Dear John

So The Husband and I have always forbidden the children to lie. We have also always known that it was futile.  I'm not sure why parents do this, insist upon something you know is never going to happen. Underage drinking also comes to mind. 

Declan's last semester killed any shred of delusion we may have harbored. Dishonesty, not the drinking.  Hopefully we have a few more years on that one.

Dec had been having some conflict with another boy in his class. One can never be sure how these sorts of things start.  The side we heard was that this kid picks on him for absolutely no reason.  The other kid's parents were probably also hearing a very similar story.  Anyway, one day in the lunch line it finally boiled over. Both boys ended up in the office and we got the call from the counselor one would expect.  The Husband was the lucky one this time and this is how he recounted the call.

"Mr. Prieto, this is Mr. Perez.  Declan got into a bit of an altercation today.  We'll talk about that a bit later.  What I really wanted to discuss was something that came up in my discussion with Declan about the reasons why he lost his temper."
"Oh, boy.  Go on."
"Well, he indicated that he hasn't been coping very well with what happened to his brother."
"His brother?"
"Yes.  He shared with me what happened and he said that he's been thinking about it a great deal and it's making it difficult for him to cope."
"I'm not sure I'm following you."
Mr. Perez seemed uncomfortable and unsure how to proceed.
"Um, Declan told me about his brother, John.  ...who committed suicide."
"Oh dear god. Mr. Perez, Declan isn't telling you the truth."
"Oh! So John didn't commit suicide?"
"No. Declan doesn't have a brother John.  Never did."
"Oh. I see.  Well, let's get back to the fight today, then."

This year, Mr. Perez is at a different school.  I'm sure it's a complete coincidence.