New Believers Of God

CHAPTER SEVEN

That Thursday, Hunter sent a text to me and the guys telling us to meet him at the local diner before Hangin' In.

Since the previous week, I had kept my promise and bought a cross necklace. To be specific, it was a rounded gold cross with a stainless-steel Jesus attached to it.

I put it on before leaving my house, then was driven to the diner by my Dad. When I got there, I walked inside and sat down at a table Hunter reserved for us.

Each of the guys were wearing necklaces of their own. Shane's was a black titanium cross with four white diamonds in the middle, Ethan's was a traditional silver block cross, Victor's was a horseshoe cross wrapped in copper wire, and Daryl's was a bronze tree bark cross.

The five of us and Hunter stayed mostly quiet at first as we decided what to eat. In the end, I settled on a bacon cheeseburger with fries, plus a Pepsi and slice of Oreo cream pie.

Once everybody put their orders in with the waitress, we let the conversation begin.

"So," Hunter said, "How's school going?"

"Pretty good." Victor replied, the typical answer you would expect to be said, even if it wasn't true.

"How would you know?" Ethan asked him "You're asleep most of the day."

"Will you shut up." he answered.

"He's right." Daryl chimed in "You are."

That was a surprise to hear.

"Today in Mrs. Heron's class, he was lying face down on his desk. So she came over and hit him with a stack of papers. Then he jumped up like he was having a nightmare."

I think we were all more shocked than amused. Not only did Daryl say a full sentence, but he roasted Victor harder than we ever imagined.

"You've got a big mouth for a guy who never speaks." Victor told him.

"I only speak when I need to." he replied.

"Poor Victor." said Shane "The demon teacher ruined his dream."

"What was it about?" I added "Going to bed?"

"Can you stop?" Victor asked us "Jesus Chri-"

"Hey!" Hunter hollered "Don't say that!"

We instantly froze as he made that demand.

"Never take God's name in vain!"

"I wasn't talking about God. I was talking about Jesus."

"Same difference, and either way it's not necessary."

I could tell Hunter wasn't kidding when he told himthat. Just as Ms. Crane had said, to use a biblical word or name as an insult isa sin. Then again however, Victor made a good point, why was it consideredtaking God's name in vain? Come to think of it, why is Jesus so often called theLord, our God anyway. Aren't they supposed to be two different people?

About twenty minutes later, our food arrived, and I immediately went to take a bite of my burger when Hunter suddenly stopped me.

"Before we eat," he said, "We pray."

In my house, the only time we ever prayed over meals was at holiday dinners, and what I had in front of me was clearly not one of those. Needless to say, none of us wanted to do this, but knew better than to argue and eventually figured the sooner we got it done, the sooner we could chow down.

Together, we hurriedly bowed our heads and said the prayer of grace.

"Bless us oh Lord, and these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord, Amen."

"What was the point of that?" I wondered.

I hadn't the slightest clue, just like with everything else.