Soda and I arrived at the church exactly ten minutes before seven. Two-Bit never showed up. He might have forgot though. He is a bit of a scatter brain. Then again, he probably just decided to find a party and get drunk instead. You never knew what to expect from Two-Bit.
"I hope Steve shows up later." Soda whispered to me.
"Me too." I whispered back.
The two of us were standing by a wall trying to look cool but feeling really stupid. We didn't know anyone there. Well, I recognized some kids from school. But I didn't really know them. Although I was sure they weren't socs or greasers.
"Soda! How are you?" Pastor Brian walked up to us. He looked at me and extended his hand. "I'm Pastor Brian."
"Chris." I said as I shook his hand.
Soda also shook his hand never answering Pastor Brian's question.
Pastor Brian motioned for a couple of boys to join us. "Soda and Chris, this is Aaron and Jeff. They're two of my student leaders. They'll be showing you two around and will hopefully make this evening a little more comfortable. It's never easy being the new kid."
Soda and I exchanged a look. We had very little if anything in common with these two boys. Although I was sure I had seen Jeff at school. I think his locker was just down the hall from mine. It turns out he recognized me too.
"Don't you go to my school?" Jeff asked.
"Yeah." I replied.
"I thought so. Your locker is near mine. How did you hear about this?" Jeff was looking at me with a friendly smile and I noticed that Soda was having a similar conversation with Aaron.
"Well, three other friends and I were visiting Soda at the DX station during lunch, trying to decide what to do tonight and Pastor Brian came over and invited us to come here." I explained feeling a little more comfortable than I had a few minutes earlier.
"Where are these other friends?" Jeff gave someone a high five as they passed.
"Soda's brother decided to stay at home with their other brother. Church brings back some hard memories for him. One friend just didn't show. And hopefully our other friend will show up later. He had to work." I told him.
Jeff nodded as Aaron and Soda both joined us. "Hey, Jeff, lets show these two around. The wall paper must be boring them by now."
Soda and I both laughed as we followed them around. They showed us the collection of board games and the snack area. It wasn't at all what I had expected and I could tell that Soda was thinking the same thing. We were both used to church where adults dress up in really nice clothes and older ladies wear their easter hats year round. It was different seeing young people not too different from us doing some of the things we did. I immediately wished that Ponyboy had come with. He would have liked it.
"So, it's time for us to go in now." Aaron was saying. "We'll let you two decide where to sit."
The four of us entered the sanctuary and Soda and I led the way to spot in the back. We never like to sit up front. Especially if it could draw attention to us. Not that it mattered here because it seemed like everyone was saying hi to us and shaking our hand.
"You two are in for a treat." Jeff whispered to us as Pastor Brian got on stage. "This play is supposed to be really good."
"What's it about?" Soda asked.
"I'm not sure." Aaron admitted. "But the title of the play is 'Searching'. "