Beautiful One {Lacey}

[CASPER GRESHAM]

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Casper gathered his phone from his bed and swung his bag over his shoulder. He had organised to meet Lacey in the Quad - giving her a chance to run off if she freaked out. But Cas hoped she wouldn't, he hoped she'd at least listen - even if she didn't like what she heard. Casper didn't know what to expect with someone like Lacey - especially with how the conversation had turned the moment Simon entered the chat room.

But he didn't let it faze him, instead he grabbed his guitar and a picnic mat and headed out to the quad, setting up under a nice shaded tree. He looked at the time on his phone and, realising he was still early, tuned up his guitar, taking his time to make it sound perfect. He still had the worship songs to learn. Making the most of his time he began plucking the strings, leaning back against the tree trunk.

Beautiful One, I love you. Beautiful One I adore. Beautiful One my soul must sing...

Casper hummed for a moment, using the hand that wasn't strumming to open up his bag and pull out his notebook and pen. That should be an A minor, he said to himself, crossing out something written in his notebook and adding in something else. He was surprised he could read his scrawled writing, still it was better than nothing.

He looked up as he head someone approaching, the smiled spread wider over his face. So she hadn't given up on him. Well this was a good start!

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laceywacey
tag
hereoutfit
thebeatlesmusic
boomshaketheroomnotes

[LACEY LOPEZ]

I wonder if trying to hook up with a Christian boy will give me double torture in hell. Lacey thought to herself before gliding her lipstick over her lips. She was sitting in the quad on a picnic table, staring at her homework that she was supposed to be doing. She figured maybe being away from her house would help her focus more. Well, Lacey was wrong. Completely wrong. She found herself more distracted than ever. All she kept thinking about was how stupid this homework was. Even though it was a whole lot less than the crap she had to do at UCLA, it was annoying as ever, especially when she knew she could do it.

It wasn't like Lacey wanted to hook up with a church boy. She just wanted to hook up, and he just happened to be a church boy. Lacey doubted that they would even hook up. She figured she'd hear what this dude had to say about God, and then leave. No hug, no kiss. Lacey pouted at her own reflection at this thought. She needed someone new to fuck with. It wasn't like Simon was getting old. Oh, no way was Simon getting old, but she and Micah were done with for now, so she needed another dick. If this didn't work out, maybe she'd try to hook up with a girl.

Lacey was listing all the girls that would be willing to hook up with her until she heard light guitar strumming. Her head whipped behind her, searching for where the sound was coming from. She squinted her eyes toward a large tree where she saw a head of dirty blonde hair. Lacey raised her eyebrows, realizing that it was probably Casper. She stuffed everything into her bag, and stepped out of the bench. Lacey looked down and readjusted herself before sauntering over to the tree where Casper was scribbling in his notebook.

Lacey smiled at Casper breathlessly. "Hey! That was really pretty. What song is that?" She glanced at his guitar before settling herself down across from him. Lacey used to watch her brother play guitar all the time. She had wanted to learn, but when her brother said she had to have shorter nails to play, she turned it down almost immediately. Lacey looked back up at Casper, repositioning herself on her knees. She leaned back on her legs, trying to prevent herself from slouching. Slouching was just unattractive. Let's just get this over with, so I can go back home and call Simon to complain about it. God, he was so right all the time.

notes:[/b] YAY. I LOVE CASPER <3333
Outfit. There's not purse in the outfit, just imagine, ok. SHE HAS AN INVISIBLE PURSE. It's the latest thing. Shhh, just believe me.[/font]

[CASPER GRESHAM]

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Hey Lacey! It's great to see you. Casper smiled and waited for her to get comfortable. He was surprised at her questions and looked at his guitar for a moment as if it was written on the wood. Oh it's a worship song - one of my favourites actually, he said with a smile, putting his guitar to one side, and pulling out his notebook. He bit the inside of his cheek as he flipped through the pages. He sat up on his knees, looking from his book to her and then back to his book.

