The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [51]
So I decided to talk to one of them. On most weekdays, Amy, a senior, spends time before school, during lunch, and sometimes after school with the tree people. She says that they are a mix of “freaky kids, drama kids, white kids, and slightly emo kids. And almost all of them are not afraid to speak their minds and be loud, proud, and wacky about it.” For fun, the tree people like to go to the park to “DRAT,” their term for massive team battles in which they shoot each other with nerf guns or engage in close combat with plastic swords or PVC pipes. To others, DRAT may look like chaos, but the skirmishes are regulated by a set of predetermined rules and can be framed by more well-known games like Capture the Flag or King of the Hill. “If you look at this game, it seems immature,” Amy says, “but it’s really fun and a great stress reliever. Everyone finishes the game relatively happy, even if they lost.”
Amy says she fits in with the tree people because she is a self-proclaimed “anime freak” who founded her school’s anime club and reads a lot of manga. Some classmates call her a weirdo because she doesn’t follow trends, whether they involve clothes, behavior, or interests. Others call her a freak because her jokes can be “out there” and because she feels more comfortable using words she made up to replace curses and other phrases.
As a member of a school sports team and the band, Amy could hang out with other groups. Sometimes she does; she’ll have a sleepover with her AP friends or go out to eat with teammates. But she always comes back to the freak tree. Her rationale reminds me of her description of DRAT: It looks juvenile from the outside, but in reality it serves as a haven of comfort, acceptance, and stress relief. “The tree guys are more fun. When I’m with the tree guys, I’m never bored, whether there’s a wacky conversation about a TV show, an anime, or what would happen if the school was taken over by zombies, or maybe someone’s doing a mock fight or reenacting a movie scene,” she says. “When I’m with these guys, I don’t have to think about school or anything else that stresses me out. I can just relax, have fun, and act like a kid for once.”
When I ask Amy how the tree people feel about students calling their gathering place “the freak tree,” she says they usually laugh about it. “We know we’re weirdos, but we pretty much don’t care. Even if all the other kids are staring at us and thinking we’re freaks, it doesn’t matter. We’re having fun, all of us, together. At the tree, it doesn’t feel like you have to restrain yourself from what you say or do. One of my friends dresses up in clothes that look like something out of an anime,” she says. “In fact, if you do something that’s just the right crazy, the others might join in. One time some people started this thing where they clapped in front of themselves and then in back constantly, and we had a line of about ten people doing it in time with each other. It looked crazy, but it was funny. Yeah, it can be a little off-putting being known as the freak tree, but at least we aren’t afraid to have fun.”
When Amy goes to college, in her free time she hopes to join a Masters Water Polo team and continue practicing kendo and aikido. She plans to keep writing fiction. Someday, she says, “I can see myself as a CEO of a local company that helps my state’s economy by helping small businesses. I want to help out my community. That job appeals to my interests in business, marketing, advertising, and management, and I may be able to help my friends from all groups find jobs.”
It’s hard not to wonder what Amy’s classmates—the same ones who dismissed her