I guess it would depend on the make-up of the rest of the group. I was lucky to have several "out-crowd" girlfriends in elementary school who didn't flip out over the usual stuff like the other girls in our class. But I can also remember a period where I made a lot of my friends angry in high school by telling them to shove it when they wheedled with me to let them copy homework or borrow test answers or whatever. You're very right: stepping away and being different has its downsides. But then you can also learn who your real friends are, so it has upsides too.