A/N Guess who rights to Divergent belong to? Not me.
I watch the girl as Zeke sings the first song. Her eyes are closed, and she's lightly swaying to the music. I smile a little. She doesn't seem to know the song, but I can tell its words are hitting her hard.
Zeke's ballad ends and everything is silent for a minute.
Then I realize that's my cue.
The opening notes flow out of my electric guitar through the speakers as the crowd cheers. Our youth group loves this song. Uriah and Lynn come in with me, and Zeke is grinning and playing his acoustic guitar.
Yeah, yeah, we shine, we shine with the light of God
And when we speak we speak with words of love
And when we dance we may get a little wild
'Cause we're the people of God, yeah, the people of God
The girl is alert now, nodding her head to the beat. She's wondering where this is going to go.
When we sing we sing the angel's song
The ones they're singing around the throne
Yeah, yeah, we worship the King with everything that we are
'Cause we're the people of God, yeah, the people of God
And now is the time for the people to rise
Lift up a shout, everybody cry out
Raise your voice, shout out a noise, and dance a dance of joy
We are the redeemed, we are the ones who are free
And we belong to Jesus
We are now alive and in this world we will shine
'Cause we belong to Jesus
She's dancing with Christina now, hands in the air. Pure delight is written all over her face, and I feel a grin creep onto mine knowing that I'm part of the reason why.
Well, kind of, anyway.
We finish out the song with a huge crash by Uriah, and the cheers are almost deafening.
After the lesson is over, Max tells us all to gather together in our small groups. (A/N I'm skipping the lesson. I don't think you guys want to read a sermon!) I head over to Tori with Zeke on my heels, and she smiles at us. "Great worship today, boys." We nod our head to her in thanks. I look around at our group and realize how lucky I am to have them. Zeke, Uriah, Lynn, Shauna, Marlene, Will, Christina…
Wait, where's Christina? She's usually here by now, chatting it up with Will.
Tori leads us to a bright room in the church. One entire wall was glass, facing the outside. On Sundays, it's used as a café, but on Wednesdays it's the meeting spot for our small group.
We drag chairs into a circle and push some tables out of the way. I take a seat next to Zeke; there are two empty seats beside me. Tori clears her throat. "So what did you guys think ab-"
She's cut off by Christina bursting in, out of breath. "Sorry guys! I just had to bring in a friend. She's new." She's dragging in the blonde girl. I feel my breath catch in my throat.
The girl tries to pull her arm out of Christina's hand. "Okay, Christina, you can let go now!"
Christina looks at her sheepishly and drops her arm. "Sorry. I got excited."
"It seems like you're always excited." The girl rolls her eyes good-naturedly and everyone laughs.
Tori speaks up. "Hi, I'm Tori Wu. It's very nice to meet you...?"
"Tris," the girl completes Tori's sentence. "My name is Tris." The name fits her. It's simply beautiful.
I need to stop thinking like this.
Christina goes around and introduces everyone. Finally she lands on me. "And this is Tobias." I feel Tris's eyes land on mine, and I'm taken aback by her eyes once again. They're blue, which I knew, but they have a layer of gray under them. It looks like a storm is brewing in them.
"Why don't you sit down and join us, Tris?" Tori smiles warmly at her, and she hesitantly moves towards the empty chairs. I'm pleased when she decides to sit in the chair next to mine, and Christina slides in on the other side of Tris. "Well guys, today's lesson was about how even when we can't trust our own family, we can trust God. What are your thoughts on this?"
I keep silent, and look at my shoes. My family life is pretty messed up. I've shared a lot of deep things with this group, but only Zeke knows about my parents.
Marlene tosses her hair behind one shoulder. "I personally don't think this lesson was one of Max's best. I mean, it's safe to say that all of us have great families who care about what we do and love us to the max. I just don't think the lesson today was applicable, really."
I instantly start to feel anger build up in my throat. Marlene has always been a little on the annoying side, but it's usually been with things that aren't as heavy as this. Zeke glances at me and gives me a look saying Bro, calm down. I take deep breaths and soon I'm calm again.
But then Lynn joins in. "Yeah I know, Mar. Through the whole thing I was just thinking about how no one in our youth group had really experienced what he was saying, and even if someone 'did', quote on quote, they're probably just being huge drama queens."
I saw red. I was about to punch the wall (and break through it) when I heard a tiny sniffle next to me. I looked at Tris in surprise.
Tears were running down her cheeks and down her neck, and her eyes were red and puffy. "Excuse me," she whispered. She ran out of the room.
"Tris!" Christina ran out after her.
The color had drained out of Tori's face. She forced a smile. "Lynn, Marlene, can I speak to you please? Alone?"
They nodded and the rest of us filed out of the room. I was glad Tori was reprimanding them. They both needed to be more careful with their words. We had all missed out on getting to know someone incredible because of them.
Argh, I was getting cheesier by the minute. What was happening to me?
A/N The song was "We Shine" by Fee. By the way, guys, I have to say I'm pretty disappointed. I respect you guys IMMENSELY for reading my story, but I need reviews! I'm going to wait until I get 3 new reviews before posting the next chapter. I believe in you guys, you got this! Thanks again for reading.