Sadeek Price is 10 - old enough, he said, to understand why three of his relatives and another child died last week in a horrific accident in front of a Feltonville rowhouse.

But Sadeek had a secret, he said Friday.

"We're going to get in the pool today," said Sadeek, who stood in front of a memorial to his relatives. "Me, Pooka, Remedy, and Toya. We're going after they come down from heaven."

As even adults struggle to come to grips with the devastation, processing the tragedy is especially difficult for the young relatives and playmates of the four victims: Latoya Smith, 22; her baby girl, Remedy, who was almost 1; Smith's niece Aaliyah "Pooka" Griffin, 6; and neighbor Gina Marie Rosario, 7.

Some, like Sadeek, make up stories. Others comfort themselves with visions of angels watching over them. And some, said Gina's second-grade teacher, Tiki Davis, pretend the dead just went away for a little while.

"One of the kids said, 'I think Gina's in a wheelchair, and she's hurt real bad, but she's going to get better someday,' " said Davis, a third-year teacher at Willard Elementary.

Willard principal Ron Reilly has a hard time walking into Room 6, where 24 second graders are now 23 and Gina's back-row desk is a memorial with letters and stuffed animals from students spilling over the sides.

At Willard, the joy that usually accompanies the end of a school year seemed to die with Gina. With seven school days left, things felt slow and subdued at the Kensington school Friday afternoon.

"The kids cannot get over that yesterday she was sitting next to them, that her desk is still there, but that she's not coming back," Reilly said.

Davis told Gina's classmates the news as simply as she could Thursday morning: Gina was in an accident. She had been hit by a car. She died. Everyone was sad, but it was important to remember happy things, like what a good reader Gina was, or how she liked to make up dances with her friends on the playground.

"She wrote a note to me a few months back," Davis said, her eyes moist. "She wrote, 'My teacher is a princess.' "

At first, one of Gina's closest friends refused to believe the bad news when her teacher told her.

"I thought she was telling a big story," the second grader said. "Gina was my best best best best best friend."

She went home and talked to her mother about it, the girl said. Both cried.

"My mom said, 'That's why you don't play on the steps or the corner,' " the girl said.

Another girl, who had known Gina since they were toddlers, played with Gina at recess Tuesday.

"She tried to do a cartwheel, and she couldn't do it, and she fell on her bottom, and I laughed," the girl, another second grader, said. "When I heard she died, I was bawling my eyes out."

It helps to think of Gina as an angel, flying around, listening to what she's saying and smiling, the girl said. She's glued to television news, looking for pictures of Gina, she said.

"I just had to keep on watching, because I had to make sure Gina wasn't bleeding."

None of the children at Willard seemed concerned with the men accused of causing the deaths: Donta Cradock, 18, whom authorities said was partially paralyzed by the crash and would not be arraigned until his condition improved, and his stepbrother Ivan Rodriguez, 20, who has been charged with murder.