by Seven Rue
Copyright © 2020 by Seven Rue.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distri uted in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Chapter One
Juno
“We are environmentally friendly already, Daria. We are very well aware of how natural resources can be used to create and support the life that we live. We don’t have plastic around the house. We have jars, zero waste products, and we compost and recycle everything. But you cannot make me go vegan. We’re already vegetarians.”
I enjoyed these types of mornings. Me sitting in the breakfast nook of our kitchen, while my two moms discussed how they could contribute to an eco-friendly life. Sure, I cared about the world and all the animals living in it…but veganism was a step too far for me as well.
“I think we should at least try. What if we go a month without animal products? We might enjoy all the new things we can eat,” Mom said, looking over at me with her tea in hand.
“What do you think, Juni?”
I shrugged. “I don’t think I can go full-vegan. I mean, isn’t that just eating plants and tofu all the time? And I’m allergic to soy. I don’t like almond or oat milk. How am I supposed to eat my cereal in the morning?”
“Maybe you can get used to it,” she said, puckering her lips. Mom, whose real name was Daria, was the one who birthed me. I always called her Mom, but when it came to my other mom, I used her first name to get her attention. Aggie. We decided on that when I was four years old. It was too confusing for them to hear me call out for them, and neither of them knew who I wanted to read me my bedtime story.
They’ve been married for over eighteen years, and had me almost seventeen years ago. They met at a hippie event. No idea if that was really what you called it, but that’s what they told me. Living with two moms was fun. I didn’t miss the aspect of having a dad, and both my moms were very loving. They supported me in everything I did, but of course there were times in which I wished I wouldn’t live at home anymore. I liked my privacy, and in our house, that was a very rare thing.
Our house was pretty much an open space, with the kitchen and living area being one big room. Upstairs, their bedroom didn’t have a door. Instead, a big curtain separated the hallway from their room.
And then, by climbing up a ladder, there was my bedroom. I slept in the attic, which was fairly big with a large ceiling window. When I wanted to have some peace, I pushed my bedside table over the opening in my floor.
“I don’t think I can get used to eating and drinking plants,” I told her, then got up from the table to grab my backpack. “I’m off to school. I’m hanging out with Pixie later. Don’t wait on me for dinner,” I said.
“Have fun!” they both called out.
I walked outside to get to my bike, but before I could reach it, I had to step over bags of soil and empty pots. Aggie loved her flowers and plants, but seventy percent of them took up the whole space inside and outside the house. It looked like a jungle, but I wasn’t complaining.
“Someone’s tired,” I heard Pixie say as she stopped her bike in front of the little gate of our house. I pushed my bike over to her, making sure not to knock over anything.
“I’ve been up writing that stupid paper all night. Since when do we have deadlines?” I asked. Pixie and I went to Memphis Progressive School. Since our parents were hippies, and didn’t agree with the traditional way of learning, they valued experience and wanted us to learn by doing, not by sitting there and listening to a teacher who has to follow the pace of every other school.
At a progressive school we chose our own subjects. Things we were really interested in. Before that, I was homeschooled by Aggie. We did have five classes that followed somewhat the normal school system like English, History, and Math, but those classes took place only once a week. Right now, I was learning about music and artists in the eighties, and also about recycling, since that was a huge part at home. I wanted to contribute to whatever was going on at home. Last year, I decided to do a presentation on LGBTQ+. Mom and Aggie were a big inspiration, and my teachers loved what I put together.
“Since you started to get lazier every day, Juno. You pissed Benji off a few times last week. No wonder he’s giving you deadlines.”
I sighed. I didn’t piss our principal off. He’s just a little pussy when it comes to students who tell him no. Which is the whole point of that school anyway. Us students decide what we wanna do, and if there’s something we’re not interested in, we can just go on to the next thing. We were allowed to work at our own pace.
“Whatever,” I mumbled.
Chapter Two
Juno
Our school was a big, old house. It only had three classrooms, and three teachers teaching twenty-five students, but not at once. I had six classmates, all were around my age, and the other kids were younger.
Our classroom wasn’t like a regular one. Instead of desks, we had three large couches in the middle of the room, a few carpets on the floor, and walls that were covered in paintings. Nothing matched. None of the couches were the same, each carpet had a different pattern on it. The ceilings were high, and the windows big. We would have lots of light in this classroom, if it weren’t for the constant rain and fog this time of year.
I sat down on one of the couches with Pixie next to me. Pixie was fun and adventurous. She definitely was the one that matched this school the most. Her clothes were always colorful, and her short, blonde hair was wild and different.
We had no dress code at Memphis, so mom-jeans, sneakers, and a large sweater was my daily outfit. I didn’t see the point in dressing up for school. There was one guy, Gus, who liked to come to school in either a tie or bow-tie. His hair was always perfectly gelled back, and his shoes were always shiny. Not sure how comfortable it was to lounge on the couches with a belt as tight as his, but he didn’t seem to care.
