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that I hoped would scorch right through her retinas. “I said fine .”
    She held my gaze. It was a battle of wills—at least that’s how it felt to me—until she curved her mouth downward to show her disappointment.
    I don’t care, I said to myself. Don’t care, don’t care, don’t care.
    â€œThere’s a girl in my class I do not like,” Ty announced. He squirted a blob of ketchup onto his plate. “She’s new. She moved here from Texas the day after this day.”
    â€œYou mean the day before today,” Sandra said. Ty was always messing up his yesterdays and tomorrows.
    â€œShe has a bad smile,” Ty said. “Like this.” He pushed his lower teeth out past his upper teeth and grimaced, squinching up his eyes. Dad cough-laughed, and a splatter of mashed potatoes hit my arm. I wiped myself off in silence. I was mad at him, too.
    â€œDoes she smile like that on purpose?” Sandra asked.
    â€œYes,” Ty said. “She does it all the time. Her name is Taffy.”
    â€œ Taffy? ” Sandra said. “Ugh, that’s unfortunate.”
    Mom stood up. “Does anyone want any more chicken, or are you ready for dessert?”
    â€œDessert,” Sandra and Ty said together.
    â€œWinnie?” Mom said. There was too much patience in her voice.
    â€œI’m full.”
    She waited. “Then you can ask to be excused.”
    â€œMay I please be excused?”
    She sighed. “You may.”
    Later, after a rerun of 7th Heaven that I didn’t really watch, I went to Ty’s room to talk about Taffy. It was an unfortunate name, but I felt wounded on her behalf. Maybe she couldn’t help the way she smiled—had anyone considered that? Anyway, was looking different really such a crime?
    â€œHi,” I said, flopping down on the floor beside him.
    â€œI’m having bonus playtime because I got my pj’s on before the timer went off,” he said. “And brushed teeth. And put my clothes in the dirty-clothes basket.”
    â€œGood job,” I said.
    â€œWant to play with me?” He held out a gray plastic knight. “You can be this guy. He can step on hot lava and not even melt.”
    I accepted the knight. I made him walk a little, but with no sound effects. “Listen, about Taffy,” I said.
    Ty came at me with his own knight, which was red. “ Brrrng! ” he cried. “ Wa-choo! ”
    â€œShe probably has an underbite. She probably can’t help the way she smiles.”
    â€œShe says no one will play with her on the playground, but I don’t want to either,” Ty said. He karate-chopped my knight. “Take that! Whack, whack!”
    â€œWhen I was in kindergarten, there was a kid in my class named Jared who had really greasy hair,” I said. “Everybody was mean to him. It made him cry.”
    â€œThat’s not nice,” Ty said.
    â€œHe ended up moving to California, which is too bad, because that’s where all the earthquakes are.”
    â€œOh,” Ty said.
    â€œIt’s in the Ring of Fire.”
    â€œThat boy’s hair?”
    â€œNo, California. Because of all the underwater volcano explosions.”
    â€œHe could die,” Ty said. “Right, Winnie?”
    â€œThat’s right,” I said. “And there was another boy, his name was Charlie, who had an actual steel plate in his head. He could bang on it like this”—I rapped my skull—“and it made a hollow sound. The kids were super mean to him.”
    I had Ty’s attention. There hadn’t really been a boy named Charlie in my kindergarten class (well, there was, but he didn’t have a steel plate in his head), but I thought it served my point.
    â€œDid he move to California, too?” Ty asked.
    â€œNot that I know of.”
    â€œWhat did he do?”
    â€œI don’t know. He probably grew up to be very sad.”
    â€œHe might