It seemed like everyone in Tess’s tiny town was obsessed with God. All of the kids in her middle school were in the same youth group and they talked about church lock-ins and Sunday night gatherings like they were the social events of the year. There would always be some kids that started “going out” from those lock-ins. People even kissed at them. They all had Bible verses in their away messages.
Tess asked her mom if she could go on the big middle school mission trip to Jamaica. Her best friend, Grace, was going and Tess didn’t want to spend her whole spring break alone at home. She wanted to be at the beach with all the other godly kids, playing spin the bottle in the back of the church van and singing along to those pretty acoustic songs.
Her mom scoffed at her. “If you really want to help, there are plenty of people to help right here.”
◆
Tess could watch whatever she wanted on TV, but Grace was only allowed to see certain things. Grace’s parents liked the show 7th Heaven because the Dad was a preacher and because it had something called “family values,” so they let her watch as much of it as she wanted.
Tess and Grace would spend hours marathoning the show and eating pepperonis from the package while laying on their stomachs. Tess hadn’t been to high school yet and felt a rush of excitement and fear, watching the struggles that might come her way. Would she get offered drugs someday and have to say no? Be tempted by premarital sex? She learned what cutting was when the middle daughter, Lucy, walked in on her friend, all bloodied in the bathroom.
The more Tess watched, the more she noticed the main characters were never really the ones getting into trouble. It was their friends, acting out, and it was the Camdens’ job to save them. The Camdens, by way of Jesus.
◆
Tess was allowed to go on the family computer for one hour every night after dinner and she usually used the hour to talk to Grace on AIM or to feed her neopets. But once Grace left for Jamaica, she started looking up pictures of the 7th Heaven cast. She scrolled through, imagining what it would be like to have this big, close family—someone older around to learn things from. Tess didn’t have any siblings, she only had Grace.
The photos led her to TheWB.com; the website for the network that put all of the new episodes out. There were forums for every show on the air; One Tree Hill, Summerland, Smallville. Tess clicked on the 7th Heaven forum and found a seemingly endless number of threads.
Bush or Kerry??
is any1 a christian????
how old was ruthie when she got her first boyfriend?
thoughts about Simonand the STD
coke pepsi or dr pepper?
im New~
if u were stuck on a deserted island which guy off 7th heaven would u want to save u
terri schiavo
happy bday Jessica Biel!!!
At the top, sat a pinned folder for something called Fan Fiction. Intrigued, she clicked inside and discovered page after page of people writing their own episodes and stories. She found a post from someone named DreamStreetFan89 and decided it must be the best one, the best Fan Fiction, with 63 pages of replies and a little flame icon next to it. In this person’s re-imagining, we were several years into the future and Lucy was married with children of her own—one of whom was just beginning middle school. This daughter was the focus. It was Lucy’s kid, now tempted by the evils of teenagehood. DreamStreetFan89 released a new segment every week, just like the real show.
When Tess laid in bed that night, long after her hour was up, she could still see the pages of flashing flame icons. DreamStreetFan89’s story was good, but she wondered if she could do better.
Over spring break, while all the other kids were off in Jamaica praising the Lord and taking photos for MySpace, she got to work.
Tess focused her story in the present world of 7th Heaven, choosing to take a more realistic approach. First, she wrote a couple of scenes that were mostly just the siblings interacting with each other, trying to get a good feel for how they talked. Having siblings was her favorite thing to imagine. A house full of conversation and activity—it seemed so exciting. She clicked new post, copy-and-pasted over from her Word Document and held her breath as she pressed send.
She refreshed the page, watching her post quickly sink below more active threads. She tried not to get discouraged, leaning back into the computer chair, waiting. When she hit refresh again, she had a reply from someone named heavennoseven. “keep going!” they said. And so she did.
Tess started writing 7th Heaven Fan Fiction everyday, waking up and writing in her notebook so she could save her precious computer hour for transcribing. She added heavennoseven, who’s real name was Julie, on AIM where they would talk about her writing. Julie would give her critiques and they would talk about her favorite lines. She would message Tess, urging her to post, if she hadn’t yet that day.
“Mom, do we have a Bible?” Tess asked one night over dinner. Her mom looked up from her plate of spaghetti, but didn’t answer. There were a lot of things Tess could get away with imagining—what sisters fought about, what high school boys might say in the hallway. But she couldn’t make up Bible passages or things about Jesus. Everyone would know, if she tried that. She had to be accurate.
“You know, yes, I think I have one of your grandmother’s somewhere.” Tess could tell her mom was trying to be careful. “Why do you ask?”
“Research, mainly.”
◆
Tess skimmed through Genesis in bed that night, underlining.