“Good morning, students,” Benji’s voice filled the room, and we all looked at him, wondering what he was doing here this early. Normally, he was in his office until lunch, and that’d be the first time we’d see him every day.
Benji was in his forties, but his gray hair and beard made him look much older. His goofy personality fit right in here. He built this school a few years ago, and parents like mine were grateful to have him. They knew we could be creative and follow our wants and needs without anyone telling us not to.
“I have some bad, and some good news,” he said, looking around the room. “Jonathan left us,” he announced, and everyone in the room gasped.
“Did he die?” Pixie asked.
“He did not die, Pixie,” Benji said. “But he decided that he didn’t want to teach at Memphis anymore. God knows why, but he left a note Friday night and, poof!” he made a bomb-exploding gesture with his hands. “He was gone. Lucky me, I have a friend who’s always wanted to come teach at Memphis. He should be here any second,” he said, looking at the door.
I raised an eyebrow. “And did your friend ever teach students like us?” I asked.
Benji turned to look at me, and he mimicked me by raising his own eyebrow. “I appreciate your concern, Juno. He did not teach students like you before, no. But he will adapt. He’s a good guy. A musician, actually. I’m sure he can help you out with your subject,” he told me with a smile. T
hanks to the small number of students at this school, Benji knew what every single one of us was up to.
“Ah, there he is,” Benji said. “Ezra, meet your new students. Why don’t you guys introduce yourselves to him, and vise-versa, hm?”
Ezra was a tall, blond, and blue-eyed guy. He looked like prince-charming, just a little less clean-cut. His hair was tugged behind his ear, and the waves in it gave him a little bit of a surfer-look. We didn’t have beaches, but we had one big lake. Big enough that it had an island on it with a small abandoned village and amusement park. Pixie and I often took the ferry over to Clark Island. We loved it over there. It was our way of getting away from the world.
“I’ll start,” Ezra said, taking off his coat. “My name is Ezra Matthews, I’m thirty-four, and I’m originally from Ontario, Canada.”
“What are you doing in Michigan then?” Gus asked. He didn’t seem too keen on having a new teacher, and honestly, I wasn’t either. I liked Jonathan. He was young, fresh out of college. But I guess teaching at a school like Memphis wasn’t for everyone. We didn’t have real structure.
“I moved here with my…girlfriend. She got a job around here, and I wanted to support her. I’ve actually been friends with Benji for a while now,” Ezra explained, pointing his thumb at our principal. “But, anyway,” he smiled, looking at each of our faces. “I’d like to know a bit more about you guys. Who you are, what your interests are, and what you’re learning at the moment. I know every one of you is studying something else, and I’ll do my best to help you all research your topics.”
“Pixie, why don’t you start?” Benji said. She was quick to stand up from the couch to introduce herself. While she did, I moved my gaze back to Ezra. He hadn’t told the whole truth about why he was here. He was hesitant as he mentioned his girlfriend, and his eyes switched emotion for a split second.
“…and I’m really into drawing. That’s why I chose to go with history of painters for this semester.” Pixie was done with her introduction, and surprisingly, Ezra was already taking notes. He was interested.
“Thank you, Pixie,” Ezra smiled. “Would you like to go next?” he asked me.
I gazed at him for a while, then looked at Benji who was giving me an encouraging look. He knew I wasn’t the most talkative student in this school, and I avoided talking as much as possible. But I couldn’t just sit there and not tell our new teacher who I was and what my interests were.
I sighed, and as Pixie sat back down on the couch, I got up. “My name’s Juniper, but everyone calls me Juno. Uh, I’m seventeen soon, and at the moment I’m studying eighties music as my main subject.”
“Eighties! I know everything about that time,” Ezra bragged with a smug grin, and I shrugged at him, letting him know that I didn’t really care.
“I like to do my studies on my own. So, I probably won’t be talking to you much.” I sat back down and put one foot on the edge of the couch to sit more comfortably.
“Actually, she could use some help,” Benji told Ezra. “But we’ll talk about that later.” Benji shot a warning glance in my direction, and I rolled my eyes. “I’ll leave you guys to it. Be nice to Ezra. And, Juno? Come to my office at ten.” He then looked at Ezra and said, “you too.”
Chapter Three
Juno
“All right, Juno. Let’s head upstairs to Benji’s office,” Ezra interrupted my quiet time. I was lying on my back on one of the couches, reading a book about Def Leppard’s success in the eighties, and I was pretty much into it until he came.
I looked at him and sighed, putting the book down on my stomach. “Right now?” I asked.
“Right now. Come on, he’s already waiting.” Ezra pulled one hand out of his front pocket, then held it out for me to take. I looked at his hand, but didn’t accept his help. I sat up, put the book down on the couch, and got up on my own.
“Independent,” Ezra muttered, and I raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes. Thanks for acknowledging it,” I responded and walked out of the classroom.
