Milo had also become an easy target for a group of boys who liked making jokes at his expense.
Nothing dramatic enough to bring teachers running.
Just enough to make a fourteen-year-old dread school every morning.
They took his seat at lunch.
Mocked the way he spoke.
Called him stupid when he couldn’t answer questions in class.
Eventually, Milo stopped eating in the cafeteria.
One afternoon, Tobin found him sitting alone at the far end of a hallway with an untouched lunch beside him and a math worksheet on his knees.
Tobin sat down.
That was all.
He didn’t make a speech.
He didn’t ask a dozen questions.
He simply looked at the worksheet and said, “You’re doing this part backward.”
Then he showed Milo another way to solve the problem.
