…One more drawing from my pre-Halloween costume shopping expedition.

If he hadn’t been surrounded by a number of people who actually looked their age, I never would have known that this kid was in high school. This kid was taller and thicker than most guys his age (and most guys twice his age, for that matter). Surrounded by his peers, though, he certainly acted his age, even if he didn’t look it. He and his friends were laughing and talking loudly about each other and about everything around them. Their carefully deployed laughs and giggles, eye rolls, and   gestures (the hair pushed out of the eye, the adjustment and readjustment of the hat or other head wear, the hitching up of the over-sized pants) were carefully and self-consciously deployed in the way that only teenagers can. They were having a great time. They were dressed for a Halloween party, with an assortment of funny hats, cat ears, and masks either on or  in-hand. The young guy in this picture was dressed as a football player. His costume, I believe, was the only one that reflected real life–certainly more so than the African American girl with the tiger ears and the Asian American kid with the Obama mask.

Ajuan Mance