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typically used to describe people who prefer alternative or obscure bands. Scene kids say they are more musically inclined than hipsters. They might be identifiable by a bandana adorning a choppy haircut or poking out of a pocket, piercings, funky eye makeup, sparkles, perhaps a vintage look, or long bangs swooping over one eye (which a non-scene described as causing them to “have to do a hotshit head toss every five seconds”). Scenes’ hair might be bleached blonde on the surface and dark underneath, or multiple bright tones. Their T-shirts might advertise screamo or techno, hardcore or ska. Scenes, said a Virginia eighth grader, are “the kind of people who recognize every song in the Apple commercials.”

Scenes are neither punks nor rockers, although some observers might mistake them for either label. Rockers, said an immigrant in Massachusetts who gratefully found a high school identity in the rocker label, “usually have long hair, wear skater shoes (DCs, Etnies, Vans), and listen to rock, alternative, or screamo.”

In some schools, students use the Japanese word otaku to describe anime connoisseurs. This is a limited version of the true Japanese definition, in which otaku refers to an obsession with any sphere, whether anime, trains, or celebrities. Anime devotees say that otakus are more knowledgeable than the average “anime kid.” Blue, whose gamer label relates to another supposed obsession, compared the difference between otaku and anime kid to the distinction between geek and dork.

Geeks and nerds also can find roots in perceived obsessions, nerds with academia and geeks with technological gear. Many students describe nerds as the kids with giant backpacks who, as a Hawaii band geek put it, “even if they aren’t tardy, they run while everyone else is walking.” These types of nerds may overlap with AP or IB kids, but fall below “nerdy jocks” and overachievers on the social totem pole. Various debates have tried to pin down the differences between nerds and geeks. Blue once sent me the following unsolicited table representing his distinctions among “normal” students, geeks, nerds, and dorks. (Note: Blue’s table is biased because, as he said, “People call me a geek. A lot.”)

I generally subscribe to the idea that although both groups are known for smarts and social marginalization, nerds might be inclined toward unusual intellectual pursuits, and geeks toward unusual recreational ones.

As you traverse the cafeteria, you notice that many students are absent from the room. Just as some overachievers might opt instead to dine in the newspaper office, for example, the band geeks, or “bandies,” might eat in the band practice room. Band geeks are not to be confused with the reportedly quieter orch dorks, also known as “orchadorks.”

On one side of the cafeteria you see the area that some students refer to as Africa, with Mexico not far away and Asia in another corner. Of these, Asia has the most subdivisions. A West Coast Filipino junior broke the categories down into “smart Asian nerds, normal Asians, white-washed Asians, FOBs (‘Fresh off the Boat: They don’t speak English fluently and wear Asian-style clothes’), Koreans, Cool Asians, and Filipinos.”

The religious students also subdivide. When students consider classmates to be more spiritual than average, they might stamp them with one of a number of labels, like Jew Crew, Superjews, church girls, or Young Life addicts, after the Christian ministry.

Today’s students are so label-conscious that there is even a label for students who consider themselves independent of labels. Students described a range of indie characteristics, from “they wear alternative clothes and are obsessed with global warming or they play guitar and draw weird pictures” (Maine), to “the kind of people who are weird on purpose, but aren’t looked at as losers; they’re looked at as ‘individuals’ ” (Hawaii). Indies gravitate toward “underground concepts,” as opposed to “shallow modern culture,” an indie explained to me, which sometimes gets them mistaken for scene kids. Indies may view themselves