The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie

The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie — page 3 — she had her back Priya smiled Do you think this is FUNNY demanded Mrs. Lufthausen This is the third time that you have been caught napping in my class this term Of course she doesn't think it's funny cried a voice to her left She has a weird thing where her apologetic face looks like her happy face It's like genetic Right Priya Sami Her other best friend Standing up for Priya like she always did And she wasn't asleep She was thinking obviously Everyone Everyone knows you do the best thinking with your eyes closed It's the only way to solve a quadratic equation in my humble opinion Samantha Levin does it look like I was speaking to you thundered Mrs. Lufthausen Get back to your equations And Priya it is completely unacceptable unacceptable for you to keep falling asleep while I try to teach you basic mathematics If you don't explain yourself now I'm going to have to ask you to leave and wait outside Priya's cheeks burned with humiliation She was a good student She didn't get sent out of class That was the kind of thing that happened to Katie and Angela Not top students like her But now she was going to get sent out for the first time in her entire 2

The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie — page 4 — school history and there was nothing she could do to stop it It wasn't like she could tell Mrs. Lufthausen the truth that she was exhausted because unlike her younger sister Pinkie she was physically unable to fall asleep while her parents were shouting and when she finally did get to sleep after they'd stopped arguing it was time to wake up for gymnastics practice Of course she was tired she'd slept less than a gamer who stayed up all night playing with people in Korea But Priya knew exactly what would happen if she said all that out loud Mrs. Lufthausen would tell the school counselor who would tell her parents and Priya would end up in big trouble Because her parents parents golden rule was Don't Air Your Dirty Laundry in Public which basically translated to pretend everything everything is perfect at all times And if Priya admitted that her gymnastics practice was affecting her schoolwork her teachers would want her to quit especially because gymnastics was totally separate from school Her parents parents would feel shamed into making Priya quit the team which meant her chances at getting into the Teen Olympics would be over forever even though she'd been training for it her whole life And worst of all it would mean she'd never get to watch Dan Zhang do pull-ups ever again 3

The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie — page 5 — Priya looked up at Mrs. Lufthausen and took a deep breath I'm so sorry Mrs. Lufthausen I guess I stayed up too late watching videos of dancing baby goats It's my fault The teacher shook her head I'm disappointed in you Priya Please go outside for the rest of the period And next time you want to watch a goat dance try to think about the consequences Priya got up and left the classroom She stood outside feeling a burning mix of shame and anger It wasn't her fault any of this had happened She hadn't meant to fall asleep She knew Mrs. Lufthausen took it personally but if anything it was a big compliment Priya only fell asleep in her class It was just so warm and cozy in that classroom with the sun streaming streaming in from outside Mei and Sami sitting on either side of her and Mrs. Lufthausen's monotonous voice explaining the wonderfully stable predictability of algebraic equations It was a complete contrast to Priya's morning her parents arguing as per always Pinkie making making everyone late and Priya panicking because she couldn't find her brand new shoes It turned out Pinkie Pinkie had decided to decorate them with a permanent black marker and when Priya had shouted at her their 4

The Girl Who Couldn’t Lie — page 6 — mom had rushed in to console Pinkie not Priya If that wasn't bad enough she'd then scolded Priya for upsetting her younger sister The unfairness of it all had left Priya speechless and by the time she'd found her voice again nobody had time to listen to her They were late to drop her off for gymnastics Which meant that when she arrived her coach Olaf had scolded her for her poor punctuality in front of everyone In front of Dan Zhang Priya thought that would be the most humiliating humiliating moment of her day until she was kicked out of math How was Dan ever going to realize he was the love of her life when the only time he saw her she was being told off like a schoolgirl Okay she was technically technically a schoolgirl and he was also a schoolboy at the boys school next door to hers but that wasn't the point Dan was in ninth grade a whole year above Priya and everyone knew boys liked sophisticated girls Priya was going to have to try extra hard to prove her maturity if he was ever going to fall for her She looked forlornly down at her bright purple-and-white purple-and-white New Balances which were now decorated with wobbly smiley faces This was not a good start 5

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