“Hey, your name is Xena, right?”

These words came from Rebecca Sweedy as she sat down at my table during lunch. Rebecca is one of the most popular girls in school. She is also known as miss perfect. She gets good grades, like me. She gets all the boys attention, like me. And she never has a mean thing to say about anyone, also like me.

The difference is, she always seems to draw everyone’s attention. Whatever I do, I can’t seem to stand out enough to be popular. I’m not really jealous. I’ve always liked being left out of the center of attention. I have a few friends I can really trust. I don’t have nasty rumors spread about me. I don’t have boys following me around everywhere I go. I don’t have anything to complain about really.

Why is Becca sitting at my table then?

“Yeah, I’m Xena.” I say between bites of my carrot sticks.

“I don’t see you after school hardly ever. Are you in any clubs or sports?” Becca keeps her big beautiful smile aimed straight at me. Becca is in like three clubs and is the star of the field hockey team.

“Oh, not here. I tutor some exchange students after school and I like going hiking with my dad once in a while.” My response gets cut short as I’m about to start listing a few other hobbies I have.

“Do you go to church? My church is looking for some new youth members and I was asking around to see if I could get a few girls my age to join me this Sunday. We have a bunch of great summer activities planned and it’s a lot of fun.”

“Church? No, I haven’t gone before. My dad doesn’t really talk about religion at all. I think he might be atheist. I could ask if I can go with you this weekend but I’ll probably need a ride.” My dad hasn’t ever talked with me about religion before. I’ve seen him with some tarot cards and a few other weird religious like things before but I think he’s trying to hide them from me. I got the impression that he doesn’t want to talk about it and I didn’t really press him for information. One thing about my dad is, he never lies. He may choose to dodge the question or not answer but he has never in my entire life said something not true.

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“Oh? You don’t think your dad would want to come? What about your mom?”

“My mother died giving birth to me.”

Becca’s eyes go wide like she just said something absolutely evil.

“Don’t worry, you didn’t know. It’s just me and my dad. If you need him to come with me I could try to ask him, but, I can’t guarantee anything.”

“If you could get him to come with you that would be fantastic but if you can’t and you still want to come, I can pick you up Sunday morning.”

“Okay, I’ll add you on Facebook and message you when I find out.”

“Okay! Let me know soon. I think you’ll have a lot of fun if you come.” With a parting smile Becca left for another table to presumably ask a few other girls to join her at church.

I don’t think dad will have any issues with it. He is really open and easy to talk to. He works a lot but always makes sure to take time for me. My best friend Casey said she doesn’t know how he does it. He works from home, makes a ton of money, is a great cook, has awesome fashion sense, looks ten years younger than he should, always know just the right thing to say, and always has time for me. She calls him super dad.

I’ll need to ask him right away when I get home. Today is Friday and that only gives me one day to prepare and get something nice to wear.