When October Starts Read online

  “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.

  “In the rain?” he asked with a raised brow.

  I looked up into the gray sky and shrugged. “It’s perfect for what I have in mind. What are you doing out here in this weather?” I repeated his words with a smile, then looked back into his eyes.

  “I was at Benji’s. It’s his wife’s birthday,” he replied, not adding any more to his answer. Do teachers always hang out on a Saturday?

  “Well, I gotta go or else I’ll have to wait for the ferry to get back.” I pressed my lips into a thin line.

  “Mind if I join you?” he asked, surprising me.

  I furrowed my brows, then tilted my head to the side. “Why?”

  “I’ve never been to Clark Island. And I can also see what you’re doing for school,” he said with a shrug.

  It seemed odd that he wanted to spend time with me on an abandoned island. He’s my teacher. Didn’t he have better things to do?

  “Okay,” I replied. I didn’t want to be rude. If he wanted to come, then he could. “You should get a ticket. It’s five dollars.” I nodded to the booth Marcus was sitting in. He has worked here for years.

  I walked over to him, and Ezra followed. “Hi, Marcus,” I greeted, and he smiled at me as wrinkles covered his face.

  “Hello, Juniper,” he replied, then nodded to Ezra who was now standing next to me. “Need a ticket?” he asked.

  “Uh, yes. A two-way ticket, please,” he said, and Marcus quickly tapped one button on the screen in front of him and printed a ticket for Ezra. After paying, I said bye to Marcus and walked on board of the ferry, with Ezra close behind me.

  “How often do you go to the island?” he asked as we entered the covered seating area on the boat.

  “Once a week or so. I love it over there. Pixie and I used to visit it every day in summer when we were little.” I sat down on one of the chairs, and Ezra took a seat opposite of me. His umbrella was now closed, and he leaned it against the chair next to him, letting the water drip to the floor.

  “I see.” He looked around and took in everything. Then, his eyes moved to my backpack, which was already soaking wet. I didn’t mind, since I wrapped a plastic bag around the camera on the inside. His eyes lifted, and as they met mine, I put the hood of my raincoat down.

  I smiled, not wanting to frown at him without even noticing, and he smiled back. Ezra was a handsome guy. He was calm, and I could tell that he had a lot on his mind. “What do you do if you’re not following one of your students to an abandoned island?” I asked.

  He chuckled softly, leaning back in his seat and putting his right ankle up on his left knee. “I’m usually home. Playing my guitar or reading a good book.” He stopped, then eyed me for a while before he continued to talk. “Is this too awkward for you?” he asked.

  “No. I didn’t think you would wanna come with me. I enjoy company,” I told him, keeping my smile in place.

  He nodded, and one corner of his mouth curled up as his eyes stayed on mine. “How’s sculpting going?”

  “Great. I’ve tried different types of clay this morning with my moms,” I replied.

  “Moms?” he asked amused.

  “Yes. I have two moms,” I replied briefly, not wanting to go into it more. Some people were downright disgusted when I told them my parents were lesbians. When I was younger, I used to call people out on their ignorance and nasty words they threw my way when they heard about Mom and Aggie, but as I got older, I started to just ignore the weird looks we got when we were out together. I loved them, and they were my everything.

  “How’s that?” Ezra asked with a
soft smile, sounding interested in my family.

  “It’s fun. I don’t know what it’s like to have a father, but…I’ve learned just as much as Pixie, who does have a dad.”

  Ezra didn’t move his eyes away from me, and the longer his gaze lingered on me, the more I started to enjoy it. There was something about him that made me relax and not overthink for once. Something about him was incredibly soothing. But it shouldn’t have been.

  Chapter Six

  Juno

  We arrived on the island, and as if it was planned, the rain stopped falling. I turned my head to look at Ezra as we walked along the path toward the amusement park, and I could tell that he was fascinated by his surroundings.

  “Do you like it?” I asked.

  “It’s nice, yeah. I see why you come here often. It’s…a peaceful place,” he said.

