"M-maybe they're just late!" Kate suggested, shifting in her chair and glancing out into the hallway again. The classroom turned meeting room was decorated with brightly colored balloons tied to the legs of the tables, with things like "Purity Rocks!" and "Love Creatively!" written on them in magic marker. Small stacks of quarter sheets of paper were strewn on each table, listing talking points and "Fun and chaste date ideas."

"Kate, I don't think anyone's coming," Max said, giving her friend a sad look. Kate frowned, staring glumly at the tray of sweets sitting on the table in front of her.

"But I even made cookies…" Kate mumbled, despondently picking one up and nibbling on it, "It says on the posters that there are cookies!" Max walked over to Kate's table and patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"They're really good cookies," Max conceded, "But I don't think they're enough to get people to come to your Purity Club." The little blonde scarfed down the rest of her cookie, a few crumbs falling onto her white blouse.

"You're here, though!" Kate remarked, trying to sound positive, "Tell me why you came, and maybe I can do that for other people!" Max sighed.

"I came because you're my friend and I care about you, Kate," she explained, "I'm not really into this whole 'purity' thing, but I wanted to help you."

"Oh," Kate said, looking down at her lap for a moment. That was really sweet of Max, to come and help her even though she wasn't interested in the club itself, she supposed. But she'd really wanted her to be interested in the club.

"Making a Purity Pledge is actually really nice, though!" Kate insisted, trying to turn the situation around, "There are so many fun things you can do with your special someone other than sex. Look!" She reached out and picked up one of the flyers, pointing to her list. "You can go mini-golfing, or, or, you can watch a movie together in the common room! Or a picnic! Or maybe you can go to the zoo together!" Max smiled a little at how Kate babbled.

"And you don't have to worry about STDs," she went on, pointing to where she had written just that on the flyer, "Or getting your heart broken, or getting pregnant!"

"Kate, you can still have your heart broken without having sex," Max replied, trying to explain the gray area Kate didn't seem to understand between Madonna and whore, "And you can have sex without getting sick or pregnant."

"You can't be certain, though!" Kate pointed out, "The only guaranteed birth control is abstinence."

"Yeeaaah, I'm not too worried about getting pregnant," Max said, starting to gather up the flyers on the table into a neat stack, then collecting the flyers from the other tables. Kate watched her for a moment.

"Max, are you-" Kate lowered her voice and glanced around nervously, "Are you a homosexual?" Max sighed again. She had known that this was going to come up with Kate eventually. But it was pretty funny how conspiratorial the little blonde had gotten.

"I'm not sure what I am, Kate," Max stated, placing the stack of gathered flyers onto the main table, "I haven't had sex with anyone, boy or girl, but I feel like I mostly only ever want to kiss and cuddle with girls. So I guess so?" Kate breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, Max," she laughed, getting up and starting to retrieve her balloons, resigning herself to the knowledge that, in fact, no one else was coming, "That's normal. Girls are just really social and friendly by nature. Everyone wants to kiss and cuddle their friends!" Max raised her eyebrows and watched Kate, waiting to see if any realizations were about to take place. "If the culture of the world didn't tell us we needed to have sex to be loved, I bet most girls would stay chaste until marriage." She laughed and shook her head. Silly Max.

"So, you think that girls just have sex with boys so they'll keep dating them?" Max asked, helping her take down the balloons.

"Well, yes," Kate replied, "Why else would a woman have sex with a man she hadn't married first? That's when people are supposed to have sex." Max raised an eyebrow again, studying Kate. Could she really be that oblivious? Based on her tone of voice and nonchalance, it seemed like it.

"Oookay," Max said, smiling to herself, "So, do you want any help bringing this stuff back to the dorms?"

"Yes, thanks!" Kate exclaimed, leading a dozen floating purity balloons and picking up her tray, "And then you can help me eat all these cookies!" Max glanced down at the stack of flyers as she followed Kate out of the room and switched off the light behind them. "Share a tasty dessert" was number four on the list of date ideas.