Show Us The Way - Chapter 3

I apologize for the length. It's a little longer than I expected. Thanks again for all your comments!

“Put on them, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” -Colossians 3:12

Annette

The table in the corner of the cafeteria seemed to be reserved just for her. No one was sitting at it and each time that she even got close to a table, she received glares. She wanted to scream, yell at them that she wouldn’t want to sit with them even if they hadn’t been so mean to her. She wanted to let out all of her anger on them. But she had to be the bigger person. She had to be nice; she had to forgive.

For when she looked at them, she saw Jesus. He was in every single one of them. And nothing could ever change that.

She made her way through the maze of tables. The whole way, a smile was on her face and she held her head high. Everyone she passed glared, but their looks weren’t as intense. That made her smile even brighter. Maybe she was getting somewhere. Just maybe.

The table in the corner was looking more and more inviting. She just wanted to get away from it all. She might’ve been walking tall and acting brace, but that’s all it was, an act. Annette was dying inside. It had only been four hours and she was ready to go home.

She finally reached the table and plopped down in a chair. There were six of the around the table, making her feel even more empty inside. No one wanted to sit with her and she was sure no one ever would. Not even Peter. She hadn’t seen him all morning even though he told her that he would meet her after homeroom. It wouldn’t surprise her if he never came to see her again, especially after the incident that morning. Why would he want to associate with a girl who was drenched in raw egg and milk?

Looking around, Annette noticed Jordan and his friends sitting at the only long table in the cafeteria. The table was along the wall of windows. Annette had to squint in order to see anything. The sun was burning through the windows, shining down on everyone sitting beneath it.

Jordan was whispering to his friends and occasionally pointing in his direction. They’d all turn, snicker, and return to Jordan for more juicy details. Annette glowered and looked away. How dare he go around talking about her! He was the one who had organized and led the terror that morning, she knew it.

Lowering her gaze, she seemed to remember that it was lunchtime. Her lunchbox lay open, a sandwich, applesauce, and brownie stared back at her. But she wasn’t hungry. Her stomach growled as if trying to convince her otherwise, but she just couldn’t get herself to eat. Each time she even thought about putting something in her mouth, her stomach churned. So she pushed the bag away and did the thing she was good at: praying.

She prayed about school, she prayed about her parents; she even prayed about Peter. He was the only person who had been nice to her that day. She could only hope that he would come back to her.

And lastly, she prayed for Jordan. No matter what he may do to her, she’d still pray for him. Because if anyone needed Jesus, it was him. If he just found the love of Christ, she was sure he’d be nicer. So she spent extra time praying for him, asking for his eyes to be opened so he could see Jesus.

“Praying during lunch isn’t such a good idea.” Annette recognized Peter’s voice immediately. She said a quick amen and raised her head. Peter was standing in front of her, tray in hand with a slice of pizza, an apple, and a can of soda. Looking around him, she saw half of the cafeteria staring at her. Jordan was giving her a murderous glare, making her shrink back a little.

Love thine enemies. Love thine enemies… She repeated to herself again and again.

“Anyone sitting here?” Peter asked as he set his tray down. Annette didn’t even have time to shake her head before he sat down across from her. She crossed her arms and looked at him accusingly.

“Why didn’t you meet me after homeroom?”

“Hm,” Peter said, mouth full of pizza. He continued, mumbling something that Annette could not understand.

“Oh swallow your food before you talk will you?”

“Sorry,” he said, putting down his pizza. “I said that I couldn’t possibly meet you. I was planning to, but I got sent to the principal’s office.” Annette suddenly felt bad. Here she was, assuming that he had completely forgotten about her. She had gotten mad at him for no reason. Of course there was something else he had to do. Why hadn’t she thought of that? She had immediately thought the worst.

“Hold on,” she said. “You went to the office?”

“Well, I was sent there.”

Annette waited for him to explain, but he didn’t. So she prompted, “For what?” He looked around cautiously, as if anyone could overhear them. They were in the corner of the cafeteria, the farthest point from everyone. Annette doubted that anyone would hear.

“For saying ‘under God’ in the pledge.”

Annette’s heart pounded. It all made sense now; why Peter had stopped to help her in the first place, how he was able to finish the bible verse she said that morning, why he was even hanging out with her.

Peter was a jeek like her. Which meant he probably knew what a jeek was.

