Middle Schools are not as cliquey as young adult fiction make it out to be. Or at least my middle school isn't. It is true that my middle school has groups, but those groups tend to mesh and are not extremely excluding. That is not to say we don't have outcasts. We do. They are the ones that fit into the typical middle school scenario.

Young adult fiction often portrays middle schools as a war ground of cliques, where one select group reigns and makes every one else feel miserable. I think that is a bit extreme. There are, of course, personality clashes, and groups of friends who don't get along with other groups of friends. But there isn't an organized battle ground, and no one clearly defines which side of a battle they are on.

Of course, other middle schools may be more cliquey. I think mine is spared because it is quite large (485 students over three grades), and is fairly diverse. (We have three major ethnicity groups; blacks, hispanics, and whites). Each ethnic culture has different status symbols, so there isn't one "popular" group. There is more of a "popular" gaggle, with multiple add-ons.