February 28, 1976
As JoJo entered the lunchroom that morning, he was met with laughs.
He quickly figured out the laughs were directed towards him.
He could only imagine...This must be about Samantha and yesterday...
"What's up, guys?"
Tommy stepped up, "You tell us, Romeo."
"Huh?"
Tommy continued, "Don't play coy with the boys. We heard about you and your girlfriend going to church together yesterday."
"oh."
Tommy bit in deeper, "So, you admit it, huh?"
JoJo kept his cool. "Samantha went to church with us, but she is NOT my girlfriend."
Stacy jumped in. "Word has it...she also went to your house."
Oh Brother! "This is true."
Stacy patted JoJo on the back. "Glad you FINALLY got a girlfriend. Ha Ha!!"
Now JoJo prayed: Lord, help me.
Suddenly the bell rang. JoJo quickly left the guys.
JoJo continued to pray: Lord, I know it was the right thing to invite Samantha to church and help feed her. But, God, it's High School. I don't want to be the laughing stock.
Immediately JoJo remembered the text for the sermon from yesterday:
Matthew 5:11 "God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things about you because you are my followers."
Ok, God, that was cool the way You brought that to my memory. Your will be done over mine.
Finally, lunch time. He had already decided he was going to ask Samantha to sit with him at lunch.
As he scanned the lunchroom, his mouth fell open when he saw Samantha waving for him to join her. The surprise was who she was sitting with. 2 Sophomore girls and 1 Sophomore boy. All three of them were in the Youth Sunday school class yesterday. They recognized Samantha, and asked her to join them. Wow!!
JoJo wasn't even sure if they knew his name. He knew them: Debra, Jane, and Alan.
To his dismay, Alan said, "Join us JoJo!"
"Sure, Alan. Thanks."
He looked at the 2 sophomore girls in a bewildering way.
They laughed. Debra said, "JoJo, it's funny that we have never really talked."
All Jo could mange was, "yea."
Again the girls laughed. This time Jane said, "Relax, JoJo. We don't bite."
"OK. Good."
At that, everybody laughed, even Samantha.
Alan said, "We were enjoying talking to Samantha." The girls smiled and nodded.
What do I say??
"Oh good." "Hey, Samantha."
"Hey JoJo."
Debra asked, "So are y'all like girlfriend & boyfriend?"
Samantha answered before JoJo. "No, we are just really good friends."
Alan said, "Cool." The girls nodded in approval.
The Sophomores talked about their classes some. Then, they talked about church. Their discussion amongst themselves was really interesting. JoJo and Samantha just listened.
The bell rang indicating lunch was over.
Debra said, "Would y'all consider having lunch with us tomorrow?"
JoJo and Samantha looked at each other for a moment, then they replied in unison, "Yea."
Two tables over, Tommy was stewing. He really wanted to bring JoJo down--for some reason--but he knew JoJo had hit the Big Time: Eating lunch with Sophomores. And 2 of them are girls!!
Tommy would think up a new plan to hurt JoJo....
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