This is chapter one of a novella I wrote as an Honors project in school this year. I never came up with a name for it, so I’ll continue to refer to it as E.H.N. (__E__nglish __H__onors __N__ovella). I plan on posting a chapter every week (there are 11 chapters and an epilogue). It is a sort of statement about what I think could happen to Christianity in America in the near future. Obviously, it is purely speculation. I wrote this story in chunks throughout the school year, and I think the writing style degraded a bit near the end of the book, but I’ll leave that up to you to decide. I should also mention that the story went mostly unedited after the rough draft, and there are some things I would have liked to do with the story that I ended up not doing for lack of time. This led to there being some story points created but never used. Anyway, enough of my self-critiques; here is chapter 1:
Jackson smiled. It was the first time he had smiled all day. His best friend Noah had left a note in his locker telling Jackson not to let the “haters” get to him (he had used words much worse than “haters”). Earlier that day, Jackson had encountered some Christians. He didn’t understand how hateful people like Christians were still around. After all, it was 2040. Shouldn’t humanity have moved past all this “Jesus” stuff by now? On his way into the girl’s restroom, a Christian had stopped him to tell him that he was going to the wrong bathroom and that the Bible says God made him male for a reason. Jackson had not noticed that it was a girl’s restroom, because bathrooms only had labels on them for historical reasons; it didn’t matter which one you used. However, what if he had been homosexual? Couldn’t that Christian just accept him for who he was?
What surprised Jackson more than the fact that Christian were still around was the fact that he had encountered one in public. Jackson thought all the Christians either stayed in their underground meeting places or pretended not to be Christian in public. It would be crazy to let someone know you are a Christian; you wouldn’t want to be affiliated with such narrow-minded, hate-filled, bigots.
“Hey Jax, what’s up? Are you okay?” asked Sophia, with a slightly concerned face, snapping Jackson out of his thoughtful state.
“I’m fine, how are you?” asked, Jackson, not wanting to burden his friend with his problem.
“I’m fine, but you looked like you were thinking some pretty deep thoughts a few seconds ago.”
“I was just wondering what to get Noah for his birthday,” Jackson responded, looking into Sophia’s deep green eyes and trying desperately to sound like he wasn’t lying.
“Have you considered another debate book? He seems to really enjoy finding new ways to disprove people he doesn’t like. Or maybe some new compound bows? I bet now that it’s hunting season he wishes they hadn’t passed that gun ban,” Sophia said light-heartedly; Sophia was one of the most conservative people Jackson knew.
“No, he told me that he was willing to sacrifice hunting for the sake of taking guns out of the hands of domestic terrorists and criminals.”
“Oh right! Because that worked out so well last night,” retorted Sophia sarcastically, referring to the fifth shooting that month, which had claimed 17 lives. “Well, since you obviously don’t want to tell me what you were thinking about, I’m going to head to class.”
“How did you—"
“Jax, I’ve known you since seventh grade; you’re a terrible liar,” Sophia interrupted, and with that she left to get to her next class.
Jackson looked at his watch. He needed to get to his next class too. Mr. Evans did not tolerate tardiness, especially in students he didn’t like.
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