Not "That" Kid

I cannot be the only one...whose child has become best friends with "that" kid in their preschool class, you mothers know which kid I am referring to, the one kid that is the only one who gets in trouble on a daily basis and thinks it's very funny.  The other children in class are mystically drawn to this kid because he stands out, he becomes the center of the teacher's attention when he won't stop his incessant blabbering during circle time, and while the other children may not want to be in trouble they can't help from admiring "that kid" for his ability to be the one they all are looking at.

In our case this child has slowly molded my son into a noise making, defiant, strange little boy who copies "that" kid's speech impediments and drives the rest of his family mad while their pleading with him to stop the ridiculous behavior.  This situation becomes a fine line to walk, I want my son to have fun and be as silly as a five year old can be, but not to the extent that "that" kid is influencing him to be.  One day my son was playing in the sand and shared a funny "that" kid story with me, "Mom, did you know it can rain pencils?  "That" kid made it rain pencils in our classroom yesterday." Why, why, why did it have to be my son that "that kid" befriended, why couldn't it be a nice quiet bookworm that enjoyed stimulating conversation about reading rainbow?

I cannot be the only one whose child thinks the bad boy or "that" kid is the coolest, can I?