As Kagura's watch struck 8 o'clock, a strong beeping noise began to emanate from the device. The girls on the bed were the first to wake up, their eyes slowly cracking open.
"What's that nosie?" Kaorin asked as she slowly sat up. Kagura reached down and disabled the alarm on her watch. "Sorry, that was my alarm." The tomboy apologized. Kaorin blinked a few times then rubbed her eyes. She looked up at the clock and saw that it was 8 in the morning. "I guess we'd have to get up at some point." She yawned out before looking down at Chihiro, who was curled up on the futon, still fast asleep. Kaorin turned to Kagura and whispered "She's still asleep. Do you want breakfast?"
"Sure." Kagura replied. The two girls snuck out of the room and quietly closed the door behind them. Kaorin led Kagura into the kitchen, and upon arriving they saw that Kaorin's mother was already up. "Good morning, you two." She greeted the pair, taking a sip of her tea. "Good morning." They bowed back.
"Is Chihiro up yet?" The woman inquired. "Not yet." Kaorin answered. "I was going to show Kagura where the food was for breakfast."
Kaorin showed her new friend where to find the cereal and brought a couple dishes out for them.
A while they had started eating at the table, a sleepy Chihiro walked in through the doorway. "Good morning." She sleepily said, slightly slanting southwards. After they had all eaten breakfast, they got changed and ready to go to church. Kagura was feeling rather nervous about things, but Kaorin assured her that everything would be ok. The three girls got into Kaorin's mothers car, with Kaorin sitting in the front and the other girls sitting in the back. The drive to Church was a little bit on the long side, it took around 35 minutes to get there. As they entered the church, Kagura followed the others in dipping their fingers in the holy water and making the Sign of the Cross. She saw Kaorin whisper something to her mother before walking towards a room in the back of the church. Kagura followed the others in genuflecting and sat next to Chihiro on the bench. "Hey, Chihiro." The tonboyish girl whispered. "Where did Kaorin go?"
"Back there." Chihiro said, pointing to the back wall. "It's called "Confession"." She explained.
"How come she went there?" Kagura asked out of curiosity.
"If you do something wrong, you're supposed to go there to ask for forgiveness." Chihiro quietly her.
"Did she do something bad?" Kagura thought out loud. Chihiro heard but didn't reply. Kaorin walked out a few minutes later and joined the girls on the pew. "Are you ok? Did you do something bad?" Kagura asked. Kaorin lightly blushed. "I'm ok, I don't really like talking about what I say in there." She sheepishly answered. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know." Kagura quickly apologized. Kaorin smiled. "That's ok."
The Mass went fairly well afterwards. Kagura quietly joined along with singing hymns and paid attention to what was being said during the Homily. When it came time for Communion, she was a little confused but Kaorin explained that she could stay sat down. Once the Mass was over, Kaorin's mother stayed a while to talk to a few of her friends. Kaorin and Chihiro took Kagura to a park located across the street from the church. The three girls sat down on the swing set, with Kaorin and Chihiro on the normal swings and Kagura on the big round swing that was held up by a few chains. Chihiro and Kaorin mostly talked while Kagura tried to go high on the big swing. After some failure, she sat and listened to them for a while before asking a question.
"I have a question." She told the two girls. They paused their conversation and looked over at her.
"God's supposed to be all good, right?"
Kaorin and Chihiro nodded.
"Well, if He's good, then how come there's stuff like disease in the world?"
"Oh!" Kaorin exclaimed, excited to answer her question. "Well you see, when Adam and Eve are the apple in the Garden of Eden, they let sin into the world and because of this many other bad things like disease and pain came into the world."
"Ohhh." Kagura let out. "I see. But wait, Jesus healed that leper guy, right? The one who was sick?"
"Yeah." Kaorin answered.
"Well, if He was going to heal him anyway, then why was he born with that disease? Wouldn't it have just been easier to not have him be sick in the first place?"
Chihiro quickly piped up. "Well you see, if the man wasn't sick, then Jesus wouldn't have been able to heal him, and then those people wouldn't have been able to say that He was able to perform miracles."
Kagura thought for a moment. "I guess that makes sense."
"Just think of it like this:" offered Kaorin, "Everything happens for a reason."
"Hmm." Kagura thought to herself. Kaorin and Chihiro began talking to one another again while Kagura thought to herself some more. "Everything happens for a reason..." She kept thinking to herself, over and over, as she kept trying to gain momentum. Suddenly, Kagura was struck by an epiphany. "HANG ON!" She yelped, jumping out of the swing and running in front of the girls. "I'VE GOT IT!"
"Got what?" Asked Chihiro. The two girls had confused looks on their faces.
"I know why the guy didn't show up yesterday!"
"Really?" Kaorin asked with eager ears. "How come?"
"He didn't show up yesterday so that I could have something to vent to Sakaki about! Whatever stopped him from meeting up with me must have happened in order for me to talk to Sakaki and help her out more! That's how I can get her to open up to me! It all makes sense now!" She excited explained to her friends.
"That's great!" Kaorin said, smiling."
"Um...what's wrong with Sakaki?" Chihiro asked. She was out of the loop, so Kaorin explained that Sakaki wasn't doing too well mentally. Kagura didn't chime in, however, as she was too busy figuring out what she would say to Sakaki tomorrow, planning out every word and thinking about how the whole conversation could go. A few minutes later, Kaorin's mother called the girls to the car and they drove away from the church, back to Kaorin's house.