I popped my gum and threw my bag onto the table. “That @#%. I can’t believe him,” Tiffany said. I twisted my mouth at her words. My youth pastor had just been talking to us about how cursing was wrong, and that the bible itself said so. I popped my bubble again. But that didn’t matter here. Here was not youth group. Here I was my own individual person who totally fit in with the crowd. I popped my gum again. “Seriously, that kid has some major problems,” I put in. Tiffany reached over and popped my bubble before I could do it myself. “Stop being a freak,” she said. “What, now popping my gum makes me a freak?” I replied. Tiff rolled her eyes, “No, but popping your gum five hundred times in ten seconds does.” Tiff got deeper into her conversation with Cynthia about Jonathan. She acted like I wasn’t there. I turned to Jordan, who was trying to finish his math homework. “Hey Jordan, could I borrow a pencil?” I asked. Jordan looked up and handed me the pencil he was using. “Pathetic, Jordan,” I said, “see, this is why you’re doing your homework during lunch in the first place.” Miranda glared at me with a “don’t TALK to my MAN” kind of look. Seriously, Miranda was getting way overprotective of this guy. He was probably finishing his homework in school because Miranda called him every five minutes. Not even kidding, I went to her house one time, and she literally called him, then stared at the clock for five minutes, then called him again. She kept doing that for about an hour. “Miranda is seriously getting annoying with this whole obsession with Jordan,” I whispered into Cammy’s ear, “I bet she like, bribed him or something to get him to ask her out.” Cammy giggled. Then Cameron walked by and stopped by me. “Hey Caitlin,” he said, “What’s up?” I caught my breath. Man that boy was gorgeous. “Not much. Why do you ask?” I said casually, trying to hide the southern accent that slipped into my voice every time I got nervous. “Well, I was wondering if you’d want to be my date for the prom,” Cameron said. Cammy nudged me and winked. “Sure,” I squeezed out. “Cool. See ya later Caitlin.”
Caitlin is just your ordinary teenage girl. Every Saturday night, she goes to youth group and thinks about changing her ways to be more like Jesus. But by Monday morning, her life is back to normal. Caitlin is in the hottest clique in the school, she’s going out with her super gorgeous crush Cameron, and Tiffany is acting like her best friend again. Everything is totally fixing up. Until Caitlin hears about Wendy. Wendy always went to youth group. She was really shy, but she always knew the answer in youth group. Caitlin hadn’t even known that Wendy went to her school until she heard the news. Wendy had killed herself. Caitlin couldn’t figure it out. Sure her school life wasn’t top notch, but Wendy had never really seemed to care about that. She was really popular with the church kids, unlike Caitlin, who was the total outcast with them. So why had Wendy killed herself? The youth pastor said that our lives aren’t fulfilled without God. But Wendy had God! She was an expert on God! So why had she done it?
Caitlin goes to Sheeba, Wendy’s old best friend, and asks her if she knows. Sheeba doesn’t go to Pallington High. She goes to a private Christian school called “Ettah Christian”, same as most of the kids in youth group. So of course Sheeba is a private school prep who thinks public schools are filled with druggies and horrible sinners or whatever. Sheeba says that maybe Wendy didn’t have the environment she wanted. “Surrounded by all these non Christian evildoers,” Sheeba says. Spoken like a true prep. But maybe Sheeba is right. When Caitlin goes back to school after spring break, once all the freaking out about Wendy is basically over, she starts noticing things about her friends, enemies, even her boyfriend; that she had either never noticed, or just ignored before. Sheeba was right. No wonder Wendy couldn’t stand living with this. Caitlin’s starting to doubt how she has lived with this through all these years.
And then she meets him.
Peter Cambridge.
And he shows her what she’s been missing. He shows her how to take care of herself. He kicks Cameron right out the door. But he’s not willing to take Cameron’s place. He’ll stand inside the house, but he’s never willing to stand on the doorstep. And maybe Caitlin isn’t really willing to let him stand there, either. Maybe Cameron was a pushover and she didn’t notice. Cameron sometimes made her feel uncomftorable. But Peter makes her feel like everything is going to be all right. Because Peter knows Jesus. And Cameron and Jesus are complete strangers.
To be continued...
© 2009
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