Dear Diary

Chapter 11

Sunday: also known as church day.  A day where you force yourself to get up on the weekend to go and listen to Scripture and sing songs of worship.

I like going to church, can't say I love it because it is difficult to wake up early on a day when you know so many people are still in bed. Especially in winter with our car and its heater's inability to work. 

However, once I'm there I enjoy the hymns and the sermon. The hymns make me feel light and happy while the sermons preached by Pastor Barry are always interesting. He can preach for forty minutes on two verses and keep it interesting. Another thing I like about him is that he is very relatable to his congregation. He wasn't always a good guy, in fact when he used to walk into a room people would say 'Here comes trouble.' He was abusive to his girlfriend, constantly cheated, was an alcoholic and yet when he believed everything changed. Because of this he preaches from the heart every time.

I was sixteen when I was baptised. Not because it was then that I believed, but because my parents told me to. I had always believed, but the fact that I would have to stand up and give a testimony before a whole congregation of about one hundred people made me extremely nervous. Eventually my parents made me. Luckily,  my cousin Tyler and Richard got baptised with me so it wasn't as bad. Afterwards, we all went to my aunt's house and celebrated.

"Hi," I greeted everyone and looked at the smiling faces of my friends and family as they all sat in a pew. My parents and I took our seats which normally consisted of me sitting between Tyler and Richard, with my parents sitting with Richard's parents. My sister and her husband sat on Tyler's other side.

My sister, Sara, is very similar to me in height, her only being an inch or two taller than me, but while I have blonde hair she got a mix of our two parents where her hair is a darker brown than my mom's, but lighter than my dad's black. People who don't know us often confuse us as twins. Probably because we have the same emerald eyes, but other than that, I don't see any other resemblance.

Her husband is 6' with short brown hair and hazel eyes. He loves his bikes and so he and Richard always strike up a conversation about them whenever they see each other. Richard stands at 6'1" so the two of them look like giants compared to the rest of my immediate family that range between 5'2" and 5'5". I'm the shortest person in my whole family, both sides.

We began the service by doing our usual worship session where they played one of my favourite hymns (10 000 Reasons) and a few others. Then Pastor Barry began his sermon. We were given pamphlets in which we could take notes, but I find that he gives so much information that you end up missing something by writing down things. So, I take my little voice recorder and then write everything out when I get home. It takes a long time, but I feel it's worth it.

Soon church was over and we all went to the parking lot to chat, the generations splitting to talk about different topics.

"I'm so nervous for tomorrow," I said and shifted from foot to foot.

"How come?" Richard asked confused.

"Well, I'm going to be getting my mark for that maths test on Friday and then find out who'll be tutoring me," I clarified.

"Why will someone be tutoring you?" Tyler asked.

"Uh, well, I ..." I scratched the back of my neck. Tyler knew I didn't like maths, but she didn't know why.

"Lizzy's just not sure how well she did and doesn't want to get tutored for the rest of the year just because she had a bad day," Richard said, quickly coming to my rescue. 

I breathed a sigh of relief. Only he and Anne knew how much I battled with the vile subject.

"Oh, I see," Tyler nodded and I gave Richard a grateful smile when no-one was looking. He gave me a wink in return.

"Well, who do you think you might get?" Tyler asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. "McKenzie's quite good and Josh. I just hope it's someone nice - if I do need one," I added quickly.

"What about Richard? Oh yes, he can't help you anyway because he's in a different class."

The stupid thing with this whole tutoring business was that they had to be a student from your class to tutor you.

"Yeah," I said and Richard looked at me. We turned when we heard our parents call us.

"Well, I'll see you guys around," I smiled, but was shocked when Richard suddenly brought me into a hug. 

I was someone who didn't hate people, but I wasn't too fond of people touching me either. But I wrapped my arms around him to return the hug, briefly appreciating the same deodorant he had been wearing on Monday as I did.

Nobody was looking, thankfully, when he lowered his mouth to my ear. 

"If you don't feel comfortable with the person you get, just tell me, okay? We can go and talk to the teacher together," he whispered.

I pulled back a little and felt my heart warm at his concern. "I'm sure whoever I get will be fine because they'll probably be a nerd who's more nervous than me," I tried to crack a joke and his arms tightened around me slightly.

"Still-" 

I didn't let him finish as I gave him a tight squeeze before letting go all together.

"See you tomorrow," I said and gave him a smile before quickly moving to my parents who were waiting in the car. 

Thankfully they didn't see that hug as they were too busy discussing lunch. I would never have heard the end of it if they did.