“
If Lucy knew one thing, it was how to be polite, so she tried to smooth over the awkward moment by saying the first thing that came into her head. “So you guys were playing soccer?” Too late, she heard these incredibly idiotic words coming out of her mouth and tried not to wince. Of course they were just playing soccer, what a stupid thing to say! She added brightly, “Looks like fun!”
She didn’t mean it, of course. Nothing that involved running around, chasing small round objects and getting sweaty counted as fun in Lucy’s world.
But her completely insincere comment made Benno’s face light up as if a wondrous vision had just appeared to him. “Yes, it is! Would you like me to teach you?”
Lucy sighed. This was the problem with being polite. It made you say things you didn’t mean, which other people believed, of course, because they didn’t know you were just being polite, and then they said something back that you had to agree with because otherwise you would have to admit that you hadn’t meant a word of what you had originally said, and the next thing you knew you were baking five hundred cookies for the choir fundraiser and resenting every moment.
”
”