He followed me up the stairs to Benji’s office, and without knocking, I entered. “Will this take long?” I asked. “I’m in the middle of finding out what it’s like to be on a tour bus for a whole year.”
I took a seat in one of the arm chairs in front of his desk, and Ezra sat down next to me. “That sounds interesting, Juno. I won’t take up too much of you guys’ time, but since you’re the only student in this school who’s a little rebellious at times, I would like to let Ezra in on the passive-aggressive feud we have going on.”
Benji and I didn’t dislike each other, but there was something about him that rubbed me the wrong way at times. For an example: he wants us to take our time learning, but then starts pushing us to work faster. How contradicting was that?
“You see, Ezra. Juno likes to take her time with her studies. I’m not saying she’s slow, but she likes to stay behind while everyone else is already onto their fourth or fifth project. We have one main subject they can learn about all semester long, but then they have one more thing to study over two to three weeks before finding something new they would like to learn about. Juno has been doing research about recycling for over a month now, and I’ve told her to finish the paper by today.” Benji looked at me with a raised brow. “I hope you finished it,” he said.
“Check your mailbox,” I told him. “I’ve sent it to you this morning at around three.”
“You did?” he asked surprised, quickly turning to his computer to check his email.
I chuckled, looking at Ezra and shaking my head. “He’s got no faith in me. How am I supposed to stay motivated with him not believing in me?”
Ezra let out a soft laugh, then nodded to agree with me. “She’s got a point there, Benji.”
“Don’t turn on me, Ezra. She’s a little devil. Just you wait and see. Sooner or later, she’ll annoy you by literally doing nothing. It’s like witchcraft,” Benji said, and I chuckled again.
“You’re too sensitive, Benji. If anything, I’m trying to stay away from you to let you catch a breath and have time for other students. I don’t wanna bother you, you know?”
“I know, that’s why you can start bothering Ezra with your laziness. I tell you what, Ez,” Benji said, turning to look at him again. “If you somehow manage to make her work harder and faster, I’ll promote you to best teacher here at Memphis.”
“I haven’t even taught yet,” Ezra said, and I started to find this little get-together quite amusing.
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll bring you lunch every day or something. Just make Juno work harder.” Benji turned to look at me, then let out a heavy sigh. “I want you to take up two new subjects. Anything. I don’t care what it is. Just choose two and have the papers done in a month.”
“Two in one month?” I exclaimed. “Benji, no one else has to work that hard in here,” I complained.
“Others work harder than you do every day, Juno. Whatever topics you want. Anything,” he repeated hopefully.
“Can it be porn?”
“Christ, Juno. No. No porn.”
“But I’ve never had sex-ed. I’m sixteen. I should know about protection and all that,” I protested. I saw Ezra bite back a grin, and he rubbed his hands over his lips to not laugh. Glad I was amusing to him.
“Porn has nothing to do with sex-ed. No porn. No. Porn. But maybe you can look at…I don’t know, nudists? That might be interesting,” Benji suggested.
I laughed, shaking my head. “I’m just messing with you, Benji,” I said as I got up from my chair. “I already know enough about sex.” I puckered my lips and gazed at Ezra. “When do you want me to tell you my two new topics I wanna write about?” I asked.
He was still trying to hold back his amusement, and as Benji shot him a glare, he cleared his throat. “Uh, on Wednesday. Write down what your goal is, some questions you have before doing research. We’ll look over it together on Wednesday.” I nodded, giving him a quick smile before leaving Benji’s office.
Chapter Four
Juno
“Good morning, everyone,” Ezra greeted as he walked into our classroom. It was Wednesday, and I had enough time to think about two topics I wanted to learn about in the next month. It was not only the end of September, but also my birthday. The thirtieth.
I woke up with my moms holding a plate with cake on it under my nose. Aggie baked it, and to Mom’s luck, it was a vegan cake. I tried it, but it tasted…wrong.
After eating breakfast together, Pixie walked into our home and sat next to me at the table, handing me a present. I didn’t ask for anything this year, since Mom and Aggie already got me a new bike last summer. But Pixie insisted on accepting her present, which was a gift card to my favorite diner in town. They had the best burgers, and I liked going there with Pixie at least once a week.
“Do you know what you wanna study?” Pixie asked, and I nodded, keeping my eyes on my hands. We were both comfortably sitting on one of the couches, with my head on her lap and her feet propped up on the small coffee table in front of her.
“Why don’t you guys go ahead and start with your new papers while Juno and I look at her ideas for next month?” That was my cue. I turned my head to look at Ezra who was taking off his coat and hanging it over the chair next to his small desk.
“Juno?” He looked at me with a raised brow, then nodded to the back of the classroom. There were two arm chairs and another small coffee table. I sat up and grabbed my papers, then followed him to the back of the room.
“I see you’ve got something written down. Tell me about your ideas.” We sat down and I put both my papers on the table, then picked one up and held it toward him.