“I went to the library before work because my interlibrary loan came in, and Mrs.McLaughlin tried to get me to start a teen book club with Addison in September, but I’m not subjecting myself to that.”
“With Addison? Oh, wait, is Mrs.McLaughlin related to her?”
June nodded. “Her mother.”
Oh. The clone of Addison I saw at Hyacinth’s.
“I don’t even think Addison wants to do this book club,” Juniper continued, “but her mother thinks she needs more extracurriculars or something for her university application. I get enough flak for being a weirdo book nerd at school; why ask for more? People are still making cracks about back when I used to...” She frowned, shaking her head. “Never mind that. But then Mrs.McLaughlin mentioned that Leanne came in to check out the first Silverborn book, which is weird because I didn’t know Leanne read urban fantasy. Do you know Silverborn? It’s my favorite series. Anyway, isn’t it going against some librarian rule to tell me what Leanne is reading? That’s another reason I said no to the book club thing. Mrs.McLaughlin has no sense of privacy. Not that a book club is some confidential meeting or anything...but sometimes talking about books does feel like therapy, you know?”
“Maybe Leanne could do a book club with you,” Gia said. She was sitting on the sofa next to me, while June was across from us.
I shook my head at Gia. “Leanne was really patronizing when I met her,” I said. “I don’t think it would be great for Juniper to work with someone like that.” I’d promised to keep an eye out for people harassing Juniper.
Juniper shook her head. “No, Leanne’s fine. She’s just...” She sighed. “Leanne’s not really into books. She’s going away for university in September, anyway. She got a scholarship and everything. Thank God Mrs.McLaughlin didn’t bring up me doing the Bloom with Addison again because—”
“Hang on, Juniper,” I interrupted. “Can I cut in?”
Juniper grinned. “Of course. Otherwise I’ll keep going on forever. Mom said I talk so much because Row never did. Did you know he didn’t talk until he was almost three? He had to go to speech therapy in Niagara and everything. I’m not telling some deep dark secret here oranything; everyone knows. Everyone knows everything about everyone in Bakewell.” She grimaced, taking a home-baked cookie from a tin she’d brought out with her. “Sorry. I did it again, didn’t I? You were saying?”
My phone buzzed with a text. “One second, Juniper.” I put my cup down and checked the screen. It was my sister.
Samaya:I heard half your convo with Mom earlier. You okay?
Tahira:I’m good. Just dealing with a setback. Can we talk later? I’m in the middle of something.
Samaya:No worries. Try not to let the tiger mom get to you. She really needs to lay off sometimes.
Tahira:Congrats on getting the math camp position! Let’s FaceTime soon.
Samaya:TY! Later!
What had I been saying? “So, Juniper, I was just wondering...I saw your brother making this flower thing yesterday...why aren’t you doing the floral competition with him and Leanne?”
She shrugged. “I can’t.”
Gia snorted. “They’re stupid if they don’t want you.”
“They do want her,” I said. “Rowan told me he asked you.”
Juniper shrugged but was clearly uncomfortable. “I...I don’t want to be on Rowan and Leanne’s team.”
Just as I suspected—she wasn’t objecting to entering the Bloom, just to being on a team with Rowan. She might be willing to be on my team. But—ugh. Did I really want to sign up for all this Johnston family drama?
I remembered Nilusha’s words—I must reach for this connection. “Wouldn’t it be cool if the three of us were on a team together?” I tried to look like I’d just thought of the idea.
Gia laughed. Like, seriously, laughed loudly. Should I have told her this plan alone first?
I bit my lips. I was pretty sure I knew why I hadn’t tried harder to tell her about this earlier. It was the same reason why I didn’t tell her about coming to Bakewell until that day at Graffiti Alley—I thought she’d point out how ridiculous it was for me to even think this was going to help me.
I couldn’t be insecure about this—if I wanted to enter the Bloom, I had to own this decision. “Seriously,” I said. “It could be fun.”
“No,” Gia said, putting her cup down. “You and I know nothing about flower arranging. And you’re allergic to flowers!”
Juniper poured herself more tea. “I thought you hated flowers, anyway?”
I tilted my head. “Yeah, butyoulove them. This will be a way to enter the Bloom without having to work with Addison, or the Crab Apple Tree and his Perky Smug Sidekick.”
A loud throat-clearing sound startled me. A male one. “Damn it,” I said. “He’s behind me, isn’t he?”
