Origins Of A Liar

Chapter Three: The Lies Begin

Lila sat at her desk inthe classroom, counting down the minutes until math would start. She had just moved from Indiana to Pennsylvania over summer break, and she knew absolutely no one in her new town.

"Hey, where did you goon summer break?" A tall, skinny boy with red hair asked a petite, brunette girl.

"My family and I went to my uncle Andy's ranch down in Texas." She answered.

Lila sighed. Who cared about stupid old summer vacation? All she had done was unpack boxes. As she glowered at the top of her desk, an idea popped into Lila's nine-year-old head. Nobody here knew her. She could completely reinvent herself. Demand their attention. But would it work? She bit her bottom lip. There was really only one way to find out.

She turned around to the two kids behind her. "That's nothing. I went to Alaska."

Their eyes lit up in awe. "Did you ride on a dog sled?" The brunette asked.

Hook, line, and sinker. "Ride? I DROVE one. They held a race through town every Saturday."

"Did you win?" A kid with thin glasses inquired. All the other children in the classroom were coming over to hear her story.

"Every. Single. TIME." She grinned as the others gasped and bounced up and down excitedly. She could see they had more questions but at that moment the teachercame in and ordered them all to site down. Lila smirked to herselfas the lesson began. They had fallen for it so easily. And if theyhad, why not everyone else? She had certainly gotten theirattention. And on top of that, they all thought she was amazing now. But would it work every time? Or was this an exception? She wouldhave to try it again just to make sure.

Lila surveyed the playground, looking for her next target. She narrowed her eyes at agroup of kids standing near the largest slide. Two of them were the classmates she had done the first trick on. She stood up strait and approached the group naturally.

"Oh, I read that book!" A girl with fluffy, mouse-brown hair exclaimed. "I love the part where the princess escapes all by herself."

"Sometimes I like to pretend to be the princess." The petite girl from earlier said with a whimsical look on her face.

"You know, I once met aprincess." They all turned to Lila, who was standing with her hands on her hips a foot away from them.

"Really? where? What was she like?" the petite girl leaned in closer, her eyes lighting up with excitement.

"It was in Africa. She was our age, and spoke English really well. We became great friends. We even had a sleep-over in her castle."

"Y-you've been inside a CASTLE? And slept in it?!" She was leaning so close Lila thought she was about to fall over.

"Yep. The bed wasreally soft. And she had these gorgeous dolls. One actually lookeda bit like you."

The girl started emittinga soft, squealing sound. Lila turned around and walked away, satisfied with her results.

That's when the lies began.