The Truth Comes Out
By: Victorine E. Lieske
Chapter One
Sadie shifted in the hard plastic seat and smoothed her plaid skirt. Mr. Thorton had called almost every name in the class. There weren’t too many people left she could be paired up with for the end of the year science project. Only four names remained.
She glanced at Rick, the jock, who smelled like peanut butter and showed up late to class. She sighed and turned to Jenna, the airhead, who always called her Cindy. She didn’t dare look at Aaron, Public Enemy Number One. She held her breath and stared at Mr. Thorton. Please, don’t let me get paired with Aaron.
“Sadie Garrett and…” Mr. Thorton ran his finger down his clipboard like he had lost his place. The top of his head shone under the florescent lights.
Don’t say Aaron. I’ll take Rick. I like peanut butter. Heck, I’d even take Jenna. She’s not that bad. Please, anyone but Aaron.
“Aaron Peters.”
Lorena, Sadie’s best friend since third grade, turned and kicked Sadie’s chair leg, her eyes sparkling. “You got Aaron,” she whispered, pushing her red curls out of her face. “How come you have all the luck?”
Sadie tried not to react. She adjusted her headband and peeked behind her. Aaron pointed both his index fingers at her and flashed her one of his million-dollar smiles. The smile that beat her in the student body president race. The smile that waltzed into the school last year and fooled all of the other girls into worshiping him. She gritted her teeth and smiled back. She wouldn’t let him get to her.
Straightening her spine, she took her pencil and wrote ‘Aaron Peters’ in her notebook.
“You will be working on this project with your partner for the next two weeks. You will be required to form a hypothesis, conduct an experiment, and present your findings to the class. You will be graded on originality, content, and presentation. Please go sit by your partner and spend the next twenty minutes brainstorming about your project. Your final idea is due Monday.”
Chairs scraped the floor as students stood and made their way around the classroom. Sadie hugged her notebook to her chest and turned around. Aaron motioned for her to join him.
“Good luck.” Lorena grinned.
Sadie bit the inside of her cheek so she wouldn’t make a face. Then she marched over to Aaron’s table and perched on the edge of the seat next to him, placing her notebook and pencil on the desk.
“It’s great we’re partners, isn’t it? We’ll come up with the best project in class.” Aaron smiled again, showing his perfect white teeth.
Sadie dug her fingernails into her palms. “I’m sure we’ll get an A.”
“So, do you have any ideas? I’ve come up with a few.”
“Actually, I have, too.” She flipped to the front page in her notebook. “Purifying water, harvesting the electrical power from a potato, calculating how fast mold grows under different circumstances, and rates of decay underground.”
Aaron nodded. “Those are some nice ideas.”
Nice ideas? Is he patronizing me? “Just nice?”
“Well, they’re a little cliché, right? I mean, we are sophomores. We should be able to come up with something a little more original.”
Sadie tried not to clobber the jerk. “I don’t think they’re cliché. They’re used a lot because they’re good.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you have?”
His chair made a squeaking noise as he leaned back and stuffed his hand in his back pocket. He pulled out a folded up piece of paper. It wouldn’t surprise her if there was a piece of gum stuck to the inside.
Aaron unfolded it and smoothed it on the desk.
No gum.
“We could test the aerodynamics of different skateboards.”
Keeping her face as blank as she could, she shrugged. “Anything else?”
An eyebrow arched on his face. “Sure. What about Dominoes? We could figure out the best spacing to make the Dominoes fall the fastest and…” His voice trailed off as he looked at her. “No good?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Fine. Forget the Dominoes. My favorite one is my last idea anyway.” He eyed her, a silly grin creeping across his face.
She folded her arms. “Well? What is it?”
“My dad got this old lie detector machine from an auction last year. It was in the bottom of a box, and it’s way cool. We could create a scientific experiment with it.”
Sadie blinked. Dang. His idea was better than all her ideas put together. No one else, to her knowledge, had ever done a lie detector project before. They’d be sure to get an A-plus.
“Whaddya think?” Aaron’s grin was contagious, and Sadie found herself smiling back at him despite herself.
“It’s a really good idea,” she admitted.
Aaron nodded, his gray eyes sparkling. The ends of his dark hair curled up, making him look a bit disheveled, which for some reason annoyed her. She fought the urge to smooth it back into place. Instead, she folded her hands in her lap.
“My dad said he hit the jackpot when he found it. He says it’s worth over a thousand dollars.”
“Are you sure he’ll let us use it?”
“He said we could, as long as we’re careful.”
“Nice.” Satisfied with the project idea, Sadie picked up her pencil and scooted closer to the desk. “What’s our hypothesis going to be?”
Aaron tapped the end of his pencil on his lips. Completely unsanitary. She tried not to think about how many germs were on the pencil. “I don’t know. What do you think?”
She tugged on her skirt. It was a good find from the thrift store. It wasn’t the current style, but it was sensible. “From what I know about lie detector machines, they measure heart rate, blood pressure and a few other things. If a person were nervous, a lie detector might show different results from a person who was calm, right?”
Aaron shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”
“Which might mean outside environment could affect the results of a test.” She beamed. Perfect.
