won't lie, the popularity game eventually became a priority to us as well. We all went through the phase, buying the "cool" clothes and weaseling our way into a conversation with one of the pretty girls or a good looking boy. Fortunately for us, we grew out if it in time for high school.