Short Story: “The Thing about HIgh School”

“The thing about high school,” her father said, “is that it’s jocks versus nerds. That’s the basics.”

And she started high school. She did not find it to be jocks versus nerds, exactly. The jocks, by and large, were the nerds. The first boy who made a pass at her was a lacrosse player. He also got straight As, wore custom, and aspired to go to Harvard Business School, even though their high school was the second-best public high school in the school district. Why the fuck, she wondered, did he wear custom if he was going to public school? She ran this by her father and he shrugged and told her to ask him again when he was done with Better Call Saul for the evening.

A few more weeks into her freshman year, she was invited to a party. The party was in fact hosted by unintellectual good-time buddies who drank light beer and had posters of OnlyFans personalities, but these people were not actually any go keg—and ended up having to go to urgent care.

“Some people who act out at parties,” her father told her, “if they don’t know their limits, can go to the emergency room.”

“Yes,” she said. “I’m aware. But one thing confuses me.”

“What’s that?”

“These guys didn’t seem like meatheads. They just seemed like burnouts. I don’t think anybody would have been that intimidated by them, unless she’d been beaten down by life already. I felt sorry for them more than anything.”

Her father thought for a moment. “Well, princess,” he said, “the thing about high school is, it’s jocks versus nerds. That’s the basics.”