Chapter Text
Themis Academy has always done things both extraordinarily and exorbitantly, and their graduation ceremonies are no exception.
The courtyard that had once been ready for an outdoor concert last time Athena was here has since been lavishly repurposed for the day’s festivities. The stage is decked with two rows of chairs for the school’s illustrious professors, all facing the seats for the graduating class that sit in front of the stage. Those are then surrounded by bleachers for the audience of family members and loved ones. Each professor has donned their own graduation caps and gowns with various cords and stoles across their shoulders that match the colors of their instruction course or clubs and honor societies they sponsor. Their tassels bounce with every step they take until they reach their upholstered folding chair and sit.
It’s all so, so much. So fancy and regal and blinding that Athena finds herself bewildered. Is that noise just in her head or is that the school band to the right of the stage tuning themselves?
She looks down at the pamphlet in her hands and runs her fingers over the gilded lettering, marveling at the foil and the intricate design and texture of the school’s emblem. Trucy on her left tilts the pamphlet left and right and left and right to watch the way the sunlight catches on it and refracts. Out of the corner of her eye, Athena can spy the exact moment Trucy inevitably gets bored of this game and huffs, tossing her arms down at her sides and sagging her shoulders.
“When’s it gonna start, already?”
Athena shrugs and offers a toothy smile the instant that response gets her a dry look. “Dunno. I didn’t go to my graduation ceremony, so I don’t have a clue what these things are normally supposed to be like.”
From the other side of Athena, Juniper’s grandmother tutters. “Soon, I’m sure. They are starting rather late, though. Schedule here says they should have started three minutes ago.”
“Besides, I told you that you didn’t have to come, Trucy,” Athena adds.
“Yeah, but then you would’ve been as bored as I am, and that would’ve been much worse for everyone here. Don’t you agree, Ms. Woods?”
Juniper’s grandmother laughs and doesn’t answer—which might as well have been an answer in and of itself.
“Hey!” Athena digs her elbow into Trucy’s shoulder. Trucy laughs, shoving back.
As if on cue, the school band strikes up a singular high note. Then, Pomp and Circumstance swells from the pit, filling the open courtyard with far too much brass that’s far too easily off-pitch and far too grating on Athena’s ears. When Juniper’s grandmother turns, Trucy and Athena mimic her, leaning forward and looking towards the corner of the courtyard closest to the gym.
After a moment, the graduating seniors finally step out onto the lawn and under the LA sun in a neat, perfect line. Their valedictorian and salutatorian march at the front, smiling brilliantly.
If she were to be honest with Trucy, Athena thinks her heart has been beating a little too fast the entire time they’ve been waiting to even think of being bored. Her breath catches in her throat now. Her pamphlet wrinkles in her hand. She barely remembers to scramble for her phone and take pictures like she promised Junie she would. But every snapshot feels not enough; they’re slightly blurry around Juniper as she glides across the grass, or too grainy from zooming in so much. Or, they’re at a bad angle that doesn’t show Junie’s face properly.
They all aren’t enough.
“Junie sure does look really nice out there, huh?”
Athena’s eyebrows lift as a small, whimsical sigh escapes her. Her hands drop to her lap.
Even if she wasn’t wearing the white stole of the judge course, and even if she wasn’t also wearing the cords of the student council, and even if she wasn’t valedictorian leading her peers to their seats, Juniper Woods would still stand out from everyone else.
With her hair braided into a handsome crown, interwoven with miniature sunflowers, Junie looks like a forest nymph. Robin had done her make-up in the hours before they all left together for the ceremony, and Athena would be lying if she tried to say that the artist hadn’t outdone herself. Those touches of shimmering gold and silver eyeshadow… her dark and lovely mascara… the subtle rosey shade for Junie’s lips, just a touch darker than their natural hue… Athena’s gut is doing somersaults and folding in on itself all at once.
“Yeah,” she murmurs. “She’s gorgeous.”
Trucy giggles.
Half-a-second later, Athena jolts in her seat. Instinct makes her swat the side of Trucy’s knee with her pamphlet. Trucy gasps and swats her back with her own pamphlet just as fast.
