Chapter 15 - All About the Bling
Ugh. I rolled over in bed and tried to pull the quilt back over me but instead it just fell on the floor. Sighing, I sat up and rubbed my scratchy eyes before staring numbly at the clock. It’s 10:30 a.m. which means church is half over. I can’t believe I slept in so late! Actually, I can’t believe I slept in so late and I’m still so tired. Even though I left before everyone else last night, my little chat with Lucien kept me out until 3:30. When I finally got home, it was to find Jill exercising in the living room. “Now that I’m not on the squad anymore I’ve still got to keep up my physique!” she’d chirped brightly as I stumbled into my room and fell into bed with my clothes still on. I didn’t ask but I’m assuming it has something to do with that ridiculous self-improvement project she and Nathan are still doing. Crazy manic girl – I wonder how she does it all?

Out in the living room, I found Brooklyn sitting on the couch eating a bowl of cereal, still in her Sunday clothes. Well, that answers the question of where she goes after sacrament meeting is over. Wrapping a blanket around myself, I fell onto the couch next to her, willing my eyes to focus on the TV. It took me a minute but eventually I realized we are watching some Japanese cartoon with talking animals and a guy with gravity-defying hair.

“Dragon Ball Z,” Brooklyn explained, handing me the open box of cereal. I took a handful but didn’t eat it. My stomach’s still waking up. “He’s hot, eh?”

I blinked slowly, watching a couple of minutes before answering. “Well he’s surprisingly well built considering he’s a cartoon.”

“Not just a cartoon. It’s animé.” She interrupted herself, “Ooh! I love this part!” she set down her bowl and leaned forward, watching eagerly until it went to commercial. A commercial for the exact same sugary cereal we are now eating, in case you’re wondering if advertising dollars are well spent. Finally she turned to me, “So why aren’t you at church?”

“Why aren’t you at church?” I shot back defensively. I hadn’t meant to sleep through church but I was just so tired, you know?

Pointing with her spoon she grinned, “Dragon Ball Z comes on exactly at 10:30. Can’t miss it.”

I rubbed my eyes again. “You skip church to watch a cartoon?”

“Animé, skipper. Keep up, ok?”

I couldn’t take it in. My gorgeous, sophisticated roommate has suddenly morphed into someone who not only knows the difference between cartoons and animé but actually follows a show. “I’d love to see you explain this one to Jesus,” I grumbled a little unfairly but I can’t help it. I woke up in a rotten mood.

“Yeah,” she said good-naturedly, “and I’d love to see you explain to Jesus why you didn’t come home until 3:30 this morning reeking of booze and missed church today.”

“I wasn’t drinking!” I answered with a little more force than necessary. “I had to work.”

“Well I had to work too,” she giggled.

“You don’t have a job, Barbie,” I said rolling my eyes. “And no, having all the accessories for one doesn’t count.”

“Oh I work,” she smiled as the cartoon came back on. “Trust me, this,” she waved her hand at herself as if casting a magic spell, “takes work.”

My head hurts and she’s exhausting. I flopped over wordlessly and lay on the couch watching the show until it ended at eleven. Not that I’m going to tell her but she’s right – it actually is really interesting and the guy with the gravity-defying hair? Yeah, it’s official. He’s hot.

As soon as the credits finished, Brooklyn stood up and clicked the TV off. “Are you going back to church now that your show’s over?” I asked, still crabby but not wanting to be alone and crabby.

“Nope. Have a date,” she said taking her bowl to the kitchen.

“With who?” I sat up. “All the guys we know are still in church, remember?”

“Which is why,” she tossed a pillow at me on her way to our room, “you date guys from other wards.”

I followed her to our room, using all my energy to flop on my bed. “So why aren’t you going back to church then?”

She paused in changing out of her skirt and sweater and sighed. “I have my reasons.”

“Which are?”

“You really want to know?”

