Strenuous Love

Chapter 6

And after all what is a lie? Tis but the truth in mascarde 

Lord Byron

Jace

I didn't tell my mom what happened. She sleeps like the dead so I manged to sneak her phone and delete all the voicemails from Mr. Paine. She never asked and I never said. What she doesn't know wont kill her. 

*******

The Lord detests lying lips but he delights in those who tell the truth 

Proverbs 12:22

Serenity 

At Karis we do this thing ever week called Missional Community or MC. I'll spare all the nit picky details. To sum it up short a group of about 15 or less gather at our house once a week for a meal and a bible study. Our mission is a family of disciples making disciples. Attendance is mandatory to be a member of our church. 

Courtney leaves before any one gets here.

"Its just a time for gossip and to expose all the shitty stuff that has happened in life. I'll pass."

Its MC night Thursday night to be exact. Its only been a few days since the incident happened at school. 

I'm still shaken up by what dad did but I try to shove it down. I don't want to dwell on it and go repeat a past incident again. I promised myself I would be strong than that. 

That Serenity was weak. This Serenity was smarter, braver, stronger.

And I don't think I believe that quite yet. 

Drew happened to pick me up the rest of the week from school. She didn't drive me home so I had to walk. 

She was not in a good mood. Her mom did an outfit inspection before she left the house everyday.

There was one day she picked me up and she was wearing a black t shirt that said we are never to old for Winnie the pooh. The shirt had a bunch of animals on it like a stuff bear, a pig, an owl and others. I had no idea what Winnie the pooh was. I thought it was cute. The other students not so much

"What are we Drew five years old," some of the students would say.

Ya that did not go well.  She almost hit the kid before I told her that violence was not the answer to this. 

She let it go. But she was mad about it. Wouldn't let it go for the rest of the day. 

So ya, my week was interesting to say the least. I just wanted to get MC over with. I would rather be alone at the moment. I want the week to be over with. I want next week to start so I have a reason to not be home for a while. 

People started coming and so the house was packed with people mainly with couples who had kids. 

There was the Sullivan's. The husbands name was Brad and the wife's name was Mary. They have been married for 4 years and they have a two year old daughter named Camryn. 

Next there was the Young's. Chelsea and Alex young have only been married for two months and they are expecting their first child in April of next year. Chelsea doesn't have a very big bump but pregnancy looks good on her. 

Then there is the Stone family. The head of the house is Jensen who happens to be one of my dad's best friends. They started Karis together and Jensen is the executive pastor while my dad is the head pastor. Jensen is doing an MC with my dad for the time being to get the hang of what goes on. When the group gets big enough, we will multiply or divide up and Jensen will start his own MC group. I never got the terminology behind that. As long as it makes sense to them I guess. He is married to his high school sweetheart Victoria or Tori as we call her. They have been together for over 20 years and they are still madly in love as the day they meet. They have five kids together.