I arrive at preschool one morning and my best friend is having a pretend wedding with some girl I don’t know at all. My best friend was wearing a white turtleneck and a veil while the other girl was dressed like someone who was taking my best friend away from me. In anger and confused jealousy, I bite the other girl.

I’m taken aside by one of my preschool teachers, who sits me down and tells me that God doesn’t like it when I bite other people and that it’s wrong. I keep my head down and play with left-handed scissors while I listen to her lecture, already knowing that I did something wrong but knowing that it was the obvious thing for me to do at the time.

When my mom picks me up later that afternoon, she asks me about what happened. I tell her, she reminds me that it was wrong to do, and then asks me if I want to make Jello when I get home.