Brittany sat moping on her bed. It was the middle of summer, as hot as a desert, and she didn't know what to do. She didn't feel like going to the beach to cool off. Alvin was busy with some music thing, and her sisters were out with their church friends. They had invited her along, but she declined, saying she had too much to do. In reality, she felt too uncomfortable being around church people. It's like she was unclean and they were good. At least her sisters still treated her the same. Brittany flipped onto her side and stared out the window. It was either stay at home and sulk or watch soap operas with Miss Miller. Brittany shook her head at the thought. Her best bet would be going to the mall. She always had fun there.
Brittany grabbed her purse and yelled to Miss Miller where she was going. The fifteen minute walk to the mall seemed even longer to her. She hardly ever walked by herself, especially to the mall. She thought what her sisters might be doing. Bible games, no doubt. At least she'd be doing something she'd like doing.
Once she got to the mall, Brittany walked into her first favorite store she saw. The sales associate was very helpful and brought her all the clothes in her size that she was interested in. Brittany spent an hour in the dressing rooms, modeling in front of the mirror and admiring how flattering they looked on her. She was pleased that she hadn't spent her paycheck from work yet because she couldn't decide which clothes she wanted, so she bought all of them. She thought buying the clothes would make her feel happy, but as she walked back home, she still felt miserable.
"What is wrong with me? I bought some cute outfits today, and they'll make my friends jealous." She stared at the empty sidewalk next to her. "It's not like Eleanor and Jeanette abandoned me."
Robotically, she pulled her clothes out of the bags and neatly hung them up on hangars. She had to wiggle some of the other blouses, but she was able to squeeze everything in. It was a nice collection of clothes. Any normal girl would have been thrilled to have a closet like hers. It didn't make her happy though.
Brittany looked around the room, with her neat pink bedspread and white polished furniture, and glanced at her nails. "Maybe I'll paint you. I think," she looked through a basket on her dresser, "I left the top coat in here. Oops!" Brittany stooped down to pick up the bottle that had rolled out of her hand. As she stood up, she saw Jeanette's Bible on the nightstand. "What is the big hype about this?" she asked as she picked it up and started thumbing through it on her bed.
"What does this mean about giving an offering to the Lord? Yuck, it mentioned blood. And this is about battles, boring! Hmm, this story about Esther sounds interesting. What weird names though."
Skipping through the boring or confusing parts, Brittany read the whole book of Esther and thought it was a nice story. She especially liked the beautifying part of it and that an ordinary, lovely girl got to be queen. Brittany flipped through some more and read a psalm and part of the New Testament. Despite it being dull in spots, the parts that were interesting weren't so bad.
"Hey, Jeanette?" she asked her sister when she got home. "Does church tell Bible stories?"
"Most of the sermons do. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I might want to go. Just to hear more and understand what some of them mean."
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