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“Juniper Woods.”
After what felt like an eternity of waiting, it was finally time for Athena to cheer on her friend. Juniper walked across the Themis Academy stage, with her head up and her shoulders straight, ready to take on the world. She stopped in front of the school’s principal, shook their hand, and then took the sleek black diploma case that was handed to her. Even when the next student’s name was called and Juniper walked off the stage, Athena couldn’t bring herself to stop clapping. Not even the noises from the crowd around her could dampen her mood.
As Juniper reached her chair, she looked for Athena in the crowd. For a few minutes, she couldn’t find her, but luckily, Hugh and Robin were only a few rows ahead and pointed her to the section of the bleachers where Athena was sitting. They met each other’s eyes, and in that instant, it felt like everything was right with the world.
Juniper was going to walk out of this school building, get her judgeship, and change the world, damnit!
Before long, the last student walked across the stage and the graduation ceremony ended. The graduates were ushered into another room to receive their actual diplomas, which meant that the audience was free to leave their seats. Athena immediately made a beeline for the front row, where she knew Juniper’s grandma and her caretaker were seated. Thanks to the caretaker’s fire engine red hair, they were hard to miss.
“Athena, honey, I was worried you couldn’t make it here,” Juniper’s grandma said, “you know, you’re all Juniper’s been talking to me about lately.”
“Really?” Athena said, feeling her face flush. The red-haired caretaker must’ve picked up on it, since she broke out into snort-filled laughter, interspersed with mutterings about her being “worse than Eva and Jacob”, whoever they were.
When the caretaker finally regained her composure, she said, “Come on guys, let’s wait for Juniper and her friends outside.” Athena followed behind her as she pushed Juniper’s grandma’s wheelchair out to one of Themis’s many grassy courtyards. Funnily enough, it almost looked like the same courtyard where she and Mr. Wright had found Professor Courte’s body all those months ago.
A lot has changed since then.
Before Athena could pursue this train of thought any further, Juniper, Hugh, Robin, and Myriam all came walking out into the courtyard, still clad in their caps and gowns (and boxes, in Myriam’s case). Juniper gave Athena a quick hug before rejoining her friends and grandma for pictures.
As she stood behind the caretaker as she snapped tons of pictures of everyone, Athena couldn’t help but notice that Juniper was a bit… distant. Like she was always softly smiling for the pictures, but her eyes seemed to be focused on somewhere far beyond the confines of the courtyard. At one point, Athena swore she could see a tear start to form in Juniper’s eye. And when the caretaker (whose name was apparently Ms. Santana, according to Juniper) insisted on a few shots of Juniper and Athena together, arms around each other’s shoulders, she could hear a steady rainfall coming from Juniper’s heart. She was sad about something.
Maybe it was just the fact that she’d miss Themis and her friends? No, she knew that the four of them had made plenty of plans to see each other over the summer. And the rainfall didn’t seem to subside when Ms. Santana called Hugh, Robin, and Myriam back into the picture with them.
“Ok guys,” Ms. Santana said, “I’m getting some weird shadows around this area, so could we maybe walk over there? I think it’d have better light.”
She pointed to a part of the courtyard that was closer to one of the building’s walls. It almost looked like the spot where the stage was set up for the school festival, now that she thought about it. When the group made their way over there, the rainfall in Juniper’s heart grew into a storm.
Oh.
Luckily, after a few minutes, Ms. Santana was satisfied with the number of shots she’d taken, and bade the group farewell, wheeling Juniper’s grandma off campus. The rest of them had plans to eat dinner at a steakhouse nearby, so they started walking towards the campus exit as well. But Athena and Juniper hung back for a few moments.
“You seem really sad right now, Junie,” Athena said, laying a hand on her shoulder, “do you want to tell me what’s wrong?”
The tears that Athena sensed were building up in Juniper’s eyes finally came out, running down her face like tiny streams. Athena wasn’t sure what else to do, so she enveloped her friend in the tightest hug she could give. After Juniper cried into her shoulder for about a minute, she finally spoke.
“I just wish Professor Courte could’ve seen this,” she sniffled, “she was always encouraging me to do my best in school, I felt like I could come with her for advice at any time, she was everything I wanted to be and more. And now she’ll never get to see what I’ve become.”
Athena rubbed Juniper’s back slightly. “Do you want to know something I realized recently about my mom?”
Juniper broke away from the embrace and looked at Athena. “What did you realize?” she asked.
“A lot of things actually,” Athena said, “but one really important thing. I used to think that because my mom was dead, that she was gone from the world forever. But now I realize that I couldn’t have been more wrong.
“My mom lives on through me, and through Aura, and through Simon, and even a little bit through everyone at the Space Center. Because none of their lives would’ve been exactly the same without her. Same goes for Professor Courte. I mean, how many students was she able to guide in the right direction while she taught here? Dozens? Hundreds? What she believed will live on for a long time not just here at Themis, but through Prosecutor Gavin, and through you. Everyone has lost someone, but that doesn’t mean that that person is gone for good, you know?”
Juniper wiped the tears from her eyes with the sleeves of her gown. The rainfall in her heart had slowed down to a drizzle. “Thanks, Thena. I think I needed to hear that.”
Athena nodded, reaching up to fiddle with her crescent moon earring. “Oh, it’s no problem. Now, are you ready to go have dinner?”
She nodded, and they walked off the Themis Academy campus together.