Lady Of The Church

Finding Jill Holland

Claire sat alone in her room on a Saturday morning. She didn't want to hang out with any of her other friends. They all bored her to death. Both of her older brothers were starting to think there was something wrong with her, considering she didn't leave the house for anything other than school for the past three weeks.

Even her parents came up to her room every now and then to see what was wrong with her, but she never told them anything to begin with. Why start now?

It has been three weeks since Jill got banished from town. Three weeks Sherman Goody walked around lonely without his other half. Three weeks since Claire decided she actually truly hated Graymoor. Three weeks since the mayor started introducing the idea of chastity belts. Three weeks with people witch hunting to find adulterers within the higher social circle of town. Three weeks of Reverend Goody not giving his usual service and just tiredly preaching about God. Three weeks of insanity.

This morning Claire went downstairs to get herself some Lucky Charms for breakfast.

"Mom! There's no milk!" she shouted to wherever her mother was. Getting no reply, she angrily slammed the fridge shut.

Then there was a knocking at the door.

"Mom! Someone's at the door!" she called.

From the bathroom, Mrs.Muniz replied, "Can you get it, please? I'm washing my hair!"

"Fine."

Claire pushed open the curtain on her front door to see who it was. Standing beyond the glass, there was Austin Townsend.

"Austin?" she said, puzzled. Sure she had lived next door to the guy for about two years now, but never has he ever come over or has he even really spoken to her at all. Aside from the time she drove him to the pageant where he revealed how he felt about Jill.

Jill.

Claire opened up the door for him. "Austin, what's up?" she asked him.

He flipped his brown hair once before responding to her question. "Do you know where she is?"

"Jill?"

"Yeah," he said. "I thought you would know."

"She's staying with her aunt way out in the country, but not too far," Claire said. "Her dad told me this a few days ago."

Austin nodded. "Would you drive down to see her?"

"Austin, I haven't talked to her since before her getting ostracized. I haven't talked to her on a friendly basis since before winter break," Claire confessed.

"But if you do go see her, can you take me, too?" he asked.

Claire agreed, "I'm sure she would love that." On an impulse, she shouted up to her mother in the shower, "Mom! I'm going with my friend somewhere! I'll be back in awhile!"

"Okay, can you pick up milk on your way home?" her mother asked back.

Turning back to Austin, she asked, "Would your mom mind if you just left?"

"She'll be fine if she knows it's to go see Jill. That is where we're going, right?" he asked.

"Yup."

"Good."

Austin awkwardly followed behind Claire as she made it to the driveway between their houses and unlocked her car. He unsuredly got in the passenger seat and buckled up. "So is she still dating Sherman Goody? Or would you even know?" he asked Claire on the way there to break up the silence.