I don't own them. Trust me, there wouldn't be this big of a following if I did.
Azar showed Rachel all over the church. There were two parts, the main part and the part where Azar and the monks lived. Azar had shown her all over the church and introduced her to some of the monks. They seemed like a quiet bunch, very into meditation. They also seemed very at peace because they used that meditation to rid them selves of emotion. It intrigued Rachel very much. To be that calm all the time. She had always tried to convey that she didn't care, but now she might actually be able to not care. To not feel angry when he father hit her, to not feel dirty when he was done, to not feel shame when she covered the bruises, to really not care what other's thought of her at school, it seemed too good to be true.
She thought back to when Azar was showing her the courtyard of the church. It was a beautiful courtyard, much like the rest of the church. Ivy climbed up the walls of the old stone building and over the windows, some of which were stained glass, others which weren't. Late roses lined the two archways that covered the two entrances of the path that ran through it. A fountain in the middle bore the image of a woman looking into the pool of water surrounding her and a man, possibly an admirer or lover, looking down on her with either love or pain in his face, Rachel couldn't tell which. The path circled around the fountain and ran through the rest of the courtyard's garden. Late flowers dotted about here and there, bringing color to the fading brown of the mulch. Benches were placed sporadically around, some under the shade of small tress, others next to the walls or the fountain.
A bell had tolled somewhere and Azar looked away from the water running down the figures of the fountain and looked to Rachel, "Would you like to come to a service?" she asked.
Rachel assented and followed Azar into the main hall where Rachel had found her inspiration. When they entered, Rachel saw most of the monks she had met earlier and a few other people who must not of lived at the church. Some of the people looked to be "upper-class citizens" who were well off, and others seemed to have come in off the streets.
"We help a lot of homeless and illegals here." Azar said, obviously noticing Rachel's gaze, "Take them in for a while, give them some medical attention, though it's not much more than first aide, feed them." She took a breath, "The world can be cruel to any and everyone. Good people fall on hard times and governments don't always give good families the necessary papers to try to make a better lives for themselves. We don't care here, we help them all. Or at least try to." Rachel looked at Azar after she said this, Azar quickly covered her saddened gaze and put on a false smile that Rachel could see right through. "Come on. Better get a seat."
During the service, Rachel agreed with Azar's earlier statement that this was no ordinary church. To be honest, it was borderline occult. But Rachel didn't really know if she would call it occult, more neo-pagan. It seemed they used a bit of every religion to Rachel. It created the perfect breeding grounds for harmony and peace. But Rachel, who had read Left Behind was weary that there was some underlying current. It couldn't work. Religion was one of those things that people absolutely refused to back down on. Granted, this generation was a bit more tolerant in accepting other's beliefs than other generations were, but was that saying all that much? Rachel looked around her and was shocked. These people seemed genuinely happy with the stitched up religion. She could see why too. Azar and her monks didn't call for a strict adherence to any rule really. They just wanted peace on Earth. Goodwill towards men. All the stuff most other religions had been promising for centuries and even millennia. Here, in this group of thirty or so people, it had been achieved (1).
Like in the made-for-TV-movies that Rachel had seen, after the service, there was punch and coffee. Rachel just sorta weaved in and out of the others there, not really talking to anyone, until she saw Azar. Feeling the comfort offered by seeing a friendly and known face, Rachel walked over to Azar who was discussing the service with another patron of the church.
"Hello, Rachel." Azar said when she saw Rachel, "Did you enjoy the service?"
"Very much." Rachel truthfully answered, "Thank you for allowing me to attend."
"Oh, Rachel, this is Mr and Mrs. Satterthwaite." Azar began, indicating the elderly couple she had been talking with, "They have been here almost since the church opened. They were even here before we moved into here."
"Used to hold services in your basement, Azar!" Mr. Satterthwaite said, "Remember those days?"
"Yes, yes I do." Azar said, smiling fondly at the memory, "But I'm glad we moved here. Now I don't have to clean up all the time." She gave Rachel a little wink and Rachel grinned.
"Didn't this place used to be a Catholic school and church?" Mrs. Satterthwaite asked.
"Yes." Azar confirmed the old lady's thoughts, "But we did some renovations to the school area to make it more live-in-friendly."
"I remember it." Mr. Satterthwaite said, a look of reminiscences coming over his face, "I had a friend, O'Leary, who came here, said the nuns were as bad as all the movies and stories make them out to be. He had a scar on his left knuckle where a nun hit him sharp with a metal edged ruler for chewing gum in class."
