1. And where did he serve his mission?
2. A warm October day down by the Provo River
3. Orem's not so bad when you give it a chance
4. I can rely on myself
5. Jared gets drunk and gets laid
6. Forget about her, Jared
7. A story I never tell anyone

• (character chart)
• Warning/Disclaimer

1. Young Women's
2. Youth Conference
3. Saturday's Warrior
4. Brigham Young University
• Gratuitous Love Scene
5. Polygamist
6. Temple Wedding
7. Orem High
8. Bordeaux Mission
9. Exmo Conference

"Why did Brother Hobbs throw him out?" asked Lynn.

"It turns out Joe didn't believe in God," I said.

"And the Hobbs' don't countenance that sort of thing in their house?" asked Rex. "Wow, it's lucky for me that our parents are a little more lenient!"

"Lucky for me, too," said Jill. "I don't believe in God either."

"Me neither!" I said.

Mom looked like she was about to have a heart attack. "What? When did this happen?" she asked.

"Come on, Mom," said Jill. "You and Dad raised us to care about Math and Science and logic, etc. So how can you expect us to believe in this nonsense? We've been pretending for a while to spare your feelings because of how hard you took it when Rex left the church, but I'm starting to think it's better that you know."

"You too, Joy?" asked Dad. Joy nodded. "Well this is lovely news to spring on us right in the middle of Thanksgiving dinner when we're supposed to be thanking the Lord for our many blessings."

"Sorry, Dad, but there's nothing we can do about it," said Jill. "We'd all love for there to be a God and an afterlife and a purpose to life and all that, but you know, if wishes were fishes..."

"I don't believe this!" said Mom. "How did this happen? Do none of my children believe in the church anymore?"

"We still believe," said Kathy, putting her hand on her husband's hand.

That seemed to reassure Mom a little bit, but she still seemed pretty upset.

Then nobody said anything for a long time. After a while, Rex turned to me and asked "What about Sam? How's he taking Joe's departure?"

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"I don't know, I haven't seen him much lately," I said.

"Isn't he in your math class?" asked Dad.

"He was but he dropped out. He said his dad told him to because the homework was interfering with his football practice. But I think it was also that he was having trouble doing the assignments without Joe's help."

"What?" asked Dad. "His father advised him to drop out of College Algebra and Trig so that he would have more time to play football? What kind of warped value system is that?"

"Well, at least all of their kids are still faithful in the church!" said Mom.

"Yeah, that's probably not a coincidence, actually," said Rex.

"Mom, I don't see why you think the Hobbs are this perfect family just because all of their kids went on missions," said Jill. "Every family has its problems -- they're probably just better than most at keeping up appearances."

"Yeah," said Rex. "I mean, if Brother Hobbs is willing to throw his own nephew out on the street and leave him homeless just for believing differently, then that's not a very good sign in my book."

"That's not all!" I said. "It wasn't enough for him to just throw him out, he also called him a 'worthless loony'!"

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