Beyond Adam and Eve, a story she already knew, the book of Genesis was mostly men’s names. Enoch, father of Kenan, father of Mahalel, father of Jared on and on and on for pages. It was incredibly boring.
She flipped ahead to the book of Job, wondering what kind of occupations people even had back then. She read about the angels and the Lord having a conversation with Satan. The messenger visiting Job and telling him awful things. How he shaved his head and got naked, as a reaction, screaming about why bad things happen to good people. Tess closed the book. She had her next idea.
◆
In the morning, Tess sat with her journal and wrote out a tale about the youngest Camden daughter, Ruthie. Ruthie was receiving secret poems in her locker. At first, they were kind of romantic and sweet, but slowly they turned mean.
Roses are red, violets are blue
All of your friends, secretly hate you
Ruthie laughed it off, but began to feel paranoid walking down the halls. She analyzed every interaction. Did her friends really hate her? More poems appeared in her locker and slowly, she started to feel convinced. She must be the most hated person at school.
Roses are red, violets are blue
Your curly hair, needs a shampoo
Ruthie crumpled up the note and turned to her friend. “How does my hair look?” Her friend didn’t answer. “Does it look dirty?” Still no answer. Ruthie turned and ran, and didn’t stop until she was home.
“Ruthie!”
“Not now,” Ruthie threw her book bag down at the door, ignoring her sister.
She stomped up the stairs and slammed the bathroom door, locking herself in. Her brother Simon’s electric razor lay on the counter, next to the sink. Ruthie looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. She held the hard plastic in her hand, sliding the on button into place and feeling the vibrations all the way up her arm. Soon, all of her thick black curls lay, detached, around her. Whole ringlets stuck to her clothes. She slowly took them off, and stepped into the shower, letting the warm water hit her scalp.
tessButterfly27: what do you think?
heavennoseven: woah
heavennoseven: it’s pretty intense
tessButterfly27: it’s based on the story of job
heavennoseven: what job?
tessButterfly27: job from the bible
tessButterfly27: who got mad at god and shaved his head
heavennoseven: oh
heavennoseven: ok yea, I didn’t get that
tessButterfly27: you don’t like it?
heavennoseven: i just don’t think ruthie would really do that, is all
Tess stopped showing Julie her writing before she posted it. heavennoseven didn’t understand. Maybe the Camdens didn’t have to be so perfect all the time.
◆
Tess read a new book of the Bible every night and ended each of her posts with a verse from that book.
Simon Camden, as metaphor for Judas, turning his Dad in for an expired parking ticket.
How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you? Matthew 26:14.
Mary Camden, as metaphor for Delilah, tricking her boyfriend into proposing.
With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death. Judges 16.
Tess didn’t really enjoy reading the Bible, nor did she understand it very much, but she loved watching her replies go up from 30 to 50 to 80.
“thx for writing ur stories, i don’t know what i’d do without them,” MaryCamdennFan, wrote under Tess’s latest post. angel05 said, “i get so excited for these everyday!!” and SimCecillia wrote “ur such a good writer and christian xo.”
Tess had barely thought about Grace or the mission trip all week. She only cared about the flame icon next to her name, ever-present, ever-burning.
◆
Grace got home from Jamaica on Sunday night, just in time for school to start back the next day. Her mom brought her by Tess’s house, on the way home, so she could give her a souvenir.
“I got you this,” Grace said, holding out a keychain with Tess’s name on it. “I know that sometimes they don’t have your name.”
Tess took it and ran her finger over the shiny, ocean-colored plastic. “Thanks.”
Grace was freshly tanned, with freckles all over her face and a pink and blue hair wrap that hung from somewhere behind her left earlobe. She had on a bright green, too large, t-shirt that said Building Hope. Youth Mission Team.
“How was the trip?”
They sat in the computer room, sipping on Dr. Peppers.
“Good! Josh and Emily are going out. They held hands the whole time on the airplane. It was so cute.” Grace touched her hair wrap, gently swirling it around her finger. Tess looked away, trying her best to hide her jealousy. She hadn’t noticed there were beads on it, too. “And Tyler accepted Jesus into his heart, in front of everyone.” She scratched at her peeling, sunburnt forearm. “Allie has a crush on him now. Now that he’s not going to hell.” Grace paused. “Anyway, what did you do all break?”
Tess glanced at her computer, still open to TheWB.com and to her pages of replies. She thought about her grandmother’s old Bible, down the hall in her bedroom, still smelling of fresh highlighter and wondered if Grace and the others read the Bible while they were in Jamaica or if the point was to get a tan and a boyfriend. Tess met Grace’s stare. “I don’t know,” She shrugged and squeezed the keychain in her hand, holding it close, like a secret. “Nothing, really.”