fandomhigh | Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Tuesday

Neal was thrilled he wasn’t a pony anymore. Seriously. So thrilled. He didn’t know if he could manage walking into a class and trying to teach while he had hooves and a tail. Fortunately, he didn’t have to.

When the students filed into the classroom, they would find the desks set up in rows of two, the chairs facing each other. On every desk was a small compact mirror. Don’t ask Neal where he got the mirrors. On the board in the front of the room was written in big blue letters:

“So,” he said once everyone was seated. “Last week we did fake introductions and practiced lying. This week we’re going to talk about the mechanics of it. More specifically, we’re going to talk about tells.”

“A tell,” he continued, “is something that gives you away when you’re lying. There are some that are pretty common, like blinking or stuttering. Some, you’ll only ever find on one person and hope you never, ever see it again.” He grinned. “Funny story, I once knew a guy named Billy who got really, really itchy when he lied.” A downward glance revealed just where, in fact, Billy had itched. Of course, that would be inappropriate to discuss in class, so he just implied it and left it at that.

“Today, I want you all to pair off in groups of two and start talking. You guys heard of the game Two Truths and a Lie? That’s basically what I’m talking about. Your partner’s job is to try to identify the lie by picking up on any tells that you might have. Then, once you learn what your tells are, I want you to watch yourselves in the mirrors I put on your desks and try to spot them.”

He hopped up onto the desk at the front of the room. “Ready? Pair off and get going. If you have any questions, you can come find me or Kenzi, the new TA.” He gestured to point her out. “Say hello, Kenzi."

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"You're Irish. Gimme the money," Kenzi responded, eyes gleaming.

"One, how the hell do you know that this is a real accent?" he asked, pointing to his mouth. "Two, no. That's not what I meant. Play by the rules or don't play at all."

"Fiiiine," Kenzi said, then said in her broken Eastern European accent, "You drive ze hard bargain, zir. Zo! Two truthz, one lie. Iz fair. Hmm." Okay, the lies were easy, what was a good truth to hide them in? Aside from her accent. The trick was to make them all relatively the same level of believability.

And if she thought he was lying about what he was lying about, she wasn't gonna give him any fifty bucks.

Edited 2011-07-12 17:02 (UTC)

Nathan gave that laughable accent a chuckle before asking, "You wanna go first or want me to? I've not preference but hey, ladies first if you want. Just don't expect that courtesy if the world's ending and there's one spot left on the plane."

"Dude, if the world's ending, I'm kicking whoever's in front of me in the shins to throw my body at the last seat," Kenzi said cordially, with a small smirk. "So don't feel obligated... well, you proposed the bet. You can start." She grinned wickedly. "Give you a chance to win back your money if I get this."

"Right." See, Nathan's game plan was to make every single one of his statements sound like complete bullshit to make it harder on her. He'd had enough bullshit things happen to him that he figured it'd be easy.

"I've been assaulted by a chick with a dick, my mom's boyfriend thinks he's an actual dog and I've taken a hostage with a pistol before."

See, that sounded just fine to him.

"If all you're going to do is lie..." No, actually, Kenzi was just stalling, because dude! How was she supposed to figure out which one of those crap things was the lie?

"Hey, if it's too hard for you, I'll understand," Nathan said, shrugging a shoulder and trying not to laugh.

"Bitch," Kenzi said reflexively, then hoped Nathan wasn't one of those guys who'd get all, well. Bitchy about that. "Right, say them again." Maybe she'd see his tell this time, when she wasn't flailing at absurdity?

"I've been assaulted by a chick with a dick, my mom's boyfriend thinks he's an actual dog and I've taken a hostage with a pistol before."

And when he was done, he shrugged and waited for her to get on with the guessing.

"Okay, okay, okay." Well. Thinking aloud, Kenzi said, "I've met crazier people than ones who thought they were dogs before, so I'm taking that one out as a truth... although most of them didn't have girlfriends."

Nate, your mom's taste in men is weird.

"So that leaves the assault, or the hostage taking." HMmMmmmmMm. Kenzi started at him hard.

It was Nathan and he just shrugged carelessly at her deductive reasoning skills. He wasn't going to give anything away if he could help it.

"Give you props, man, you're good." Kenzi nodded. Well-played, Honorable Adversary. "Right. I'm saying the chick with a dick thing is the lie. 'Cause I can totally see you taking hostages and getting busted." She paused. "You did get busted, right?"

"Oops, got it wrong! That last one's a lie because it wasn't a pistol, it was a water gun."

Yeah, it was semantics but he didn't care. Beverly had totally been a chick with a dick so that was totally true even if biologically it hadn't been. It wasn't like Nathan had been checking.

"And no, I didn't get busted." He'd just died instead.

"Fuck." Said without heat, just grumbling as Kenzi stretched, then crossed her arms. "Right. This whole island is messing with my radar. Anything can be true, you know?" She shook her head. "Okay, chance for double or nothing?"

Since hey, she had noticed he hadn't agreed to give her the fifty bucks back yet. And she was pretty sure she could throw him off.

"What, you think I'm gonna bet my hard won money that easily?" Nathan asked, tsking her. "That'd be risky, wouldn't it? Do I look like a risk taker to you?"

"Maybe you did look like a wuss," Kenzi riposted fast. "Unless you're just crap at telling when people are lying, so, then yeah, that's the smart thing."

Edited 2011-07-12 19:48 (UTC)

Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Tuesday | Period 4

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