Games girls play

I’ve read the manuals, I’ve talked with other parents, I’ve seen those teen movies and TV shows out of America. So I know that high school girls can be pretty full-on, forming cliques and being mean and cutting and nasty, not to mention cyber-bullying and mall shopping.
But I certainly wasn’t expecting to encounter it out here in a quiet little school on the Japanese seaside, and not so early on in the piece.
When I was investigating the local schools from my desk in Australia I thought that small class sizes would be more friendly and intimate. How naiive! If anything it seems that the opposite is true: small classes create a pressure-cooker atmosphere. And there’s another factor compounding the situation. Junior high schools in Japan normally draw students from various primary schools in the vicinity. But there are no other primary schools in Sunami, so the same bunch of kids from year six goes straight through to junior high, with all their friendship groups and animosities perfectly preserved.
It appears that Ruby’s arrival near the end of grade six coincided with (or perhaps precipitated) a major shift in the tectonic plates in grade six. The two most strong-willed girls in the class, called Rie and Yuu, having previously been thick as thieves, suddenly tired of one another and immediately set about forming opposing cliques. Ruby found herself being courted by both sides and tried to maintain a neutral position, but this proved impossible and she eventually fell in with Rie’s clique. (They were the ones who took her out to the local shopping center during the holidays.)
Over the last couple of weeks, however, the planets have realigned once again and fractures have started to emerge within the cliques. As part of this process, for no particular reason poor Ruby abruptly found herself on the outer, mercilessly cast adrift by her own friendship group. At one stage they were being actively unpleasant, and although they have since stopped this, it’s clear that Ruby is going to have to find herself a different set of friends, at least for the time being. In a big school this might not be so difficult but when there are only ten girls in the class and about half of them have decided to be your enemies, your options are kind of limited.
However there has been an unlikely saviour in this grubby scenario: the regular after-school brass band sessions. While Ruby’s supposed friends are all busy in the other room trying to coax their first notes out of recalcitrant instruments, Ruby gets to have fun warbling away on her sax in the main room with the bigger girls, who are apparently much nicer all round.
I had a chat with Ruby’s teacher yesterday, and apparently this sort of carry-on is a common feature of the initial settling in period at junior high. Maybe it’s something to do with having to wear uniform for the first time, who can say. I just hope that they come to their senses soon and start being nicer to one another or it’s going to turn into Lord of the Flies up here on the mountain.