Basic Trope: Characters are friends, although one of them is popular and the other one is not-so-popular.
- Straight: Alice, the Alpha Bitch of the school befriends Chloe, a socially awkward girl.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice, an extremely famous celebrity, befriends Chloe, an outcast that nobody else notices.
- The above, but Alice and Chloe are dating.
- The above, but Alice and Chloe are married.
- Downplayed: Alice has a few more friends at school than her pal Chloe.
- Justified:
- Alice and Chloe have similar interests and hobbies despite their contrasting popularities.
- Alice and Chloe have known each other since they were toddlers, and they remain close even if their different personalities and interests mean that they have very different social circles outside their friendship.
- In Alice's social group it is standard to show Condescending Compassion to unpopular students. Alice happens to be a little less condescending when dealing with Chloe, helping them become real friends.
- Inverted: Alice and Chloe hate each other and think of each other as an arrogant bitch and a pathetic loser respectively.
- Subverted:
- Alice and Chloe decide not to befriend each other because of their contrasting social status.
- Chloe tries to start a friendship with Girl Posse Alice, but Alice declines and has her friends beat-up Chloe for her own sociopathic amusement.
- Double Subverted: Then they decide to be friends anyway because they see each other as nice people.
- Parodied: Alice being friends with Chloe gets treated like the most unlikely pairing in all of history.
- Zig Zagged: Alice wants to be friends with Chloe, but stops because it might weaken her popularity, then changes her mind since she doesn't really care that much about popularity, but stops again to consider the disadvantages of becoming unpopular.
- Averted: Alice and Chloe live in a Crapsaccharine World where friendship is met with the death penalty.
- Enforced: Alice and Chloe are partnered-up in an assignment about randomly becoming friends.
- Lampshaded: Charles says "I don't get why Alice always hangs out with that loser Chloe, UGGH."
- Invoked: Chloe's parents go out of their way to have her be friends with Alice.
- Exploited: Charles shares information about Alice's friendship with Chloe to make her an outcast as well.
- Defied: Alice doesn't find Chloe that interesting, so they don't become friends.
- Discussed: "I know it's kinda weird how we're friends even though our popularity statuses are highly contrasting."
- Conversed: Alice and Chloe talk about how sometimes in Anime popular kids befriend social outcasts.
- Deconstructed: Many of the popular bullies hate the fact that Alice hangs out with Chloe, so they gossip about Chloe to try to ruin her reputation.
- Reconstructed: Alice is popular enough that the rumors don't damage her.
- Implied: Alice and Chloe aren't seen hanging-out together, but they still act as if they're comfortable with each other.
Back to Cool Kid-and-Loser Friendship.
