Journalist Note: Due to the controversy related to the following topic, the interviewees have requested to remain anonymous.

The majority of us teens have seen countless high school drama series/movies that have given us false expectations of high school. In most of these movies, the characters are presented in stereotypical groups of people.

“Cliques.”

Even though High School Musical and Riverdale remain ridiculously unrealistic (seriously, who would break out in dance in the middle of the hallway?), students can’t help but wonder:

Does Air Academy High School (AAHS) have cliques?

While many students answered “yes” to this question, they all had different interpretations of what “cliques” meant.

“Every grade has the same three cliques: the religious kids, the rebels and the band kids,” said an anonymous senior.

Anonymous juniors claimed that every person “mingles” between different groups, which makes them belong to, well, every group.

The upperclassmen see a more natural and united way of “cliquing” and mostly divide themselves into friend groups rather than specific cliques. They can exist under a certain stereotype but have completely different friends, like jocks who are buddies with band kids.

The underclassmen, on the other hand, seem to have a more divided view. An anonymous freshman commented, “Everyone has different views which don’t bring them together.” With all the drama students get into in their first year, arguably no one can say that the first-years are united.

“There’s the rebels, popular athletes, band kids, gamers and YoungLife kids,” said an anonymous sophomore, who added that “everyone knows everyone, but that doesn’t make them the same.”

There also seems to be obvious cliquing between grade levels. Most freshmen surround themselves with fellow freshman, and it continues for sophomores, juniors and seniors.

However, as the year progresses, relationships are formed between all grades. Eventually, though, competition between classes starts as people argue over who’s the “best grade.”

This results in seniors bashing juniors, and the whole school bashing the freshmen.

Walking through AAHS, you can see different groups of people who eat lunch together, walk to class together, gossip together, and, in a way, they look alike. Depending on your “status”, you will most likely stereotype other people based on who they hang out with. You may also see them talk, eat lunch and gossip with other people of different groups and grades–that’s just what AAHS cliques look like.

“Like-minded ideals lead to cliques. [Athletes] hang out with athletes, band kids with band kids. It’s just human nature,” said computer technology teacher Doug Duran.

As much as those teen dramas have created the cliche of jocks shoving nerds into lockers, we don’t see that as much at AAHS. People mingle, and people are divided.

At the end of the day, though, we all have one thing in common that brings us together: we are Kadets.