He was surprised in his own confidence that he had so boldly asked a non-Christian to hear his talk, but he really did want an honest opinion. He looked over to her and smiled, pointing to her wrist, That's a really pretty charm bracelet? Do you remember where you got it? I'm looking for something to give to my sister for her birthday - but I'm terrible at gift ideas! he grinned and then looked down at his notebook once more.

So you're definitely up for this, yeah? Not going to run from me when I start talking? he asked with a smile as he sat up a little straighter. To be fair the first bit is just stories - and I haven't finished the 'Bible bit' yet so the most you'll hear is once verse. Don't panic, I won't unload the entire contents of the bible onto you - not yet anyway he added with a smile, trying to make her feel more comfortable around him.

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[LACEY LOPEZ]

Yeah! It's nice to see your cute face in the flesh." Lacey said with a quick wink, making sure he saw it. She eyed the guitar that was resting beside him. She bit her lip befor e leaning over and grabbing it, placing the instrument in her own lap. "My cousin was in a mariachi band, and tried to teach me how to play." Lacey let her thumb strum the strings once in a downward motion. "Then I quit when he said that I needed to have shorter nails to play." She shrugged and put the guitar back to his side, scooting a bit closer to Casper.

She leaned slightly, trying to read his notebook upside down. Her head was tilted to the side when she commented on her bracelet. "Oh. Pft, this old thing?" She raised her wrist, shaking it, making the charms hit each other. "No, I don't actually. My aunt got it for me in Puerto Rico." She smiled at him. "But I know where I can get one similar to it. I can take you after this." She pointed to his notebook, gesturing him to move on.

Lacey giggled nervously at his question. "No, not really.." She ran her finger trough her hair once. Lacey laughed again softly. "Okay, okay. Let's do it." She added, trying not to roll her eyes and keep a smile on her face. She made a mental note to try out for the next play. Lacey was a damn good actress when she wanted to be.

[CASPER GRESHAM]

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Casper simply smiled when she took his guitar and jotted something else in his notebook as she talked; grinning a little at the reason she gave for not playing the instrument. I can safely say I've never had that issue, he said, pretending to admire his terribly kept nails. He was lucky they were still in tact, most of them were broken down to the skin - he had other priorities than his nails. He guessed playing the guitar so often had weakened them slightly; he had never liked the plastic sound the plectrum made when he used it, so he didn't.

Puerto Rico? Wow, I've always wanted to go there - and Rio, but I think that was because of the film. Yes, I make my travel plans based off animated movies. he chuckled, flicking through some of the pages in his notebook trying to find his note for his talk. He was half tempted to stand up, but he restrained himself. He didn't want to intimidate her anymore than the thought of God was already. He smiled gratefully at her before moving around so they were sat facing each other.

Okay, Well it’s all about stories. Stories that make you laugh, stories that make you think. I heard a story about this lady in England who was driving along, she’s got her daughter in the car, Just kinda driving along the route, and there’s this sports car behind her with a young couple in it. They were kinda, racing, getting in front of this woman and kinda what happens is a bit strange, the girl who’s in the, erm, sports car, kinda gets up out of her seat and turns around to wave at the woman and her daughter in the car behind. But the weird thing is, is that she’s completely and utterly naked. You know, she’s just not wearing any clothes. And she’s waving at the women and the mom is like ‘Ahhh don’t look don’t look!”. But the girl is just kinda sitting there and goes, “Mom! That lady is NOT wearing a seat belt.” he smiled at the thought for a moment before scribbling something quickly in his book.

You know, two people saw the same thing but had totally different reactions. Like the mom is like “Ahh you can’t see that,” and the daughter is all “err, this is a heath and safety issue!”. he attempted doing different accents for each character, one of them turning a little indian while the other became more jamacan.

So umm, it’s about different perceptions. Some people will hear stories and will take them in completely different ways. You’ll hear the same information, you’ll experience the same things but you will look at it and hear it in completely different ways. Some of you will have different reactions to what you’ll hear today, and that’s okay. And, er, I wanna tell you about something that happened a few weeks ago. I was at my parents home, and we have a dog called Barney. I didn’t name the dog, the dog is ‘the families’. If it was me, it wouldn’t be called Barney. Anyway, I was walking this dog by the river, and - er - I don’t know if you’ve never had this happen to you, I got home and I went to get my keys and I had that moment where you’re like… “oh…no…where’s my keys!” but yeah, I lost my keys and you get to the point where you’ve looked everywhere and you then start looking in places they’ll never be. Like, I looked in my shoe -what is that? They’re not gonna be in my shoe! But I did look in my shoe.

