june

july

THE DAY Juniper Jones met Leo Smith was a summer day like any other. The Sun was as big as saucers above their head and the wind was hot and baked. Juniper was out roaming the town on her bike, steering clear from her house as much as possible. She didn't exactly enjoy lunches at her house with her family, especially when both of her parents were present. (They were a bunch of annoying people, her family.) She would much rather spend her summer afternoons looking for silly things to do than tolerating her parents bicker over the most trivial things possible.

But there were not many places for her to go though. It was a pretty small town and she was on strict orders not to go wandering around outside her mother's calling range. But it's not like she ever listens to orders anyway. Especially if it comes from her mother. So she did just that. Without thinking twice she paddled down the empty streets, passing the lone cinema hall, and the practically deserted at this time of the day shops. She looked for anything even remotely interesting to do or see around her but to no avail. The streets of the lonely town were lazy and empty. After a good fifteen minutes of aimless roaming, she sighed with annoyance and decided just to go home already instead of sweating like a pig here unnecessarily. But as she was about to leave, she heard a loud dramatic screech along with a crash coming from the back alley. And of course Juniper went to see where it came from because, Juniper Jones's curiosity was enough to not just kill a cat, but a tiger too.

She half paddled- half jogged down to the alley and parked her bike by the entrance. The view in front of her was quite funny actually. Two girls, possibly around 11 years old, were surrounding a very terrified boy of around juniper's age. The boy had a pretty small frame compared to the bulky older girls. He was on his butt on the ground with his hand supporting the rest of his weight and was trying really hard to keep a brave face. But it was pretty futile since his bottom lip was quivering like nobody's business. She wouldn't have guessed that the noise had come from that boy if she hadn't heard the second screech coming from his mouth. The girls in front of him laughed out loud at that and threateningly inched towards him.

"You're such a little baby.", one of the girls said laughing at him. She made an exaggerated high pitched scream to mock him.

"I'm-I'm not a baby", the boy stammered, "and I'm not scared." The girls laughed out again at that. "Oh really? Then why don't you get up and fight us hmh?" With that, they both crossed their hands across their chests and kicked dirt towards him while giving an even more menacing glare than before, as if challenging him. The boy seemed to have gotten two shades paler at that but still for some crazy reason he shakily stood up. Just when it seemed that he was about to say something (probably beg for forgiveness ) one of the girls swung a punch at him. The boy bent over at that, almost kneeling to the ground when they again punched him, this time on the back. The poor boy's groan sounded almost like a dying cat. Juniper finally stopped silently laughing at that and decided it was time that she goes in and helps the poor guy out.

She made quite the entrance (which juniper loves) as she screamed, "Hey!" standing in front of the alley with hands on her hip. All faces whipped towards her. "Leave the kid alone," she said. ( the boy was probably almost her age but juniper liked feeling older). The girls were confused as to who this random girl was and why she was trying to butt in on their business. Juniper walked towards them in dramatic steps as if she were trying to tell them she was a big girl who wasn't scared of them. The boy had stood up by now, confusion still lacing his face.

"What did you say?" asked one of the girls. "I said leave the boy alone." replied Juniper. With that Juniper walked towards them and stopped right in front of the boy facing them. One of the girls replied haughtily, "And why should we listen to you?" Without missing a beat Juniper said, " Because or else am going to punch you until your nose is Niagara falls." (Someone gasped at that, probably the boy.) "You really seem to have guts for such a scrawny girl. Millie here has never lost in a fight, ever" the girl said pointing towards her friend. The other girl, Millie, smiled with her tooth agape ( and one missing tooth) as if to prove her point.

The poor boy was sure this was gonna be his last day on earth and seemed to slump back in defeat when he heard Juniper say, "Well, that's good. Because I've never lost in a fight either." It was clearly nobody believed her as the girls started laughing. The boy urgently whispered, "What are you doing?!" "Don't worry I have a plan" Juniper whispered back. He hardly looked like he believed her but he kept quiet. Juniper again whispered to him, "When I say run, sprint with me as fast as you can. " The boy uttered a confused "huh??" But before he could ask what she meant Juniper suddenly screamed, "RUN" and without wasting a second dashed towards her bike.

 Both the girls and boy stared at her running figure with shock for a second. But the boy seemed to have recovered quickly and ran for his life after Juniper. Soon enough he could feel the girls starting to run behind him too. Somehow Juniper and he both hastily got on her bike and she started paddling like a madwoman. By the time the two girls got on their own bikes, she was already speeding away.

The air was racing past them slapping their hair onto their faces, as Juniper paddled as fast as she could. The boy switched between looking back at the girls and screaming at Juniper, " GO FASTER!" Somehow Juniper was able to create some distance between them and the girls and before they could catch up to them again, she swerved sideways and went inside a narrow alley, while the two girls being misled kept going forward. Juniper and the boy held their breath waiting to see if they come back, but when after a good while there was no sign of them coming back they finally could heave a breath of peace and get down from the bike.

They both stood with their backs to the wall, panting heavily. The boy seemed to be visibly afraid of what just happened and seemed shaken as if he had seen a ghost. Juniper laughed out loud at that. " Are you okay?" she asked, hints of laughter still in her voice. Compared to the boy, she seemed to have enjoyed the rendezvous and was smiling all over. "I-I'm okay", the boy replied shakenly. "Thank you" he meekly added too.

"What were they after you for?" Juniper asked him. The boy sighed and said, "I wouldn't give them my banana cupcake." At this, he seemed to have remembered something and took out a battered cupcake from his pant pocket. His face fell at its questionable sight.

Juniper stared at the boy's face and then back at the cupcake. "You did that for a cupcake? Why didn't you just give it to them when you know you wouldn't have been able to win against them and get beaten up?" "But it's my favorite flavor", the boy replied in a small voice and carefully unwrapped the broken cupcake. He nervously took a bite from it. By the way his face lit up at the first bite Juniper had no doubt that he loved this cupcake. " Want a bite? " the boy offered. The polite thing obviously, would have been to refuse. But Juniper Jones never says no to free food. She excitedly nodded and took the cupcake from his hand and took a large bite. For a while, they were both munching on the battered down banana cupcake silently when the boy nervously asked her, " By the way, were you really going to punch that girl until her nose was Niagara falls?" As an answer, Juniper grinned widely baring her slightly broken tooth, bits of the cake still visible on it. The boy should've been afraid at that, but if there is one thing you should know about Juniper Jones, it's that her smile is very infectious. So the boy smiled too, slowly at first, but it was soon a full-fledged toothy grin mirroring hers.

The sun was still bright above their heads but their smiles were brighter. It was a nice day to start what was soon to be a beautiful friendship.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

author's note - hello! did u like this? i really hope u did :D this story has been sitting in my drafts for sooo long. ( i finally finished it todAY, u have no idea how happy i am :) i honestly already love the story and its character, i just hope u do too <3 

(p.s: my use of punctuation is absolutely horrible ik, im so sorry TT)