“You are so damn obvious, Athena—”
“—you don’t have to say it that loudly! Juniper’s grandmother is right here!”
“Yeah, and you just literally outed yourself by giving the most dreamy sigh I’ve ever heard. You’re as bad as Polly!”
“You take that back! No one’s as bad as Apollo.”
“Are you two alright?”
“Yes, ma’am!” Trucy and Athena straighten up at the same time, smiling innocently at Juniper’s grandmother. From the look on the woman’s weathered face, she doesn’t believe them.
As soon as Juniper’s grandmother turns back to the procession, Trucy giggles and pokes Athena’s arm anyway in perfect timing to match the giddy sing-song of her voice as she says, “You are!”
“No, I’m not!”
Juniper’s grandmother just gives a quiet admonishment of, “Girls,” which is enough to get them to sit straight and keep their hands to themselves as the last of the graduating glass arrives at their seats. Funny, how Athena knows she is nineteen, but sometimes doesn’t always feel nineteen.
Trucy brings out the worst in me, I swear.
The superintendent of Themis stands up to speak and introduces the Class of 2028. The clapping that follows fills the courtyard alongside whooping and hollering—a lot from Trucy and Athena themselves, shamelessly playing overexcited fools. Athena doesn’t know if Juniper can hear them from where she stands, but regardless, she smiles as if she had.
Through the introduction and initial speech that follows, Athena finds a restless energy zipping underneath her skin. Her legs bounce. Her hands fiddle with the pamphlet and phone over her thighs. She drops them into her lap, only to pick them back up a moment later, not done fidgeting.
When at last it’s time for the valedictorian speech, she almost goes hoarse, watching Juniper stand up from her seat and march to the right of the stage, where a short set of stairs are built into the side.
“THAT’S MY GIRL!” she shouts, cupping her hands around her mouth as Juniper reaches the podium. Athena flushes deep red, instantly clapping and hollering more, hoping no one thinks too much of her exultation. Trucy elbows her side, snickering endlessly and leaning into Athena as if she can’t sit upright on her own anymore. As everyone quiets, Athena slaps a hand over her mouth to keep herself from giggling. Trucy reluctantly straightens.
The adrenaline rush is crazy. Athena’s heart is pounding in her chest—and for what? Just to hear Junie speak?
No, she tells herself, taking deep breaths to calm her bouncing nerves. Juniper adjusts the microphone, angling it lower and closer towards her mouth. To be able to witness Junie being the most important person in the room.
“Class of 2028,” Juniper begins, her voice echoing across the courtyard. “Allow me to be one of the first to finally congratulate you. After all the hard work you’ve put into this year… after all those tests… after every essay… after all those long all-nighters… you made it. Against all odds, we made it. Congratulations. This moment is both well-earned and well-deserved.”
They clap again. Every few minutes: clapping, clapping, clapping. But Athena can’t find it in herself to mind. This is for Junie. If it’s for Junie, she’ll clap until her hands fall off.
As the applause dies down again, Athena cups her chin in her hands and watches the girl who was once nearly too afraid to sing on stage grasp the ends of the podium and speak with such presence and such power that Athena doesn’t remember from when they were children. Her heart soars. Junie, Junie, Junie, her mind sings. Everyone’s watching and listening to you. Isn’t that incredible? How does that feel? Intimidating? Amazing?
You’re going to make a wonderful judge someday.
“It would be a lie to say that I didn’t know what to say when I first sat down to write this speech. But the real problem was: there were too many things I wanted to say.” Meekly, Juniper smiles and ducks her head down so her chin brushes her collar. “Those of you who know me well are probably not surprised to hear that I did lots of research before I even wrote down a single word. I watched all sorts of valedictorian speeches of Themis graduations from years past…”
Trucy leans over to Athena’s side. “Ah… an overthinker.”
Athena—and Juniper’s grandmother—nod at the same time.
“…trying to think of what it was I could say that would be new. That would be unique and memorable. It was a strange feeling to eventually realize that everything I wanted to say were all things that had been said before. Every single word.”
