[Note: This blog started as a comment reply to a comment on Camp Kumoni : 31 by Anistasia Allread]

High school kids realize how much suffering 'the Plague' goes through. Every high school has one, though not called the same thing, necessarily. Usually spaced exactly 4 years apart. There is the one kid that's designated to be the target of EVERY social group. Usually a boy.

I am from a small community. We were the largest town in three counties, and several of the smaller towns didn't even have schools, so the kids were bussed to us. Now, in actuality, not-quite-3000 people isn't really all that large. But the 4 towns that sent us all the kids for schooling, and the other 5 that sent just the high school kids, were positively tiny (Easyville, for example had a population of 14).

So, in 1988, Cassville had approximately 2700 people and the Cassville School (K-12) had about 1600 students. K-4 had around 750, around 450 in 5-8 (including me), and around 400 in high school. I was in 8th Grade in the 1988-1989 school year. We had just moved back into town from my mother's latest attempt at leaving the area. Me, my younger sister (in 1st grade), my mother and my soon-to-be stepfather.

I was aware of my femaleness already, but my family was for the most part... not. I was hiding it successfully, but still wasn't apt to make friends at all, let alone with boys. However, I meet an older boy that was friendly in the month before school started.

He was smart, didn't talk down to me because I was young, and was three years older than me. He was also kinda homely and wore "Buddy Holly" glasses. He sold the "Grit" magazines folks may remember from the 1970s and 1980s ads in comic books encouraging kids to make their own money.

When school started, I discovered a few kids that at least tolerated my existence, among them were a pair of twin boys that were my age. They turned out to be Chris' (the older boy) younger brothers, Alex and Aaron. I made a few girlfriends and some of my old girlfriends reestablished contact with me after me having been gone for the better part of a year. Yes, the few friendish ones that knew my "secret" and seemed happy to see me.

This is when I started to find out about Chris.

He was a Sophomore in high school, so more than just a year older than me as I thought. He was the "mind" of the high school. He was the one that was a shoo-in for Valedictorian, and no one was even close to catching him. Ah, but he was also a bit clumsy and awkward. He didn't do anything "sporty" -- not even Chess Club. He was constantly picked on by nearly everyone. There were a couple of kids from each grade level that left him alone, but even the middle schoolers would torment him. Even. His. Own. Brothers.

They wouldn't physically abuse him, they'd reveal the "pet" names their mother used. They'd remind him of embarrassing things from childhood publicly, and they'd mess with his mind. They knew he was a numismatist (coin collector) and they'd find rare coins... superglue them to the sidewalk... and get the other kids to notice that Chris would stop and take the time to pry them up, "... and it's only a penny!" Of course, the others didn't know it was a rare penny or such. They didn't care.

The Plague of Cassville High School from Fall 1985 to Spring of 1989 was "Gritboy" -- and the closest thing I ever had to a true friend that was a boy. I actually talked him out of suicide at least once that year. In retrospect, I think I did more than the once and just didn't realize it. He is now a successful Radio Broadcast Manager, father, and husband.

However.

In the Fall of 1989, "Gritboy" was gone... graduated to a better world called "college" and a new Plague was to be christened. There were many things they called me. I had an easier time of it, though. I was able to be a social chameloid, and was eventually accepted by all the groups, and was ostensibly part of each. The Geeks, Goths, Jocks, Preppys, Cheerleaders, Band/Choir Geeks, Martial Arts Club, Forensics, Theatre, FFA, FBLA, FTA, FHA, StuCo, Knowledge Bowl, Gamerz, Sk8r Grrls (and everyone wondered why there was a boy in the group), Punks, ... the only groups I wasn't part of were the Druggies, Smokers, and Delinquents. Part of this was because they were never able to make it physical with me due to my simply not caring if I was beaten up. School was pretty hellish, but really it was better than my life at home. Part of what made it okay to pick on the chosen one was the reaction. Since I never really reacted due to a combination of not caring what happened to myself and realizing that escape was simply surviving until graduation, I was never fully indoctrinated as our school's Plague. They tried to make it stick to someone else, and while it would usually work for a bit, it never "took" while I was there. I'm sure it started again once I was gone, but for four years, there wasn't really a single kid that got picked on, because of my simply not having a self-image that felt worthy of survival.

But I've gone off-topic. The point is, usually no one notices or cares what happens to their school's version of "the Plague" and it isn't because they're an exceptionally cruel person. High School is a weird time and there just isn't enough focus in a teenage mind to attend to all the changes going on in one's life -- internal, external, emotional, physical, and more -- and to notice the plight of your peers.

Victoria probably genuinely never noticed just HOW bad Eric had it as the Plague. The only reason Samantha did was her sister had an equal measure of it, and then she focused on what was going on.