Some teenagers use drugs or sex to escape overbearing parents. I used books.
All my life my mother has been hovering over me, afraid to let me experience ANYTHING
So I got really good grades, graduated high school at sixteen, and escaped to a new life-my own life-at college.
To jump start my social life, I decided to rush the Alphas, the most exclusive sorority on campus.
Things started to get complicated when I told one little white lie (okay, maybe not so little).
Then one sister invoked The Alpha Bet, a super-secret set of alphabetical tasks we pledges have to complete to prove our loyalty to the sorority.
Now the Alpha Bet has taken over my life.
Can you spell B-E-T-R-A-Y-A-L?
My main character, Grace Kelly, tells a whopper of a lie to get what she wants. The Buzz Girls thought it would be fun to blog about some lies we've told. I decided to go with a lie I told in fourth grade.I should probably back up a little bit. When I started kindergarten I met a nice curly-haired little girl who liked all the same things I did. We became fast friends and were soon inseparable. As lame as it sounds, she was my whole world. Even though I was very young, I can still remember that I could feel our friendship was changing. She started spending more time with four other girls and she started having a really hard time "finding" me on the playground. We still sat side-by-side in class and shared lots of giggles throughout the day. One afternoon we had a test on measurements. When I turned in my paper I felt like I had done pretty good even though inches and centimeters weren't my best subject. A little while later the teacher called both of us to her desk. I remember thinking that maybe we were getting a prize for having the two best scores in the class.
The teacher shocked me by asking us if one of us had cheated. I remember being so shocked you could have knocked me over with a feather. Then my "friend" told the teacher that she saw me looking at her paper. I didn't know how to respond. I just stood there, brokenhearted. Then the teacher asked me if I had looked at her paper. I said yes. I don't know if I did it out of hopes to keep my friend or if I had doubts that maybe I really had glanced over, not to copy, but maybe I wanted to see if my friend was almost done or something. Thankfully, my teacher was smarter than a devious little fourth-grader. She separated our desks all the way across the room from each other and made us take the test again. The teacher graded the papers right in front of us without saying a word. I got an A and she flunked.
My teacher never said anything to me about the incident but I knew from that point on that she was on my side. I hate to think what might have happened if the teacher hadn't retested us. As you can imagine I lost my best friend that day. Not that she turned out to be much of a friend after all but it was my first significant loss and I have never forgot it.
Have you ever told a lie to salvage a friendship?
Don't forget to comment everyday this week for your chance to win a signed copy of The Alpha Bet!!
xo,
Stephanie
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24 comments:
Steph, oddly enough, I had a similiar experience in 4th grade, but the girl was not a best friend, rather someone going through a family crisis. And I hotly denied having cheated. (I saved my lying for many years later...which everyone can read about tomorrow!)
I am very excited about the release of your book...in fact, already have a copy on my Kindle waiting for me!
Your lie story is so similar to this Reading A-Z book from reading a-z, except the students both forgot to put their name on the test and both claim the high score. Their teacher has them test again (http://www.readinga-z.com/book.php?id=805).
I can't remember lying to try to salvage a friendship, but I am sure that I have probably lied before either for that reason or to not hurt a friend's feelings.
Congratulations on the release of your 4th YA book!
Sadly yes, I have told a lie to salvage a friendship. And its not really one I'm proud of. Though I am no longer friends with said friend I still feel bad about lying.
One of my best friends at the time, "M", was going out with one of my good guy friends "T". Well M & T were going through a rough patch at the time, and so one day we went to a party and M made out with another guy. The next day T could tell something was wrong and he asked me if something happened. It broke my heart and I ended up caving and telling him that M had cheated on him. I should mention here that I was not the first/only person to tell him M cheated, but I was the one who confirmed it. Well next thing I know T went and confronted M and they got in a huge fight. And the next time I saw M she straight up asked me if I was the one who told. I knew if I said yes I would lose her friendship, and so I said no, but tried to justify it to myself that since I wasn't the first to confess I wasn't lying.
Soon after I saw what a complete "brat" M was and our friendship ended, but I still regret that lie. Sure she was crazy and honestly T deserved to know, but she didn't deserve to be lied to by her "best friend." I'm happy to report that I have not lied to a friend since! :)
I JUST bought a copy of THE ALPHA BET yesterday! But, I would love to win an autographed copy, so to answer your question -- I have lied to save friendships. No, it's not as scandalous as it sounds. I hate hurting people's feelings, so I always tell my friends they look good, I love their new haircut, and they never, ever look fat :)
-missy t from the Blueboard
I'll post again when/if I think of a good lie...but I wanted to say Yay! I'm so glad your book is out!
Yay for your new book! I can't think of a lie that i've had to tell to save a friendship. I'm sure that I have though I just can't remember a specific time and i'm sure it didn't lead to anything big.