"He told me it was from punching your brother that night they got in a fight in junior year." Mrs. Satterthwaite said.
"Did you two also go here?" Rachel asked, thoroughly bored, but knowing how to seem interested and polite.
"No." Mrs. Satterthwaite said, "No, we went to Jump City High. But that was back before they renovated it."
"They've renovated it?" Rachel, who went there and could in no way tell.
"Oh, yes." Mr. Sattrethwaite said, "The old building was mostly burned down one year and they built a new one. That was in '62, right, Ilene?"
" It was in '68, dear."
Rachel met a few of the other patrons of the church. When it was getting to a time classified as "late", she excused herself and left to go home. She found her father in his study, going over papers for a possible business venture. He said that he was not to be disturbed, so she went to her room and closed the door.
She looked over the pamphlet that Azar had given her to help her meditate. She lit some candles, some incense, and put on some quiet music. All of these things were supposed to help. She then lay on her back, as the pamphlet said that it would be easier to learn that way, she would work up to meditating in an upright position. She took deep breaths and concentrated on her breathing. Azar said that they would find words for her to chant after she got the basics, for now she was to use her breathing.
She was so into her meditation that she soon fell asleep.
The next morning in Biology, Rachel was aware of the fact that Gar kept looking over at her. She did her best to ignore it and went on with the microscopy lab they were doing. She found herself being grateful for that Tara girl, even if some about the new girl was off.
She looked up to see the girl flirting shamelessly with Gar. She felt her stomach tighten when she saw that stupid grin spread across his face. She thought back to her musings from last Friday. She couldn't have feelings for him, could she? She looked up again and saw him flirting back. She felt anger and, was that jealously, rise up in her. She felt her new partner, a girl named Laura, look at her and she quickly returned to her work.
"So, are you and Gar fighting?" Laura asked as she looked into the microscope to see the amoeba that Rachel found.
"What makes you say that?" Rachel asked as she began to draw what she saw in the microscope.
"Well, you both keep looking at each other." Laura said as she too began to draw the organism, "And every time you look at him, you get madder and madder, while every time he looks at you, his face gets sadder and sadder."
"Could've fooled me." Rachel said as she looked back up from the microscope to see Gar and Tara flirting some more. She looked into the microscope again, "Damn." she started to fiddle with the stage of the microscope.
"What?" Laura asked.
"I can't see the amoeba, it must of moved." and she spent five more minutes trying to find another unicellular organism.
The rest of the day wasn't all sun shine and daisies either. Kori was trying to get her attention all through out their math class, Vic was trying to talk to her in English and Dick was kept looking at her in Spanish. She felt a previously unknown appreciation for History that day, as none of the others were in that class, not even that Tara, who seemed to be in every other class she had in the morning. She watched out of the corner of her eye as the perky blonde tried to get the others' attentions every time they tried to get hers. She felt grateful, and yet, she felt like she was being replaced. It was relieving to know that the spotlight wasn't on her, but being replaced the next day, it hurt.
At lunch, Rachel ate in an unused hallway. She had often ate here last year right after the whole Malchoir thing. She felt a bit resentful of the lockers and classroom doors, feeling that they were mocking her, though she knew that was just a thing in her mind. Seeing them meant that she was, again, the freak. The girl no one wanted. She went to the end of the hallway where it turned a corner and led to two, also unused, classrooms. She took a desk that was being stored there and out it next to a window and looked out into the parking lot of the school. She saw Mr. C. get into his car and drive off, no doubt going to his wife's office three blocks down the road, from which they would then go get something to eat as a married couple. She then saw a group of seniors sneak out to their cars to go out for lunch as well.
She gave a sigh and turned to her bagged lunch. She took out her water and took a drink. She was about to take out an orange when she saw someone walk towards her. She looked up to see Jericho look perplexed at her. "I'm sorry." she said, "I didn't know anyone else came her."
He wrote something, "Don't worry, we're all friends, right?"
She gave a sad chuckle, "Sure. You want me to move?"
"No. It'll be nice to have company for a change." he wrote, "Something wrong?" He looked really concerned.
"No." she said, giving an obviously fake smile, "Nothing."
He didn't look convinced, but pulled up another desk and sat down with his lunch, "So, what brings you here?" he wrote.
"Things." she noncommittally answered, "You?"
His face clouded over. He wrote, "No one wants to talk to the kid that can't talk back."
"Really?" Rachel asked. While never seeing Jericho as being "popular", she had always envisioned him as having friends. She saw him shrug.
