It's a difficult situation, but sometimes all they need is a friend. When DD was growing up there was a clique of popular girls that was very mean to her. She had a lot of friends, but it was outside of that group. As long as they hung out together and stuck up for each other, it made things more tolerable. She didn't really come into her own until she joined travel ball and started to develop friendships with girls from other schools. Honestly, most of her long term friends at this time are from other schools and very few are from the high school she went to. Honestly, the hierarchy was no different when I was in high school 30+ years ago. The biggest difference is now the mean girls use social media apps as well.
