Stacie's Mom...

"No Mark you cannot go out on a date with this Stacie Girl: I have never met her OR her folks and don't want you getting in some kind of trouble." Luke Barrister said from under the body of the 89 Buick station wagon he was working on while his younger brother Mark and younger sister Wendy asked him if Mark could go out with Wendy's new friend Stacie Downs. Luke had been enough to let Wendy hang out with her at the mall, that was at least a public place and Wendy was the more responsible of his two younger siblings for all that she was 17 to Mark's 18. This 'Stacie' was apparently Mark's age, a month or two younger, and lived in Springfield where Luke and his siblings were lifetime residents of Shelby. The two towns didn't get along ever since Springfield won out over neighboring Shelby for the County Seat over 111 years ago, but to Luke and his siblings that was all ancient history, no more relevant to their lives than if their great great great grandfathers had fought for the Union or Confederacy during the Civil War*.
*(Which in point of fact there were some on each side of that ledger, plus a profiteer who sold to both sides, a German who was on another continent at the time, and an Arapaho Chief into the bargain, but they knew none of this.)

"Is that your only objection?" Mark asked.

"My main one, yes." Luke replied, voice muffled by the intervening car.

"Great, I invited Stacie and Abigail over for dinner tomorrow this afternoon, you just have to call them and tell them it's okay." Wendy said and Luke cursed as he scraped his knuckle on a bolt.

"Wendy, what have I told you about inviting strangers over to our house?" He said sliding out from under the car while holding his scraped knuckle with a rag.

"Their not 'strangers' Luke, me and Mark have met them both and their nice: Stacie's in AP mathematics classes and Abigail is a manager at a grocery store, it's not like they're a pair of hitchhikers we picked up on Route 20." Wendy countered, better at debate than either of her brothers.

"Okay, fine! I will call them and leave a message that I would like them to come over tomorrow, but you both will come home promptly after school, leave your cars in the drive way, and help me cook the dinner, understood? Do they have any allergies you know of?" Luke demands and then asks.

"No, but Abigail is a devout Catholic so they only eat's fish for protein on Fridays: and don't even THINK about skipping saying a grace or using an irreverent one or else she might decide WE are not a good influence." Wendy replied.

"Huh, catholic girl? You sure you want to get mixed up in this Mark? I have nothing against Catholics as a rule, their just ordinary folks same as the rest of us, but dating can lead to marriage, and marrying a catholic means marrying her faith too..." Luke said as he put a bandage on his finger.

"Stacie's not nearly as serious about it as her mother, and ever since her father walked out on them, she has been questioning the lifestyle." Mark said, handing his older brother the socket wrench again.

"Also, Stacie told ME that her mother has not been to confession in over a month, and that she saw her reading books on Hinduism and Shinto a few weeks ago, and since then she has been spending time on 'Bible Hub' on the web. You ask me Abigail's faith in 'The Church' is slipping a bit." Wendy commented, seemingly offhandedly, while playing some game involving a lot of explosions on her smart phone.

"Alright, but before you get serious with her or anyone else you make sure the 'Faith' issue is settled. I've seen it tear apart more marriages while working here since I turned 16 than any single other thing except infidelity." Luke responded from back under the Buick. "By the way, aren't you two supposed to be doing your homework right now?"

"I got an advanced list for mine from my homeroom teacher on Monday and it's been done for the week since yesterday." Wendy commented, still playing her game, then muttered: "Eat me 'Leet Krakow Fifty-Nine', that will teach you not to use cryo troopers against a cannonade squadron!" after a particularly long string of explosions.

"Mark?" Luke asked.

"Didn't have much today, finished it during study hall, all except the three chapters in Northrup’s Translated 'Utopia' we are supposed to have done by Monday." Mark replied.

"Question then, would you rather start on your reading or go get us some dinner? This poor thing's oil is black as tar and I am going to have to use a double 'flush and rev' to get it clean which will take an hour at least and I am hungry already."