“More than I want to know who was behind the grassy knoll.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Let’s just say I’m dying to know.”

“Fine.” She pulled on a long-sleeved t-shirt and cords. “The church is true. I want you to know that. And I want you to know that I know that.”

“Okayyyy…” I waited as she fiddled with her hair. “And you don’t go because it’s true and you can’t handle the truth?”

“Funny,” she made a face at me. “It’s men.”

“What?” I mumbled rolling onto my side to look at her. “You love men.”

“No,” she said carefully, “I use men.” Wow! Now we’re being honest. I sat up. “See, the thing is, it’s about power. Namely, who’s got it and who doesn’t.”

“I’m listening,” I prompted.

She twisted her hands together, “It’s not like I’ve really ever said this out loud before but I’ll try to explain it.” She pursed her lips together for a moment before continuing. “Before I was this,” she waved her hand at herself again. I’m my own fairy godmother, anyone? “I was nobody. I had no power. All growing up, my mom and my sister and I were just slaves to my dad. I got so sick of it. All our lives just revolved around his whim. And it’s not like he’s a bad guy or anything, heck, he’s a counselor in the Stake Presidency now but maybe that was part of the problem. He was so busy and always had such demanding callings in the church that all of the rest of us took a backseat to his life. And as I grew up, I began to notice that that’s just how it is in our church. The men do everything and their wife and kids jump on board or they get left behind.”

I raised an eyebrow, “So you feel like you got left behind?”

“Not so much left behind as just forgotten pretty much. Oh sure, my dad did all the Family Home Evenings – which were him talking and us listening – and the personal interviews with each of us, and the Young Women Daddy Daughter Dates, but essentially what it came down to was that he was only doing it because if we screwed up then it reflected badly on him as the head of the household.”

“Wow,” I said simply, mentally comparing her dad to mine. I had never got that feeling from my dad but then he’s been scoutmaster for as long as I can remember. Except for Wednesday nights, pinewood derby days and a week for Scout Camp he is all ours. “That’s awful.”

“No,” Brooklyn said standing up suddenly. “He did me a favor. He taught me how the church works. I mean, the men have this huge power given to them by God – the priesthood, right? What do we women have? What did God give us?” I shrugged and waited for her to answer. I never really thought about it this way before. “We have this.” She smiled in the mirror and applied some more blush. “And this is power. Once I discovered that, I decided to make the most of it until it fades. Beauty doesn’t last forever, you know,” she said, a slightly acid tone to her voice.

I sat back against my pillow. This explains so much really. The clothes, the attitude, the endless stream of not-quite-good-enough boys except for one thing… “Why go to Church at all then, if you hate the patriarchy so much?”

She sighed and sat heavily on the edge of her bed. “Well, that’s the problem. Remember what I said first? The Church is true and heaven help me I know it.” Her eyes started to tear up as she continued softly, “I just don’t know why God made it this way. If He loves His daughters as much as His sons, why did He leave us so helpless?” A knock on the door stopped me from replying, which is probably a good thing since I have no clue what to tell her. Dabbing at her eyes furiously with a tissue she grabbed out of her purse she said quietly as she rushed out the door, “Don’t listen to me, skipper. I don’t have all the answers.”

She was long gone by the time Jac and Jill came home. Jac came in first and seeing me camped out on the couch still in my jammies made a face at me that I didn’t have time to decipher before Jill came in behind her. “And what are you doing home?” Jill yelled. “Today is Sunday in case you’ve forgotten!”

“I remember,” I said sullenly. At least I know that the calendar says it’s Sunday. To tell you the truth it doesn’t feel like Sunday. You know how it is when you miss church - the whole rest of the day feels off, mundane.

“Are you sick?” she continued loudly, stalking over to the couch and dropping her scriptures on the table. “Because you don’t look sick to me!”

“I feel fine,” I replied tartly. Does she have to be so loud?

