Born Again *on hold*

Chapter 7

That Sunday, Abby found herself standing awkwardly in a church for the second time in two weeks. Weird. She was standing in a corner, waiting to see Leyanne, or anyone she knew. After about five minutes, she caught sight of Naomi-May across the room. Nai, as she was often called by her classmates, was a bubbly but shy girl. Her skin was caramel coloured, but her hair was blonde. It was an odd combination, but she pulled it off.

Abby slowly shuffled over to her.

"Hey, Naomi-May!" She said cheerily, tapping the girl in the shoulder.

"Abby! What are you doing here?" she spun round, her green eyes widening as she saw Abby.

"Oh...shouldn't I be? Leyanne said it was find if I came...." Abby trailed off, unsure and feeling awkward.

"Oh, no! Not like that! I just meant, y'know...how come you're here? Its great that you came, but why?" Nai smiled.

"Oh, well I came to Ley's baptism, and then I looked through a Bible, and Ley gave me a CD, and then I read Job and Esther and....." Abby trailed off, unsure of how to finish.

"Cool! Its great you decided to come! Hey, look, there's Ley!" Nai grinned, and started walking across the room, Abby following.

"Abby! You came! That's brilliant!" Leyanne gave Abby a hug, and then Naomi-May. "I thought you might have changed your mind!"

"Yeah, I almost didn't come. But Sam's out with a friend, and Mum took Dora to her doctors check up thing, I was bored, so, YOLO!" Abby winced. She just said YOLO. "I'm sorry I said that." she smiled in mock shame.

"Its fine. Well, technically, you don't live once." Leyanne said, smiling.

"Yeah you do...wait, do Christians believe in the whole come-back-as-an-animal thing?"

"Reincarnation. And no, we don't." Nai laughed, "But Jesus died on the cross so that we could be saved, and live eternally in heaven. John 3 verse 16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not die, but have everlasting life."

"I've heard that before." Abby said, nodding and taking it all in. She still couldn't believe she was here. It felt weird. Being in a church.

Abby really wasn't the church type, even if she was a Christian, she was sure she'd still hate it. 'I mean, sitting in a wooden pew for hours listening to some old guy in a dress lecture you.....not my cup of tea.' Abby thought. But then again, she didn't see any pews, only plastic fold up chairs, and she didn't see a vicar or preacher anywhere.

"Okay," a voice boomed over the sound system, bursting everyone's eardrums with the squeak that followed.

"Wow, sorry everyone!" Came a voice from the back if the hall. This was the first time Abby noticed the sound desk. Benjamin was sitting by it, next to an older guy, probably in his thirties. It was this guy that spoke, as he turned down the microphones.

"That's Randy, him and his brother Frank take turns doing the sound every week, and normally one of the youth helps out." Leyanne whispered to Abby, who nodded in acknowledgement.

"So, hello everyone, sorry about that technical difficulty, if you would like to find a seat, we're going to start in a couple of minutes." Abby turned to look at the man standing on the stage. He was relatively young, probably early thirties. He was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, with an unzipped hoodie over the top. He had brown hair, that looked a lot like no one had bothered to brush it.

"And who's he?" Abby asked Leyanne.

"Daniel, the minister." Leyanne and Nai went over to a row of seats to sit down. Abby followed, confused.