He sat forward. “That’s good! Like, how soothing music in the background might give you different results than if the room were cold and the chair uncomfortable.”
“Exactly. I hypothesize if outside stimuli affects heart rate, blood pressure…” She paused, unsure of what else the machine measured.
“Respiratory rate and perspiration.”
“Right. If outside stimuli affects a person physically, then lie detector test results can be false.”
The shrill bell sounded, and students bustled toward the door. “Awesome. We have our hypothesis.” Aaron touched her arm. Heat traveled from his hand up to her shoulder and spread through her. Surprised, she jerked her arm away.
“Right.” She gathered her things and slid them into her backpack, her fingers shaking. She must need to eat something.
“You doing anything tonight? Maybe we can test the machine out.”
Argh. Of course she’d have to go over to his house and work on the project. She cursed Mr. Thorton again for pairing them up together, and she sighed. “Okay.”
He stood, pulled his cell phone from his pocket and flipped it open. “I’ll text you my address. What’s your number?”
Heat rose to her face. “I don’t have a cell phone.”
“Oh.” He pocketed his phone and jotted down his address on his paper. He tore the corner off, handed it to her, and then folded what was left of his piece of paper into a small rectangle and shoved it into his back pocket. “How about after dinner?”
“Sure, okay.”
Jenna wandered up to them, batting her eyes at Aaron. “Hi, Aaron,” she said, in her usual high-pitched voice. She twirled a lock of her light bl
onde hair around her finger.
“Hey, Jenna,” Aaron said. “Did you figure out your science project?”
“Yeah. Balloons.” She beamed.
Sadie and Aaron exchanged glances. When no one said anything, Aaron finally asked, “What are you doing with balloons?”
“Oh, we’re filling them with different people’s air.”
Sadie was used to Jenna’s idiocy, but Aaron looked confused. “What?”
“You know how cold people can’t blow as big of a balloon as hot people? Like that.”
Aaron slowly nodded. “Um, well, good luck with that.”
Jenna turned to Sadie. “Hi, Cindy.”
***
“You lucky brat.” Lorena set her lunch tray down and plopped into the seat beside Sadie, brushing her bright red curls off her shoulder.
“What?” Sadie asked, even though she knew what Lorena was going to say. She adjusted her tray parallel to the edge of the table, placed her napkin on her lap, then picked up her apple.
“You and Aaron!” Lorena threw her hands up into the air. “How do you get to be so lucky? You get everything.”
“Not student body president,” she said under her breath.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“I mean, out of everyone in class, you get the hunkiest piece of man-meat for your science partner. Who do I get? Larry Reynolds. The guy who never showers.” She wrinkled her nose.
“Maybe he has a kidney problem.”
“He has lots of problems. But you…you get Aaron Peters.” She fanned her hand in front of her face. “Lucky, I tell ya.”
“Yeah. Lucky.”
Lorena studied her. “You’re not still mad about him winning student body president, are you?”
“No,” she lied. The last thing she wanted to be was petty. “I just don’t think he’ll make a good partner.” Another lie. The project they were doing was going to be great, and it was all due to him.
“Are you kidding? Who cares about the stupid science project? You get to be with Aaron Peters. You get to look at his beautiful face and sit close enough to smell him. Believe me, he smells a lot better than Larry Reynolds.”
Lorena’s face flushed as Aaron entered the cafeteria, surrounded by his friends.
Sadie frowned. “Yeah, well I just hope he holds up his end of the project. I need this grade, and he could pull it down.” Another lie. They were flying out of her mouth like angry bees.
“You’re too uptight. Haven’t I been telling you that since third grade? You get all A’s. Always have. Take some time off, for heaven’s sake. Just enjoy the moments you get to spend with…you know who.” The last three words were whispered, since Aaron was now within earshot.
Sadie couldn’t afford to relax. She had a plan for her future and needed to stick to the plan. Third grade had been the worst year of her life. Her family—destroyed. Sadie and her mother had to move to the small town of Shady Pine and scrape a life together out of the ashes. No money, not even enough for a winter coat. That was when Sadie decided to take her future into her own hands. No more depending on anyone else. Other people weren’t dependable. She had learned the hard way.
***
The cool spring breeze blew past Sadie’s cheeks. She hugged her sweater tighter as she strode up the sidewalk to Aaron’s address, her backpack strapped to both shoulders. Not having a car stunk. Her plan included getting a job and saving enough this summer to pay for one, plus the insurance.
Aaron’s house was on the corner. A large bay window protruded from the front of the home with groomed bushes tucked underneath, and a wrought iron fence enclosed the back yard.
She shifted her weight then pressed on the bell. The door opened and an older version of Aaron smiled at her. “You must be Sadie. Aaron said you’d be coming over. Please, come in.”
The home smelled of pine cleaner and tomato sauce and looked like they had hired an expensive decorator to furnish it. Aaron jogged down a large curved staircase, his hair hanging in his eyes. He smiled when he saw her. “Hey,” he said, almost shyly.
“Hi.”
“Come on downstairs. That’s where the lie detector is.” Aaron motioned for her to follow him down the hall.
