Sue: All the popular kids are in the penthouse, all the nerds playing wizards and trolls in the forest - bottom floor.
Will: Where do the glee kids lie?
Sue: Sub-basement.
Will: Where do the glee kids lie?
Sue: Sub-basement.
— Glee
What the Brain Chain is to intellect, this trope is to High School popularity. Where you are on this list determines how smoothly your high school existence goes, who sits with you at lunch, and what your role in the story is. Compare Clique Tour when this is pointed out. In relative descending order of popularity:
Most Popular:
- Black Hole Sue (Top of the food chain, because she is literally characterized by making everyone in the story obsess over her by her existence. Anyone who dislikes her is usually shunned by the story itself)
- The Ace
- Big Man on Campus and Class Princess
- Big Jerk on Campus and Alpha Bitch
- School Idol
- Jerk Jock (may overlap with Dumb Jock or Barbaric Bully)
- The Beautiful Elite
- Beta Bitch
- Carload of Cool Kids (these are the people in the car)
- The Cheerleader (when she isn't either the Alpha Bitch or in the Girl Posse)
- Class Representative
- Cute Sports Club Manager
- Dumb Jock
- Extracurricular Enthusiast
- Girl Posse
- The High-School Hustler is an odd one, often very popular, but sometimes a:
- The Quarterback
- The Social Expert
- Spoiled Sweet
- Student Council President
- The rest of the Absurdly Powerful Student Council (in Japanese works. In Western works they are often much lower down the chain.)
- Sympathetic Athletes
- Teenage Rebels
- Token Rich Student
Middle Ground:
- Recurring Background Teens
- Ordinary High-School Student (though other times this character can be the Cool Loser)
- The Generic Guy/The Everyman
- Wasted Beauty (they could have been at the top if not for that one flaw/quirk)
Least Popular:
- Barbaric Bully (who isn't a Jerk Jock)
- Grade Skipper (may be a target for bullies due to being younger than his or her classmates)
- Carload of Cool Kids (the losers standing on the side of the road who are being spoken to)
- Cool Loser
- Fallen Princess
- Bully Magnet
- Emo Teen
- Goth (often though not always conflated with the above)
- Fat Best Friend
- Geek
- All of the Other Reindeer
- Loners in general (except when they are Troubled, but Cute)
- No Social Skills
- Shrinking Violets who are Beautiful All Along
- Teacher's Pet
- Loser Team Mascot
- The Stool Pigeon (especially if they rat out on their so-called "friends")
- Straw Loser, as they are meant to be as uncool as possible.
Outside the System:
- Child Prodigy / Teen Genius (depends on whether they're an Innocent Prodigy or Acting Their Intellectual Age)
- Drama Club (Depending on the type of school, may either be at the top or bottom of the chain.)
- Foreign Exchange Student (usually winds up higher on the popularity food chain)
- New Transfer Student (can wind up anywhere in terms of popularity depending on the situation)
- Popularity Cycle (the point is the cycle, so people tend to switch between being loved and ostracized)
- Class Clown/The Prankster (varies heavily depending on whether they're beloved or just annoying)
