Disclaimer: Mona Vaughn, Jana Morgan, Randy and most of the Burkeview clique characters belong to Betsy Haynes, not the current author. And of course the BSC characters are Ann Martin's. But the characters neither BSC or Fab Five fans recognize do belong to this author and are copyrighted. Enjoy!

The BSC Legacy – Book 2: Student Stratifications

By: CNJ

PG-13

8: Rough Times In The Social Strata

Kristy:

I tossed the basketball from one hand to another as I waited for Abby. Only a few kids remained in the halls. I bounced my foot on the wall and pretended to shoot baskets.
"Hey, where're your paint bucket?" a voice asked. Cokie Mason. I rolled my eyes and ignored her.
"Hey...that's an ugly sweatshirt you have on," Randy Greenhold's voice joined in.
"What a slob..." Another kid laughed and I turned and saw Randy, Cokie, Sara Trentwood, Burke Wiley, and several of the kids from the In clique behind me.
"What...you guys lost something?" I lowered my eyes and tried to look bored.
"Looks like you lost your coolness," Burke leaned toward me and I stepped back and bumped into the wall. My heart started to pound and my palms began to sweat.
"What do ya' expect when she hangs around with losers like that Mary Anne owl and that Abby freak?" Sara laughed.
"Hey..." I started, looked for a way to push out. I debated on punching Burke's face, but it was several of them and one of me. I stared at Burke and tried to laugh in his face. I didn't want them to know I was scared. "Did you just get out of the cafeteria?" I rattled nervously, then forced a laugh. "Looks like you ate their excuse of lettuce and barfed..." I shrugged, trying to look casual, but gulped hard instead. Just then a shrill whistle cut through the tension. Like birds, the clique scattered, thinking maybe a teacher had seen them. I slumped back, closing my eyes in relief.
"Hey..." It was Abby and she touched my shoulder gently. "Are you all right?"
"I guess so." I wiped the sweat off my palms. I still felt a little shaky. "Was that your whistle?"
"Yep." Abby grinned and held up her hand, parting her two middle fingers. Her own special whistle.
"Thanks," I let out my breath as we headed to basketball practice. "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come along."

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"Oh, Kristy, you weren't..." Mary Anne started to wail at that day's BSC meeting.
"No, I'm all right now," I told her. I debated on telling my friends how scared I'd really been. I knew Abby had sensed my fear. But I didn't. And anyway, several clients called and we booked several jobs for next week.
"Well, on to bigger, more important things than some In kids..." Claudia quipped during a pause in calls. "Who's free for New York City this weekend?" Most of us were. Actually, all of us were for Friday night and Saturday, so we made plans for those two days and would come back early Saturday evening. We do this every few months and since last year, when we started high school, we've taken the train there ourselves. It's an hour and a half trip to reach the outskirts of the city and another half hour to get into the city where we usually crash with Stacey's dad and his girlfriend, Samantha. We usually just root around the city. We've been to most of the big landmarks like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty several times as well as other lesser-known landmarks. It's remarkable that most New York City residents don't even have cars since they can get around by subway, bus, or cab. And the subway is open twenty-four hours. We're still too young for most of the drinking clubs, but when we hit eighteen, we plan to try those out too.
"So my dad knows we're coming," Stacey told us.
"So, by our meeting, we've packed everything and from there, we take the bus to the station..." Kristy calculated. "We should be there by around eight, eight-thirty at the latest."

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Stacey:

