A Truth Explosion

(My classmate has a medical condition commonly referred to as “blue lips.” We are working in a classroom with a sub. About halfway through the lesson:)

Sub: *loudly* “Stop chewing your pen! You should know better than that.”

Classmate: *looking up from his work* “What? I wasn’t….”

Sub: *smugly* “Then why are your lips blue?”

Classmate: “Miss, it’s a medical condition; they’ve always been like that.”

(His friends, who are seated next to him, defend him.)

Sub: “You expect me to believe that? Why would you lie about chewing your pen?”

Classmate: “I’m not lying.”

(The rest of the class including me, a relatively shy person, are now defending him, and rightly so. The sub calls in another teacher who knows about my classmate’s condition.)

Teacher: “What’s the problem?”

Sub: “That young man over there…” *points to my classmate* “… has been lying to me.

Teacher: *to my classmate* “Is that true?”

Classmate: “No. She accused me of chewing my pen and when I told her that the colour of my lips were the result of a medical condition, she accused me of lying.”

Sub: *still convinced she’s right* “See? The only ways your lips are that colour are if you’re choking or your pen exploded when you were chewing it.”

Teacher: “[Classmate]’s right, though. It’s a legitimate condition and his lips have always been like that. Are you saying he’s been lying to me and chewing exploding pens all those years?”

(The sub went a deep shade of red and started stammering out an apology to my classmate among the victorious roars of the class.)