Casper looked up at Lacey to check that she wasn't becoming too bored, that the stories were interesting and not just pointless. He was about to make a point...sometime.

So I’ve got the dog, I’m at home, can’t get into my home, I’ve got my mobile. So I phone Dad. “Dad, I’ve lost my house key.” I can’t tell you what he said, but it was a bit of a shouting conversation. So I need to find these keys. So I go back to this park, and the dog just doesn’t understand he’s all “But we’ve done this, we‘ve done this walk.” and I’m like “I’ve lost my key!” Trying to explain to a dog that you’ve lost your keys, he just doesn’t get it.

We’re walking along this walk again and I saw this guy, and I was like “Mate, you’ve not seen any keys have you?” and he was all like “Mate, you don’t wanna lose your keys round here,” And I’m like “Well where do I wanna lose them? Name that place where I‘d wanna lose my keys.” But yeah, I got my keys back, someone found them - it has one of those club card keyrings on it and the supermarket sent them to me.


He smiled at Lacey and pulled his bible out from behind his bag, flicking past the various sticky labels and scribbles in it until he found a verse highlighted in pink.

So what I wanna talk about is this theme of ‘Lost’ - and there’s this story in the bible, Luke 15, that says:

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." So he told them this story: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who turns their life around than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

I love this story, you know Jesus was an amazing story teller. And he tells this brilliant story about a guy losing a sheep, and how he searches for it. And there’s some great principles in here - so I’m gonna look at those and hopefully it’ll hep us understand it a little bit better.

So the sheep had just wandered off, just decided to go somewhere else. I mean, they’re not the most intelligent animal and it just decided to wander off. And the Bible sort of talks about us like that, y’know, we kinda wander off. We kinda stray from the path, away from God.

I mean, if I asked around this ‘room’ who has decided, who has made a conscious decision, pointed their finger at God and said ‘God I am quitting on you. I’m completely giving up on you, God I am walking away from you.’ Maybe there will be one person, or two people. But for most of us, we’ve just kinda strayed. Lost our sight of God.

You know my dog, Barney, we have lost him quite a few times. I’m like, it’s okay, it’s okay that we lose the dog - But we keep finding him, which is really annoying. But like, when you’re out walking a dog - I dunno if you are a dog walker? - but you sometimes see the same people. Cause everyone’s on the same route that you walk. There’s this couple that walk their dog, which is a -er - golden retreiver, called Henry - Why do dogs have human names?

I digress, this couple walk their dog, called Henry, and they lost their dog. And I kinda felt like saying “Mate, you don’t wanna lose a dog round here!” But I didn’t say that!

They found him, and I was chatting to them a bit later on, and the dog had just got a scent of something. It kinda smelt something or kinda noticed something and just strayed off. And that’s a bit like us, we kinda stray away from God.

May of us have wandered off - but there’s second principle in the story of the sheep. It’s that how hard you look for something really depends on how much you want it. That guy really wanted to find that sheep, and on that day, let me tell you it really mattered to me to find those keys. You know, maybe if it had been something else like a sweater, that just didn’t really matter, I wouldn’t have looked on my hands and knees going through the grass looking for those keys. Because I just wanted to get into my home, I just wanted to sit down, I just wanted my dad to like me. I just really really wanted to find those keys. That shepherd really wanted to find his sheep - and if you forget anything else I’ve said, maybe you’ll remember this one thing: That it really really matters to God that he finds you.

He closed both of his books and grinned at Lacey, slightly apologetically, hoping that he hadn't bored her for too long.

And that’s all I have so far. he finished, putting his bible away in his bag and uncrossing his legs. Would you like to go an grab a coffee and a bracelet and tell me how boring you found it? he asked her, hoping that it hadn't been as bad as he thought. It would be better on the night, he still had time to practice.

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