Lavender Monarch has Exactly Thirteen Fears

03. drunk astronauts

It's Monday and school feels like a raincloud pouring directly on my head. Yet, somehow, I find myself going out of the front door to walk there anyway. June is already on the pavement with his earphones in waiting for me.

"Morning," I say as I close the gate to my yard.

"What's up buttercup?" He pulls me in for a hug.

"Not much. Had to listen to my mother telling me a bunch of astrological nonsense about my star-sign or whatever again."

"I'd prefer that over screaming and being stabbed with crayons any day." I just laugh and he holds out an earbud to me.

We listen to his music in solitude. It's not really my taste. He listens to more rock and punk whereas I prefer quieter folk and indie songs. He always teases me about it saying I have terrible taste and that I don't even know a good song when I hear it. I think he is just hellbent on destroying his hearing before he turns thirty.

It starts to drizzle a little, which soon turns into fat globs of rain sliding in rivets down the sky. Our school is just over a fifteen-minute walk from our houses so we really only get driven if the weather is really bad.

Our footsteps fall into sync and I look down at the grey of the pavement, avoiding the cracks. It gives me something else to focus on besides the fact that he is walking so, so close to me.

My favourite song starts playing and I look up to see he's beaming at me. His smile reminds me of peaches and cream.

"Seemed like you were getting sick of my songs." He says in explanation.
By the time we get to school, both of us have gotten pretty wet. I really don't get why our parents won't just drive us. I look over at June and notice his curly hair has gone flat and is sticking to his forehead. It's kind of cute, but like, in a friendly way. I say goodbye to him and head over to my locker so I can pick up my biology book before class. We are working on a research program at the moment about the life cycle of an animal of our choice. I picked frogs. More specifically, the Hyalinobatrachium-Aureoguttatum (a.k.a the Atrato Glass Frog) which is a very rare breed.

Jade is already there when I arrive, leaning against the locker. She looks pretty bad-ass today, her fashion is pretty much opposite to mine. She's wearing fishnets and high-waisted denim shorts with a cropped black shirt and Doc Marten boots.

"Aren't you cold?" I ask her walking over. I have on jeans, a baggy jumper and a bomber jacket and I'm still freezing.

"Uh duh! But fashion over comfort, baby. You know me!" She smiles and gives me a hug. "You and June looked pretty cute over there by the way. Sharing his earphones."

"Don't be dumb," I tell her.

"I'm not! I know you guys are friends and all but you hang out so much and he's never had a girlfriend so just maybe he's crushing on you." She is so far off. Like if the sun was the truth, she would have fallen out of orbit a billion light-years ago.

"Dude, I've explained this to you a million times. We hang out all the time because we're best friends. That's it." She sighs and follows after me.

I drag her along with me to class and she sits beside me practically whining in my ear the whole time about how much she hates this project. She chose to research elephants which I thought was kinda boring. Another girl in our class was already doing that too.

"What are you two researching?" I hear someone say. I look up from my laptop to see Patty Waters leaning on the front of the desk and staring right into my eyes. I look away in annoyance. Patty is the biggest jerk at our school. He's on the football team and he's always hanging out with his stupid jock friends acting like an idiot. Not to mention all the horrible slurs and way in which they talk about the girls in this school. He's probably decided that I'm going to be his later conquest. But he's certainly read me wrong.