I think that’s a fair point you’re making.

At the time, I loved the books - but in hindsight, I wish I never read them at the age I did because they really colored my interpretation of my fellow classmates behavior. Every time someone accidentally slighted me, I figured that it was because they were thinking of ways to plot against me just as Beverly’s characters were always doing.

In hindsight, my classmates were just children behaving as children do - with little thought for anything above the immediate future.