HOLY; lynn gunn + alexa san roman

prologue

Every Sunday morning, Lyndsey Gunnulfsen wore frills and pink and floral, chosen by her parents for when they went to church. When she sat on the mahogany benches, her feet didn't touch the ground and when they spoke, the words were always too complicated for Lyndsey to comprehend.

Church had always been Lyndsey's least favourite part of the week. Most of the other kids she knew spend their Sunday's out running wild, and she didn't understand why she couldn't do the same. She hated how on her eleventh birthday she was reciting bible verses rather than having a birthday party with all her friends. Well, she didn't really have any friends as most of the local kids thought church was for losers. Lyndsey even thought church was for losers. However, the time she said that to her parents resulted in the confiscation of anything fun and a smack on the wrist. So every Sunday, Lyndsey went to church in frills and pink and floral without argument, waiting for the day she no longer had to.

Alexa San Roman, on the other hand, didn't ever go to church without a fight. She refused to wear dresses of any kind, frilly or otherwise. She would lock herself in her bedroom until her father kicked down her door just to shove her in the car with her other siblings. Her parents blamed it all on puberty, awaiting the day she finally grew out of her teen angst and began to understand the scripture. The problem was, at age fourteen, Alexa understood what was being said far too well.

Alexa's mother loved to tell all the other parents at church that Alexa was undergoing "the change". Alexa was fully aware that all the mothers gossiped about their children, especially herself. The mother's within the church were so intrigued on how such a conventional family raised such an unconventional daughter. Alexa's mother argued that it was just a phase, even though she didn't quite believe that herself. But every week, regardless of the struggle that she had fought, Alexa ended up at church with the rest of her family, trying to be as invisible as someone like her possibly could.