Page 2 of When October Starts

“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. Thanks 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.”

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