Aaron’s dad folded his arms. “You kids be careful with that machine.”
“Yeah, Dad. We will,” he said over his shoulder.
Sadie trailed along behind Aaron, down a set of carpeted stairs to a spacious finished basement. A pool table took up the majority of the room to the left, and another room on the right had a large flat-screen TV and leather couch.
“It’s in here.” Aaron opened a door and motioned her inside.
A sliding glass door brought light into the room. A computer hutch nestled in the corner. The polygraph machine sat on an oak table. He slid out a chair for her.
“I thought we could hook you up first.”
“Sure.”
Aaron fussed with a few cords, untangling them before sliding a blood pressure cuff onto her arm. He wrapped a couple of tubes around her middle and put her finger into another gadget. His fingers were hot, and her skin tingled where he touched her. She shook off the sensation.
He turned the machine on, and the blood pressure cuff filled with air. The apparatus looked like it had been built in the 1970s. It was larger than she imagined, with round corners and spindles like spider legs scratching out their findings on a lined piece of paper.
Aaron opened a notebook. “Okay. I’m supposed to ask you a few control questions.”
“Go for it.”
“Is your name Sadie Garrett?”
“No.”
Aaron jerked his head up.
“It’s Sadie Marie Garrett.” The spindles twitched, leaving marks on the paper.
The corner of his mouth curled up. It wasn’t one of his fake charmer smiles; this one seemed more natural to her. It suited him better. It wasn’t so plastic. He chuckled, low in his chest.
“Funny. Okay, do you attend Shady Pine High School?”
“Yes.”
“Is your hair blonde?”
“Yes.”
“Do you live at 443 Rosewood Drive?”
Sadie bristled at the thought of Aaron looking up her address. “Yes.”
“Where were you born?”
“South Carolina.”
Aaron’s eyebrows raised. “Really? You don’t have an accent.”
“We moved when I was very young. My family moved a lot back then.” The spindles became more animated, and Sadie took a calming breath. She didn’t want to talk about the past. Surely Aaron knew nothing about what happened. No one in Shady Pine knew, except for Lorena, and she wouldn’t tell a soul. Aaron wouldn’t ask about her father. She’d just remain calm, and he’d move on.
Aaron eyed the paper, but didn’t show any sign of concern. “What is your favorite subject in school?”
An easy question. And safe. “Math.” She straightened in her chair.
“Why math?”
“It’s predictable.” The words were out before she could censor them.
“Predictable? That’s an odd reason to like something.”
Sadie stiffened. “There’s nothing odd about it,” she said, her words clipped. “I just like the way math is reliable. Two plus two is always four.”
The spindles reacted to her emotion, scratching out an angry scribble. Sadie concentrated on making her body relax.
“No worries. Math is cool.” Aaron put his hands up in an ‘I surrender’ gesture. “Do you have any hobbies?”
This didn’t seem like a control question to her. In fact, the last few questions wouldn’t fall under the control questions, either, since he wouldn’t have known the answers to them. “What does that have to do with anything? Are you making these questions up?”
A slight blush touched his cheeks. “No. Let’s move on. Now I’m going to ask some other questions, and I want you to lie to me.”
“Okay.”
“Are you sixteen years old?”
“No.” The spindles jerked, sliding across the paper.
“Do you have science class with Mr. Thorton?”
“No.”
“Are you dating anyone?”
Sadie paused. “Yes.”
Aaron stared at the spindles. “Was that the truth, or a lie?”
“You told me to lie.”
He tapped his foot, still staring at the machine. “Oh. Just making sure. Great. We’ve got our baseline. See, here?” Aaron pointed to the trail of paper at the end of the machine. “This is you lying.”
Sadie leaned over to examine the paper. The lines jumped and bounced near his finger.
“And this is you telling the truth.” Aaron slid his finger down. The lines smoothed out.
“Cool. Now we need to figure out how we are going to change the conditions of the room.”
Aaron jumped up. “I’ve already thought about it. Just a sec.” He left the room and came back a minute later with an iPod and portable speakers. He set them down on the table and pushed a few buttons on the iPod. Soft piano music began playing. “Okay, I want you to relax.” Aaron stood and walked behind her chair. He must have flipped a switch because the ceiling fan turned on. “Close your eyes. Imagine you are walking on a beach.” His hands touched her shoulders, applying light pressure. “Now, are you relaxed?”
Sadie’s nerve endings screamed, electricity charging through her. “Yes,” she lied. The machine clicked and the spindles jumped erratically.
“No, you’re not. Take a deep breath.”
Sadie obeyed, letting the breath out slowly. Aaron’s thumbs worked in circular motions over her shoulder muscles. The spindles became more erratic.
“What’s the matter?” Aaron sounded confused. “The music is supposed to relax you.”
Sadie wiggled out from his grasp. “The music’s fine. It’s just too hot in here. I can’t think.”
“Oh. Do you want something to drink? We have Coke in the fridge.”
“Yeah. A soda sounds good.”
Aaron left the room. Without him there to distract her, she could feel the light breeze from the fan. By the time he came back, she was much calmer.
The Truth Comes Out Page 1