Juniper takes another pause. Then, she lifts her head and looks out at the rows and rows of her peers in front of her. Though her face is a little red, a little flushed, a little strained, and Athena can tell because of the slight wobble of her heart that she’s nervous, so nervous—she’s doing wonderful. Athena wishes she could will across those feelings and that confidence she has telepathically to Juniper so Juniper could receive all of that positivity and assurance.
Juniper inhales and continues. “But then I realized: this isn’t the pinnacle of our lives. Though this moment is great, and it feels great, and it rightfully should feel great because—um—if I can be so bold as to say it, I actually do think we deserve this, and to feel good about everything we’ve accomplished, because it’s rather a lot when you think about it—”
There’s a whistle and cheer from the student body that starts up a whole other round of applause through everyone else. Athena joins in enthusiastically.
Juniper, bashfully smiling, clears her throat and the crowd quiets. “But, um, what I say here isn’t what I have to be remembered for. In fact, most people will forget it the instant this lovely ceremony is over. After we’ve all moved our tassels and stepped across this stage, this part of our graduation will become a vague memory. And I wrestled with that for so long, because I couldn’t help but think: what’s the point of saying anything here, if these don’t have the potential to be the most important words I will ever say or the most important words you will ever hear? But then, I realized… maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe this speech was never about words in the first place.”
Athena’s gaze softens.
“There have been countless graduation speeches that state this important truth: that this ceremony is just the beginning. It signals that a chapter of our lives is ending. Now, we must begin again and go forward onto pages that aren’t yet written. And maybe that is what is the most important part. That is what will be unique and memorable: how and what we shape our futures to be. The fact that we were kind, that we helped someone when they needed it, that we gave more than we should. Yes, the words I say here won’t be remembered tomorrow. But what you do with your lives from this point on will be. Actions speak louder than words. So maybe all that needs to be said isn’t something grandiose and revolutionary—maybe all that I need to do is encourage you to make the world a better place. As you go from Themis Academy, leave every space that you have entered better off than you found it. In saying this, I think my words will have done the most good that they could. I’ll have said everything that was ever needed to be said.”
“So congratulations, Themis Academy’s Class of 2028,” Juniper says and gives a brilliant smile that dimples her cheeks. “It was an honor to be your Student Council President, and it is an honor to be your Valedictorian. It will be an honor to walk across this stage with you as we make this leap from being students to being leaders.” She ducks her head and almost bumps her graduation cap against the top of the microphone. Her tassel dangles widely. “Thank you.”
Then she turns and with a hand at the side of her cap, makes her way to the side of the stage again.
The student body stands in an eruption of overwhelming noise—a roar of shouting and whooping that hurts Athena’s ears. But she bears it, because she wants to add to the volume. She claps and yells, and occasionally has to stop to cover her ears, but she loves this. She loves this because they love Juniper and honestly, she wouldn’t want it any other way.
She hopes, just a bit, watching as Juniper returns to her seat and as her back gets clapped and shoulders shook and arms elbowed by all of her surrounding classmates, that she remembers this moment.
Well-earned and well-deserved, indeed.
“That was so cool!” Trucy cheers, skipping ahead and leaning close to Juniper’s side. “I’ve never seen a high school graduation in person before. Makes me excited for me and Jinxie’s one day! I thought your speech was very lovely, by the way. You have such a presence on stage!”
“O-oh, do I?” Juniper’s face flushes very pleasantly, very prettily. With her hair still braided into a crown and most of her make-up glittering her face—now that she’s taken her graduation robe off and thrown it over her arm—Athena can see the dress she has on underneath: pale pink with swirling, sparking gold accents covering the tulle in a winding, vine-like pattern. The ribbon wrapped around her middle comes into a cute bow at the small of Juniper’s back. She looks stunning and looking at Juniper is quickly becoming dangerous because last time Athena glanced her way, she nearly jaywalked straight into oncoming traffic.
Now, now. Stay on the sidewalk, Athena, Juniper’s grandmother had said, knocking the bottom of her cane against Athena’s ankles. 발 조심하렴.
Right, right. Sorry.
On Juniper’s other side, Robin vigorously nods. She folds her hands behind her back. The skirt of her own satin red dress swishes around her knees with her every bouncing step. “You really do! Like, when you sung for the school festival in that concert with Prosecutor Gavin! You looked really G-O-O-D! Confident!”
