People sometimes make unexpected choices when they're lonely

The referee told me this league has never had a brawl of that magnitude, said Mr. Penderwick after a long, painful silence. Of course, at the time I was pretending to be a casual passerby and not a father at all.

...even a tiny bit of deceit is dishonorable when it's used for selfish or cowardly reasons. - Mr. Penderwick

And I don't know if Batty's gotten over it yet,' said Skye. Mr. Penderwick looked out the window to where Batty was playing vampires with Hound. Hound was on his back, trying to wiggle out of the black towel Batty had tied around his neck. Batty was leaping over Hound's water bowl, shrieking, 'Blood, blood!' 'She looks all right,' he said.

The cuter the boy, the mushier your brain.