it affects everyone who goes here."
"Including Ananya," Naina said.
"Including all of us," Dev said quietly.
Naina absorbed this. The genuinely good impulse — protect the teacher — entangled with the genuinely interested impulse — protect the school, protect yourself, protect the families your family is connected to. Not a simple story of children deceiving an adult. A complicated story of children trying to do the right thing in a situation where the right thing was entangled with a dozen other things that were also real.
"Rohan," she said. "He almost spoke to me on the first day. He was going to say something and Ananya stopped him. What does Rohan think?"
"Rohan thinks we should tell," Dev said. Without hesitation. "He's thought so from the beginning. Ananya convinced him to wait. He's been unhappy about it. He stays quiet because we all agreed, and he's the kind of person who keeps agreements. But he's been unhappy the whole time." He paused. "That first day — he was going to tell you. That's why Ananya intercepted him."
"I'd like to talk to Rohan," she said. "Before the weekend. Can you get him to me, without Ananya knowing?"
Dev thought about it. "Lunch. I'll get him to the library. Ananya has student council at lunch on Fridays."
"Thank you," she said. "Dev." She paused. "What you did — the agreement, the silence — I understand why. You were thirteen and you had no adult in the building who was on the right side of this to help you figure out what to do. You did the best you could with what you had."
He looked at her. The adult-tired face, and behind it — the child who was still there. "It wasn't enough," he said.
"No," she agreed, honestly. "But you're correcting it now. That counts."
At lunch, Rohan came to the library. He came in quickly, checking over his shoulder, and sat across from Naina with the specific energy of someone who had been wanting to do this for a very long time.
"I tried to tell you on day one," he said, before she had spoken.
"I know. Tell me now."
