Lady Of The Church

The Spiderweb

"This is an empty hallway," Jill mentioned when walking to homeroom on the first day back from winter break, where she practically spent everyday with Sherman going random places.

"No one to see that I got with the amazing Jill Holland over vacay," Sherman said, squeezing her hand.

"Awwwww, stop it!"

"Why? I wanna show you off!"

There was something up, though. Only a few kids roamed the halls and it was an odd sight to see. Usually the halls were jam-packed, especially the five minutes before homeroom.

Sherman spent his five minutes having touchy-touchy, touchy-feely, touchy-flirty time with Jill at her locker. So Austin Townsend didn't like that he couldn't get to his locker next to Jill's because Sherman and Jill were too busy kissing and groping each other to realize he was there.

Austin sighed loud to no response. "I have to get into my locker," he finally came out and said.

"Sorry, Austin. Well, Jill see you in a few," Sherman said.

"I can't wait that long..."

Their long good-bye was really disturbingly unnerving and unnervingly disturbing to Austin as he collected his things from his highly unorganized locker. He was half in shock that Sherman and Jill were dating, but then he kind of knew it would happen.

"Austin, where is, like, all of our class?" Jill asked him. "Did the flu really hit everyone?"

"No, but the police did."

"What?" Jill got really concerned all of a sudden.

"The Barrens' New Year's party last night. They got busted and since most of our class was there, they got in trouble, a few were arrested. Some are still at the police station, awaiting punishment," Austin said properly. "But most people are out just for the mere fact it's the day after New Year's and the flu has been pretty bad..."

"Oh my. This town has gone mad!" Jill said, not caring to hear Austin's other reasons as to why people were out.

"I think they're waiting for the reverend's word on what to do next since there was some adulterers there. I mean, it wasn't that bad. Just a few drunk kids trying to drive and got pulled over. Same with a couple of people that had marijuana, but the people that were having said intercourse are the ones that got arrested."

"Well, I didn't get invited to the party, so I wouldn't know," Jill said. "Who'd throw a party knowing we had school the next day after? And who throws a New Year's party on New Year's Day?"

"I didn't go, but I heard about it. I thought you would've heard about it because you know...the reverend's son and all..." Austin said.

"Actually, I barely talk to Mr.Goody," Jill said. "That sucks that the people caught doing it are the ones that get in the most trouble. I thought these laws would just get looked over as stupid."

"Then again we all saw Biq get ostracized. And I think the same would happen to the adulterers in our class. It was Connor, Preston, Lindsey, Kaitlyn, Alex, someone else..." Austin tried to remember. Then he saw Jill's group of friends pass right by her, not even speaking to her and giving her dirty looks. "Why'd your friends look at you like that?"

"Because they're gross and I'm not talking to them anymore," Jill said, slamming her locker shut and going to homeroom.

Jill had to admit that all the religious laws - especially the adultery one - were getting ridiculous and ended up talking to Sherman about it next period in theatre class, where everyone avoided them even more seeing that they were dating now. However, her conversation about small town politics didn't get through to him as it just made him think of something else that was on his mind.