Drawing unpopular comparisons

I came to a sad realization this weekend. One that is likely to haunt me for some time. This weekend, I discovered my little sister is cooler than me.\nYou see, Saturday night was the homecoming dance at my high school. I decided to be a good big brother and drive home to see my sister, Elizabeth, get all dressed up. The plan was to attend her little group photo shoot and then settle in for a nice, quiet evening at home.\nSoon, though, it was brought to my attention that she was planning on having a few friends over after the dance, about a dozen. "Fine," I thought. "If I can sleep through a night in the Villas, a couple of 16-year-olds in the basement shouldn't be a problem." Besides, I remembered having a few friends over after my homecoming dance and it was a good time. I believe we watched "I Love the 80s" and possibly played a little Scrabble.\nI started thinking my little sister might possibly be a few rungs higher than me on the social ladder when we arrived at her friend's house for photos. She quickly noted that most of the boys either played football or basketball for the school. I quickly noted that they could all beat me up.\nAgain, I tried to make a connection between her group of friends and mine. I was no jock in high school, but I had my moments of glory. I mean, I was the managing editor of the school newspaper. I convinced myself I would fit right in with these guys, had we been the same age.\nThen I turned my focus to the girls. My parents informed me that about half of them were cheerleaders. Again, I tried to draw a comparison.\nWhile my friends in high school weren't cheerleaders, per se, they did take part in a number of school spirited activities. One was valedictorian, another was president of the National Honor Society and is a Wells scholar at IU, and the others all had very high Grade Point Averages. With a sigh of relief, I decided it was another draw.\nFeeling pretty good about things, my mom and I went home to begin preparing for my sister's after-dance "gathering." Well, my mom did anyway. I feel asleep.\nAt about 11:30 p.m., the doorbell woke me up. As my sister entered, she quickly commented, "There may be a few more people coming over tonight."\n"How many is a few?" my mom asked with hesitation.\n"I don't know, word kind of got out," she responded as she disappeared downstairs amid a sputtering of giggles.\nReally, there weren't too many people, unless you consider about 50 kids too many. As it turns out, my mom did. And as the seemingly endless line of kids streamed in our front door and downstairs (in a fashion not unlike a bad teen movie), reality finally hit me. My sister is cooler than me.\nI desperately tried to rationalize the situation and I came up with, "At least I'm doing well academically." \nBut then I remembered, my sister has a 3.9 GPA.