“You’re not fine. First you drag in at all hours of the night and then…”

“Hey, you were up later than I was!” I interrupted.

“Yeah, but I still made it to church!” she retorted. Really she doesn’t need to rub it in. I feel guilty enough without her. Besides, it was an accident. It’s not going to happen again. I was just about to tell her so when Trinity burst from her room, Yvonne, still in last night’s clothing, right behind her.

“What’s with all the freakin’ noise?” She yelled, blinking blearily and holding a hand to her head. “I’ve got a killer headache and - ”

“It’s not a headache,” Jill interrupted. “It’s called a hangover. And it’s what you get for drinking.”

Yvonne’s eyes narrowed, “Self-righteous little…”

Jill cut her off before she could finish that thought, “Besides, this is all your fault.”

“How is you yelling like a pint-sized drill sergeant my fault?” Trinity retorted.

“Because you kept her out too late and now she,” Jill pointed an accusatory finger at me, “missed church.”

“Oh, it’s the end of the world now,” Trinity shook her head. “One week off’s not going to kill her. In fact it’s probably a vacation. You should try it Little Miss I’m Just One Hundred Goals Short of Complete Perfection, you might like it.”

“Well at least I’m going somewhere! At least I have goals!” Jill shrieked, stepping closer to Trinity and Yvonne. Jac looked nervously at me and just as I was sure they were going to pull out their claws, they were interrupted. By Lucien.

“Ladies, ladies,” he stepped between them looking far too cute for all his bed head and sleepy eyes. “As much as I’d love to see it, there’s really no need to fight.”

“You had a boy in your room last night?” Jill’s voice dropped to an eerie quiet. Now we know she’s really mad. “I cannot believe you! You know that is strictly against our house rules.”

“Your rules,” Trinity said placidly. “I pay rent here too. Besides, he had a good reason.”

“And that is…?” I could tell from Jill’s look that anything short of a natural disaster on the scale of world annihilation would not be accepted.

Trinity cocked her head and grinned. “He was drunk. You wouldn’t want him to drive would you?”

Jill’s mouth dropped open but before she could say anything Lucien put his jacket on and said courteously, “Sorry to bother you. I didn’t mean to cause problems. I’m leaving now.” He hugged Trinity and Yvonne before coming over to me. Hugging me tightly, I closed my eyes and inhaled his aroma of leather and cologne. It made me slightly dizzy like it always does. “Thanks, CC,” he whispered as he kissed me lightly on the top of my head and walked quickly out the door, Yvonne following him silently.

Jill looked at me sharply, “You know him, I take it?”

“I work with him,” I cleared my throat and stared down at my feet, knowing my blush was still apparent.

“You knew he was here last night?”

“No,” I said truthfully. Seriously, would I be wearing these awful teddy bear jammies had I known he was here? I have got to get me some new sleepwear.

Jill pursed her lips and looked back and forth between Trinity and I. “I don’t like this,” she stared hard at me. “Not one bit.” I nodded and Trinity smirked. “I’m going to Nathan’s.” With that, she spun on her heel, the door slamming behind her leaving just the sound of the windows rattling in their frames.

As soon as she was gone, I turned to Trinity gasping, “Lucien was drunk? But he doesn’t…”

“Get drunk. I know,” she answered grimly. “Something was really wrong last night. In all the two years I’ve known him I’ve never seen him drink like that.” I shivered and covered my mouth. It had to be our conversation. He’d been fine until then.

Finally I asked, “How’d you all get here then?”

Trinity’s eyes widened in surprise. “Come to think of it, I have no earthly clue.” It didn’t seem to bother her though as she walked off to the kitchen, mumbling something about needing an ibuprofen or ten.

………

“Come in, come in!” Bishop Jacobsen shook my hand warmly as we entered his house. I cringed for a moment, expecting him to berate me for missing church but he didn’t say anything to me as I passed by. It was probably a silly thought anyhow, I mean how many kids does he have in his ward? Like he’s going to notice who misses a week and who doesn’t, right?

