JANUARY 1968

Seven-year-old Juniper Clark stared out the window of her father's car as they pulled into the iced driveway of their new home. She sat there, unmoving, as her parents climbed out and grinned at the house.

"Junebug?" her father chuckled, tapping on the window to stir her. Her eyes didn't move from the ice particles that had formed on the glass until he opened the door.

Jim Clark watched his daughter with a small frown. "Is everything okay, Junie?"

Juniper's blue-green eyes flickered to her father's. "Yes, daddy. I'm just cold."

She didn't understand why they had moved from sunny Florida to the little town in Wisconsin called Point Place, much less in the middle of the winter. She had always dreamed of getting out of her hometown, but this wasn't what she had in mind.

"Well, let's come inside. The neighbors want to meet us."

Juniper wrinkled her nose. "Neighbors?"

Jim laughed quietly, picking her up and carrying her to the adjacent home's driveway. "Yes, Junebug. Neighbors."

As Juniper's mother joined her husband and daughter, a tall woman and a tall man emerged from the doorway. June wasn't as fixated on them as she was on the boy who bounded outside, tripped, and fell face-first into the snow.

An older boy gently pushed his father and mother away and ran to help what Juniper assumed was his younger brother. "Mike, get up, you're embarrassing yourself!"

"Casey, he's fine," the woman assured him before stepping toward Juniper's family with a warm smile. "Welcome to the neighborhood. I'm Angelina, this is John, and those two are Casey and Michael."

Juniper's mother beamed at her. "Well, you guys are a nice-looking foursome. I'm Lily, and these two are Jim and Juniper."

Angelina's eyes lit up. "Juniper? What a pretty name!"

Juniper smiled, she wasn't often complimented by anyone other than her family members. "Thank you, ma'am."

Angelina chuckled. "Angie is fine. Say, how old are you?"

"Seven years old, Angie."

"Well, our Michael here is only a year older than you, and I think you'll be in the same grade at school!" She turned to her son, who had already been cleaned up by his brother. "Michael, why don't you take her up to your room and play?"

Jim nodded. "That's a great idea. Go ahead, Junebug."

After a moment of hesitation, Juniper followed the boy wordlessly up to his room, where he gestured for her to take a seat.

The room was neat, with the exception of stacks of comic books lying here and there. She sat herself down in a cozy-looking chair by his closet.

Michael tilted his head at her, his long brown hair flopping to the side with his movements. "Why does your dad call you that?"

Juniper eyed him warily. "Call me what?"

"Junebug."

She shrugged. "It's a nickname."

"Nickname?" the boy frowned. "People always call me by my first name or my last name."

"Well, a nickname is a shortened version of your name."

Michael seemed to ponder the idea for a moment. "Oh. Then I'll call you Buggy, since your name is Junebug and all."

Juniper wrinkled her nose. "My name is Juniper."

A wicked grin appeared on Michael's face. "Whatever you say, Buggy."

June huffed, sitting back and crossing her arms. This boy was aggravating, but she found that it was quite entertaining. He was different from the friends that she'd had back in Florida, who were always trying to be polite.

"Do you have any friends?" she asked curiously.

"Of course I do!" Michael exclaimed. "I should introduce you to them. Maybe tomorrow. I'm always over at Eric's house."

"Eric?"

"Yeah, he's one of my best friends. I met him a year ago, when I moved here."

Juniper paused, added some numbers in her head, and narrowed her eyes at him. "How are you in the same grade as me if you're a year older?"

Michael paled. "Uh, I-"

"Did you get held back?"

"I accidentally killed the class pet, okay?"

He waited for her to start yapping on about how inhumane that was like all the other girls in his class did, but that never came. He watched curiously as she laughed once, then broke into a fit of giggles. 

"I'm sorry," she grinned in between laughs. "You have really bad luck."

Michael smiled at her. Maybe they could be best friends. "What kind of music do you like?"

Hyde had taught him that the most important question to ask when trying to make a new friend was about music.

Juniper's face heated. She was never quite comfortable talking about her music taste, as it was very unusual for a seven-year-old girl living in the sixties to like rock music.

"I- I don't know," she stuttered out.

"Well, what are your favorite bands?"

She hesitated, deciding to go along with a more mainstream choice. "Well, I really like The Beatles."

Michael nodded thoughtfully, pulling out the big word he had learned from his father's business conversations. "That's respectable. What about The Rolling Stones?"

He tried not to beam at her when her eyes lit up. "I love The Rolling Stones! My mama thinks it's weird because I'm so young and I'm a girl, but I really do like rock and roll music!"

