After getting permission from Mike, Haru took Troy and was giving him a tour of the church grounds since they still had some time until dinner. She noticed that Troy seemed pretty interested in all the things she told him about the church, that is, if he wasn't interested, he didn't show any signs of boredom, though he was a bit quiet.

They went through the classrooms, offices, upstairs classes, nursery, where they met Anna watching two kids, bathrooms, Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall, the kitchen, and at last, the youth room.

Haru watched his face carefully as they entered. She wanted to see his reaction. Troy stood there a bit dumbfounded as he blinked at the sight before him. If you stood in the doorway as they were, you would have a nice view of the room. The size of the room was about 40ft both in width and length. The walls were a painted mural of a beautiful and colorful scenery of the beach at sunset. The floor was a nice shade of blue tile that matched the scene. Along the right side of the room was a Pool table and a Foosball table. On the left side was an old pinball machine and in the left corner was a basketball hoop and two old beat up and well used basketballs lying next to it, there was also a football and a volleyball with them. The band equipment lied in wait along the back wall behind the podium with five long purple pews in front of it. The sun came in through the windows, four tall ones on each side of the room, you could tell that during the day they didn't need to turn on the lights, but the two ceiling fans above their heads helped to move the AC around, cooling the area.

Haru giggled at his dumbfounded expression. But then worried that he thought it was boring. "Do you like it?" She shoved the worry out of her mind and asked with a curious smile.

He blinked, obviously he was in thought, and looked at her. "Uh, yeah, it's pretty sweet." 

He sounded honest, and she lit up at the answer. "That's great! I'm glad you like it." He gave a small smile before continuing to look around the room.

As he was, Haru looked to her left and noticed all the paints were still out and opened with some unwashed brushes. "Oh no! I forgot to put those away yesterday! Not good, not good." She started frantically going back and forth from the room to the small bathroom just outside the open doorway, washing the brushes and saving the paints from totally drying out.

Troy seemed to just watch her with an amused face for a while before sitting down in the back purple pew. She was so focused on her mission that Troy found this a good time to think.

He was truly dumbfounded. All he could think about was the fact that this church was different than any other church he had been to. There was a different feeling in the air. It was a really comfortable feeling. Like he had been there for years yet it was such a new experience. He felt welcomed.

That's a new feeling.

When was the last time he had felt welcomed? Most assuredly not at his own house. Never.

But here? He was looking forward to being here this summer. Maybe along the way he would find out what made him feel so at home.

Troy started looking at the mural around the room. It fascinated him, but maybe that was because he couldn't draw for what it was worth. He was a terrible, terrible, artist. He couldn't imagine how long it took for someone to finish such a piece.

Then Troy had remembered Haru's previous statement, and the fact that she was picking up the paints and rinsing off the brushes like a professional...

Two plus two equals four, Troy.

"Are you the one that painted this mural?" He asked her when she returned to the room, astonished. It wasn't just her positive personality, but she also had massive talent to match.

Now finished, she blinked towards him and nodded, seemingly clueless by that fact that he sounded so surprised. "Yes, in fact I had just finished it yesterday, you're the first one out of my friends to see it complete Troy!" She smiled excitedly.

It was his turn to blink at her now. Friends? Already? Aren't there vows to take or something? Not that he would know, everyone in New York seemed to ignore him so this is the first time he's had any friends. It never bothered him because he never cared either way.

As he was thinking about how he felt about that statement, Haru also seemed in thought. "Uh oh, I promised Arron, Brooke, and Sophie that they would be the first ones, oh well, I'm sure they'll be okay with it. Though I hope it doesn't make them upset.." She trailed off.

Troy raised an eyebrow at her, and around that moment there was a loud slam from behind them. As they both turned their heads sharply in that direction, a girl stood in the doorway, she had bright brown eyes and dark auburn hair that was straightened and reached a few inches past her shoulders. She had on light makeup that brought out her natural features and lightly covered her freckles. On her ears were medium sized hooped earrings and she had simple gold bracelets on both wrists. She wore a yellow and orange quarter sleeve button up shirt with light blue skinny jeans and cowgirl boots.

