Teachers took Greg off the grading curve to quell the resentment.

The gifted students were the worst, seething with jealousy over the little boy who had suddenly infiltrated their elite ranks, merrily hopscotching from second grade to ninth in a single year. Gregory Smith recognized the Langston Hughes verse from his honors high school English class the sender was almost certainly a classmate. Sing it softly, for the song is wild, it began. The first death threat, veiled in a poem, came when he was 8 years old.