  I nodded. I enjoyed every second I spent here, and sometimes, I wished I didn’t have to go back home. This place was deserted most days, but some tourists or elderly couples like to come here to spend a day, walk around, and enjoy the silence.

  “Pixie and I often go for a swim here in the summer. There’s a little beach close to the Ferris wheel.”

  “Take me there,” he told me with a smile, and I couldn’t resist him. He was so damn sweet, yet there was some sort of control in his voice making me want to do whatever he wanted.

  I nodded, and as we walked along the water, I pulled my camera out of the bag to get some videos. The trees and bushes were turning yellow and red, and I then remembered how pretty this island was in autumn.

  Turning the camera on, I held it up to my eye and looked through the viewfinder. While it was recording, Ezra kept quiet. I could feel his eyes on me, and I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable.

  Why was he staring? He was my teacher. Teachers shouldn’t stare, right? But after a while, and after feeling my cheeks heat up, I started to enjoy his eyes on me. No man has ever looked at me the way Ezra had.

  I put the camera down to look at him, and as I caught him look at my lips, he didn’t bother to look away. He kept his eyes right there, and after a few seconds, they moved up to mine.

  “What’s the movie about?” he asked, not acknowledging the fact that he had just been staring at me.

  “Uh, I haven’t finished the script yet, but it’s about nostalgia. That’s what I feel when I’m here,” I told him. “It’s silly, but in a place this empty, my heart couldn’t get any fuller.” I looked around, watching the trees sway in the wind and single drops of rain falling around us.

  We stopped by the Ferris wheel, and as I looked up, I could feel Ezra’s eyes on me again. “What else do you feel when you’re here?”

  I smiled at his question and turned to look into his eyes. “Joy. Tranquility. Comfort.”

  “And what do you feel when you’re not here?”

  He was trying to help me with my project, and I appreciated it. His questions made me think, and it helped me set the mood for the movie I wanted to shoot.

  “Nervousness,” I replied, keeping my eyes on his. “As if there’s a storm inside of me.”

  *

  Ezra

  There was a lot going on in her head. Her way of talking fascinated me. She chose her words carefully, yet it seemed as if she just let them run free without thinking too much about it.

  Maybe it was a mistake coming here with her, but there was something so fucking intriguing about Juno that I couldn’t stay away from. She pulled me in, and I let her. Of course, I worried about someone seeing us hang out, but on Clark Island, I felt that we were hidden from the world.

  I still had to be careful. I didn’t want to get fired for spending time with a student outside of school, and although I didn’t intend on getting too close to her, there was always the possibility of people interpreting it wrong and getting me fired.

  Staring at her would also have to stop. She was beautiful. Her hair was a dark shade of red. It probably got lighter in the summer, but in this time of year, it matched the red leaves falling from the trees. Her deep blue eyes matched the lake surrounding us, and I slowly started to understand why she liked this place so much. She fit right in. Not just the colors, but also her personality. Her characteristics. She was quiet when she needed to be. She was sarcastic, and whenever she did open her mouth to talk, her words made you think.

  “Wanna sit down?” she asked, pointing to an old, rusty carousel a few feet away from the Ferris wheel. Everything about this park was impressive.

  “Do you know how old this park is?” I asked, following her to the carousel where she sat down in what looked like a tea cup. I sat down too, making sure to leave enough space between us.

  “It was built in the sixties, but it was quickly abandoned after the people who worked here didn’t get paid enough. Visitors didn’t have to pay to ride any of these rides, so they protested. It went downhill from there,” she said with a shrug.

  “How do you know all this?” I asked, watching her closely as she lifted the camera and pointed it in my direction. “What are you doing?” I chuckled, running my hand through my hair.

  “Don’t move,” she said, looking through the camera while she answered my first question. “I’ve done some research. Wrote a paper about it,” she explained.

  She kept filming me, and her smile slowly faded.

  “Juno,” I said in a low voice. “You’ll have to delete that footage.”

