Baby Liar

Cute little girl comes up to me at recess and sits on the bench with me.
"Hi."
"Hi."
"What's your name?"
"Bianca."
"Oh."
"What's yours?"
"Miss Hansen."
"Where do you live?"
"In an apartment."
"Oh, I live in that house on the mountain." She points to the new HUGE house on the mountain. I didn't think it was in our school boundaries.
"Cool."

Some kids come by with a BABY TURANTULA in a jar. Em freaks out. Tells them to go feed it some place else and to do everything necessary to make SURE it stays in the jar!
"You don't like spiders, huh?"
"No, I really don't."
"I don't like people."
"Oh, that's too bad."
"Ya. Because people are mean."
"Why are they mean?"
"Because they make fun of me when I wear my Indian clothes. They're always like, 'It's not Halloween. Why are you wearing a costume?' And I tell them that it's not a costume. And they laugh at me. But I like my Indian clothes. We all get to wear them sometimes."
"Sometimes when people don't understand something they make fun of it. It's not very nice but it happens."
"Do you like Indian clothes?"
"Yep."
"They're pretty. Lots of bright colors."
"Yep."
"I like being Indian."
"Cool. Your parents are from India?"
"NO! Don't you know??"
"I really don't."
"My Dad is dead!!"
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. When did that happen?"
"When I was really small."
"Oh. Well, was your Dad from India?"
"NO! My Dad was from Mexico! He was a Mexican."
"Oh, is your Mom from India?"
"NO! She's from Mexico, too! We're Indian!"
"Oh, what kind of Indian?"
"I don't remember."
"Oh. So your parents were both from Mexico but you're an Indian?"
"Yes."
"Interesting."
"Oh! I remember! Navajo! I'm a Navajo Indian!"
"Cool."
"Ya. I just got adopted today."
"You just got adopted today? That's neat. How many brothers and sisters do you have?"
"25."
"25? How many are girls?"
"18."
"How many are boys?"
"13."
"So you have 25 brothers and sisters and 18 of them are girls and 13 of the are boys? Never heard of that before. What are their names?"
She makes up names...

Throughly confused, I talked to another teacher's aide named Sarah...
"Hey, do you know that one girl with the short dark hair and the brown eyes in Mrs. Hannig's class?"
"Bianca?"
"Ya."
"Ya, but that's not her name."
"It's not?"
"No, that's what she tells everybody her name is. It's really Maria. She's a compulsive liar."
"She's six."
"Ya. Scary."
"But she's six."
"Ya, her teacher told me about her when she caught me calling her Bianca. Her mom should tell her about the little boy who cried wolf."
"Ya, and then get her some serious therapy."

Today at recess "Bianca" comes up to me again...
"Hi, Bianca."
"Hi. My sister is a gymnast."
"Really?"
"Ya. She's actually doing it right now. She's going to be on TV. I'm going to watch her today. If I can find the right channel."
"Cool. So, Bianca, what name do you write on your school papers?"
"What?"
"When you, say, take a spelling test... what name do you write on top?"
"My sister's."
"Your sister's?"
"Ya, I write my sister's name, Maria. But don't tell."
"Right..."
"My sister's a virgin."
"Maria?"
"No, my other one."
"How old is she?"
"Ten."
"Then I'm glad she's a virgin. Who told you she was a virgin?"
"She did."
"Do you know what that word means?"
"No. What does it mean?"
"That's a word you should ask your mom about and not use until you do."
"Okay."

And the bell rang and my baby compulsive liar went back to class...