There are days in first grade where Ren doesn't really want to talk so Nora sits next to him at recess while he's reading and rambles on about the stories she's made up about the trees on the playground. There aren't that many old ones, just one or two sturdy old (what's she's fairly sure are) oak trees plus a lot of pines, and it's fun to pretend that there are fairies living inside them.
Ren reads a lot more advanced books than Nora does, but Nora's already on long division even though she's only in first grade, like Ren, so that makes it fair. Ren can already read Harry Potter and he likes to tell her about the parts he's read when he wants to talk. He says that Nora is a Hufflepuff, but neither of them are old enough to go to Hogwarts yet, anyway, so it doesn't really matter.
He whispers to her that really he thinks he's a Ravenclaw, but a lot of the Ravenclaws in the books are sort of mean, like some of the other kids are to him and Nora. She grins and picks up a stick from the ground near the sand pits on the playground and says that she'll whack anyone who's mean to him. Then the teacher sees her with the stick and shouts, and she drops it and runs off giggling to hide in the snake rocks until recess is over.