Hello Sunshine

Chapter Two: The Youth

After getting permission from Mike, Haru took Troy and was giving him a tour of the church grounds since they still had some time until dinner. She noticed that Troy seemed pretty interested in all the things she told him about the church, that is, if he wasn't interested, he didn't show any signs of boredom, though he was a bit quiet.

They went through the classrooms, offices, upstairs classes, nursery, where they met Anna watching two kids, bathrooms, Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall, the kitchen, and at last, the youth room.

Haru watched his face carefully as they entered. She wanted to see his reaction. Troy stood there a bit dumbfounded as he blinked at the sight before him. If you stood in the doorway as they were, you would have a nice view of the room. The size of the room was about 40ft both in width and length. The walls were a painted mural of a beautiful and colorful scenery of the beach at sunset. The floor was a nice shade of blue tile that matched the scene. Along the right side of the room was a Pool table and a Foosball table. On the left side was an old pinball machine and in the left corner was a basketball hoop and two old beat up and well used basketballs lying next to it, there was also a football and a volleyball with them. The band equipment lied in wait along the back wall behind the podium with five long purple pews in front of it. The sun came in through the windows, four tall ones on each side of the room, you could tell that during the day they didn't need to turn on the lights, but the two ceiling fans above their heads helped to move the AC around, cooling the area.

Haru giggled at his dumbfounded expression. But then worried that he thought it was boring. "Do you like it?" She shoved the worry out of her mind and asked with a curious smile.

He blinked, obviously he was in thought, and looked at her. "Uh, yeah, it's pretty sweet." 

He sounded honest, and she lit up at the answer. "That's great! I'm glad you like it." He gave a small smile before continuing to look around the room.

As he was, Haru looked to her left and noticed all the paints were still out and opened with some unwashed brushes. "Oh no! I forgot to put those away yesterday! Not good, not good." She started frantically going back and forth from the room to the small bathroom just outside the open doorway, washing the brushes and saving the paints from totally drying out.

Troy seemed to just watch her with an amused face for a while before sitting down in the back purple pew. She was so focused on her mission that Troy found this a good time to think.

He was truly dumbfounded. All he could think about was the fact that this church was different than any other church he had been to. There was a different feeling in the air. It was a really comfortable feeling. Like he had been there for years yet it was such a new experience. He felt welcomed.

That's a new feeling.

When was the last time he had felt welcomed? Most assuredly not at his own house. Never.

But here? He was looking forward to being here this summer. Maybe along the way he would find out what made him feel so at home.

Troy started looking at the mural around the room. It fascinated him, but maybe that was because he couldn't draw for what it was worth. He was a terrible, terrible, artist. He couldn't imagine how long it took for someone to finish such a piece.

Then Troy had remembered Haru's previous statement, and the fact that she was picking up the paints and rinsing off the brushes like a professional...

Two plus two equals four, Troy.

"Are you the one that painted this mural?" He asked her when she returned to the room, astonished. It wasn't just her positive personality, but she also had massive talent to match.