“Can you explain to me what’s going on here?”
“Well,” he said, sighing. “We’re sitting in the cafeteria. I’m eating a slice of pizza and telling you about how much of a delinquent I am and you seem to not be hungry—”

“No, I mean with this school.” Annette said, hitting him playfully on the arm. “I know what’s going on. I want to know what’s going on.” The smile disappeared from his face. He studied her for what felt like hours. It made her uncomfortable and she could feel heat rising to her face. What was it about this boy that made her feel this way?

Peter finally diverted his gaze. He looked down at his hands which were shaking and moving at a quick pace. Annette figured he was nervous.

“You know about the latest laws, right?” Annette shook her head and Peter sighed. “What, did your parents raise you in a bubble or something? It’s all over the news!”

“I’m not allowed to watch the news,” she admitted. “And my parents don’t watch it either.” This only made Peter stare even more.

“Well, the government sees no need for Christianity to be the dominant religion anymore. They believe that everyone should be treated equal. That’s fine and all, but in the meantime, they’ve written off Christianity. Literally, everyone has been brainwashed into thinking that all Christians are evil.”

Annette opened her mouth to say something, but Peter held a hand to stop her. “Don’t—interrupt. Sorry, but it’s hard enough for me to talk about this.” Annette could hear his voice shaking and immediately felt bad. She had no idea where this story was going, but it was obviously a sensitive subject. And if she wanted Peter to give her answers, she’d need to give him time to talk.

“So, basically everyone in this cafeteria thinks you’re—we’re—evil. They see God as a head figure that we’ve made up in order to explain things that happen. No one believes he exists anymore. It’s really sad, actually.

“It’s been a long time coming. It all started with evolution and then people complained about God being anywhere in any school. So they took ‘in God’ out of the Pledge of Allegiance. Then ‘in God we trust’ was taken off dollar bills. Didn’t you notice that?”

“Well, I really haven’t been paying much attention.”

“You should start.” Peter took a sip of his soda before leaning in close to her. “Our very lives are crumbling around us. Soon there will be no Christianity. We’ll just end up being a group of people with a common belief. We’ll be reduced to nothing.”

His words sent a chill through Annette’s body. The glares and teasing all seemed well deserved now. Not to her of course, she thought they were unfair. But to her tormenters, they were well deserved. Of course bullying her made sense to them; they saw her as evil. They had good reason.

Seeing everything from the viewpoint of her enemies didn’t make her feel any better. In fact, it made her feel worse. She couldn’t see how they could be so naïve as to think her God, who’s an awesome God, was some made up being. That He wasn’t the patient, loving , and caring God that he was. Why had they stopped believing?

Now she truly wasn’t hungry. Before, she was just a bit shaken and didn’t feel like eating, but now she couldn’t even look at her food. It made her nauseous. She couldn’t see how Peter was able to eat with all of this going on around them.

Suddenly, Peter reached across the table and yanked at the chain on her neck. The golden cross with rubies in the center came into view and landed overtop her shirt. She hurried to hide it again, but Peter grabbed her wrist.

“Don’t,” he said softly. “Always be proud of who you are. Besides, it looks beautiful on you. Where’d you get it? I haven’t seen one like that before.”

“They call me a jeek, Peter,” she hissed. “And then they push me over, kick my books across the floor, and dump buckets full of—stuff all over me. Why would I risk letting anyone else know who—what—I am?”

“Because God sent us all to preach His gospel. You can’t do that if you’re in hiding. Do you remember the story of Jonah and the great wale? Of course you do. He tried to hide from the Lord because he was scared to preach to the Ninevites.”

“You hide.” Annette counters. Peter’s face turns a light shade of red.

“What do you mean?”

“They don’t seem to care much about you,” she said, motioning to the other kids in the cafeteria. “Why do they bully me and not you?”

“Because I’ve learned to stick up for myself.” He was definitely avoiding her gaze now. Annette suddenly felt guilty. For a second time that day, she’d wrongly accused Peter of something. Maybe she should just keep quiet and listen. “And I can teach you how too if you want.” She stared at him for a moment before asking the one question that had been bothering her since the school day began.

“What’s a jeek?” This got Peter’s attention. He looked up at her, studying her as if he was trying to see if she was serious or not. But she was; she was dead serious. And it bothered her when he threw his head back and laughed. “What? What’s so funny? It’s a real question. I want to know!”

“I—I’m sorry,” he managed between laughs. “It’s just—well, that term isn’t even a bad term. I mean, they’ve made it one but—”

“There you go with the ‘they’ again!” Annette was getting frustrated. She still wasn’t understanding much about what was going on. She was going to have a conversation with her parents when she got home. There was so much that they weren’t telling her. “Who’s the they you’re talking about?”

