The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [12]
The black peers with whom Regan had the most interaction formed a clique called “The Seven.” Regan liked them, but they were exclusive. Once, she had walked in on them during a conversation and they immediately fell silent. When they realized it was her, one of them commented that Regan could be the marshmallow to their hot chocolate, and should therefore be included in their discussion, as if conversation could be racially segregated.
As the principal began speaking, Regan’s attention wandered to the middle of the room where Mandy and Francesca were huddled over what Regan assumed was their infamous purple notebook. Mandy and Francesca called themselves “The Divas,” referring to themselves as Diva 1 and Diva 2, even when they did the morning announcements. They had a list of Diva Rules, a Diva vocabulary, and Diva business cards. They even decorated their rooms with similar purple curtains. They brought the little purple notebook to assemblies and meetings, and wrote down the “sqs”—stupid questions—people asked, as well as the names of all late arrivals. They were the school gossips. Regan’s friend Viola referred to Mandy as “the mouth of the South.”
For a long time, their gossip had centered on Regan, who pretended not to know that people were talking about her behind her back. She explained later, “What people say about me isn’t as important as what I know is true. If people want to talk about me, then that’s their problem, not mine.”
Wyatt sat near Mandy and Francesca, in the middle of the group known for being jocks, jokers, and chicks with reputations. They formed a tight clique, blathering over each other, holding exclusive cookouts once a month during lunch, laughing at inside jokes. During Regan’s first year at Johnson, they even wore matching custom-made T-shirts. At assemblies, if one group member spoke up in front of the crowd, the rest of them made a scene, clapping and cheering raucously. Regan was both revolted by and jealous of them.
Regan hadn’t intended to become an outcast at James Johnson. When she was dating Wyatt, she didn’t talk much to people at school because Wyatt told her not to; he said their schoolmates didn’t like her and, being new to Georgia, she believed him. Although Regan was generally strong and independent, she listened to Wyatt because, she said, “I was lost and scared. I was in a new place with new people, and I didn’t really know what else to do.”
Regan no longer cared that people at Johnson thought she was weird. She knew she was different. She was a self-described histrionic “artsy type” vegetarian who performed in community theater plays, went to museums, and often ate ethnic food. She was also a self-proclaimed nerd who liked documentaries, listened to spoken sonnets on her iTunes, adored English classes, and rarely watched television. She was obsessed with dinosaurs. She improvised strange skits starring her younger brother and posted the videos on Facebook. Back in Vermont, she and her best friend watched the three original Star Wars movies in a row and turned everything Luke said to Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back into an innuendo. She took Bengali lessons because she planned to spend next year’s fall semester volunteering in Bangladesh.
Once, after reading Cyrano de Bergerac, Regan and her high school classmates had to write a paper about their metaphorical nose—the single insecurity that kept them from feeling comfortable around people. Regan wrote about her state of mind. She had a different way of looking at the world. She explained later, “I don’t want to be like everyone else, so I just sort of do my own thing. Everything about my lifestyle is alternative. I’m extremely ambitious and antsy. I’m really silly. I don’t try to conform to what people want from me. I’m outspoken and very energized.