A/N: Wooh! I got through another chapter. In this chapter the beginning portion of it is going to be a pretty long church scene. I wanted to kind of credit my Bible App for this because I got a lot of good ideas on topics through it. If you don't have one, you should totally get one, it's really helpful.

Chapter 13PT2 - ("The prices you pay")

Kathleen and George held hands as they sat together. The chairs were formed into a large circle as Rev. Stone stood in the middle of the circle. Once the music ended, everyone took a seat and Rev. Stone led them in prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would be with these people today. I pray for the people who don't know you Father, that they would open their eyes and their hearts and they would realize that you are here and that you care for them more than anyone else can ever care for us. I pray for the church father, that you would continue to be with all of the pastors and help them to teach the Word of God, and to not just do it for the money, or for the publicity, but to truly give their hearts to you so that they can reach out unto others. In Jesus name I pray, Amen."

"Amen," the church members repeated.

"Alright well it's great to see everyone out here today! Go ahead and slip up your hand if this is your first time deciding to take a step towards the Lord."

A few people in the circle, including George went ahead and slipped up their hand. Everyone clapped for them and the newcomers received a Bible as well as a paper explaining what the church was about.

"Alright, now I'm sure that as a newcomer to this church you guys are going to have a lot of questions about the Lord. So feel free to raise your hand and ask anything you want as we go through today's lesson. This is what a couples beginners study is for, to help you and ensure your spiritual growth. At the end of the service, if you have anymore questions, I will be here...Now today we're going to go talk about dealing with grief and the bad things that happen in our life."

...

"Now that you've turned to that page, let's have someone read it...Um, you in the back."

Amy looked surprised as she pointed to herself, "Me?"

Mrs. Williams nodded, "Yes, what's your name dear?"

"Amy."

Another member of the church turned around and looked at Amy with a shocked expression, "Amy Jurgens? Oh my gosh is church beginning to become a joke now!"

"Oh gosh Zoey would you shut up already!" Grace exclaimed, shocking the crowd a little bit, "Just because Amy had a baby doesn't mean she can't come to church and try to have a personal relationship with God...You can't even talk. Weren't you the one who had sex with Ricky just because Adrian had sex with your boyfriend?"

"I changed!" Zoey shouted.

"And you think you're the only one who can change? Just because both of your parents are devout Christians, that doesn't make you better than everyone else."

Zoey smirked, "And look who's talking. Both of your parents were devout Christians, loved by everyone in the community. You could do no wrong. Even when you were hanging out with Ricky at a questionable hour that night and it was caught on tape, all you had to do was say a quick little speech at church to patch things up! You've always been a fake Grace! And that's never going to change!"

Grace felt her eyes getting watery because she was so angry. Amy was about to say something, but Grace stopped her from doing so. She stood up from her chair and before Mrs. Williams could say something, Grace started talking, "You know what Zoey...you're absolutely right."

Zoey gave a smug look as everyone turned their eyes on Grace.

"I was confused all those years ago...I thought that being a Christian meant that you had to be close to perfect. I always talked about forgiveness, but the minute something became hard in my life I didn't believe that God could ever forgive me...When my dad died, I fell apart, and I felt so terrible for committing what I thought was such a huge sin...But I've learned a lot since then. And that is, that no sin is too big to be forgiven by God. Despite everything that I've done, God still loves me. And the same rule applies for everyone. And I'm sorry...I'm sorry that I was so hypocritical back then. I'm sorry that I was going around telling everyone not to have sex when I had sex myself...but gosh I'm just one person! And I make mistakes! I'm not perfect...and I'm not free advertisement for the "perfect Christian". I'm just me...and I'm ok with that now. It took a long time for me to accept myself and be who I am, but I've finally accepted it. And I miss you guys...I miss having friends from church that I could talk to about my problems...But maybe you guys were never the right friends. None of you guys ever came up and talked to me after I had sex with Jack. None of you guys ever tried to be there for me...just like none of you guys ever tried to be there for Amy. Half of you guys go to Grant High, and you wouldn't even take the time to look at Amy because she got pregnant...I'm not trying to make this into some long speech, but I just had to say it."

At this the room went silent. There were some guilty faces, and a few people who were completely unmoved by this. Mrs. Williams felt herself smiling at Grace. She had always seen something special in Grace since she was a little girl, and when she left the church that seriously worried her, "Thank you Grace..."

...

"Alright, please open your Bibles to 1 John 4:4."

