“If he wasn’t part of the basketball team, I swear we’d kick his butt,” Carlos said.

There were over a hundred people who “liked” the page.

A hundred students actually pressed a button to say they liked this page?

“We can get the guy to get rid of it. Or a teacher will if I don’t. I can’t stand that Vic. He’s a rat.”

Thomas’s bewilderment suddenly turned into something else.

Shame.

He felt naked standing here.

Sure enough, the jeans that he wore in every one of those photos were the ones he was wearing now. Same for the shirt he had on.

“Thanks for showing me,” he said, wanting to slip away to a locker and lock himself in it.

“I can say something to someone . . .”

At least he had Carlos and his buddies looking out for him.

“No, it’s okay,” Thomas said. “Really.”

“All I gotta do is just talk to Vic. I don’t care that he plays basketball. I hate that sport anyway.”

This was starting to get bigger than just a simple pickup game and a stupid rivalry.

“No, really, it’s okay,” Thomas said.

Carlos said nothing.

“Thanks for showing me.”

“No problem,” Carlos said. “Just—just let me know if you need anything.”

“Thanks.”

Before Carlos had left, Thomas asked him if he could borrow his laptop for a couple of periods before lunch. Carlos obliged, probably because he felt so sorry for him. Thomas wanted to check out the page more carefully but didn’t want to do it on a public computer where other kids could see.

When Carlos said good-bye, Thomas was left in the sea of students who walked by him.

They all knew.

Need anything? Carlos’s words rang.

Thomas felt as if he were walking in a muddy swamp, his clothes and face dirty, and everybody else was watching from the shore. Watching and laughing.

It took two whole periods before he found his footing.

In the library, Thomas had logged onto Facebook and seen the various comments on the page that Vic West had created specifically to mock Thomas.

For the entire period he had felt paralyzed and stunned. But he was starting to think again, starting to breathe again, starting to figure it out again.

There might be a lot of things in this world that Thomas lacked. But self-respect wasn’t one of them. He had that.

Everybody in this school can “like” this stupid Facebook page. Doesn’t change who I am. Doesn’t change one thing.

For the rest of the day, Thomas couldn’t help thinking and wondering what to do about the Facebook situation.

One reason he’d never gotten into Facebook was because he didn’t have a computer or Internet service.

But the other reason was this: he didn’t want to see other kids’ lives and he didn’t want to share his.

If he had a digital camera to take a picture with, what would he photograph? The fire-scarred field behind their trailer? The closetlike room he slept in? The chipped and corroded floors? The sad expression on Sara’s face?