Michael's lips twitched up at the corners. "What about The Who?"

She nodded eagerly, not having to say anything to get her point across. "And The Yardbirds!"

"I heard The Yardbirds branched into a new band called Led Zeppelin."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I wonder when they're going to release their first album."

"I hope it's soon."

The boy looked at his new friend sheepishly. She was very pretty, he thought. Her skin must have been so soft and her eyes were enticing. He wanted to make her feel safe.

Michael had never truly had a crush on anyone, with the exception of Lindy Brown in first grade, but he suddenly found himself caring more about this Buggy than he had ever cared about any other girl. It couldn't be a crush, though, he had only met her a few minutes ago! Michael didn't overthink it. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

"I guess we should get to know each other better, huh?"

June hesitated for a moment before agreeing. "Ask a question."

"Okay... If you had the choice, would you go back to Florida?"

Juniper opened her mouth to speak, but realized that maybe she wasn't so sure of her answer. "I don't know," she admitted, her long eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks as she looked down. "I've always wanted to get out of Florida, but it feels like I'm always looking for something better."

She met his gaze with a rosy tint dusted on her cheeks that Michael assumed was from the cold. "I wanted to leave Wisconsin as soon as I got here, but I think it might be worth it to stay."

Michael grinned at her cheekily. "Well, I'm glad I was able to make you feel better."

Her blush deepened, and he managed to figure out the real cause for the redness in her face. "Who said it was you?"

He cocked his head to the side playfully. "I don't need you to say it to know it, Buggy."

He laughed at her obvious embarrassment before asking another question. "Where would you go if you had to leave Wisconsin?"

Juniper perked up again, which Michael quite liked. When she was discussing something she was passionate about, she seemed to light up the room. "I've always wanted to go to California!"

"Huh," he nodded. "Maybe you'll get there one day."

Juniper offered a small smile. "Yeah. Maybe I will."

≛

Michael helped Juniper out of his mother's car as Angie went off to talk to Mrs. Forman.

"We can just go straight down to the basement. It's this way."

She cautiously followed him down the icy stairs and into the homey basement.

"Hey, guys!" she heard him call as she shut the door behind them.

Juniper was met with silence as the two other boys and a redheaded girl ogled at her from the pillow-covered couch.

"Damn, Kelso," the curly-haired boy laughed. "You're already taking girls home?"

Juniper scoffed at him. She wasn't naïve, at least not about that grown-up topic. Her mother had made it a point to educate her early on. June knew what he was implying and she found it disgusting.

The boy gave her a once-over. "And what crawled up your ass?"

She glanced at Michael, not wanting to get off on the wrong foot with his friends, but he was of no help.

"I don't know, but you're certainly not going to like it when my foot is up yours."

The redhead burst into a fit of giggles. "Oh my God, Eric, has she met your dad yet?"

The curly-haired boy shot a glare at her and the other lanky boy, who was also uncontrollably laughing.

"Uh," Michael cleared his throat, "guys, this is Buggy-"

"Juniper," June corrected.

"Yeah, this is Juniper, and Buggy, these are Donna, Eric, and Hyde."

June narrowed her eyes at Hyde. "Nice to meet you all."

Hyde stuck his tongue out at her childishly. "Yeah, nice to meet you, too."

"I just moved into the house next to Mike's."

"Well, that's really cool!" Donna beamed. "It'll be so great to have a girl to talk to rather than these dillholes."

June laughed quietly. "And it'll be great for me to have a girl to talk to, too."

"You're welcome in our basement anytime, June," Eric offered.

"Thank you."

"Oh, this is sappy shit," Hyde sulked.

"Hyde, be nice," Michael warned, sending a look over at his friend.

"I'm sorry," he cleared his throat jokingly and approached Juniper, taking her hand in his. "Wonderful to meet you, madam."

She watched as he placed a kiss on the top of her hand and smirked before teasingly smacking his cheek. He dropped her hand and the room was silent for a moment before he started laughing, and June giggled along.

"At least she's got balls," he chortled.

"She doesn't have balls, Hyde," Michael frowned, not picking up on the metaphor. "She's-"

"Yeah, yeah, Kelso it's a fiction of speech."

"Figure of speech," June piped up.

"A figure of speech." Hyde surveyed the room. "Does anyone have incense? There's this new thing I want to try out."

≛

(not) brought to you by the very first circle

(not) brought to you by juniper's beet-red cheeks

(not) brought to you by california dreamin' - the mamas & the papas

brought to you by lissy <3