Righteous Temptation: A Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Story

Chapter 1: The Dilemma

Faith Cooper was aptly named.

Raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she had never really questioned the gospel. She had a strong testimony, and had always been obedient. None of that was ever challenged... until she met him.

Ernest Isaac Hale had never really caught Faith's attention before. She had seen him in her Biotech class, and she had thought he was cute, but he seemed standoffish and maybe a little arrogant. That was, she thought that until she asked him for help on a lab, and he sat down and explained the whole thing to her, not leaving until she understood. The next time they had free time in the class (which happened very often since the teacher was always gone), Faith went and sat at Ernest's table. He looked up from his computer, which he was always on, as she pulled up a stool next to him.

"Hi." she said simply.

"Hi." he said back.

Through talking to him that day, Faith discovered that although his first name was Ernest, he preferred to be called Isaac. She also discovered that he was what some would call a "Jack Mormon," someone who was a member of the church but didn't necessarily keep the commandments. He insisted that the only commandment he didn't follow was language, which Faith thought was obvious from the fact that he cursed every few words.

"Does it make you uncomfortable?" he asked, "the cursing?"

"Yeah, kinda."

"Kinda?"

She blushed, "Yes, yes it does."

When Faith sat at his table again the next day, and noticed, to her surprise, that he didn't utter a single curse word. His friend who sat at the table, Pedro, also noticed the change, "dude, why aren't you cursing anymore?"

Isaac gestured towards Faith, "she doesn't like it."

Faith felt her heart warm a little bit. He stopped cursing... for her? This guy was getting cuter by the minute.

A few weeks later, Faith was starting to make plans to go to prom with her best friend, Kyra. Faith had already bought her dress, and she was laying it out on her bed to admire it when Kyra called her.

Faith picked up instantly, "hey, girl, what's up?"

Kyra squealed loud enough that Faith had to pull the phone away from her ear, and then screamed, "Jon asked me to prom!"

"That's awesome! You guys are going to have so much fun together," she chuckled, "guess that means I'm staying home with Say Yes To The Dress and a pint of cookies and cream."

"Heck no you're not!" Kyra said, "You need to find a date too!"

"There's only two weeks until prom, Kyra. No one's going to ask me."

"Then you ask them! Come on, you've asked guys on dates before, it'll be fun."

Faith sighed loudly, "fine but you have to help me come up with some options."

"I'll be over in five minutes."

"I'll have popcorn ready."

The two girls blew kisses and then hung up.

The popcorn had just finished popping when Faith heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" she called.

Kyra entered. She lived just a few streets away.

"Hey, girl! You got my popcorn?"

"Heck yes I do."

The two girls flopped onto the couch, trading the popcorn back and forth.

"So... ideas?" Faith said.

Kyra thought for a second, "well there's Harry, Trevor, that really hot guy with the perfect skin from your English class... I dunno. You know the guys in your classes better than I do."

"Well I could ask David, I guess. He's in my Spanish 3 class."

"He's two years younger than you and your friend's little brother. Thank you, next."

Faith giggled, "well, Kale's in that class but I think he's got a girlfriend."

"Yeah. That wouldn't really work."

"Uh, Joe from Newslab?"

Kyra shook her head, "he's already got a date too."

"He's cute though, I would date him."

"Ooh girl me too."

"Uuuuuuuuh well there's no guys in my second hour."

"Duh! It's a girl's jazz choir."

"yeah, yeah, whatever. On to the third hour," she groaned, "I wish I could ask Mr. Muir to prom. He's so good-looking and nice."

"I still think it's weird you have a crush on a teacher."

Faith rolled her eyes and laughed, "don't judge me, Ky. John Meek is in that class, and so is Christiano with the perfect skin... and Tanner... and James... but I think they all have dates already."

"Fourth hour?"

"Seminary. Colton is in there. So is Truman, but they're both too popular for me."

"Girl no they're not."

Faith laughed again, "Yes they are!"

Kyra smiled, "fine, what about 5th hour?"

Faith went silent for a second, the image of Isaac's face springing into her mind, "well... there is this one guy."

Kyra, noticing Faith's tone and expression, jumped off the couch, "spill! I want to hear everything about him!"

"Well his name's Isaac. He plays the oboe and he's always on his computer in class. He's pretty cute-"

"What does he look like?!" Kyra shouted, practically jumping on the couch.

"He's tall, blonde..." Faith giggled dreamily, twirling her hair around her finger, "he's got the prettiest blue-green eyes."

"He sounds hot."

"He is."

"So ask him!"

Faith shook her head, "I've only talked to him twice, Kyra. I don't even know him."

"Then ask some of the other guys first, and then if they already have dates then you can ask Isaac."

Faith thought about it for a moment and then nodded, "okay. It could be fun."

Faith had no idea how right she was.