High school was a weird time. I had a reputation as a rebellious trouble maker, with my ripped jeans, worn out flannel shirts and long hair. And while I did engage in some pretty wild antics, I never really did anything as bad as my reputation would suggest. In fact I had a really good GPA and got an award my senior year for having 4 years of perfect attendance. My clothes looked the way they did because I was poor, not because I was trying to be edgy. But it was the 90's so nobody really noticed the difference.
I didn't drink, do drugs or any of the other cliche "troubled teen" behavior but everyone just kind of assumed I did. It was pretty eye opening when I overheard one of my teachers talking to the principal about me, apparently they considered me a "free spirit" and thus didn't worry about what sort things I might be doing. On the one hand I never got in trouble or even questioned about any rumors going on about me, but it was a little disheartening to hear that was who they thought I was.
I was kind of loner, which played into my rebel image, but that was just because I'm an introvert. Ironically it also made me very popular and I had all kinds of people who wanted to hang out with me, invite me to parties, ect. There were all the usual high-school cliques; jocks, prepy rich kids, stoners, nerds and because this was Los Angeles there were also the gang bangers. But somehow I ended up in friend circles where I could walk into any of these groups and be welcomed by them as an honorary member of their tribe. I wasn't exactly popular but there was a lot of people who knew me and seemed to like me.
Looking back I don't think I could have planned for things to work out like that if I had tried so I consider myself pretty fortunate that they did.