War

Generally speaking, it's an overwhelmingly simple task to determine whether a first grader is telling the truth or not.  For the most part they are not good liars and it's quite comical how surprised they are when you call their bluff without much information at all.  You can see it in their faces, "How could she possibly have known that I didn't go to China last night?"  Then they backtrack and say something convincing like, "I know, I was just kidding - I didn't really go to China." But there are a select few who tell the lie and embrace it shamelessly.

As Michael and I were walking down the hall together, out of the blue he said, "My Grandpa is in the war." 
This alone made me chuckle because there was nothing previous to this statement that would have lead one to think about war, but I responded, "You mean he was in a war?"  I thought perhaps WWII since I know his grandpa is an older man.
"No." he said adamantly, "He went yesterday."  Of course he did.  At this point I may have accidentally rolled my eyes just a little.  But before I could call him on his lie, he looked toward the ground, shook his head, and with all the seriousness a seven year-old can muster he said, "I sure hope they win."

I just couldn't bring myself to ruin his earnest moment, so I just shook my head, too, and said, "So do I, Michael.  So do I."