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Before the first day of eighth grade,
I got An Outfit:
Green and yellow striped shirt,
Yellow shorts, and
a nice leather belt.
On the first day of school,
I wore it.
Walking into science class,
I saw Kelly:
a volleyball player,
not quite one of the popular crowd,
but right on the cusp,
and miles away from where I stood, socially.
Kelly had gotten An Outfit:
Green and yellow striped shirt,
Yellow shorts, and
a nice leather belt.
On the first day of school,
She wore it.
Decades later I realized
how much worse it must have been
for Kelly
and her precarious position.