"...so there's this huge sweatshirt hanging by the basket out on the lawn and it's not one of ours," Kristy finished as we passed by Ms. Liberty in the ferry. We chuckled at Kristy's story of the latest escapades of her younger stepsiblings, Karen and Andrew Brewer and her younger sister, Emily Michelle. Kristy has a huge blended family with seven kids, so there's always something going on in that family. We'd mostly coasted downtown Manhattan and eaten at the Carnegie Deli. Kristy turned and waved at Lady Liberty as if she expected her to actually wave back. It's easy to do since the Statue of Liberty almost seems like a person; she looks so real. We all turned to look at her as we always do when we pass.
"I like that she looks like a real woman," Mary Anne told us.
"Me too," I added. Our hair blew in the cold wind and I could imagine Ms. Liberty's hair actually blowing too. Brown, I thought. Her hair would be brown. Actually, I vaguely remembered reading somewhere that she was based on the artist's mom and she really did have brown hair and brown eyes. We've also climbed up the steps inside of her to get a view from her crown a few times. Compared to most of the buildings in the city, she's really not that tall; many of the buildings are over a thousand feet tall while Ms. Liberty's only a hundred feet tall. It's funny, though, how a lot of visitors, especially those from small towns gawk and think it's the hugest thing in the world. But we the BSC know her better. We did that last spring when we visited Ellis Island. Even though I lived in the city for the first twelve years of my life and come back here every so often to visit, Lady Liberty still takes my breath away. Once our ferry docked back on the Manhattan shore, Mary Anne told us that she definitely wanted to live here as an adult.
"I'm going to apply for college here too," she told us. "I've even looked up a few on the net and there's a Staten U. that's supposed to have a good teaching and psychology program."
"Hey, sounds good," Claudia put in. "I guess it's not too early to start scouting around colleges." Hard to believe it was just two and a half years before we'd be ready. In another year, we'd be taking our SAT's.
"Who feels like taking a hike through Greenwich Village?" Kristy called. "Or does anyone feel like hiking the subway to the Roosevelt museum?" Greenwich Village won out, so we headed there. Seeing the different group of people there from punk to bohemian to business-suited reminded my of the groups at SHS. Probably in real life, groups are more complex. And once we grew up and out on our own, we'd run into group dynamics in workplaces and everything. All in all, it was a fun afternoon and we ended up shopping for a lot of little knickknacks that we lugged in little bags all the way home that evening.

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Abby:

I'm so happy the cast came off my arm the second week in February! It's so good to be able to use my arm again. I hadn't been able to move since November, when I broke it in a soccer game against our rival, Burkeview High. I flexed my arm and hugged Mom. She smiled softly and stoked my arm. "Give it time to strengthen and you'll be back in the field next fall," Dr. Johanssen told us. It was such a relief to have my arm free that later in the week when the BSC were sitting at lunch, I asked, "Think I can still beat out Sosa and that bunch?"
"I don't know," Kristy peered over. "There's still purple marks at the pit..."
"WHAT!" I howled. Then I saw my friends cracking up and I had to laugh, too.
"I'm so glad it wasn't more serious," Mary Anne added in her quiet, earnest voice. "It was awful seeing you hurt."

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That afternoon, we had the first fun assembly in a while. A band from Connecticut International Rounds came and played, then afterwards let us try the instruments. A lot of kids blatted, blew, and wheezed instruments, making everyone laugh, including teachers. I tried one of the guitars and got into it, singing this old song about war being so stupid and people who started wars being idiots. The rest of the BSC loved it and other kids sang along. I ended it with a finale of, "don't be an idiot, too and start a war..."

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Kristy:

I was at my locker the next day after school when I heard somebody laughing."...God, can you believe the idiot Abby made of herself yesterday..." I froze, listening and saw two kids from that In group at school, you know the ones that think they're so cool.
"She always makes a fool of herself," the other kid added. "I wonder why Kristy and Mary Anne aren't embarrassed by her."
"Simple...they're as unhip as her. That whole baby-sitting bunch are all wierdos..." They moved down the hall, leaving me fuming. I slammed my locker shut and toyed with the idea of grabbing them and dragging them to the cafeteria and dumping greasy spinach sauce on them.

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Abby:

I wonder if I got carried away at that assembly? My friends reassure me that I didn't, but I hear kids laughing at me in the hall and pointing. I even heard somebody chanting that anti-war theme in a singsong kind of voice. I was the last to arrive at the cafeteria and we all were eating and talking.
"Heeey, seaweed Stevenson!" Randy Greenhold called two tables down.
"Ignore him," Stacey whispered. We tried, but it was hard...

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Mary Anne:

I'm worried about Abby. Kids are ridiculing her. She's trying to take it in stride and laugh it off, but I think it's getting to her. I think the In crowd at school targets some kids and the BSC is one of their targets. A few weeks ago, Kristy had a scary incident with some of them and Abby scared them off just in time.

