New Believers Of God

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

At CCD the following week, another thing happened that contributed to this change.

"Okay." said Ms. Crane "Let me ask a question. Did any of you come up with a New Year's resolution?"

To be honest, I hadn't, and neither did most of the other kids. Only a select few actually raised their hands.

"Well," she continued "I've got a project for you that can maybe help with that."

"Great." I thought "A project. As if I didn't already have enough of those in school."

"I want you to focus on something that in some way relates to what we've discussed. It doesn't matter what as long as there's a connection, but just make sure not to go too off topic. I'll be pairing you up in groups of two."

From there, she started announcing who was with who until eventually getting to me.

"Cole," she told me "You'll be with Holly."

I knew all too well of Holly McKenna. She was an altar girl at church and member of the Stingrays at school, although I had never talked to her until then.

Upon hearing that announcement, she came over to my desk.

"Hi Cole." she said.

"Hi." I said back.

Admittedly, I did think she was quite pretty, which for a sixth grader was somewhat new for me. This was the age when a boy liking a girl was just starting to be accepted, but I did. With her light brown hair and sweet little voice, it was kind of hard not to.

"You'll have until the beginning of next month to get these done." Ms. Crane concluded.

"So," I said to Holly "Did you have anything in mind for this?"

"Actually," she said back "I was thinking, would you maybe want to serve with me? I feel like that might be easy since I already do it."

I should have figured she was going to suggest that. Not that I thought there was anything wrong with it. I just wasn't sure if I was up for it.

"I don't know." I told her "I've never done that before. I wouldn't know what to do."

"It's okay." she replied, "I can teach you. It's not that hard."

Even then, I was still a bit skeptical.

"Don't you ever get nervous? Being at the front like that and everybody watching you?"

"I used to. But I got over it after a while. Besides, I saw what you did on Christmas Eve. This is no different than that."

To me though, it was. At Christmas Eve mass, there was really no right or wrong way to answer that question. I simply gave the best one. With this however, I was being relied upon to help carry out an actual church service. If I screwed up here, it would be a much bigger deal.

"I'm just afraid I might do something wrong."

"Don't worry. I'll be with you the whole time. I promise nothing will happen."

She certainly seemed dedicated to this. I guess in her eyes, performing such a task had a lot of value. Not to mention, I'm sure the church community gave her a fair share of attention for it.

"What do you enjoy about it?" I asked her.

"I've learned so much from it." she answered "It's taught me to be so much more responsible. It's like a part of church that only we get to see and nobody else does. It's amazing."

How could I possibly say no to that?

"Alright then." I said, "Let's do it."

"Great!" she said back, cheerfully "We'll start this Sunday!"

At that moment, as she got up to go tell Ms. Crane, I took notice of the white diamond cross necklace she had around her neck.

She was for sure a believer too.