“When is Nerd Day?” by Laura Pilloni

In my high school only about a third of the student population participated in Spirit Week. The complete loners, losers, nerds—whatever you want to call them—didn’t participate at all. Why would they? This school was not offering anything to them. The kids who thought themselves to be too cool for spirit week, and the wannabe’s who copied them didn’t participate either. Those who did participate were either the most popular kids who OWNED Sprit Week along with the rest of the school activities or the not popular, care-free, fun loving losers. Being an honor student part of a huge clique of nerds disguised either by athletic skills, or a good sense of fashion, or great charisma, I was of course in the latter section of the minority, the cool losers—at least cool to me.

Dressing up for Sprit Week, especially on Mismatch Day, was always fun for me and every year when the end of September drew near, I attentively listened to the morning announcements waiting for the schedule of Sprit Days that were to come that one week in early October. Sprit Week always culminated on Black and Gold Day. That day we wore the school colors and held a pep rally on the football field in honor of our Uniondale Knights who would have their Homecoming game the next day. During the pep rally other sports teams also paraded around the football team, but the football players and cheerleaders always stole the spotlight. Regardless, all my cheers were for the kick line, marching band, and lacrosse, swim, and track teams were all my friends were spread around. Spirit Week’s Friday was never a surprise but Monday through Thursday varied depending on what the senior class had voted on.

I was sitting in my Chemistry Honors class waiting for the morning announcements. I was part of a small group of tenth graders in a class composed mostly of eleventh graders. The tenth graders in this class (with a couple of exceptions) were all part of that clique of nerds disguised as something better to the rest of the school’s eyes (kick line captain, swim team captain, etc.)

The Spirit Week days were announced, Celebrity Day, Twin Day, Nerd Day, Team Jersey Day, and Black and Gold Day, but Mismatch Day was never announced. I was so angry! Mismatch Day was my day. I already had my outfit ready, too. I was going to wear two skirts of different lengths over bright purple leggings, a tank top over a t-shirt, a different colored Converse on each foot, a side ponytail on one side of my head and my hair let down on the other, mismatched earrings, and several necklaces and bracelets. Now this perfect outfit would go to waste! As my best friend, Christian, described it, I was tight!

Throughout the rest of the day I complained to anyone who would listen how Mismatch Day had been scratched off. I also attacked the most unnecessary of the Days. I was accustomed to Twin Day and Team Jersey Day; we’d had similar occasions since middle school. Celebrity Day was passable and had potential to be very amusing. But what the hell was Nerd Day? It could be because I was already one myself, but I did not find any fun in dressing like a nerd. I proclaimed to everyone throughout the day that I would not participate in such an event. But no one really cared, all my rages really did was unintentionally inform those that missed the morning announcements that I knew the Spirit Days schedule by heart. They would come up to me with a pen and piece of paper in hand and ask me to tell them what the order of the Days was. I was so upset at being used in such a way that when they asked me “When is ‘Nerd Day’?” I would furiously reply before storming off, “On your birthday!”

The weekend before Spirit Week I discovered that there is such a thing as karma and that one should be very wary of it. I had been so appalled on the day of the Spirit Week announcement, that although I had memorized on what day of the week each Spirit Day would fall, I had paid no mind to on which date each Spirit Day would occur. I was walking around Bed, Bath and Beyond—don’t ask—when I realized that Nerd Day just so happened to fall on October 5, 2006, exactly fifteen years after my date of birth. I almost cried of embarrassment. I had been so rude. This was life’s way of punishing me; I wasn’t about to fight it. I went home and looked for my plaid skirt, a matching green cardigan, my gray knee high socks, my black Mary Janes, and my first pair of glasses. The fact that I didn’t need to go shopping for a Nerd Day/Birthday outfit did not make me feel better about the situation.