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Abby:

I was at my locker when Randy called, "Hey, seaweed...made an idiot of yourself lately?" I tried to ignore him, even though my heart was pounding. I felt a push on my shoulder.
"Lay off..." I said in a low, shaky voice. Inside, I felt like I was dying. Randy and Burke snickered coldly.
"Hey, back off!" Kristy bellowed as she and Mary Anne came up. I closed my locker. Mary Anne glanced nervously at Randy and tried not to shrink back.
"Hey, here's the owl and the slob to join the seaweed!" Randy jeered. Mary Anne winced, tears welling in her eyes. Randy and Alan Gray had pinned on Mary Anne "the owl" and laughed at her. It had hurt Mary Anne so deeply that she couldn't stop crying for hours.
"Just SHUT UP, imbecile!" Kristy barked.
"Who...are you telling to shut up?" Randy taunted, stepping close to Kristy.
"You...who else...or what else?" Kristy pointed. Just then Randy's hand flew out and Kristy ducked and landed a kick on Randy. The whole few minutes dissolved into a fistfight. Mary Anne gave a scared scream. I reached out as if to break them up, but decided against it. Just then, Ms. Debois, our geometry teacher, came out of her classroom, raced down the hall and broke them up.
"What...is going ON here!?" she demanded. Kristy and Randy glared at each other, breathing hard. Mary Anne was in tears by this time and I was close to them myself.
"It was Randy," I told her. "He started...taunting us..."
"Fighting is not tolerated at Stoneybrook High!" Ms. Debois stated. "Randy and Kristy, both of you have detention and if I hear about fighting between you again..."
"I understand..." Kristy nodded.
"Yes...MAAM," Randy panted. Mary Anne put her hand over her mouth and let loose fresh floodgates. Ms. Debois handed her a tissue and stroked her. Slowly, the three of us left the building.
"That..." Kristy mumbled a string of choice words under her breath.

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Claudia:

It seems like we're one of the main targets for the IN group at school. It was a scary thought.
"We'd better really stick together," I told everyone at the next BSC meeting. "If we lose each other, we're dead." Kristy and Abby had told us about Kristy's fight with Randy Greenhold.
"How the hell are we going to fight back?" Stacey asked in a thin, tight voice, her mouth trembling.
"By sticking together," Kristy announced. "We have to look out for each other. Let's make sure we try not to be alone anywhere in the halls or bathroom." We nodded. Mary Anne, Stacey, and Abby were shaking by the end of the BSC meeting.

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They seemed everywhere for a rather small group. I saw them also picking on other kids as well. Cold comfort knowing we weren't the only targets. Several times during the next few weeks, I glanced at teachers, wondering if they knew some of the stuff that went on. Some of them seemed to, but others seemed out of it. Still, there were others...
I was headed to math class when I overhead Ms. Zarroto and Ms. Quebec talking.
"...just an adolescent thing," Ms. Quebec seemed to say.
"But it has me concerned," Ms. Zarroto put in. "Do we just stand by and let the kids work it out themselves?"
"I've seen cliques in most schools I've taught at," Ms. Quebec said. "Usually once they get out of school, they're history."
"I'm still going to watch out for some of the more vulnerable kids," Ms. Zarroto put her pen on her clipboard. "We can't let it get too far. I've read the news about school violence and some of it stems from seemingly innocent groups like these..." As I continued walking, I just hoped the In clique wouldn't get out of hand. But they seemed to be pushing limits further every day. Later at lunch, I was standing in line with Abby, Mary Anne, Kristy, and Stacey when snickers came up around us. I turned, but no one was there, not near us. The other kids seemed busy eating and talking among themselves.
Just ignore them, Abby mimed to me. She'd been uncharacteristically quiet and now was trying not to be heard. Don't attract their attention. Who just laughed? Mary Anne mimed, a worried frown knotting her brows. We heard snickers again, this time close to us and tried not to turn to look at them, although we knew who they were. Kristy shrugged and pretended to act casual, saying out loud, "So...did anyone think this morning's algebra quiz was hard?"
"Some," I said gamely as more low laughter rose around us.
"Sooo, what's the secret mouthing message signal this time?" Sara sneered, leaning close to us. She glanced back at Randy, who sneered at us. Burke snorted with laughter. Mary Anne tried to squirm away.
"Heyy, we're just curious," Burke came up and stepped so close some of us moved back. "Gonna let us in or make us guess?"
"'Cause then we think you're all wierdos," Randy sneered.
"It's their REAL names, of course, like Seaweed and Owl!" Burke laughed. Several kids turned to look at us and Abby started to shake. "How 'bout some real food to show the real Baby-sitters?" He leaned over toward the counter.
"Touch us with that food and we'll kill you," I snarled. "Come on, let's find a table." We darted over to the nearest table, feeling like we were being watched and laughed at.
"Rain check for another tiiime!" Randy taunted. Quiet tears ran down Mary Anne's face and all of us were quiet. We were going to eat, but most of our appetite was gone.