Said girl looked quite surprised to see another person in the room other than just Haru, who at that moment ran up to her and hugged her tightly yelling her name. "Sophie!"

Sophie, with an 'oof ', smiled back and patted her back. "Hey there Haru." Though Sophie had a cowgirl look, she didn't have a southern accent. She looked over to Troy, who was very confused at that moment, and gave Haru a look saying to give her details later. Haru tilted her head to the side, totally clueless, and the cowgirl just looked from Haru to Troy a few times and giggled. Ignoring Troy's confused stare, she finally looked around the room and noticed the difference in scenery.

"Oh Haru! The mural is done! It looks great!" Sophie jumped up and down the room, then remembered that the boy was with Haru before she was. "Wait a minute, Is he the first one to see it complete?" When Haru nodded, Sophie laughed and then started to text someone on her ipod, which was most likely in her back pocket. "Arron and Brooke are going to flip." The girl snickered in Troys direction, and he suddenly feared for his life.

Haru looked to Sophie. "Are your dad and brothers here as well?" After sending the text, she looked back to her with a satisfied face. "Yeah, they're doing sound check in the Sanctuary for Sunday. But you'll see them soon, I just sent them a text." She suddenly had a playful look in her eyes. Troy didn't like the look she was giving him, it said, 'prepare yourself'.

For what exactly?

Suddenly, two boys ran into the room and stopped in front of the doorway. They were both around Troy's age, maybe a bit younger. They looked similar but very different. Twins maybe? One had longer ginger colored hair pulled back in a short ponytail and the other had spikier light brown hair. The ginger haired boy had green eyes and was taller than the other boy by a good few inches. He had on a black ninja T-shirt and brown shorts, along with flip-flops. The other boy had brown eyes and had on a Tobymac Eye-on-it T-shirt with jeans and sneakers.

They both stopped and looked straight at Troy. Troy blinked, suddenly uncomfortable, at the pair as they walked over to him. They looked to each other and nodded, then looked back to him."So, you're the new guy?" Said the redhead, he sounded bored almost, but amused.

"We hear you're the one that was bothering our sister?" Said the shorter one, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Haru was about to say something but then there were footsteps at the doorway, catching their attention. It was an older teenage boy with short chestnut hair and brown eyes. He had on a blue Newsboys T-shirt and jeans as well as black sneakers. He raised a brow at the twins. "Oh, am I interrupting something?" He seemed half sarcastic and half not. Troy couldn't tell which.

Haru smiled his way and walked over to him. "Hello Mark! Your brothers are acting strange. Do you know what's going on?"

Mark looked over to his brothers and noticed that they were ganging up on the new kid, and he knew why. He looked over to Sophie who was laughing at her brothers. Mark sighed and put his hand on Haru's head and patted it. "No need to worry, Sis is just having fun without us." He then looked around the room and smiled. "Nice job, it looks great." Haru smiled and nodded as thanks.

He then looked to the boys. "Blake, Ken , that's enough, you'll just scare him away." Blake, the shorter twin, looked kind of disappointed, but nodded, along with his brother, Ken, who went and grabbed a ball. "We're going to go outside and wait for Scott to show up if you need us!" They then both left.

Troy squinted his eyes at Mark. Haru looked a little too happy there, being petted like a dog. Nope, he decided he didn't like him.

The said nineteen-year-old looked to Troy and raised a brow at Haru. She also looked to him and seemed to realize something. She then dragged Mark over to stand in front of Troy, who wasn't very happy to be close to the older male.

"Troy! I forgot to introduce you, this is Mark, and that's Sophie, some of my best friends. The two boys just now were their twin brothers, Blake and Ken." She was overly happy to introduce them.

Though not as happy, Troy kept his cool and nodded to them both. "Hi." Mark nodded back and Sophie smiled to him.

Around that time there was a loud yelling coming closer to the doorway. "Is it done, is it done, is it done!?"

Then there was another voice. "Brooke, calm down and wait up!"