I trailed after Jac, finding a place on the floor by the couch. Trinity and Brooklyn squished in next to me, both with decidedly odd expressions on their faces. Neither are particularly happy to be here but Jill was adamant that everyone attend FHE tonight, no matter what and after all the fighting last night we all agreed to go in the name of roommate harmony. Speaking of Jill, she’s across the room with Nathan of course, smiling brightly at everyone. She looks particularly nice tonight, her hair straight and shiny, makeup immaculate, clothes perfect down to the last detail.

“What’s up with Prom Queen tonight?” Trinity leaned across Brooklyn to whisper.

“Camera strap,” Brooklyn said quietly.

“What?” Trinity and I both chorused.

“Something’s definitely up,” she replied, careful to keep her voice low. Jac was talking to Darrel and Roy who were sitting on the other side of her and therefore oblivious to our hurried conference. “I can see a camera strap sticking out of Jill’s purse.”

“Ah,” I said, the light bulb coming on.

“Tonight must be the night, then,” Trinity said as Brooklyn and I nodded. We’ve been waiting for something to happen ever since Halloween night in the wetlands.

“Do we say something to Jac yet?” I hissed, looking over my shoulder at her. She was still chatting blithely with C301, completely unaware her whole life’s about to change and not for the better.

Brooklyn shrugged and whispered back, “Yeah, probably, although I don’t know who’s going to take it harder – Jac or Darrel.” Oh, Darrel. I sighed. He’d continued his almost-daily home teaching visits even up to last night when we had to tell him again that Jill was, yes, out with Nathan. Brooklyn nudged me and I scooted over a little more noticing for the first time that FHE is remarkably crowded tonight. Apparently word has gotten around.

“Man, what’s going on?” Jac asked amiably as I bumped into her.

“Funny you should ask,” I started but was interrupted by Bishop Jacobsen calling everyone to order.

“Tonight is a very special family home evening and I am so glad that all of you could come to our home.” He smiled broadly and put his arm around his wife. “We have a wonderful lesson and activity planned tonight for you by the Elder’s Quorum Presidency and then a small presentation that I think you will all,” he paused to smile even wider, “really enjoy.”

“And of course there are refreshments for afterward,” Sister Jacobsen added to the obvious relief of C301.

“What are you talking about?” Jac leaned over and whispered as we started singing Families Can Be Together Forever.

“Right,” I whispered back. “I think you, um, might want to be prepared for tonight.”

“Why?” she asked, her eyes big. “Is C301 plotting something? I knew we should have brought our water guns!”

“No, no,” I shook my head and then went silent, trying to decide how best to phrase this. “What’s the theme for tonight?”

“Theme?” she wrinkled her nose. “Hard to tell yet. We haven’t got to the lesson.”

I pointed to the large poster board set up by the fireplace. It read “The Nearly Wed Game.”

“That’s a terrible pun,” she commented, wrinkling her nose. “I hope they don’t make us watch some lame skit about a wedding or a proposal or something. I’m so sick of hearing about marriage at church. You’d think they could come up with a more original lesson.”

And while I normally would agree with Jac, I tried again to make my point. “I think there’s a, uh, particular reason we are having this lesson tonight.”

“Oh, no,” Jac groaned, “don’t tell me someone is getting engaged! Nobody would be that lame to propose during family home evening! That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Okay, then,” I muttered, slumping against the couch and shrugging at Brooklyn and Trinity.

We fell silent as a girl stood up to say the opening prayer. As soon as she was finished, Jac leaned over to me, “Man, I pity the girl that gets proposed to this way. You know half the girls here are going to be freaked out thinking it could be them and the other half are going to be freaked out thinking it should be them.” Girl’s got a point there. “Not to mention all the guys are going to run for the hills.”