"Ah, well." his shrug seemed to say, he then wrote, "Who needs them, eh?"
"Right." she chuckled.
The spent the rest of the lunch period in silence.
After lunch, Rachel and Jericho walked to Art together. As they were walking in, Aggie came up to the door also. Rachel felt Jericho stop next to her and tense. She wondered what was up, until she looked at his face, a look of longing came over his face.
"Thank you." Aggie said as he motioned for her to go ahead. Rachel saw him give a fleeting smile, that was quickly replaced with a "I am so stupid!" look.
"So, you and Aggie, huh?" Rachel asked him after said foreign exchange student was out of ear-shot. He gave her a look that said "I wish.", then proceeded into the classroom.
Once inside the classroom, they took their seats. The bell sounded and the looked around for the teacher expectantly, but he was no where to be seen.
"Probably fell asleep in the teachers' lounge again." Red said as he stretched out to take a nap. This would have been the third time in two weeks that the teacher had fallen asleep. Last time he didn't show up until the last five minutes of class. While this surprised Rachel, the others were quiet used to it and either prepared to take a nap, like Red, or started on something or other.
Rachel was pulling out her pad to start work on something or other when Carl came up to her.
"Rachel?" he asked.
"Yes." she responded, looking up from her work.
"Could I ask a favor of you?"
"What?" she asked, getting suspicious.
"I have this idea, for the Protest-Tent City scene, but I can't draw to save my life."
"Then why are you in an Art Class?"
"Because, sad as my art abilities are, my rhythm is even worse." he said, looking slightly embarrassed.
"What do you have in mind?" Rachel asked. He got a relieved look on his face and immediately delved into a description of his idea.
Rachel had to admit that Carl's idea was a good one. He also gave a good enough description to make it relatively easy for her to draw. She had gotten the outline done in the class, which he said was exactly like how he pictured it. While he had been giving her a description, he was writing down what he pictured the coloring to look like. He then went over it with her, then gave her the paper. She would work on it over night and bring it in the next day.
After her study hall, she was on her way out when she saw Lindy running up to her. She stopped in her trek towards the door and waited for Lindy to catch up.
"Rachel!" Lindy panted when she caught up with her, "I thought I had missed you." She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Rachel, "Have your parent and or guardian sign this by Wednesday."
"What is it?" Rachel asked as she took it.
"A permission form." Lindy panted, still catching her breath.
"I gathered that, but for what?"
"To buy supplies and what not." Lindy said, having finally caught her breath, "Since you were one of the students who went to the meeting, you get to do the extra things, like miss school and stuff."
"Oh." Rachel said.
"Yeah, you, Jenny and Jericho get to go."
"What about the other two?" Rachel asked, remembering the two even if she didn't remember their names.
"They are for the advanced class." Lindy explained, "They'll go at different times." Rachel gave an understanding nod. "We'll I'll see you on Friday then."
"Yeah, see ya." Rachel said as she read over the permission form. She slipped it in her book bag then headed out the door.
She went home and started her chores for the day. She looked around her and sighed. She needed to get out of here, but where to go? She went up to her room and grabbed a book that she had read three times. As she was picking it up, however, the pamphlets that Azar had given her yesterday fell off the table from their spot under the book. She looked at them again and decided that she would go to the church.
She called her father's office to confirm that there wasn't a dinner meeting that night.
"Hello?" her father answered after his secretary patched Rachel through.
"Father? It's Rachel."
"What do you want?" he snapped.
"To see if you had any plans." she said.
"No." he barked, "Is that all?"
"Well, if there are no plans, I'll be in town for a while tonight."
"Don't do anything to embarrass me." he demanded.
"No, sir." she said right before he hung up. She put the book back, then left the house.
1) Ok, so I'm NOT knocking any religion here, I just wanted to express what drew Rachel to that religion. I think that acceptance would be a major thing to her, and acceptance of all the different factions of something as diverse as religion would show that these people really do accept everyone. Yes, I have read the Left Behind series, and know that this is something the Anti-Christ is going to promise, but I promise that Azar is NOT the Anti-Christ, nor are any of the monks, or Rachel. That was just Rachel being skeptical-Rachel.
Ok, so that was a short post, but school is back in and this is all I've been able to work through. I probably won't be able to post until next Tuesday at the earliest, as I have three really big test on Monday (I really don't like school :P). So wish me luck so that I don't fail (and get grounded again) and I promise that the next post will be a more satisfactory size.
Till then, lemme know!