At the tail end of their group, Myriam murmurs, “I have the picturessss if you doubt yourself.”
“That’s… a relief to hear.” Juniper gives a sigh that might have been a laugh. “I felt like I couldn’t stop shaking today. There were so many eyes on me.”
“You couldn’t tell at all.” Trucy shakes her head.
“Coming from you, Trucy, that means a lot. Thank you.”
As usual, when they finally arrive at Eldoon’s Noodle Cart, Trucy is the first to take a seat, hopping on the stool at the end of the counter and spinning around it once. Athena and Juniper help her grandmother sit before they follow suit. Hugh, Robin, and Myriam pull over three excess stools to sit at the curve of the bar at the edge of the cart as Eldoon huffs, giving their large party a once over.
Trucy and Athena don’t need to say a word; Eldoon has their usuals memorized. But he turns his back after taking three more orders of tonkotsu’s—one spicy—and two vegetarian, and after that, Athena turns to Juniper on her left.
She tries her best to ignore how close their arms are, how narrowly they keep brushing against each other as all seven members of their party are crammed onto the same side of the noodle cart.
“So,” Athena hums. “You’ve done it. You guys have finally graduated. What’s next for everyone?”
Robin leans over Hugh and Myriam, wrapping an arm around their necks and pulling them in to either side to burst: “Hugh, Myriam, and I are going to be studying at Ivy University! And we’re gonna be R-O-O-M-M-A-T-E-S! These overgrown, useless slugs aren’t gonna be able to escape me for a whole other year, haha!”
“Let go of me,” Hugh grumbles at the same instant Myriam mumbles, “I resssssent that.”
“Hey, that’s where my Daddy went to university! That’s so exciting!” Trucy taps her chin in thought. “But if all three of you are gonna be roommates—not to point out the obvious—but that probably means you aren’t staying on campus?”
“You betcha! If we tried to be roommates on campus, I’d have to sign everything off like I was still a guy and stuff. Blech! No siree! And secondly, I ain’t chancing being stuck with a roommate who doesn’t know me, or trying to somehow deal with their weird rules for dorm-life with a T-E-N-F-O-O-T-P-O—”
“—yes, I think they get the point, Robin,” Hugh huffs. After a minute more of a struggle, he finally manages to get her off of him and straightens his glasses. “But as Robin was saying, yes. As you’d expect, the three of us have been approved for a garden apartment a block from campus. It’s extremely convenient for several reasons—one of the biggest, besides Robin’s comfort, is not having to compete to find parking with other commuters, especially during the winter months. We can just walk to campus.”
“You can walk. I’m gonna bike.”
“And slip on the iccccccccce.”
“H-E-L-L-O? We live in Los Angeles? When’s the last time you’ve seen ice, Myriam?”
Juniper’s giggle draws Athena’s attention back to her like a showstopper. Athena grins, propping up her elbow on the wooden counter and resting her cheek against her curled fingers. “How about you, Junie? Are you going to Ivy, too?”
“Um.” Juniper flushes, snapping her head around to Athena. Suddenly, her back is very straight. “Actually… no. I’m not.”
“Oooooooooooo,” Trucy murmurs. “Breaking the mold of your peers, I see.”
The red on Juniper’s face deepens. Tomatoes. Athena’s enamored with it and the way Junie is always so expressive. “I suppose you could say it like that. But um. No, actually, I’m… going abroad to study.”
“Abroad?” Trucy echoes.
Athena freezes.
“Yes. Um. There’s a judge by the name of Justine Courtney. She has a highly acclaimed fast-track apprenticeship program for those studying to become a judge. It’s through a university in Vienna, so I’ll be gone. For a while.”
All at once, Athena’s heart stutters to a stop. “Wait, Vienna?” she rasps. “Like, the capital of Austria, Vienna?”
Juniper nods.
“Since when?” And why am I only hearing about this now? It’s pathetic; it has to be, the way Athena’s chest squeezes so tight she straightens up and grasps for the edge of the counter. And just in time, too, because Eldoon takes that opportunity to place their bowls in front of them.
