The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [96]
“Hollister is the last place I want to go.”
His mother looked frustrated. “Then tell me: Where do you like to shop?”
“No, let’s just go. ’Cause obviously this never works out.” Eli’s confidence in the button-down had faltered. They went home without purchasing a thing.
Just before dinner that evening, Eli’s mother told him, “You can’t go to college wearing [your usual] shirts! You need normal clothes.”
Eli already was counting down the days until college. He had decided to attend Westcoast University even if he received other acceptance letters in the spring. Through a Facebook group for incoming freshmen, he had begun to meet some of his future classmates. He was pleased with his efforts to chat with them. He already had so many questions: “What should I bring to class the first week?” “How early should I get to class?” “How am I going to meet people?” He knew better than to post these on Facebook.
ELI’S CHALLENGE
When I told Eli about the challenge, he said he was “kinda overwhelmed.” He liked the idea of it, but he had already given up on having a satisfying social life in high school, and therefore he wanted to get through the remaining months “as quickly as possible.” He didn’t want to do a challenge that involved interacting with people at school, whom he assumed had already written him off. For an outside-of-school challenge that would provide him with skills he could use in school, I suggested that he take an improv class—he could take it in a different town, with adults, if he liked—to help him with his speaking insecurity and his fear of being laughed at.
“Ohhh my goodness,” he said. “It’s improv. And I’m kinda worried about the convenience of it.” He was busy with schoolwork, his job as a restaurant busboy, Academic Bowl, and Model UN, and he was already studying ahead of time for AP exams he would take in May.
A few days later, Eli got back to me. “Okay, I’ve thought a little,” he said. “Could the challenge be more internal, without the need to really involve anyone else?”
When I said no—the point was to change perceptions, not the person—Eli declined to attempt a challenge because he didn’t think his social life could change.
JOY, CALIFORNIA | THE NEW GIRL
In PE, Joy noticed that a group of three Mexican girls frequently shot dirty looks at her. Having never spoken to them before, Joy ignored them. Within a week, the girls began eyeballing Joy resolutely as she crossed the street to school in the mornings. Between class periods, they followed her down the sidewalks, calling her a bitch, ridiculing her looks and clothing. Joy IMed a friend in Jamaica.
Joy: yea man, sum ppl want 2 beat me up
Friend: hahahaha lmao
Joy: big man ting (a Jamaican phrase meaning “seriously”)
Friend: lmao
Joy: sum mexican gyal ah gang ah dem
Friend: wow yow avoid dem dem crazy. Yea man Joy be careful . . .
A few days later, Joy was running the mile in PE when she accidentally brushed past one of the Mexican girls. “Sorry!” Joy said as she continued her run.
“Fucking bitch!” one of them yelled back. On each of Joy’s subsequent laps, the girls repeated the phrase.
That afternoon, Joy worried that the girls were going to come after her. She wouldn’t be able to handle all three of them at once. She called her stepfather and asked him to pick her up. After school, Joy stood outside of the school office, waiting for her stepdad, when she saw the three girls. They stared daggers at her, as if gearing up to attack.
Joy adopted her best unperturbed expression. You’re wasting your time, she thought, feeling sorry for the girls. Someday, we’re going to be at very different places in life. They don’t know any better how to behave. What can I do, say, “Let’s hug?” I don’t think so. She smirked.
“What the fuck is she looking at?” said one of the girls.
“I don’t know. Fucking bitch,” another said.
The girls lurked while Joy waited patiently for