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      TOM PERROTTA

      

       The Abstinence Teacher

      

Copyright

      Fourth Estate

       An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      This edition first published in Australia in 2008

      First published in Great Britain in 2008 by Fourth Estate

      First published in USA in 2007 by St. Martins Press

      Copyright © Tom Perrotta 2007

      The right of Tom Perrotta to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780007261000

      Ebook Edition © MARCH 2009 ISBN: 9780007319473 Version: 2017-03-29

       For Joe Gordon

       And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.

      —THE GOSPEL OF MARK

      Table of Contents

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Epigraph

       Part One - Some People Enjoy It

       Chapter 1 - Miss Morality

       Chapter 5 - Praise Team

       Part Three - Coach Tim's God

       Chapter 6 - So Be It

       Chapter 7 - Yusuf Islam

       Chapter 8 - God's Warrior

       Chapter 9 - A Big Day for the Lord

       Chapter 10 - Refresher

       Chapter 11 - Two Tims

       Part Four - Presentation of Fears

       Chapter 12 - Go Home to Your Wife

       Chapter 13 - Faith Keepers

       Chapter 14 - Good Morning

       Keep Reading

       Acknowledgements

       Also by Tom Perrotta

       About the Publisher

PART ONE Some People Enjoy It

       Miss Morality

      ON THE FIRST DAY OF HUMAN SEXUALITY, RUTH RAMSEY WORE A short lime green skirt, a clingy black top, and strappy high-heeled sandals, the kind of attention-getting outfit she normally wouldn't have worn on a date—not that she was going on a lot of dates these days—let alone to work. It was a small act of rebellion on her part, a note to self— and anyone else who cared—that she was not a willing participant in the farce that would unfold later that morning in second-period Health & Family Life.

      On the way to homeroom, Ruth stopped by the library to deliver the grande nonfat latte she regularly picked up for Randall, the Reference Librarian, a fellow caffeine junkie who returned the favor by making the midday Starbucks run. The two of them had bonded several years earlier over their shared revulsion for what Randall charmingly called the “warmed-over Maxwell Piss” in the Teacher's Lounge, and their willingness to spend outlandish sums of money to avoid it.

      Randall kept his eyes glued to the computer screen as she approached. A stranger might have mistaken him for a dedicated Information Sciences professional getting an early start on some important research, but Ruth

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