As far as lying to get out of trouble or try to, I can explain that really.... to some extent. I never used it really as a manipulation tactic to get my way, but I realized that my honest answers were never good enough to explain why I ever did anything. I would get into just as much trouble telling the truth-more even, simply because my explanations never made sense to anyone but me and they would get mad at me, so I guess I finally took an attitude of "well, I can tell the truth and get in trouble regardless, or I can try to lie to appease whoever is talking to me and maybe I'll get around it".
It was just an attempt basically to not be in trouble for every single thing I did, and when people would actually say "that doesn't make sense" all of the time, well, what is left to try to make people happy? It's no fun having people mad at you 100% of the time.
The truth always came out eventually, but for a long time, I'd try to come up with something that would make sense to others to appease them before telling them what I was actually doing or thinking and whatnot.
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Sorry about the incredibly long post...
"I enjoyed the meetings, too. It was like having friends." -Luna Lovegood