21 Track 21

Unit 7

Listening to Advice

Chapter 2

Peer Pressure

Page 93

Your turn to talk

This week’s topic: peer pressure

It’s the week before school starts. Alicia Gonzales is shopping for clothes with two friends, Nina and Vicki. Alicia puts on a black jacket, turns to her friends, and says, “Hey, what do you think?”

The girls look at her and both start laughing. “No way, Alicia!”

Nina laughs. “That’s a guy’s jacket.”

Alicia frowns angrily. “Yeah, well… I like it.”

“Yeah,” says Vicki, “but what will people at school say?”

Alicia thinks for a moment. Then she takes off the jacket. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Peer pressure. We all know about it. Your friends wear certain clothes or listen to certain music. You don’t want to be different. So, you do those things, too.

fifteen minutes later, Alicia is still thinking about the black jacket. “Yeah, there’s pressure to follow the crowd,” she explains.

“If your clothes or hair are different, people make fun of you. You know, they laugh and point.”

Vicki agrees. “It’s true. You even have to have a certain kind of boyfriend or girlfriend! I think these rules are childish. But when you’re different, you feel like an outsider. And that’s hard.”

Alicia walks away. “Hey, Alicia,” calls Nina. “Where are you going?”

“To get the black jacket. I don’t care about what others think. I like it, and I’m buying it.”