The loudest brand at school isn’t always the strongest one. Ask who everyone texts when something actually goes wrong.

Visibility and trust are two different currencies, and school makes them easy to confuse. The person everyone watches is not always the person anyone leans on. Real standing shows up quietly, in who gets called when a plan falls apart or someone needs a ride at eleven at night.

Ask who you would text if something went genuinely wrong tonight, and whether anybody would text you. That second list is the one worth growing. Building it is unglamorous work: answering, turning up, and keeping what you were told to yourself.