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. In relative descending order of popularity:
Most Popular:
- The Ace
- School Idol
- The Social Expert
- 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.)
- Alpha Bitch
- The Quarterback
- Big Man on Campus
- Teenage Rebels
- Jerk Jock (Sometimes is also the Big Man on Campus)
- The Cheerleader (when she isn't either the Alpha Bitch or in the Girl Posse)
- Cute Sports Club Manager
- Carload of Cool Kids (these are the people in the car)
- Spoiled Sweet
- Lovable Alpha Bitch
- The Alpha Bitch's Girl Posse
- Sympathetic Athletes
- The High School Hustler is an odd one, often very popular, but sometimes a:
- Extracurricular Enthusiast
- Dumb Jock
- Barbaric Bully (frequently overlaps with Dumb Jock and/or Jerk Jock)
- Class Representative
- Academic Alpha Bitch
Least Popular:
- Cool Loser
- Drama Club (Depending on the type of school, may either be at the top or bottom of the chain.)
- Carload of Cool Kids (the losers standing on the side of the road who are being spoken to)
- Shrinking Violets who are Beautiful All Along
- Emo Teen
- Goth (often though not always conflated with the above)
- Geek
- Loners in general
Outside the System:
- 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)
