Stacey And T. J Are Best Friends

It is no surprise that Stacey and T.J are best friends. Though they have their fights and quarrels, they always remain friends, no matter what. Such as when T.J is cheating on the test and lets Stacey take the blame for it. Afterwords Stacey and the kids follow T.J to Wallace store and Stacey gets into a fight with T.J. Yet afterwards, When they are at school again, they are still best friends. I believe that this may reason that Stacey lets him get away with so much. I know that he constantly tells T.J to shut up when he taunts the Logan Kids and sticks up for his family. Yet, he takes the blame for TJ on multiple occasions. Back to the cheating situation, Though he fights with TJ, He never tells Mama that it was TJ who was doing the cheating. He lets TJ
I believe that his perception of TJ being his best friend is the reason for this. What I mean is, because TJ is Stacey's best friend, this causes him to care what TJ thinks about him, and being called a ' fat preacher' isn't something he would want to be viewed as by his best friend. He also wouldn't want this to affect their friendship, because he knows TJ probably would not want to be best friends with a 'fat preacher'. When Jeremey gives Stacey a handmade wooden flute, Stacey takes the flute and puts it into his box of special memories, despite TJ telling him that he shouldn't keep it, that he shouldn't keep an 'ole whistle from a white man'. I believe that he does this because he as I said previously, It is revealed during Papa and Stacey's conversation that he is convinced that Jeremy could even be a better friend than TJ if he would let him. Stacey actually likes him, but Papa believes that Stacey shouldn't attempt a deep friendship with a white man. This would cause Stacey to put away the flute, along with the feeling that he could have a phenomenal friendship with