Maddox Academy: Grievous Beginnings - Wattys 2022 Shortlister

Chapter Twenty-Three - Sin and Love Don't Go Together

My birthday ended with a large cake in the common room with the fifth years.

Even with my reservations, it had been one of the best birthdays I could remember, and I didn't want to go to bed that evening. I ended up being one of the last to return to the dormitory and didn't even read before I went to bed. The moment my head hit the pillow I was asleep, and I didn't wake up early enough for my run.

Sunday mornings meant church and that involved sitting in one place for several hours with nothing to do except stare at the stained-glass window and daydream. I had always struggled to pay attention during church even after going for a run, without it I fidgeted more than a toddler. That Sunday, I sat with Katie and Jo in the row of back pews in the school chapel and spent the entire time playing with either the bracelet on my wrist or a loose thread on the bottom of my dress.

The priest was no doubt going on about sin and love, two things that I thought should never be discussed at the same time, but I paid him no mind. He just became background noise to the thoughts that flooded my head as I sat in the pew and twisted the bracelet around my arm. The events of the previous day left me with more questions than answers and I didn't think I would find the answers to them sitting in a church where even thinking those things would be classified as a sin.

I had never been all that keen on religion, partially because of my love for science but also because it just seemed outlandish and a little odd in places. Despite that, I still followed the rules and expectations. The Ten Commandments had been drilled into me, as had everything to do with love, forgiveness and sins. I knew what was said and done to people like me, people who had feelings for someone of the same gender.

My feelings in the eyes of the priest or to everything who followed religion were wrong, a sinful action or thought process that damned a person to Hell. Yet there I sat, in a supposed sacred place and thinking just that, but I hadn't been struck by lightning or eaten by the floor. How could there be anything wrong with love, regardless of who it came from and where it went?

"Next Sunday, you're going on a run. Even if I have to wake you myself, you're running. My baby cousin doesn't fidget as much as you did in there," Katie said as we followed the crowd out the door and onto the grounds.

"I'm blaming you; we didn't go to bed until late last night," I said, walking into her.

"Not an excuse."

"Hm, I think it is. Had it not been for you and that birthday cake then I would have been in bed at my usual time and I would have sat still. I might not have concentrated, but I wouldn't have been so fidgety."

"Alright, fine. Maybe the added sugar wasn't such a good idea, especially so close to bed."

"I said that but you didn't listen to me," Jo said. "We have an hour before lunch, what are going to do?"

"I need to go for a run. If I don't, I'll explode."

"Meet you in the dining hall? I need to go to the library," Katie said.

"See you later."

Her and Jo headed towards the library whilst I made a quick stop in the dormitory to change from my church dress into my running clothes. I tied my hair back, slipped on my running shoes and walked by Victoria on my way back into the hall. She hadn't spoken to me since Parents Day and even refused to make a snide comment on what she did to my hand. In fact, all she seemed to do was stare holes in my back. When I walked past, she turned to me and smiled.

It sent a shiver down my spine and I knew she was up to something. Nothing good ever came from Victoria smiling, I thought it may as well be one of the Plagues the priest went on about.