Todd Jershon, the Elder’s Quorum President, stood and clapped his hands together, grinning at the group. “We have a great game planned but first let’s start with a scripture – can someone read D&C 131:2?”

“Ah,” Jac shook her head, “the new and everlasting covenant of marriage scripture. So cliché. What about 1 Corinthians 7:9, huh? Why doesn’t anyone ever quote that scripture about marriage?” She laughed at her own joke as Todd divided us all up into groups. Each group got two questionnaires, one for the boys and one for the girls. Each group was to answer the questions as they thought the team of the opposite gender would answer them. Then the girls would answer the questions off the boys’ sheet and the boys would get a point for each answer that matched and vice versa. The group with the highest number of correlating answers got a free group date night of bowling and pizza for the two winning teams.

As soon as Todd dropped the questionnaire in our circle, Trinity pounced on it, ripping it out of Alma Anne’s fingertips. Not that Trinity could care less about bowling and pizza but the girl’s got a competitive streak a mile wide. “Ok, sisters,” she said with only the smallest trace of irony in her voice, “guys are simple creatures so this will be easy. The answer to every question is either food,” she grinned wickedly, “or sex.”

Alma Anne huffed, “That is not true! My future husband - ”

“Is currently serving out a five-year sentence for corporate espionage in the fertilizer industry, no matter what he told you in that chat room.” Trinity cackled and read off the first question, “Given a choice, which would the guys prefer doing on a Saturday afternoon – studying or cleaning?”

“Depends on the guy,” a girl with short blond hair and a yellow t-shirt started.

“No it doesn’t,” Trinity said matter-of-factly. “The answer is s-”

Brooklyn slapped her hand down on the paper, “They’re not going to write that, Trin.”

“But it’s true,” she spluttered.

“It’s FHE,” Brooklyn rolled her eyes. “They’re not going to write that.”

“Fine,” Trinity sulked and sat back. “Studying or cleaning? What kind of namby-pamby guy wrote these questions anyhow?”

“The answer is neither,” Brooklyn said and started to write that.

“That’s not one of the choices,” Alma Anne snarked.

“I know,” Brooklyn replied patiently, “but to win the game we have to write what the boys are going to say. And if I know boys, which I think I do, that is what they’ll say.” We all looked over at the team of guys in our group, which includes C301, and knew she was right.

Trinity nodded, “You would be the expert in that category.” Then she threw her head back and laughed loudly, “Bwing out da secwet weap-ON!”

Brooklyn sighed. “So. Next. Which would the guys say is more important in a potential spouse – cooking prowess or experience with small children?”

Trinity answered loudly, “Ooh, this one’s easy. The answer is s - ”

“Trin!” Brooklyn cut her off with a warning look.

“I was going to say experience with cooking small children,” Trinity said with a smirk.

“Ugh!” Alma Anne stood up. “I cannot feel the spirit with her around! I’m moving to another group!”

“Fine. And take your bad karma with you.” Trinity called to her back. “I see a sand dune and a husband with eight legs in your future!”

After Alma Anne left the questions went a lot faster and we finished before all the other groups. Brooklyn answered most of them for us although Trinity did get to write “food” for one answer, which made her crow “I told you so!” loud enough to quiet the whole room. The first counselor in the EQ presidency led us through the answering and scoring process, which ended up being a lot more entertaining than I originally thought. And, thanks largely to Brooklyn, our group won the date.

Then Sister Jacobsen ushered us all into the kitchen to celebrate with hot chocolate and pie. I was standing chatting with Tex when Brooklyn sidled up to me, nodding her head towards the living room. I had to angle myself slightly to see out the door but when I did, I saw Nathan setting something up in the middle of the room.

“…so I hope you’re okay with our talk the other day,” Tex was saying. “I really feel like I said that badly and I haven’t heard from ya since then…” I listened with one ear as Nathan backed up revealing a large, elaborate flower arrangement on a pedestal. They’re purple roses – Jill’s favorite.

