What class do I fit in?

Reading the chapters from Adam’s book about class, made me question, “What class do I fit into?” Prior to my parent’s divorce, my family would have been considered lower-middle class. However once my father was out of the picture, my mom supported me and my brother at below poverty level. I personally have no income at the moment, am I considered lower class?  Do people apply my brother’s middle class income to me, because he helps me financially?  I also wondered about our friends during our teenage years, what made us have a diversified group of friends? I came to realization, that in spite of the fact our friends were racially diversified, the majority of us came from families struggling to put food on the table.  The few friends we had that were financially stable had parents that grew up very poor.  The Mechler family was very well off, so why were they placed in our group of friends?  We did go to the same church, but not our entire group went to that church.  Maybe we became friends because of the similarity of being “different”.  The Mechler girls were half white (father) and half Okinawan (mother); did the upper-class whites reject them, because of their biracial identity?  Is that really why they chose to be friend with a group of “poor” kids?  Of course, I will never fully know how our friends became our friends, I know we all felt “different” for one reason or another.  Regardless of the Mechler family's reasons, I will always be grateful for their friendship.  Mr. Mechler often paid for our entire group of friends to get to go to the movies and eat out (Frequently the only meals my brother and I had came from the Mechler family).  The readings and this class in general is really causing me to question everything. In some ways, I wish I could just appreciate the friendships and opportunities provided to me, but I guess questioning motives and ideologies is part of becoming “educated”.  I just hope all the knowledge does not lessen my gratefulness for the people that have shared in my life journey.