Arranged

Prophet Fred

Both Justin and I were sitting together in the backseat of a Black Buick being driven by Brother Michael who is basically a lackey for the prophet. We were being driven out of community town to be taken to the prophet himself to get approval. Of course, he lived an hour away from the community itself.

We couldn't bring any phones with us or anything really. Just the clothes on our back. Both of our mothers dressed us. We are both capable of dressing ourselves, but our mothers wanted us to look the part of devoted community members.

Justin had his left hand resting on the door handle and the other bouncing on his knee. He kept biting his lip looking out into the secular town with normal people.

Going to a secular school I learned things about different people and cultures and other religions. No one except for Blake and Jennifer knew about community, so they asked different questions. Why this or why that? My usual answer is somewhere along the lines of 'that's just how it is' or 'that's what Jesus Christ would have wanted.'

But the question I got most days was, why the skirts?

Its 50F outside why are you wearing a skirt? Its PE why are you wearing a skirt? You wear skirts every day, why? Don't you have pants?

We wear skirts to differentiate between boys and girls. Girls wear dresses and skirts while boys wear pants.

Bottomline its sexists and annoying. I only get to wear pants to bed and even then, I take them off because I feel like I'm getting tangled in the sheets.

I can't wear thin straps either, thick straps or capped sleeves only and long sleeves as well.

Boys wear Dickies and polos, or t-shirts tucked into their pants. So, when Justin was in n my father's office him wearing a hoodie was very shocking to me and it was pink. Pink is for girls and blue is for boys.

The Community may not be racist, well we still have our assholes, but they sure are homophobic and sexist.

Anyway, back to my secular school, I learned a lot about different people. And which made me realize that there is so much more to life then community.

Most kids' homes weren't mom, dad, and twelve brothers and sisters. A lot of them had one mom or one dad, two moms, two dads, raised by grandparents or aunts or uncles, adopted and fostered.

Hell, I had no clue that women had so many rights, and were able to basically do whatever the fuck they wanted. I have never had a problem asking another girl for a tampon or pad. Back at home you don't speak about it unless you tell your mom.

I wasn't given the talk about periods or how long they last or how bad cramps can be. You know that class you take in school, it's different grades in different states or counties. I had to miss because I'm not allowed to know that stuff until after marriage.

Jennifer's mom gave me the full talk on sex and periods and how getting pregnant works. I mean I know its sex obviously but like there's a certain time frame and that's how it goes or something like that.

When graduation came around all the kids were eager to say what colleges they were going to next or what they were doing over the summer until then. It made me jealous and sad that I can't enjoy those things.

I would love to go to college, the last five years have been nothing but a waste of my education. I went to school and then stayed home doing nothing but cook, clean, and babysit. Ask me how many jobs interviews I've been on in my life? Zero

And how many diapers have I changed, clearly over a thousand, and that's not over exaggerating. My little brother and sister plus the kids I babysit and never get paid for. So yeah, well into the thousands.