Weirdly, I've never had to lie to save a friend. I've actually been the one being lied for. Long story short, it had something to do with lunchtime, an orange flying across the tables, and an Identified Flying Plastic Salad Bowl.
Anyways, Alpha Bet sounds very cool. I look forward to getting my hands on it!
This sounds great! Thanks for doing this!
One of my closest best friends always comes to me to confide in, and I am a very honest person, so I always tell her the truth when she asks my opinion. But when it came to real important stuff that meant a lot to her, i had trouble being quite as honest. For example, she really like this guy (who happened to date my other friend for four months before) and she trusted him a lot. Well, eventually, they broke up because she lost that trust in him. A few weeks/ months later, she was back with him again. Then they broke up. They went out again, then they broke up. The last time before they were actually going out (and this was very recent) she asked me if she should go back out with him and trust him again. I didn't want to flat out tell her that she shouldn't because he's a horrible person and 'boyfriend.' I knew how much she liked and cared about him, so I guess I just sugar coated the truth, and I told her that she should trust her instincts and listen to her heart. But I also told her to be careful and remember how he was in the past. I also never wanted to tell her how ridiculous she sounded because, throughout all of this, we were only in 7th and 8th grade! Come on, you're practically a child; just barely a teenager. So, why must we have all this stupid drama??!!
So, I guess I just kept things from her rather than lie to her, and we still are friends. I wanted to keep our friendship, but I wanted her to be happy and this guy was what made her happy, at the time at least. Now, she practically hates him but who knows how long that will last?
So excited to read this book once finals week is over<3
Yes I have many times but probably not like yours. We all cheated on exams and we all passed :)! Wonderful isn't it?
For me It was like normal for us to lie for each other or defend each other by our lies.
Congrats on your new baby. I can't think of any instance where I've told a lie to save a friendship. I'm boring that way.
I probably have told a lie to save a friend ship, like in my teen years but i cant remember them, these days i think if you need to tell a lie to be some ones friends its not worth it, cant wait to read this book sounds AWesome
i can't recall whether i had tell a lie to save my friendship.
since 'telling the truth' is the main rule for me :)
can't wait to read your book Steph !
I tend to do little fibs...I'm sure the truth wouldn't hurt my relationships, but I have a hard time saying "no" to my friends without feeling guilty, so sometimes I say I'm busy or have a headache just because I don't feel like going out and I don't want to drag everyone else down.
p.s. I just moved to a book store-less town, and I can't find your book within a two-hour radius (it's sold out at the closest store an hour away). My NOOK died, which is redundant since I can't even find Alpha Bet as an e-book at bn.com. I will figure out a way to track the book down...but I also wouldn't turn down a pity copy...
Congrats on the release of THE ALPHA BET, Steph!
You had me from the very first sentence of the blurp =D
I've never had to lie to salvage a friendship but in 6th grade I did help two girls from falling prey to some malicious lies. They weren't exactly close friends of mine but I hated to see how this group of mean girls from our class concocted this story about having seen them cheating, which was absolute hogwash. Of course, the mean girls were all up and about to prove that since they couldn't believe those two had topped the class!
Congrats on your latest book. So cool! No, I haven't lied to save a friendship but I was put into a situation that I was faced with the problem. I didn't lie but that friend and I don't get along anymore and it's really sad. It hurts both ways.
Aww, that lie was sweet. But tsk, the friend was mean to say that you lied.
When I was in kinder, I had a friend, Felisa. I was on the top of the class. And she was well...failing. During one of the quizzes, I helped her answer everything. Really everything. I don't know why, but she still didnt know how to spell. So I told her the answers..well, writing it on my paper and letting her copy. The friendship was frail. We're not really tht close and I didn't want to lose her. So when the teacher asked me if Felisa had cheated, (We were seatmates) I told her she didn't. That I just taught her before class.
I regret it because...most likely she didn't really learn. Because I was feeding her the answers.
And I'd love to win a signed copy of Alpha Bet! Congratulations!
Congrats on your book release! It sounds like a really good story, and I love that it takes place in college instead of high school! (Doesn't make me feel so old ;))
Sara
Thanks for all of the comments! Be sure to check back on Sunday for the winners and continue to post comments all week for more chances to win!
Wow, great story, Steph. You had a smart teacher, indeed. I can't think of a time when I lied to keep a friend, but I can see how it would be very tempting.
Oh, and CONGRATS on release week! Yay, Steph!! ;)
Don't think I've ever lied to save a friendship, but I'm sure I stretched the truth to assauge someone's feelings.
Congrats to BEE for winning Sunday's copy of The Alpha Bet. Plz send your info to stephanie@stephaniehale.com
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