Everyone opened their Bibles, and Rev. Stone started reading the scriptures, "Verse four of John says 'But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.' We all go through hardships in our life that cause us heartache and grief. And during that time it's really hard to continue praising God. Hardships can be anything...losing a loved one, getting your heart broken, a natural disaster that destroys your house, family issues, marriage problems, the list goes on and on...Now, this isn't something that most people want to hear, especially people who have just started coming to this church, but the most common belief is that we don't deserve these hardships," Rev. Stone paused, "But the truth is...we deserve much more. It says in the Bible, 'For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord'. You see because we are all sinners, and because we all have evil in our heart, we deserve the ultimate punishment. We deserve death...but because of God, we are set free from death because of a price he payed long ago...If you haven't heard anything about Jesus, this may sound completely confusing for you, but just hold on, because I promise this will make sense in the end."

"Now...when we go through grief and have to deal with terrible things in our life, they can easily tear a person away from God. But God wants us to stay strong during this time. God wants us to cling to him when life gets tough. The Devil wants us to break when life comes and makes things difficult. The Devil wants us to say, 'Screw it, I'm done with God...this is too much'. But we need to seek God's heart through every trauma, disappointment, and loss that we face in our life. Trusting in God is not always easy, but it is definitely worth it in the end."

...

Mrs. Williams opened her Bible to the correct page as she looked around at everyone, "Now...let's try to get through this lesson today without anymore interruptions, because this is important. As I said today we are going to be talking about God, Sex, and Marriage. As a child that was raised in a Christian home, I know what it's like hearing from your parents that sex is wrong, and not understanding why. It seems to me that every parent tells their child that they need to wait to have sex, but the minute they ask why, they get uncomfortable, and sometimes they don't even know the answer themselves."

"Amen!" Someone shouted, and the group laughed.

"A lot of people were just raised to believe that you need to wait until marriage, without even realizing the importance of it...But today I'm going to enlighten you guys, as to why it's so important that you guys don't have sex until you are married and fully committed to your spouse...Now the most common misconception is that sex is not intended to be a good thing. Another common misconception is that sex is a worldly thing...It is not, though it is used in a worldly way. Sex was always intended to be something beautiful and spiritual, and that's why God created it.

...

As Rev. Stone continued on with the scripture, George raised his hand, and Rev. Stone smiled at him, "Yes?"

"All of this sounds wonderful...A God who loves you despite all of the things you do and who wants to help you but it just doesn't really make sense."

"And what doesn't make sense?"

"God being so loving when he allowed all of this to happen to us in the first place. I mean, if he has so much power, why isn't the world perfect? There shouldn't be any grief in the world if God is perfect. Why didn't he make us perfect too?" George questioned, his curiosity getting the best of him. In all honesty, George had never pictured himself as a church guy, but after being with Kathleen, he had to know what caused her to wake up every Sunday morning and come down to church.

Rev. Stone laughed, "This is definitely going back to the basics...George have you heard the story of Adam and Eve?"

"You mean that girl that bit into that apple?"

The group chuckled and Rev. Stone smiled, "Well we don't know if it was an apple exactly, but you're on the right track. After this lesson, I want you go home and read Genesis with your beautiful soon to be wife, and come back on Sunday and tell me if you understand why there is so much evil in the world."

George was confused as to why Rev. Stone couldn't just tell him the answer now, but he shrugged his shoulders and let him continue on with his sermon.

...

"Sex is a powerful. It is a physical and spiritual force bonding together. For any of you who have ever had sex before you might understand what I mean. Haven't you ever wondered why when you have sex, do you feel this type of connection with a person? It's like nothing can pull you guys apart, and you guys feel so close as if nothing can break you...That is because sex was always intended to be with one partner for the rest of your life, your soul mate, and the person God specifically designed just for you...But when sex gets abused, everything changes..." Mrs. Williams continued.

Amy had never heard of a church teacher saying that sex was actually a good thing, and it surprised her and intrigued her all at the same time. Grace turned to look at Amy and noticed how absorbed she was in what Mrs. Williams was saying, and she smiled.

"Alright Ally, can you tell us how old you are?" Samuel said as he flipped through a few more papers.

Ally cleared her throat as she played with her hands that were shaking at the moment. Her parents were in the back watching her, and they already had tears in their eyes, which wasn't helping Ally at all. She focused her attention on Ben and he gave her a reassuring smile, and she was finally able to breathe, "I'm nineteen years old. I'll be twenty in a few months."

"And how is that you are the same age as Jack?"

"I went to college early...got accepted into a program for Gifted Children."

Samuel nodded, "It says on this paper that you were sixteen years old when you got accepted into the college but your parents held you back in school for another year. Your school put you in all the advanced classes that they could find, and you superseded them."

"OBJECTION! What does this have to do with suing the school?"

"I'm getting there," Samuel argued.

"Then please Mr. Rogers, make your point quickly," Dr. Bink said.

