It's been an interesting few days here at Fairfield Life Junior High School. First some guy tried to stand up to the leader of my clique, as if he not only didn't care what She thought of him (imagine!), he also didn't care whether She'd give him strokes for agreeing with her (the idiot!). Of course She had to try to shout him down, but She got so caught up in it (understandable, of course!) that She wound up talking in class too much trying to put him down, and got suspended for a week.
I thought I was gonna die. I mean, what can you do when the person you depend on to fight your battles for you and put down the people She tells you to dislike isn't around any more? It was awful, like some kind of test (and you know how I hate tests!). It was like we were left on our own to try to figure out who to hate without Her here to tell us and to give us strokes when we ranked on them. But it was only a one-week suspension, so I did the same thing that the other girls in the clique (and the four guys, who are so catty that they're almost honorary members of the clique!), and played "pile on" to Her standard enemies. And that worked, to some extent. Every time I did that, one or more of the other members of the clique would pat me on the back and tell me nice things about myself. It was almost like still having Her around, and I was groovin' on all the attention I was getting. Some of us even managed to do what She no longer can, and got one or more of the enemies to respond to our bullying, one on one, and give us *their* attention. It felt GOOD to get their attention, and to feed on it, just as She always said it would. And of course it paid off, because when She came back from her week of detention, She's been giving us attention and praising us and patting us on the back for Doing The Right Thing, just as we knew She would. It's been a pity that She can't get any of Her enemies to respond to Her any more, because we like it best when our champion "gets" them with her witty putdowns in the hallways of the school, in front of the lurker students who aren't cool enough to be members of our clique but like to watch the fighting anyway. But one of the almost-members-of-the-clique guys figured out how to get at least one of Her enemies to respond to him, by insulting one of Her enemies who moved to another school. It was kind of a pussy move for a guy, ragging on someone who hasn't been around for months and who isn't around to defend herself, but it worked. He got praised by She Who Counts for doing it, and it gave Her the opportunity to put down that person again, so almost-clique-member guy got all sorts of strokes for it. It worked so well, in fact, that I'm thinking of doing the same thing myself. I'll think of something nasty to say about one of the other kids who She has driven away, and say it. Maybe Ruth. Or that Curtis guy. I'll think of something nasty to say about them, and then She will think of something nice to say about me, and I'll be all important in the clique again. And that's all that matters.
