"Not nice to play favorites," she told him lightly.
She smiled a little at the face, amused even if she didn't laugh outright. She just wasn't the sort of person to be so open about her emotions, good or bad. "The kids at my school blamed me whenever a pet died - they even said it was my fault that a boy asphyxiated, it did not matter that I never met him. Of course," she added, trying to make light of that, "I think you must have made a much better strange student than I did - I cannot make my eyes cross like that. But I am pale, if that counts for anything."