Peter waved his hand dismissively. “The government, our bullies, anyone in charge really. But going back to name they call us, well, it’s actually a compliment. It literally means Jesus freak. It basically means that we’re really intense Christians. Course when I say intense, that just means that we give praise to God when it’s needed. Like I said, it’s really a compliment, but they’ve made it an insult.”

A bell filled the cafeteria, the same loud, long bell that marked the end of another period. Chairs scraped across the floor as everyone rushed to leave the cafeteria. Why they wanted to hurry off to their next class, Annette couldn’t understand. She was content to sit at the table with Peter until the late bell rang. Then she’d have two minutes to get to class; plenty of time.

Peter seemed to have the same idea; he didn’t budge. They both sat in silence, Peter finishing off the last of his apple and Annette tugging at a string hanging from her lunchbox. She had English next. She hated English. And with her luck, Jordan would be in that class. He’d probably end up sitting next to her too.

“Excuse me.” Annette looked up to see Bethany, the girl from the announcements, standing behind Peter. She looked a bit nervous, but continued. “You two are the jeeks, aren’t you?”

“What if we are?” Annette retorted. “Did Jordan send you?”

“No. I came on my own.”

“So what’s up?” Peter asked, shooting Annette a ‘calm down’ look. She shrugged. Surely he couldn’t blame her for being cautious. After getting all that liquid dumped on her that morning, she didn’t want to talk to anyone except Peter. There was no one else that she trusted. It was for her safety, really. She was just being cautious.

“I—um—I don’t think you guys are bad.” Bethany said. Peter looked at Annette surprisingly. She shook her head in disbelief. This was the first time that she’d heard someone say something nice to her since she’d got there. And judging by the look on Peter’s face, the same applied to him.

“How nice,” Annette said cautiously. “Is that all you came over to say?”

“No, there’s more.” Bethany took a deep breath before continuing. “Does God really help heal people?”

“Yes, He does,” Peter responded, suddenly excited. “Do you need healing?” Bethany shook her head.

“My grandfather. He—they just diagnosed him with pancreatic cancer. He only has a month to live. Please, if there is anything your god can do. I hoped that he might be healed if you asked your god.”

Her voice was so full of fear and desperation that Annette couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She was willing to come to them, the outcasts, the freaks, the jeeks, for answers. It was a desperate move on her part too. If anyone caught her talking to them, she’d be marked forever as a jeek. And she’d never be able to go back.

So based on the courage that Bethany was showing, Annette decided that she would pray for both her and her grandfather. That wasn’t the only reason that Annette decided to pray for her of course. She also knew that it was the right thing to do. Miss Emily, her Sunday School teacher, had taught her to pray for those who were in need; anyone who was suffering at any degree.

“We will pray for you. God loves you and your grandfather. He will do what He can.” Annette couldn’t help but feel uplifted by the relief on Bethany’s face. "Thank you guys so, so much!" She actually hugged then both and then bounded out of the cafeteria. But before she reached the doors leading out to the hallway, she turned back to face them. "Don't mind Jordan. He's just bitter. He really is a nice guy." The warning bell rang and she hurried out of the cafeteria.

“I doubt that.” Annette scoffed.

“What?”

“That Jordan’s a nice guy.”

“I don’t know,” Peter said. “You didn’t know him before this year. He’s changed. We were even friends all throughout middle school.” He stood and threw away his trash. Annette followed, almost forgetting her lunchbox.

“What do you mean he’s changed?” She asked, doubling back for the lunchbox. “How was he in middle school? And how come he changed?”

Peter sighed and placed his tray on the spinning tray holder along with the other messy trays from lunch. But his was the only spotless tray. Everyone else had just left their trash from lunch, not bothering to save the custodians time.

“That’s a rather long and complex story,” he responded. “But if you want to hear, we can go out for ice cream after school. Or right now. How do you feel about skipping the rest of the day?” Annette shrugged.

“I already missed three classes this morning. What’s three more?”

Peter looked at her skeptically. “Why’d you miss so much class?”

“I got kinda messy.” She told him about Jordan and his friends pouring that concoction on her and how it had taken her forever just to get her clothes clean. Not to mention the smell that she had to try and cover. To her surprise, he seemed to know exactly what she was talking about.

“Jeek Juice,” he said sadly. “That’s what they call it. It’s like an initiation. Or more like hazing, really. It happens to all of us. Happened to me. Shall we?” He motioned to the hallway and Annette followed him out.