Donald had survived the first couple of years as an underclassman by using the considerable skills he’d acquired growing up in the family house: his ability to feign indifference in the face of pain and disappointment, to withstand the abuse of the bigger, older boys. He hadn’t been a great student, but he’d had a certain charm, a way of getting others to go along with him that, back then, wasn’t entirely grounded in cruelty.
