I stared at the kids, confused. I didn't know what to say. I had never thought of it that way. I had never compared myself to Roma like that. I had always seen him as better than me—smarter, more polished, more deserving. But these kids saw something different. They saw me as kind. They saw him as wicked.
"He's fake," Yena said. "I don't like being around him, and so do many of the older kids. That's why he sticks to the young ones."
I looked around the courtyard. She was right. Roma was surrounded by the younger children, the ones who didn't know any better, the ones who couldn't tell the difference between a real smile and a fake one. The older kids were all on the other side of the yard, keeping their distance.
"I don't like him too," Peter said. "He pushed Gawett because he showed him a bug."