It took me a minute to register what Tex was apologizing for and then I remembered his break-up-without-ever-going-out speech on my birthday. “Yeah, yeah,” I muttered distractedly, patting his arm, “It’s fine.”

He looked relieved, “So we’re okay then?” I arched my back a little more and saw Nathan put a small velvet box at the base of the roses. Brooklyn shot me a concerned look and then glanced at Jac who was talking to Jill and Darrel over in the corner. Like some weird ironic comedy, none of them can see the living room from where they are standing. “What do we do?” she mouthed to me.

“I don’t know,” I said back to her, shrugging my shoulders in an exaggerated fashion.

“You don’t know?” Tex looked pained.

“Oh!” I jumped. “No, I mean, yes, we’re okay. No worries.” I tried to smile reassuringly. “Still friends and all that.” Brooklyn started walking over to Jac and Jill as I watched Nathan dim the lights and light candles all along the mantle. Then he left the room but he didn’t come in the kitchen. I have to tell Brooklyn! I squeezed Tex’s hand, “Okay, then. Glad we could have this little talk!” I ran off before he could answer.

I caught Brooklyn’s arm just before she reached Jac and Jill. “He left!” I whispered in her ear. “Quick – maybe we can grab the ring box and run!”

She looked as if she might be considering my plan and then shook her head, “No, we can’t stop him now. All we can do is damage control.” Then she spun around, scanning the room frantically, “Speaking of damage, where’s Trinity?”

“I don’t know!” I grimaced. “The last time I saw her, she was headed…” Brooklyn’s eyes followed mine down the hallway where Nathan had just gone. “Oh, crap.” We both took off running after them.

We found Trinity standing outside the bathroom door, a satisfied smirk on her face. “What did you do?” Brooklyn gasped, peering around her for any glimpse of Nathan.

“I just fixed our problem,” she grinned.

“Oh, no. What did you do?” Brooklyn reiterated.

“I locked him in the bathroom,” she said simply, pointing to a large metal bobby pin that she had jammed into the lock mechanism in the doorknob so it couldn’t be undone from the inside.

“Hey!” I heard Nathan call from the other side of the door.

Trinity slammed her black-lace gloved hand into the door and yelled, “What did I just tell you?”

“What did you just tell him?” I asked carefully.

She smiled sweetly, “I just said I’d post this pic of him all over the Internet if he didn’t do what I said.” Flipping her camera phone around she showed us a picture, apparently taken just moments before, of Nathan on the toilet.

Brooklyn sighed and covered her eyes. “I cannot believe you!”

“What? They did it on God’s Army!”

“You saw God’s Army?” I blurted out. I don’t know why that surprises me but really, it does.

“Besides,” Trinity said leaning up against the wall, “no matter how much that little cheerleader gets on my nerves sometimes, the truth is I love her like a sister and you both know he’s a jerk.” She banged on the door again. “You hear that?” Then to us she added seriously, “We can’t let her marry him!”

“No,” Brooklyn said quietly, “we can’t stop her from marrying him if that’s what she really wants.”

“But he’s got her jumping through hoops like a trained poodle! ‘Don’t eat that, wear this, come now.’” Trinity stamped her foot. “What are we supposed to do? Just sit back, clap and throw her a biscuit?”

“Yes.” Brooklyn said firmly, pulling the bobby pin out of the lock. “That is exactly what we are going to do. Well except for the part about the biscuit.” She turned to me, “Go tell Jac. Now. This isn’t the time for her to be surprised. Be gentle but be quick.” I nodded and turned to go. “And you,” she said to Trinity, “are coming with me.”

