The Juliets'

Isabella combed softly through her long chocolate locks, as she stared into the mirror of her grandmother's antique vanity. Just like every other Sunday, she was under the overbearing pressure of her parents to look her best. There wasn't ever a Sunday where she hadn't been to St. Mary's Church of Christ because her family lived and breathed Christianity, it was the most important thing in the world to them. Without their religion, they were nothing.
An unworn navy blue gown and a pair of black mary-janes sat neatly on her bed across the room. Her mother had gotten the dress as a gift for Isabella's sixteenth birthday a month ago, and insisted for her to wear it. Even though she didn't like the dress, she knew it would make her mother happy if she were to wear it to church. That was exactly what she had planned to do.
After tying a french braid in her hair, she stripped from her plaid nightgown and adjusted herself into the dress. The interior was itchy and when she eyed herself in the mirror on her bedroom door, she noticed that the gown made her look as if she was thirty years older. This was definitely her mother's taste in clothing, the hem ended at the ankles and the sleeves were broad. It may have been the ugliest thing she had ever had draped from her body.
Nevertheless, she pulled a pair of white socks onto her feet and snapped on the buckles of her shoes and listened to the sound of them clip and clop on the wooden floorboards of her country-style home.

"Bella, dear! You look beautiful!" her mother screeched, making Isabella jump. It seemed as if she came out of nowhere.

"Thanks mom." She grinned, but her tone was dry. Her mom studied her, and inspected what seemed to be each inch of her body.

"Theres a strand of your hair that fell out of your braid sweetie." she informed her. Isabella gently ran her fingers across the surface of the hair, and felt the loose pieces of hair.

"Its fine mom, I don't care." Right after the words fell from her lips, she immediately knew that was something she shouldn't have said. She could already see the crazed rage in her mother's eyes.

"What do you mean you don't care? How can you take your appearance in church so lightly? Is this the way you want God to see you? As a sloppy mess?" her mom screeched at her. It didn't take much at all to send her off the edge, luckily the one person who could bring a bucket of water to her angry fire rushed into the hallway where the two of them were standing before things got too out of hand.

"Mary, calm down. If we don't leave now we're going to be late for the sermon." My father told her, taking her hand and lightly squeezing it. That was a move that somehow always seemed to calm my mother, but neither Isabella or her father knew why.
"Fine. Just, just tuck that piece into your braid okay?" She asked, letting out a breath. You could almost hear her uptight personality in her voice. Isabella just nodded and did what she was told.

The ten minute ride the the church was silent, as it always was. Isabella's parents believed that they should save all of their thoughts to share with the lord. Of course, to Isabella this rule made absolutely no sense. Yet, like everything her parents instructed, she followed through obediently. She had no intention to feel the wrath of her mother.
When their Dodge caravan pulled into the church lot, Isabella dusted off her dress and walked side by side with her parents, and heavy set woman held the front door of the church for them.
"Thank you and god bless." Said Isabella's mother as she smiled at the woman and continued on her way. Isabella rolled her eyes, she hated how almost everyone in the church had a fake attitude.

The building was a beautiful place, nonetheless. With its intricate collection of stained glass windows and lavish hardwood floors, it seemed to be a new and improved version of what the church originally used to be in the mid 1800s. It felt as old fashioned as the people in it.

After greeting strangers, whom all of which Isabella's parents pretended they knew, Isabella wandered on her own to the teen center of the church. She dreaded the place, but she was stuck there because only legal adults were allowed in regular worship. Instead she was stuck in a place full of homeschooled "Jesus freaks" and preachers who tried to seem as if they could relate to the kids by using urban slang incorrectly. Everyone except for Isabella seemed to buy it too.

She quietly sat in a chair in the back of the room, watching as the socially awkward kids scrambled for a seat infront of the altar. 'These kids are going to grow up to be just like my mother,' Isabella thought as she watched them.

Minutes seemed like hours as she waited for the service to begin. She sat in silence while others read aloud to each other from their bibles and preached to one another about 'what Jesus would do' in situations she was pretty sure the son of God would not concern himself with. All she could think about is turning eighteen and never having to listen to these obnoxious 'Jesus teens' again. The atmosphere almost lulled her to sleep until she heard a man speak to the group of teenagers from a microphone.

"Good morning children of Christ!" he shouted. The room went completely silent and everyone listened intently, including Isabella. She may not have been so obsessed with church like everyone else there seemed to be but she still believed in God.

"Theres an important topic I want to talk to you kids about, something that concerns kids your age in particular. Thats right, I'm talking about homosexuality."

Isabella had no idea where the preacher was going with what he was saying, this was a much different topic than they had ever discussed in church before. Often they would talk about stories from the bible or the ten commandments, but this didn't seem to have anything to do with Christ or christianity in general.

"I'm here to tell you today that it isn't natural, and God frowns upon it. Some of you kids think that you might love someone of the same gender, but the truth is love only exists between a man and a woman. That is the way it was intended to be. It may seem harmless at first but its dangerous in many ways and not to mention it is a sin!"

Isabella looked around at the sea of faces around her. None of which seemed to be as shocked as she was about the lecture. She quickly grabbed a bible that had been tucked underneath her chair and searched for something that stood behind what the preacher was telling them, but yet she couldn't find anything about it. She'd met gay people before, and they all had seemed kind and friendly. Was the preacher right? Was homosexuality a choice, and all those couples have been putting on an act? She didn't know what to think, she just kept searching through her bible.