Mrs. Cisneros plucked Riley’s paper from her. “We’ll see how well her partner knows her, then we’ll vote to see whether we think he’s right.” Mrs. Cisneros’s smile faded as she read the list, but she seemed to realize there was no way around reading it out loud. She dutifully recited everything Riley had written.I know that you know. I don’t regret it. You don’t have a say in my life anymore, so it shouldn’t matter.
Silence engulfed the room. Everyone’s eyes were on Riley and Lucas.
“Number two and three are both lies,” Lucas said. “It matters.”
Riley didn’t have a response to that so just stared at Lucas.
Mrs. Cisneros cleared her throat uncomfortably. “Maybe we’ll skip the group vote this time. Which number is the lie, Riley?”
“Two,” Riley said. “I regret it.”
Lucas’s eyebrows raised in challenge. “But number three is the truth? You don’t think it matters?”
“I said it shouldn’t matter,” Riley said.
“It matters,” Lucas repeated.
“Fine,” Riley allowed. “It matters.”
Lucas slapped his hand on his thigh. “That’s one small success.”
Mrs. Cisneros’s eyes darted between the two of them, and she picked up Lucas’s list.
“Maybe you shouldn’t read that out loud,” Lucas said.
“Read it out loud,” Kathy called. “This game just got interesting.”
Riley lifted her chin defiantly at Lucas. “Does your list involve kissing?”
“Maybe,” he said.
JoAnn let out a thrilled gasp. “Well, now you’ve got to read it out loud. Don’t leave the rest of us hanging.”
“Fine,” Lucas said. “You can read it out loud.”
Mrs. Cisneros shifted uncomfortably. “Number one, I don’t want you to be angry.”
“That’s the lie,” Riley said.
“That’s not the lie,” Lucas said. “Let her finish the list.”
“Number two,” Mrs. Cisneros continued, her cheer thinning, “I thought you knew who I was. Number three, we don’t need to talk about this.”
Jody set her pencil down. “I think I’ve been playing this game wrong my whole life. I always thought the sentences were supposed to make sense.”
Riley stared at Lucas, trying to discern what his sentences meant.He thought she knew who he was?He must have been writing about the Winter incident, not her kiss with Jace. Lucas meant that he thought Riley should know him well enough to know that he hadn’t cheated on her. “I think we’ve already talked about it,” she said.
“We haven’t,” Lucas said, “but we really need to.”
Mrs. Cisneros returned Lucas’s list to him. “Talking things out is always a good idea. Why don’t you two schedule a time to do that, and we’ll move on to the next team’s answers.” She glided over to Glen and Kathy to read their lists.
After that, Riley couldn’t say anything to Lucas because they were supposed to be listening and voting on everyone else’s lists. Riley kept staring at the pocket where Lucas had put the first list and wondering what was on it.
Everyone else’s lists were the usual variety, except for Jody’s. If she was telling the truth, she’d kissed both Tom Holland and Chris Pratt. She won the prize for that game, a mouse pad with the sayingThe harder I work, the luckier I get.
When Mrs. Cisneros handed it to her, Mariah called out, “Jody has been lucky enough already. She don’t need that. Give it to a girl who’s in a dry spell.”
Sara snickered. “What kind of hard work have you been doing, Jody, and how do I get hired for that gig?”