Suddenly a girl flew into the room. She was pretty short, maybe five foot? She had brown thick-framed glasses that fit around her dark green eyes and short brown hair that came a little past her ears with side swept bangs. She wore jean overalls and a long sleeve light purple shirt. Around her neck was an amethyst beaded necklace that matched both the light purple shirt and also her dark purple converses. Around her wrists were many rubber bracelets, all different colors.

Not long after she stopped in the doorway, another girl, taller than the last and looked older, took a deep breathe as she entered the room. She had dark brown, almost black, hair and bright blue hazel eyes. She had on a black T-shirt that said MUSIC in a cool font, dark skinny jeans and matching black converses. She also had a loose ponytail around her right wrist.

Said girl gave Brooke an irritated look. "You made me run, Brooke..."

Brooke seemed too distracted to notice her look, or she was ignoring it. She was looking at the finished mural across the room. "But Arron! It was worth it! Look around the room!"

Arron also looked around the room and smiled at the sight as she stood up straight. "I see it. It looks awesome Haru!"

As Brooke was running around the room to get a better view, Arron walked up to the small group and stood next to Mark, who smiled at her. Haru looked to her and smiled widely. "Thank you so much! I'm just glad I got it done before today."

Arron nodded. "Well, the fact that you did it in a week is pretty impressive."

Mark agreed. "You started it last Wednesday, right?" Haru nodded with glee.

Troy couldn't believe his ears, she had done this in just a little over a week? He wouldn't be able to do it in a lifetime.

Brooke walked up to them now, seeming very satisfied. "I know we saw most of it done on Wednesday, but now that it's complete, it's totally different." 

Sophie nodded and looked to Haru. "But seriously, how long were you painting everyday? You didn't pull any all-nighters did you?"

Haru scratched her cheek. "Maybe one or two? I'm not sure. To tell the truth, the week has been mixed together into one big blur of paint." They all laughed and shook their heads, but Troy just watched them.

He thought that they all must have known each other for a long time. He then made eye contact with Brooke, who was staring at him intensely. Troy blinked at her.

"Can I help you..?" He tried not to sound weirded out and she blinked at him.

"So you're the new guy Brother Mike was talking about. Nice to meet you, I'm Brooke. Oh and this is Arron."

She gestured to Arron and the said girl nodded to him. "Nice to meet you." Arron added.

He nodded to them both. "Yeah, nice to meet you, I'm Troy." They nodded and smiled to him. Man, he had said that statement quite a bit today.

Haru looked to Brooke with curiosity. "Is your brother with you today?"

Brooke thought a moment. "Yeah, he's outside with the boys."

Arron looked towards her. "Why did you have to think about it?"

As they laughed and talked, Troy found himself wondering if summer was going to be this lively the whole time. If so, he then wondered if he would make it. Would he ever get used to this?

Suddenly, there was a slam from the doorway. They all looked over and saw two boys wrestling on the ground. One trying to get his hat back from the other. The one in possession of the hat had short brown hair and brown eyes. He had on a beat up orange T-shirt and slightly ripped jeans. Both boys had cowboy boots on. The one trying to get the hat back had shaggy black hair and brown eyes. He had a white shirt on with a guitar on the front and rough jeans with a few holes here and there.

"James, Tony! Go dance outside. You're going to hurt Haru's mural!" Said Brooke with a threatening glint of her eyes.

The slightly shorter teenager with the guitar shirt scoffed jokingly at her. "We were wrestling, men don't dance."

Sophie laughed. "Ha! Say's you Tony. You're just upset because you can't dance." 

Tony gasped with sarcasm. "Oh? And you can?"

Sophie gave a look and raised a brow. She then busted some pretty good moves and in the process, took Tony's hat from the other boy, James, who pretty much gave it to her with a shrug of his shoulder. She then ran off with it, laughing like she had won some kind of war. After giving James a look that said 'traitor!' Tony ran after her. James following after him, also wanting to keep the hat away from the boy it seemed.

Troy glanced around him at the ones left around the room. Mark and Arron were laughing at Brooke, who was cheering after Sophie with a waving fist, yelling something about revenge even though the girl had already left, and Haru was smiling joyfully at them. He could only come up with one conclusion...

They were all crazy.

After a few minutes of talking, Mike called them all into the Fellowship Hall, saying it was time to eat.