C17 The past connection pt 2

Bart laughed. A terrible, horrible thought went through his head. Bart wished that he’d never sat down next to the crying girl in that playground. He wasn’t even allowed to be there. His mother took pity on him and snuck him out of the house every now and then so that he wouldn’t grow up "too much of a prince" as she put it. Strictly speaking, as far as his father was concerned