Taking the risk to be kind to the outcast can cost you a little status. Status is cheap.

Status in a school is local and short-lived; it does not transfer to the next place and nobody later will ever ask you about it. Kindness runs the other way. It becomes part of what somebody remembers about an entire year, and part of what you know about yourself. Trading something that expires for something that does not is a good deal, even when it does not feel like one at lunchtime.

Sit with somebody this week who usually sits alone, and keep it ordinary rather than making it a project. Talk about something normal, then do it again next week.