The Plague of Popularity

Since the beginning of middle school I’ve been the kid everyone’s looked up to—it started in third grade. I was the new kid for a while, fitting in with the loud mouths, the obnoxious kids; at the time they were just like me. As we got older and started growing up I came to realize how unlike me they really were. These people were my friends so I didn’t question anything. I dressed like them, I talked like them, I acted like them—I did it all better than them.

It only takes one person to change your life—so they say—right? Mine comes in the form of a person that no one who walks through these forsaken halls would ever think I would fathom about. This person iseverything I’m not. I hadn’t ever noticed them before to be honest; I’ve always been too wrapped up in what was going on with my peers. They don’t even know this person’s name—I don’t even know their name, but I will find out what it is. Soon.

They’re the new kid to our high school; fresh meat, new territory to stake claim—so what’s the catch? It’s been three months of school and they haven’t given in to an ounce of our peers. The words that are thrown at them, the actual objects thrown at them—they make no difference. They say nothing in return, never retaliating to the merciless taunts. Head stays parallel to the ground as they walk forward, never giving someone a second glance—until today.

I was walking down the hall during class—bathroom—and there they were, coming towards me. Head down, slow pace, finally looking up once they heard my shoes on the cheap, shiny, tiled floor. Our eyes locked for only a few seconds—the longest three seconds of my life. I saw nothing butpity in those hazel eyes as they took in thehope that filled my eyes. Why would they hold nothing but pity for me?

Then I heard the softest whisper as they passed—‘they all want what you have but they hate what you are’. My mind wrapped around that thought all day long. I was admired, I was wanted and I was accepted—I wasn’t hated. Everyone wanted to be near me, seen with me—be me. Everyone but Gerard Arthur Way. I told you I’d find out their name; he’s the one person to change my life—and he doesn’t even know it.