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Stacey:

We'd been trying to stay together at school, but later in the week found myself unexpectedly alone in the hallway when Kristy, who was in my last class, had to see the teacher about something. I told her I'd meet her at the locker and headed there. Most of the kids seemed to be gone, so I went there, got my books, then slowly paced between the classroom and the locker section. I heard a door slam, the someone streaked out of the gym so fast it was a blur. It was a sophomore and she tore down the hall like she was fleeing hot lava.
"You won't be doing that again!" Toni Marks' voice trailed after her and she, Sara, Randy, and several other In clique kids tore down the hall after her. To my horror, they caught up with her down the hall at the stairwell and grabbed her jacket.
"Get her purse!" Randy crowed.
"I got the shampoo..."
"We oughta get her locker too...where is it?"
"There..."
It was just a few minutes, but it seemed like an hour that I watched this awful scene unfold as they dumped the shampoo in her purse, then into the slats of her locker. I turned and ran to get Kristy. Thank the stars she was coming out. I told her what was happening. Unfortunately the teacher was gone by then, so we headed back into the hall, where the poor girl was crying and trying to wipe the mess out of her purse. The In clique was standing by, laughing. Some of them bumped into her, knocking her soaked books to the ground.
"Hey, knock it off!" Kristy and I yelled. They turned to stare at us.
"You losers again," Randy spat.
"You're the losers," Kristy told him. Randy stepped up to Kristy and for a terrified minute, I thought they'd get into another fistfight. But then he snickered again.
"Just look at this...the slob and doughgirl on display," he taunted. Just then, the sophomore scrambled to pick up her things and ran out of there. We stood in a silent standoff.
"Let's go..." I whispered. "I think we told them..."
"There they go with those idiotic pantomiming again," Toni laughed cruelly. I turned and walked down the hall, pulling Kristy with me. Their laughter bounced down the hall after us.
"Look at them ruuun!" Burke bellowed. "They pull a good samaritan for the underdogs of this school, but they themselves wimp out when it comes to facing us!"
"Hey, it's all right," Kristy unclenched her fists and wiped my face, which was streaked with tears.
"Oh, K-Kristy, how are we going to deal with those snobs?" I sobbed.
"I'm not sure," Kristy muttered. "But we won't let them run over us." She put an arm around me as we walked home. But I got the sinking feeling that they were already running over us.

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Claudia:

They say February is the shortest month of the year, but it seemed long to us. Maybe it's because we would head to school each morning, thinking out way to avoid humiliation by the In crowd. We tried to make sure we walked to school together and at least two of us headed home together. We'd be damned if they'd drive out of after-school activities, so if one of us had an activity, someone else would volunteer to wait for her. Since Mary Anne and I had yearbook and newspaper on Thursdays, we were fortunate there. March came and we had our monthly sleepover. Once away from school, we could relax more. Our BSC meetings become the rock in our rocky social standing at school. At Aster and Dusker's, so many kids from so many different schools went there on weekends, so we went over there on Friday before our sleepover and got drinks and chicken legs.
"Wellll, well..."a voice came up to our table as a shadow fell over our booth. A group from Burkeview stood over us, Randy Kirwan, Jana Morgan, Melanie Edwards, Beth Barry, and another guy we didn't know seem to have materialized out of nowhere. I sure didn't like that tone of voice.
"Look who's here but the kiddie-co-op," the guy taunted. Melanie, Beth, and Jana laughed. We all exchanged one long stricken look. Not here too. How had these kids heard about us? Oh, easy, same as we heard about them in ninth grade.
"What the shit do you want?" Kristy growled.
"How 'bout your cap?" Randy reached out and grabbed Kristy's baseball cap.
"Hey!" I grabbed the cap back and tucked it under me.
"We heard who you are," Melanie jeered. She poked Jana, who gave us a menacing stare. Mary Anne's eyes were full of tears and she tried to wipe them away with a trembling hand.
"Need some tissues?" Jana singsonged and tossed napkins into Mary Anne's soda. "Gonna cryyyy?" Mary Anne just nodded.
"HEY!" Abby snapped. "Just shut your socially elite mouth!"
"You shut your face before you make a BIGGER idiot of yourself," Randy taunted. Abby paled and looked down. They slowly backed into the next table, laughing and pointing at us. We hoped they were done with us, but as they ate, they pointed at us and laughed and made hurtful comments that carried over to us. Some other kids who saw them looked over at us and laughed, too. Mary Anne cried softly. Stacey and Abby looked miserable. Kristy and I were FUMING! So Burkeview has their share of assholes too.
"Why don't you leave them alone?" one quiet voice carried over. The Burkeview clique looked startled a minute and so were we. We looked up and saw a girl there with dark hair and a slight overbite standing between our two tables. She was clutching a soda and staring coldly at the Burkeview gang. "What did they ever do to you?"
"Hey, we were just having fun..." the other guy.
"Who died and gave you all the right to run over others?" the girl challenged, keeping her voice low and cold. "So you're all popular and the I'm not and maybe they're not. But you should know...being 'popular' isn't the same as being liked or respected. Keep that in mind." The Burkeview kids fell silent and I sensed they were embarrassed.
"I guess..." Jana looked away, avoiding the girl's stare. "We'd better head to that movie, Randy."
"Yeah..." the other guy muttered. They shot out of there so fast you'd have thought they were on fast-forward video tape.
"Thanks," we all told the girl, who introduced herself as Mona Vaughn.
"No problem," Mona smiled at us. We invited her to sit with us for a few minutes and we talked. "I'm getting sick of seeing that BIG crowd run Burkeview," Mona told us.
"Same here," I added, thinking of SHS. "I mean...at our school, there's a crowd like that...they pick on other kids and just think they're cool stuff."
"They probably just "hang out" all the time, right?" Mona asked. "Not really involved in any activities, except maybe sports or cheerleading and make fun of kids who have an interest in anything and waste their time acting cynical and just sit around doing nothing, am I right?"
"Yeah..." Kristy nodded. It was true. Few of the members of the IN group got involved in any of the school activities and mostly just...hung out.
"Going to the movies?" Mona asked. We shook our heads.
"Sleepover," Kristy told her. "We have one every month."
"Oh, that's nice...well, my sister Amber has the flu...so I'm headed home to see if she's okay...have a good time, you all," Mona called as she left our table.
"Hope your sister's better," Mary Anne called.
"Thanks again," I added. We sat for a minute, then paid for our food, wrapped it up and headed over to my house, where we were having our sleepover.
"We're not so alone now," Stacey commented on the way there.
"I guess it's because other schools are dealing with the same thing," I put in.
"Other kids who are being picked on probably feel alone," Mary Anne said softly. Fresh tears started to well in her eyes, but slowly dried. "Maybe if we could reach out to them..."
"Do you think Ms. Silverbein could do something about them?" Abby asked.
"Hard to say," Kristy shrugged. "Trouble is, most of the crap they pull is after school or away from teachers or her, so we'd have to have proof and it'd be their word against ours." I just hoped they wouldn't ruin Stoneybrook High for not only us, but for future students.


Stay tuned for more!