Juniper gives a small shrug of her shoulders, picking up her chopsticks and breaking them apart. “Since I first got accepted into the program. I got my acceptance letter around the same time that you were in Khura’in, Thena, so I didn’t really have the opportunity to tell you. Sorry. It’s very competitive; Justine Courtney is a well-known name in the judicial field. Her program is said to only accept the best of the best.”
“And that includes O-U-R Junie!” Robin bursts after slurping up a noodle. Her face scrunches. “Augh! S-A-L-T-Y!”
“That… that’s amazing, Junie.” It feels a little weak coming out of her, but Athena means it. She does. She’s just… blindsided. Slowly, Athena reaches for her own chopsticks. “That’s really… so, um. When are you leaving?”
“The end of the summer. Beginning of August.”
Oh, okay. That eases some of the tightness in Athena’s chest. She nods and takes a breath, blowing onto the first hot noodles she pinches. “So you still have some months, then, before you go?”
Juniper nods again.
“Yep! Enough time so that we can go do all our normal best-friend-summer-stuff before she has to head out! Like Disneyland, and—”
“And,” Juniper’s grandmother murmurs from Athena’s other side, “she’ll have time to spend with her grandmother before she goes.” With a sigh and shake of her head, she adds, “It will be so quiet at home without her while she’s gone.”
Juniper reaches over Athena to touch her grandmother’s hand. It earns her a soft, fond smile, and some quiet words in Korean.
Athena turns to Junie and her friends, eyebrows lifted. “Wait, you’re going to Disneyland?”
“Sure are!” Robin enthuses, practically kneeling on her stool now with her elbows on the counter. “It’s a tradition! We try to go every summer, but that doesn’t always work out… but this year, no matter what, we H-A-V-E to go—we just graduated! It’s like a celebration trip!”
A celebration trip, huh?
An idea sparks in Athena’s mind: a potential she hadn’t considered before. She nearly drops her chopsticks in her bowl in her rush to get her hands together. She begins cracking her knuckles, pushing one hand against the pad of her opposite hand’s palm.
Trucy grins. “That sounds fun! Y’know, I hear that place is pretty magical—”
“—y’know!” Athena bursts, leaning forward. “I’ve never been to Disneyland before!”
Robin gasps as if scandalized. It’s a big, almighty, and dramatic gasp from deep in her gut; dry and ghost-like. Her hands slam down on the wooden counter. “You live in LA and you’ve never been to Disneyland?!” she screeches at the same time that Hugh says, “That isn’t that uncommon, you know.”
Myriam makes a scoffing sound low in her throat from behind the rim of her noodle bowl.
Athena shakes her head, trying to keep from laughing. “I haven’t always lived in LA. I’d love to go, though! Like Trucy said, that sure does sound like a lot of fun.”
“It S-O is!”
Juniper nods. She covers her mouth as she finishes chewing some pork, then says, “If you want to join us, you’re more than welcome. We’d love to have you. You’d have to buy your own ticket, but I’ll give you the date and time so you can meet us there.”
Score!
“Perfect.” Athena grins a mile wide. She slurps up her next noodle with more fervor; the high levels of salt make her skin tingle and her tongue scream, but it’s a pleasant sort of feeling, now. Buzzing. Near electrifying. “I can’t wait!”
It isn’t until after they’ve said their goodbyes, ready to part their separate ways for the evening, and it isn’t until after the newly graduated Themis gang has walked out of earshot with Juniper’s grandmother walking at their center, that Trucy thrusts out an arm, blocking Athena’s way before she can start their own walk back to the Agency office.
Athena freezes. She looks down at Trucy’s arm, then at Trucy herself, who isn’t looking at Athena. Her eyes are fixed on the screen of her phone.
“Uh, hey.” Athena sets her hands on her hips. “What’s the hold-up, chump?”
“First of all,” Trucy begins before Athena’s even done talking. Her nose is still in her phone. One-handed, her thumb flies over the screen. “We can’t walk. Daddy wants to pick us up in your car.”
“What?” Athena lets out a groan. Her hands fall down to her sides; she looks up at the pinkening, softening sky that melts more and more the further and further the sun drips down to the horizon. “But the Agency’s only like, a five or ten minute walk away! That’s a two minute drive!”
