“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.
Maybe working a little bit harder wouldn’t be so bad. I didn’t have anything else to do anyway. Besides, there were enough things I wanted to learn about. I just had to find my motivation to do so.
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.
“I’ve seen one of the other kids do this before, and I know Benji hasn’t thrown anything out, so I decided to go for sculpting for my first topic,” I said as he studied what I’ve written down.
“Sculpting,” he muttered, rubbing his stubbled jaw. “Sounds good to me. And what’s the goal of taking up this topic?”
“My goal is to sculpt something and learn the different techniques. But I don’t intend to spend a lot of time on it. My other topic’s a little…deeper. And I was hoping that I could prolong it until November.”
“What is it?” he asked, reaching for the other piece of paper on the table.
“Videography. I wanna make a movie. Well, a short one. I was thinking about using Pixie as the actress, and after filming it, she’d do a voiceover. I will write the script, of course.”
Ezra studied what I had written down, his eyes narrowing as he let his eyes move over my words. “Do you have a camera?” he asked, now looking up at me.
“I do. An old one. I was imagining it to be some sort of vintage movie. You know, where you can hear crackling from an old vinyl in the background or something like that. And maybe I can overlay a nice filter, so it has a different vibe to it,” I explained, hoping he would understand what I was saying.
“And you wanna work on it for two months? We’ll have to check in with Benji. But to me, this seems like a great project. Take this up to his office and tell him about your plans, all right?”
I nodded, then grabbed both papers, and got up from the arm chair. “Thanks,” I said with a smile.
“And, Juno?”
“Yes?”
“You should smile more often. Keep frowning like that and that crease will soon stay right there between your brows.”
I kept my eyes on him for a while, then slowly nodded because I had no idea how to respond to that.
“And, happy birthday,” he smiled, nodding his head toward the front of the classroom. “Benji gave me a list with all you guys’ dates and all that. So, happy birthday.”
I pressed my lips into a thin line, then nodded as a thank you. I still couldn’t talk, so I finally moved and headed upstairs to Benji’s office.
*
“Do I frown?”
“Oh, yes. You do. Often. Very, very often,” Pixie replied. We were on our way home, pushing our bikes along the sidewalk.
“It’s not an angry frown, is it?” I asked, wondering why everyone seemed to notice my facial expression other than me.
“No, I don’t think so. You’re just…often spaced out. As if you’re on another planet. You tend to have that stare, you know…you blank out and don’t respond when I ask you a question. It’s not too bad. Just a little annoying sometimes when we’re in the middle of a conversation,” Pixie said.
I sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to offend you, Pix. I’ll have to be a little more attentive. More alert.”
“Sounds like a good idea. Maybe then you’ll finally listen to me more often,” she mocked. We arrived at my house, and while I pushed the gate open, I shot a raised brow in her direction.
“I do listen to you. But maybe if you start talking about more interesting things, I might be sucked in a little more,” I suggested. I was joking, of course.
“You’re the worst,” she chuckled, getting on her bike while I pushed mine into our little path.
“I love you too,” I called out with a grin.
Chapter Five
Juno
“Aren’t you coming?” I asked Pixie as I already arrived at the lake to take the ferry over to Clark Island. It was raining, but I had my yellow raincoat on and was ready to take a few videos on the island for my project.
“No, sorry. Mom and Dad want me to help with the van. We’re renovating it. But I can make it next week. I promise,” she told me through the phone.
“All right. Don’t worry,” I said, then hung up and put the lock around my bike so it wouldn’t get stolen.
“Juno?” A familiar voice startled me, and I turned to see Ezra standing there with an umbrella in his hand and his other pushed in his coat pocket. “What are you doing out here in this weather?” he asked.
I pointed to the ferry which was waiting for the last passengers to get on, and I had to hurry if I wanted to make it. There were no other people going to the island. “I’m headed to Clark Island. I wanna start with my project. Take some videos,” I explained.