The Pledge Read Free

pancakes, and she turned to me and smiled.
    â€œHey, Miss Junior,” she said. “How does it feel?”
    â€œGood,” I said, taking a seat at the table next to Cory, whose eyes were glued to her Game Boy—did I mention she’s addicted to it? “It will feel even better when we win regionals and after my first date.”
    Momma rolled her eyes. Every chance I got, I mentioned dating so she didn’t forget her promise I could start going out once I turned seventeen.
    â€œWhat time does cheerleading practice end?” she asked, sliding a plate of pancakes, bacon and cheese eggs in front of me and my sister. She put a plate in front of her seat then grabbed the Game Boy from Cory, who protested loudly, but Momma ignored her as she turned it off and sat across from us. She grabbed our hands, which was our signal to say grace.
    After blessing the food, we dug in.
    â€œWhere’s Daddy?” I asked.
    â€œHe had to leave early,” she said a bit too quickly.
    I nodded. I saw a sadness in Momma’s eyes, so I tried to cheer her up.
    â€œPractice ends at five,” I said, “but once you get me my Aviator, that won’t be a problem since I’ll be able to drive myself wherever I need to go.” I had gotten my license, but it was rare Momma let me drive. She said she worried too much with me behind the wheel.
    As expected, Momma smiled. The Lincoln Aviator was my dream car, and although we both knew I wasn’t getting it for my birthday, we liked to joke about it anyway.
    â€œI probably won’t be there until five-thirty since your sister has Scouts after school today. Don’t you have a Worth the Wait meeting tonight?”
    I nodded as I swallowed a mouthful of eggs. “That’s cool,” I said. “By the time I shower and change, it will be about that time anyway. Worth the Wait meeting is at six-thirty.”
    Our church had started Worth the Wait last year and Momma had insisted I join. There were actually more members there than I had expected, but I quickly learned half of the girls were there because their moms made them join, too. Only a handful of us were virgins, and although I planned to save myself for marriage, I had started off thinking that was my business, and I didn’t make a point of advertising it. But over the last year, hearing all about the AIDS epidemic and the rise in syphilis outbreaks in Alabama and seeing all these baby mommas had made still having my virginity something I was proud of. I made it a point to recruit people whenever I could. I wanted other kids to know that being a virgin was nothing to be ashamed of.
    Our adviser, Andrea Mitchell, was cool. She was only twenty-eight, but she offered good advice, and she wasn’t ashamed to let the world know she was celibate. Notice I said celibate and not a virgin. She told us she had had sex once and decided it wasn’t worth it, and she had been celibate ever since. After prayer and Bible study, we spent a lot of our meetings role-playing how to stay out of heated situations, but eventually we always ended up talking about sex. We all made a point to bring articles and stuff about abstinence and second virginity for those that had slipped up and had sex and wanted to reclaim their virginity.
    We all had these necklaces with one pearl to symbolize that our virginity was as precious as a pearl, and Andrea was talking about having a purity ball next year where we would be presented with purity rings and sign purity pacts, vowing to stay celibate until marriage. She had also been encouraging us to invite people of different races to our meetings, and she said it would be nice to invite some guys, too.
    I thought about inviting Allen to a meeting and started giggling so hard I choked on a piece of bacon.
    â€œYou okay?” Momma asked, whacking me on the back and looking concerned.
    I nodded, took a sip of juice, then turned to my sister, who had been really