"How old were you when Mickey came into your room Ally?"

Ally felt the color being drained out of her face when he asked her this. She felt her heartbeat increase, "I...I was seventeen at the time."

"And can you explain to us what happened that night?"

There was a knock on the door, and Ally was almost too excited. She was supposed to be going to hang out with some of her friends and grab a few drinks with them. This was her first time being out since she'd been at the college. She put on the finishing touches of her makeup as she went and opened the door. To her surprise, there was a strange man standing there, but Ally didn't think much of it. After all, there always seemed to be random people lurking around the school.

"Something you need? I have places to be."

Mickey smirked at her but didn't say anything and she felt a chill go down her spine.

"There is something that you can do for me."

"I...I need to leave." She tried to push her way through him but he pushed her back into her room, locked the door, and then...

"Ally?"

Ally shot her head up and looked at Samuel with a frightened expression on her face, "I...I'm sorry I just...I can't."

She started to get up out of her seat.

"Where are you going!" Samuel said with a concerned tone.

She started trying to leave the building when she suddenly felt dizzy and passed out on the ground.

Everyone in the room gasped as they looked at Ally with a shocked expression. Her parents were the first ones to run up to her and try to help her up.

"Ally!" Mrs. Johnson called.

"We will call the meeting to order tomorrow due to...well that," Dr. Bink said as she looked over at the girl, "Meeting adjorned at 1:30 PM."

And with that, everyone started making their way out.

Ashley sat John on her lap as the bus drove her to local hospital. Usually she would drive to where she needed to go, but since she didn't have her own car yet, and George left his car at the Bowman's house while Anne was up in Palm Springs with Robbie so that she could visit her mother, the bus was her only form of transportation.

"You know daddy is gonna kill me for bringing you up here right?" Ashley said softly as she looked at John.

John couldn't comprehend what she was saying, so instead he just squealed, "Daddy!"

Ashley chuckled, "You're so lucky you're cute John because you wouldn't be able to get away with as much if you weren't."

She kissed his cheek and cuddled him until she heard someone call her name.

She looked up in surprise, "Thomas?"

"Hey, you look just like someone that I used to know. Her name's Ashley, Ashley Jurgens-"

"Oh shut up!" Ashley giggled, as she motioned for him to come and sit next to her.

Thomas looked over at Ashley and then at the baby, "Wow...he's adorable...he's not yours right?"

Ashley couldn't help but laugh, "No, this is Amy's baby. You remember John don't you?"

"Oh of course I do it's just that...wow, he got really big since the last time I saw him."

"Yeah well...it's been a while," Ashley smiled as John laid his head on her shoulder.

"How have you been Ashley?"

"...Alright. There's a lot that you have to get caught up on, but there's not nearly enough time."

"I would have stayed in contact with you...but you said you didn't want that."

Ashley looked up at him with a serious face, "I know...I'm sorry."

"It's alright Ash."

She felt the pit of her stomach do something funny when he called her that, but she ignored it, "So I'm leaving pretty soon...maybe in another week."

"Leaving?"

"Yeah...I got my GED and I got accepted into a cooking school in Italy."

"I didn't know you were into cooking."

Ashley shrugged, "Anything to get out of this house."

"Things still bad with your folks?"

Ashley nodded, "It's just not going to change, ever...so I need to leave. I want to be happy."

Thomas nodded, "I understand that but your parents love you...Even if they don't seem like they love you, they do. And Amy loves you too, so you should at least talk to them about your decision."

"Maybe, we'll see."

"Did you say you were going to Italy?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Funny thing about that is that...I got my GED too and I decided to take some time off of school and go backpacking across Italy. I actually have some family out there so I'm going to be staying with them. What part of Italy are you staying in?"

"Wait what! You're not even Italian! And I'm going to Sicily."

"I know. I just have family that moved out there a few years ago. They speak fluent Italian but that's just because they're genius'. I tried to learn the language by listening to a few tapes but my accent is poor...I'll be in Sicily too! But later I'll be traveling to Calabria. Wow...this is crazy. Small word eh?"

"I can't believe this!" Ashley whispered excitedly once she saw that John had fallen asleep, "This is just crazy."

"Or maybe it was fate," he winked.

The bus stopped and Ashley noticed that it was her turn to get off, "I have to go...it was nice seeing you Thomas."

"You too Ash."

"Come on John, get up."

"Me sleepy."

"I know buddy, come on."

Ashley placed John on her left hip as she walked out of the bus and made her way towards the local hospital.

A/N: Wow...I guess there's going to be three parts to this chapter. I had no idea it was going to come out being so long lol! But anyway, hope you guys enjoyed.