Back in the kitchen, I quickly separated Jac from the herd. As I told her, I watched the color drain from her usually tan face. “I have to talk to Jill first,” she whispered but it was too late. The refreshments over, Bishop Jacobsen led us all back into the living room where Brooklyn and Trinity were already sitting on the couch – Brooklyn holding Trinity’s hand firmly in her own. There were gasps and a few cries as everyone came back in and settled down. Todd flipped on a switch that caused a spotlight to shine on the pedestal and flowers as Pachebel’s Canon in D started playing.

“That’s not even her favorite classical song!” Jac whispered despairingly. “He doesn’t even know her favorite song…” I looked around the room and saw Jill standing anxiously by the door. Just then her eyes lit up and I didn’t even have to turn to know Nathan had walked in the room.

“Jillian,” he said, his voice low and romantic as he stepped into the spotlight, the light gleaming off his elegant tuxedo and shined shoes. “Please come here, darling.” She was to him in three steps, the tears already shining in her eyes.

“She doesn’t know what he’s really like,” Jac mumbled, tears of her own springing into the eyes that looked so much like Jill’s it was uncanny.

Jill trembled as he knelt down in front of her – not just on one knee but on two as if he were a supplicant before her queenly throne. I covered my mouth with my hand and caught my breath. Despite my reservations about them, the scene was beautiful and I found myself hoping that someday it could be me in that glorious, shining moment. He took both her hands in his and said clearly, “My Jill, in all the time that I have known you, I have grown to love you with all my heart.”

“So, like, two months and he thinks he knows her?” Jac whispered despondently.

“And I love you not just as you are now but for what you can be – what we can be together.” With that he took the velvet box off the pedestal and opened it. “I would be honored if you would be my wife for time and all eternity.” Every girl in the room gasped as the large diamond threw light all over the room. Nathan slipped it on Jill’s delicate finger as a chorus of sniffles and gasps resounded from the audience.

“It’s not a ring, it’s a freakin’ disco ball,” Jac muttered, breaking the spell for me. Brooklyn sat stonily on my other side. Trinity sat back and clapped loudly, the sound reverberating through the quiet room. But there was no smile on her face.

“Oh, Nathan,” Jill giggled and fell on her knees, throwing her arms around him. Then, as if straight from a romance movie, she whispered, “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!” In fact, it was so good it made me wonder if she’s been practicing that line. Knowing Jill, she probably has. The rest of the room joined Trinity in clapping and cheering.

As soon as she was on her feet again, Jill turned to Jac. “I wanted to tell you but Nathan wanted it to be a surprise…” She waited for Jac to say something as the room went quiet again. I could see Jac swallowing out of the corner of my eye but she wasn’t moving.

Taking her hand, I stood up, pulling her with me. “Oh, Jill, congratulations! We’re so happy for you! Right?”

I looked at Jac who looked at Jill with moist eyes, finally nodding. “I love you Jilly,” she whispered.

“Thank you, Jac! I love you too! More than ever, ok?” Jill hugged her sister who stood stiffly in her arms.

Just then Trinity appeared in the spotlight. “As the roommates, and future bridesmaids,” she paused as several people giggled, “of the future Mrs. Nathan Whateverhislastnameis, we’d like to present her with this.” Doing her best Vanna White impersonation, she held a large white card out to Jill. I immediately recognized it as the poster board that had said “the Nearly Wed Game” just minutes earlier. Now it was folded in half, the original words scratched out and “Congrats!” scrawled across the front in black marker.

Jill stepped forward hesitantly, eyeing Trinity as if waiting for an electric shock or a flying snake. “Um, thanks…guys,” she said looking at Brooklyn, Jac and I. We shrugged in tandem. I have no idea when Trinity had time to make the card, much less where she got the marker, so don’t even ask, ok?

“We would have got you something nicer, except, well,” Trinity grinned like the Cheshire cat at Nathan, “we were so surprised!”

Jill took it and opened it, unfortunately for her, so everyone could read it. On the inside, written in large block letters, was, “To our Jill – as she goes from cheering for trophies to becoming one!”
- posted by Charlotte @ 3:05 PM