  I didn’t wanna risk anything, and she knew what we were doing wasn’t okay. Even though we were just hanging out…a teacher shouldn’t spend time with his student outside of school.

  “I know. I will,” she said softly, finally putting down the camera and setting it back into her lap. Her eyes were on mine again, and the depth in them was astonishing. She didn’t look away, and I was trying my best not to get lost in them.

  Chapter Seven

  Juno

  I took videos of almost every single part of the island. I had an exact vision of what my movie would be like when it’s done, and what I had on my camera made me excited to put everything together.

  “Maybe I don’t have to use Pixie in my movie. Maybe I can focus my movie on nature.” We were walking along the path leading back to the ferry. It was already getting dark out, and I was expected home before eight.

  “I mean…” I looked up at Ezra. We were walking next to each other, a little closer than we should’ve. “I would’ve used her to spice the whole movie up a little with her looks. Sometimes she doesn’t seem real to me,” I said quietly, looking back to my camera and replaying the videos I recorded.

  “She does look like she came straight out of a fantasy movie,” Ezra agreed.

  I smiled, and before we arrived at the dock where the ferry was already waiting, Ezra put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me from taking another step. “You have to delete those videos of me, Juno,” he told me.

  A video of him looking at the old rides of the amusement park was playing on the small screen, and I lifted my gaze to look at him. “I will,” I told him, knowing that if he wasn’t going to force me to delete them right there in front of his eyes, I wouldn’t get rid of them.

  “You know I would never show these videos to anyone. I think they’re beautiful. You look good on screen,” I confessed, keeping my voice low.

  His eyes stayed on mine once again, making me feel warm and tingly inside. Maybe coming here together wasn’t such a good idea after all. What I was feeling was not okay, not when the guy making me feel that way was my teacher. He couldn’t keep his eyes off me. But that didn’t make this whole situation okay. Right?

  “Let’s go,” he whispered, then nodded to the ferry.

  If we weren’t student and teacher, it would still be wrong to have certain fantasies about him. He was twice my age, and that was illegal.

  I pushed those thoughts aside, kept the videos of him on my camera, and finally followed him along the deck to board the ferry.

  We sat in silence and
I watched the rain disappear in the lake. It was only a twenty-minute journey back to land, but it felt like ages as we sat there, trying not to make eye-contact with each other. At least, that was what I was trying to avoid.

  I could feel his eyes on me again, and naturally, I had to smile, feeling my cheeks turn red again. “Maybe you should take a picture of me so you won’t have to wait until Monday to stare at me again,” I said, lifting my gaze and meeting his. “Unless your girlfriend would have a problem with that.”

  His knee touched mine, and only in that moment I noticed how close the rows of seats were. I looked down, not minding his touch. Our legs didn’t move, and I looked back up at him.

  “No girlfriend,” he said calmly, lifting the corner of his mouth slightly.

  “Last week you said you came here because of your girlfriend,” I pointed out, and he nodded.

  “That’s the truth. It’s just that she moved out of town a while ago, and I stayed here,” he explained.

  “Why?”

  “Because I like the city. I’ve only been here for a few months, but it’s got something about it that feels like home. Besides…I’ve found a nice group of friends who I play music with. Not really regularly, but it’s fun. I play the guitar.”

  I studied his face for a while, moving my eyes to his lips, his jaw, and then back to his eyes. “Don’t you miss your family back in Canada?” I asked, our knees still touching.

  “I do. But I talk to them regularly. I’m not too far away from home, and I can head over there any time I want. It’s a quick trip.”

  “I see,” I said, smiling at him and then looking back at my camera. I brushed my thumb along the screen, and got lost in my thoughts while Ezra kept his eyes on me.

  “Promise you won’t show those videos to anyone,” he said quietly. “I don’t mind you looking at me in those videos, but if someone finds them, I don’t think I will be teaching at Memphis much longer.”

  He didn’t want me to delete them? I lifted my gaze again, nodding quickly. “I promise,” I said with a smile.