Lady Of The Church

The Pageant

Jill's official pageantry experience for this year began when her dad dropped her off at the back of the church around one in the afternoon and wished her luck, saying that he'd be back to watch the pageant later.

"Alright. Bye, Daddy," she said.

Jill entered the courtyard beside the church where all the other Lady Of The Church hopefuls were waiting. It was kind of cold, which was actually good considering Jill didn't necessarily want to sweat her face off before the pageant.

Reverend Goody smiled upon seeing her in the distance and gave her a thumbs-up. Jill shyly waved back at him. He was one of the judges. The other three judges included: her chorus and drama teacher, Ms.Olga Romanov; the owner of the Bagel Bamboozle Diner, Mr.Corbin Bean; and Graymoor's very own mayor, Mr.Edward Roberts.

"Guess who's gonna be your personal assistant today?"

"Sherman!" Jill hugged him when she saw him behind her.

"No, seriously, I'm supposed to be looking like I'm helping out," he said. "So if I can help you with anything, let me know. As in, tell me to do something so I don't have to take orders from all the other girls from our school here."

"Uh...can you go find out what skit I'm in and tell me what part I have? Oh, and give me a script!"

"Okay. Be right back," Sherman said.

Jill literally had zero friends in this pageant and was already shuddering at the thought of having to be part of some humiliating dance scene with the other girls. Also, there were some real hard-core try-hards here today. Those girls who always go to church, girls whose parents loan thousands of dollars to Graymoor's churches and schools, girls that have their resumes all typed up and were reading them off like they were lines in a play. People with that upper hand that Jill always seemed to lack. The upper hand she doesn't even think of until it was time to act.

As a matter of fact, this whole town was rigged. Everyone was related, everyone knew each other since childhood, everyone had each other's backs. Jill cursed her own family. Why did the Holland's always have to be so good and not get involved with anybody? Maybe if her dad didn't work as a radiologist and actually threw wild parties every so often and donated to Graymoor then Jill would stand a shot at winning this rigged pageant.

"You look angry," Sherman said upon returning with her script and a bottle of water.

"Just thinking about how much I hate this town and how much everyone hates me," she said.

"I don't think anyone hates you. Why would they? If they hated you, you'd probably get ostracized," Sherman said.

Jill started laughing. "Thank you, Sherman. I needed that."

"No, I'm serious. I just learned you could get ostracized in this town from the mayor. It's an actual law," Sherman said. "Also, in Graymoor, it's illegal to wear your bra outside of your outermost layer of clothing. Crazy."

"You don't have to worry about that," Jill said.

"I know. I live in Dunville."

"Dunville. Where one can wear their bra over their clothes," Jill stated.

She looked down at the script that Sherman had given her. It was for a short skit about adultery and why there should be a law against it in Graymoor.

"I realized the central theme in all of these skits revolve around religious laws that my dad wants to be enforced," Sherman said. He suddenly looked uncomfortable. "And your part's in the one about adultery."