Not Just Your Typical Mormon Story

Chapter 3 (Lea POV)

School was long and boring. The hallways were not crowded, and the kids were not ethnically diverse. The total of 70 students that went to my High School consisted of maybe 5% Caucasian, 1% Hispanic, and 94% African-American. In my High School, rap was the only music that existed, church was where everyone gathered and sang halleluiah clapping their hands and yelling "Praise Jesus!", and basketball and football was just a way of life.

I tried my best to focus on school but a certain dark haired boy kept popping in my head. His perfect smile with those perfect teeth had me practically drooling in every class. I even mumbled his name once out loud in art class, but luckily for me no one heard, at least I hoped. I definitely wasn't a fan of school like some people who have a lot of friends or the even crazier ones who just "love to learn!" I mean, I had a few friends, who to be honest probably wouldn't care if I was here or there or even existed, my family were the ones I knew I could truly count on but that was life, or at least my life anyway. When I first moved to Cathedral High I was called ugly (although never to my face) and no one really went out of their way to befriend me. True, I wasn't hated and made fun of anymore. I got a long with people alright and people were beginning to hang out with me and talk to me a lot more but I still never really got over those first few years. They made me feel ugly, unaccepted, different, and most of all they made me dislike myself. It was a hard thing to get over, but every day brought another chance to move on and forget about the past, and I did my best to.

Church was a different story, however. When I went to church, for some reason, people loved hanging out with me. My shy exterior somehow disappeared and I was this outgoing fun girl who just loved life. I had no trouble talking to people, even people I didn't know, and was always welcomed wherever I went with smiles and laughter. There were always moments when I felt my shy self coming back while I was at church, but for the most part it stayed at bay, completely opposite from when I was at school. I guess it was just easier for me to feel accepted by people who believed the same things I did, maybe that was pathetic of me, who knows.

"Hey, Lea," I heard Jared mumbling to my left. Looking around, I realized the class was all heading out the door. I must have fallen asleep. Crap! I hope I wasn't drooling. But sure enough, as soon as I picked my head up a long clear stretch of spit extended from my mouth to the top of my hand so I quickly brushed it away hoping no one saw.

"Yeah, you were drooling." Jared just laughed. "Don't worry; we only took a few pics." He chuckled. If I could call anyone my friends at Cathedral High School, it was Jared, Aden, and my brother Seth. Those were the ones that I usually always hung out with.

"Just great." I mumbled to myself, gathering my books to head out the door. This was the last class of the day, and all I had left was basketball practice then I could go home for an hour and head back up to the church for Wednesday night mutual.

I always got changed into my basketball uniform in the bathroom, too shy to expose my body to the other girls, but I wasn't the only one so it didn't stand out to anyone. After getting dressed, we went out there and ran our drills. I was never the fastest (going to a school with basically only black girls I really didn't have a chance) but there was no one in that school that could run longer than I could. That's why I loved cross-country, because I was good at it. It gave me a sense of worth, and meaning. I wasn't very good at basketball either, but I loved to play and I was a good shooter. I was never good in the games, most likely because I was so nervous I would do terrible. But when my coaches would just let us shoot for free time I never missed a shot. Needless to say, though, my basketball team sucked. I can't even remember ever winning a game.

After practice, I headed home, finished my homework and spent the rest of the night dreaming of the hottest guy in existence realizing I was becoming borderline obsessed in no time at all.
Saturday rolled around and my family was all busy getting ready for the Service Project that was scheduled for today in Kassel. We were all headed over to clean up around the neighborhood since there was a huge storm that tore through and knocked over a bunch of trees and trash, and a few of us were going over to help a friend of Daniel's paint his house because his mom was really sick and there was some work that needed to be done there.