Trucy shrugs. “He says he needs the minutes. You know how it is. You were doing the same thing last year with your permit.”
“I swear LA is the most inconvenient city ever to get a driver’s license in.”
“Second of all.” Trucy sends whatever text she had been working on and pockets her phone in the heart bag attached to her hip. Then, hands free, she crosses her arms over her chest and sticks out said hip, giving Athena a disapproving look.
Athena waits in the silence, blinking. “Second of all… what?”
“Did you know you have this thing you do? Where you crack your knuckles or fiddle with your hands when you’re coming up with a plan?”
“I do?” Athena looks at said hands now, fanning her fingers out, palms up.
“You’re thinking of asking Juniper out.”
“I—” If it was possible for steam to come out of her ears like in the cartoons, Athena’s pretty sure it would have. Her deer-in-the-headlight gaze snaps back up to Trucy. Her hands hover in the vague space in front of herself, not quite sure what to do with themselves anymore. “Hey! Sometimes you’re the one who’s as bad as Apollo!”
At that, Trucy breaks out in a cheeky grin. She lifts a finger to brush against the bottom of her head. “I’ll take that as a compliment. So am I right?”
Athena’s gut swims. To mask it, she huffs and looks away. “What if I am, huh? Is that wrong? I like Junie; we established that this morning. We’ve known this for—for months! Of course the natural step is to ask her out before she leaves to go study abroad. She’s going to be gone for who-knows-how-long! The time to act is now before she’s gone!”
“But see, that’s the problem.” And then Trucy’s face gets very sad. Her crossed arms in front of her chest look less intimidating and more like she’s hugging herself. “Junie’s leaving.”
“Exactly. So I need to ask her out as soon as possible.”
Trucy shakes her head. “No. She’s leaving.”
“And?”
“Are you sure now’s the best time?”
“How are you not as sure about this as I am?”
“C’mon, Athena. Think about it. Are you really going to ask her out right before she’s gonna be halfway across the world and focusing on pursuing her dreams?”
Athena hates how much that makes sense. Forget swimming; her gut pinches and takes a sharp nosedive down to her toes, competing to be an Olympic diver. She looks away, biting the inside of her cheek. “We… we’ll just do a long-distance relationship until she gets back! People do that kind of thing all the time. We wouldn’t be the first!”
“Yeah, but…” Trucy winces.
“It’ll be fine. We wrote letters to each other all the time growing up! We can do that again, but this time we’ll have more tech. So we can Facetime, and stream Netflix, and—and—and there’s lots of other things to do, too! It’ll be fine! We’ll be fine!” Athena puffs up her chest with a deep and wide lungful of air before she shouts, “I’m Athena Cykes and I’m gonna ask Juniper Woods out and we’re both gonna be fine!”
Trucy’s mouth falls into a lopsided slant at the same time that Athena’s yellow bug pulls up next to the curb.
It takes a minute for the hazard lights to pop on. Then, it takes another minute for the driver side window to roll down. But the instant it’s finally lowered, Mr. Wright’s beaming face greets them with a toothy, ear-to-ear grin. “Heya, you two! Practicing those Chords of Steel, huh? How were noodles?”
“Salty, chewy, and absolutely unbearable!” Trucy perks up and skips over to the car as if nothing was wrong. “I loved every slurp!”
“Sounds like Eldoon’s, alright.” Mr. Wright laughs to himself. He looks out to the sidewalk, and then cranes his head to look at Trucy in the backseat. “Is Athena coming too?”
“—yeah, yeah! I’m coming!” Athena jerks to attention, shaking her head. With her hands fisted at her sides, she hurries over to the bug, skirting around the hood, and hopping in the passenger side seat.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt,” Mr. Wright says as Athena’s seat belt buckles with a click. “Looked like you were deep in thought there.”
“I was.” I am. “But it’s fine. I’m gonna get it sorted out.” Athena nods to herself, turning to look out the passenger window for the short blink-of-a-drive back to the Agency. She fists her hands over her thighs and settles her mouth into a long, determined line as she glares at the silhouette of her own reflection. Because operation: ask Juniper Woods out before summer’s end is just getting started.