A Break-down of Cliques at East

High school has been a common setting in movies for years. While other cinema trends come and go, the theme of high school cliques remain the same. Whether it’s the jocks, the nerds or the hipsters, cliques are important to how media portrays high school.

According to a recent Harbinger survey of 100 students, 30.8 percent of students say they’ve felt left out of a clique. In relation to the media, 50.7 percent of students watch Pretty Little Liars, a clique oriented TV show, and 23.5% of students have read “The Clique” books.

East social worker Becky Wiseman believes that students are affected by cliques in the media.

“It looks fun, and they get to go to the best parties, and they have the best clothes, and they drive the best cars,” Wiseman said. “I think you want that even though you know it’s not reality.”

As a social worker, Wiseman sees the effect of cliques on East students. At least once a week students talk to her about feeling left out of cliques or not being able to make close friends.

“A lot of people feel like they have acquaintances […] but they want a relationship beyond that,” Wiseman said. “That’s a struggle for a lot of students in the school.”

While some students struggle to make close friendships, others thrive on it. The latter type of student is one who is more likely to form a clique.

According to Wiseman, cliques can be anything from protection (as in a gang) to a sign of status.

“ I think a lot of people want that kind of closeness and always have someone to talk to and always have someone to sit with and text, someone to hang out with,” Wiseman said, “and if they don’t have that I think that’s more what they yearn for. Rather than ‘I want to be in a clique,’ they really want that closeness and compatibility.”

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The Fine Nine

It’s the third quarter of the boys’ varsity basketball game, and the upperclassmen break out into a new chant. With their bodies angled toward the freshmen section, they begin to yell “Stand up Fine Nine! Stand up Fine Nine!” Freshmen Payton Dribber* and Alexa Martilli* try to sink a bit lower into the bleachers and laugh off the chant that’s meant for them. Somehow, in the first weeks after winter break, their innocent little friend group blew up into a big cliquey problem.

It was the middle of October when Dribber, Martilli and their group of girl friends were recognized by the freshman class as a clique because of all the time they spent together. However, the girls didn’t want to define their group as the only people they would hang out with, because it was only the beginning of freshman year.

“Everyone’s still just trying to find their places,” Martilli said.

According to Martilli and Dribber, at first it was all innocent; the girls tried not to be exclusive and their clique didn’t have a name. They flew under the radar, and it was relatively drama free, because only the freshmen class was talking about it.

After lunch one day, Dribber and her group of friends were walking down the hallway when a group of junior boys approached them. They laughed and made a comment about the girls being in the freshmen Fine Nine clique.

“We only found out about it when everyone else started talking about it,” Martilli said.

Then, after Winter Break, rumors starting flying through Facebook and Twitter. “Spotted: Fine Nine walking on 83rd #carless #suckstosuck.” “#finenine at swim meet…such an honor.”

The group of freshmen had been officially dubbed the Fine Nine.

East Social Worker Becky Wiseman has seen groups that start out just as friends hanging out, turn into more exclusive groups or cliques.

“Traditionally I think cliques, even though they have a very negative connotation, cliques are started generally out of similarities that people have,” Wiseman said. “If they enjoy the same sports, or kind of just have the same personalities, or take the same classes, I think they’re generally started in kind of a non-threatening innocent way.”

According to Wiseman, the exclusive element is when groups start to have negative consequences for everyone-both those included and those on the outside of the group.

Helen Brownsdale*, one of the girls rumored to be kicked out of the Fine Nine, said the girls knew about the clique before the rumors. Brownsdale said that four girls, not including her, actually did name themselves the Fine Nine, but when upperclassmen found out they were embarrassed. She heard that the girls made a list of names of people to include in the clique and she was on it, though she wasn’t informed by them.

“I think they were just trying to create a group that they thought was cool and now I think that once all the upperclassmen found out about it, they are denying it because it’s embarrassing,” Brownsdale said.

Soon after the tweets began, the girls were getting taunted about their clique every day. Dribber and Martilli were approached countless times in the hallways by people asking questions like ‘How do I get into the Fine Nine?’, or ‘Who’s the leader?”.

Not knowing what else to do, the girls now just walk away without answering the questions.

“We try to play it off and laugh at it, because what else can we do?” Martilli said.

* name has been changed to protect identity

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iBros and iBabes

The International Baccalaureate (IB) program, through enrollment presentations, boasts of how students bond through their learning experiences and become close through the power of education. When junior Luke Holsinger signed up for IB, he knew this, but had no idea just how good of friends he would become with his classmates.

IB History of the Americas teacher Brenda Fishman has seen the effects IB has had on student relationships.

“Anytime you have a smaller class, fewer than 24 kids in the class, you notice a little bit more of a closeness,” Fishman said.

It was the beginning of the school year when Holsinger and his IB friends officially became a clique. They named themselves the iBros and created two rules to entry that made the clique semi-exclusive: You must be a guy, and a member of the junior IB class.

“It was more of a forced clique because we all have the same classes and all just spend so much time together,” Holsinger said.

A few weeks after this clique was formed, the junior IB girls formed the iBabes.

One thing both the iBros and the iBabes share is a way of communication. There’s an IB Facebook thread, where members post questions about homework and projects.

While the iBabes don’t take their clique as serious as the iBros do, they still have a certain degree of camaraderie. According to junior “iBabe” Amy Sachse, upcoming on the iBabes schedule is a slumber party.

Even though the iBros don’t have anything planned for outside of school, Holsinger is glad he made the in-class friendships.

“We just spend so much time together it was really inevitable,” Holsinger said.

***

Chambers

The doors of Room 211 open and voices fill the air. These are not ordinary voices; they are the voices of the Chamber singers. The singers, selected last year, share sixth hour together, but these 23 students don’t just bond through class time.

Junior Maddie Sullivan, a member of the group, enjoys spending time with the Chamber singers inside and outside of school. They get together after every concert and go out to dinner. They organized a Christmas party and the girls had a cookie decorating party.

But, the singers always have a song in mind.

“When we get together, we always sing and harmonize,” Sullivan said. “Which is kind of expected of us to do.”

Being a junior in the group of mostly seniors, Sullivan looks up to her classmates and asks them for advice. She’ll ask them about their college searches and senior year in general. Senior Olivia Mansfield enjoys conversing with her younger classmates and helping them through tough high school times.

“They also see us and how we are in class.” Mansfield said, “so we set examples on how to manage their time, get their homework done, choosing colleges, that is all important to us”, Mansfield said

Sullivan and Mansfield both like having a break from normal classes and their main groups of friends.

“You go to choir and you can just forget about all of you issues and you can just have fun with people who are in a different friend group than you,” Sullivan said.

Chambers has also impacted the way Sullivan acts around her other friends.

“It has definitely helped in my self-confidence and its nice being around a group that is interested in all of the same things that I am,” Sullivan said. “It’s nice having a group with similar interests.”

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Prestigious cliques from TV and movies:

1. Gossip Girl: Upper-East-Siders

Girls and guys share in the drama, sabotaging each other— and looking darn good doing it. The show has been said to be a “parent’s nightmare.”

2. Grease: Pink Ladies and T-Birds

The classic story of two high school sweethearts who try to maintain their relationship while fitting in with their respective groups.

3. The Clique series: The Clique

This time it’s middle schoolers who are doing the backstabbing and shopping. A stereotypical girl book.

4. Mean Girls: The Plastics

Lindsay Lohan in her pre-alcohol era plays an outcast invited into the most popular clique in school. High school drama, check. Humor, check. Heartwarming lessons, check.

Illustrations by DJ Burton. Clique graphic by Maggie Simmons.