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Ems, just because they don’t go to the Hall doesn’t mean they’re bad.
    Emily is confused. Aren’t all worldly kids immoral? Because they don’t know any better? That’s why they’re supposed to tell them about the Truth, and what they can do to live forever. Maybe Lenora really is Witnessing to them.
    â€” It doesn’t? Are you sure? Are they going to start coming to the Hall with you?
    â€” Yes, I’m sure they’re not evil. But Mom and Dad wouldn’t understand, so keep quiet.
    â€” Why was Marla wearing black lipstick?
    â€” Because! Lenora throws up her hands.
    â€” You ask too many questions! Because she likes the way it looks.
    â€” Oh. Do lots of people look weird at high school? Are kids mean like in elementary school?
    Lenora sighs.
    â€” It’s different. Bigger. There are lots of different kinds of kids, from all the different schools. Yeah, there are some nasty ones, but it’s easier to get lost in the crowd because it’s bigger. And most people don’t already know you, so you can start over if you want.
    â€” What do you mean, ‘start over’?
    â€” Be someone new. Be more yourself. If the other kids and teachers don’t have anything to compare you to, you can, I don’t know, be another person. A new version of yourself. Better.
    Emily doesn’t know what to say. Their parents and the elders are always telling them to improve, to try harder to please God, but this doesn’t sound like the same thing to her.
    â€” Is it like having an alter-ego?
    â€” Something like that.
    â€” Did you start over? Are you someone else now? Lenora shrugs.
    â€” Don’t worry. I’m the same as ever.
    Emily doesn’t feel reassured. Black nail polish, worldly friends, swearing. None of it goes with the perfect Lenora she’s used to — the elders’ favourite, straight As, never getting in trouble. Now she’s practically admitted that she has a double life. The changes must have been so gradual that Emily didn’t even notice, but now it’s as though her sister has turned into someone else overnight.
    â€” Girls! It’s time to go!
    They head downstairs to go to the meeting. Lenora puts a finger to her lips.
    â€” Shhh. She grins. Emily looks away and touches the cold, taut belt.

8

    AT THE MEETING, THE MAIN topic is immorality. Didn’t one of the elders just give a talk about that recently? Emily knows they are living in the Last Days , but why so much about that? Lately it’s either immorality or demonism. Sometimes she wishes they’d just teach them more about how to Witness to kids at school, or maybe do some short plays in costume like at the big summer assemblies. She never falls asleep during the dramas. She leans over to her mother and whispers.
    â€” Didn’t we just have a talk about immorality?
    Her mom shrugs.
    â€” I don’t know.
    Emily turns her head; her mom’s breath smells bad, like the medicine Emily has to take when she has a cough.
    There are rows and rows of brothers and sisters in the red, itchy chairs and Emily tries to count them, but loses track after forty-seven, and her dad will get mad if she keeps turning around to look at people. Everyone is facing the front, listening, nodding, looking up the scriptures that Brother Bulchinsky tells them to read. He is as skinny as his wife is fat, and bent at the middle, leaning forward, awkward, in his wire glasses and a light grey suit. Pointy like a safety pin, Emily decides, and tries not to smile.
    â€” Temptation is everywhere. His high, squeaky voice makes Emily look away, embarrassed. It’s hard to be afraid when Brother Bulchinsky tells you to be.
    â€” The worldly media — magazines and pop music and television and movies — are full of fornication and adultery. They’re trying to tell you it’s okay to live without any morals, that sin doesn’t exist, but it