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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Seeing that most of the other students had already paired off, Neal slid into the seat opposite Ramona.

"Need a partner?"

Getting to play with cute teacher? Yes, please.

"Sure," she said, shrugging. "I'll feel even better about beating the teacher at this game than one of my classmates.

"Yeah, really?" he laughed, amused. "Alright. You want to go first, or should I?"

"I can," she decided, stretching as she considered her options here. "All right. I'm a natural brunette, I have a plus-two hit point advantage against women when I fight them, and I'm a vegan, which gives me psychic powers."

She'd just borrow someone else's truth for her lie. All of this was said with perfectly even, almost bored inflection, as Ramona studied her nails.

The natural brunette thing was easy; he could almost see her roots if he squinted. Which left something that sounded like a video game and something that sounded like bullshit. He didn't know too much about video games, so that could be true, but as for the psychic powers?

"I'm gonna go with the vegan thing," he decided. "Known too many vegans."

"That's actually a thing in my universe," she said, shaking her head. "Vegans get psychic powers. Unfortunately for me," she added with a slight smile, "I'm not one of them. Good job."

Huh. The whole universe thing was still nnew to him, so he wasn't exactly going to take that at face value, but he wouldn't ask too many questions.

"Alright," Neal said, folding his hands on the table. He'd managed to quash all his old tells a long time ago, so as far as he was concerned, this should be easy. "An empty wine bottle is a symbol for the state of my life right now, this suit is an advance for this year's winter collection, and I never finished high school."

Ramona thought that the first one was pretty subjective, which meant she was going to call it a truth. And he so seemed like someone who wouldn't have graduated, so.... "That's not an advance," she suggested mildly.

Wow. Impressive.

"You're good," Neal said, grinning. He stretched out his arms, shamelessly smmoothing out his sleeves. "'71 Devore. Good call."

Edited 2011-07-12 20:04 (UTC)

"I spend a lot of time with compulsive liars," she said with a very slight smile. "Glad it's finally paying off."

"Yeah, I probably should've taken into account that we've got a few professionals in this class," he conceded, glancing around at ~~Kenzi~~ ~~Nathan~~ no one in particular. "I didn't notice any tells on you. That's a first."

And yeah, it might have been one of those no-one-in-particulars who she spent most of her time with -- not that it influenced her lying-detection at all.

"Thanks," she said, a little proud. "I kind of pride myself on being unreadable."

"It's a good skill," Neal agreed. Not like that was obvious.

Gathering up his coffee cup, he stood up. "Should probably get back to the 'teaching' thing," he decided, heading for his desk. "Good work."

Congratulations, Ramona, you were the lucky winner of today's Five Second Chat With The Hot Teacher.

Tricks, Cons and Bamboozles | Tuesday | Period 4

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Re: Pair Off/Play Two Truths and a Lie!

Re: Pair Off/Play Two Truths and a Lie!

Re: Pair Off/Play Two Truths and a Lie!

Re: Pair Off/Play Two Truths and a Lie!

Re: Pair Off/Play Two Truths and a Lie!

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Re: Pair Off/Play Two Truths and a Lie!

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Re: Pair Off/Play Two Truths and a Lie!