part of advanced PLACEMENT: an ars PARADOXICA high school au about a gang of queer teen nerds, by @estherroberts , @podcastmecaptain, and @lizzieraindrops
all three of the aformentioned dorks are responsible for the hijinks found in this post. today though, it’s @estherroberts especially. (that’s me!)
click here for the au masterpost | track #ars placement for updates!
ALSO: things aren’t always showing up in the tags, so your most reliable bet is the aforementioned masterpost.
this is one of many individualized advanced PLACEMENT works, for the stories of each character involved. we each picked three kids to write about, and this is the second one of mine! without further ado, here’s june!
june and her family are from california
specifically, a little suburb outside of los angeles
her childhood as far as she can remember is pretty great
she’s been playing viola since she was little
she has an older brother who plays football, they pretty much stay out of each other’s way
her parents both make a lot of money, but her father gets this wild idea that they absolutely have to move back to the town his grandfather was from, and he and his wife always work from home anyway
of course, it’s point-of-exile, CO
and to june, it does feel like an exile, because she is leaving everything and everyone behind
june barlowe is 14 years old when they move, and she has lived her life blissfully believing that she is a heterosexual. she does not, in fact, really spend much time thinking about it
sure, there were gays in la. but did she have reason to talk to them? or consider that she might be one? not really
june is tiny her freshman year. tiny and scrappy and already angry, tho at what, sometimes she doesnt even know
it’s the first day, and she’s in orchestra, 6th period. she might be new to the school but she’s been playing viola for years and she knows if she cant make friends anywhere else she’ll at least have the strings
and helen, though new to high school, is not new to the kids, or somehow, the band room, or the teacher
and june is just kinda floored by her, because she’s literally so beautiful and confident and so out of june’s idea of normal that june is just like, what. the fuck.
and helen asks her what she plays and she says viola and helens eyes light up because she heard all the violists graduated and they needed new ones and sorry dear what was your name again
and june says june, and helen says, “that’s my favorite month” and june is just, like, dead
helen asks june to come to lunch with her and they talk about everything and everyone and it doesn’t take long before they already know each other’s life stories and have moved on to gossiping about everyone else
june, because she’s june and she’s cis, puts her foot in her mouth multiple times during the course of this conversation and but helen can see that she’s trying and helen is helen, even at 14, and so she explains something and gently tells june when she’s said something offensive
and june, tho performative in most of her emotions, manages to keep her cool and just nods and takes in helen’s corrections
they become friends really really fast
three months into their friendship they have their first downton abbey tea shit-talking session at helen’s house and it’s the most fun june has ever had
they make it a weekly ritual and alternate between their houses, at first with some raised eyebrows from june’s parents, but they learn to hide their judgement lest they risk incurring june’s already protective fury
or helen’s cool superiority
sophomore year things start to get rough at june’s house
her parents fight all the time and she hides in her room and practices viola as loud as she can so that she doesn’t hear them anymore
her older brother sometimes comes into check on her but he’s kind of a stoner so he isn’t too much help
and she gets worse grades and her parents are Disappointed and she gets angrier
she starts having trouble keeping all that anger inside of her
she doesn’t have the motivation or the dedication to work on improving her performance in school, the only thing she wants to do is work on her music
she still has weekly tea with helen, and when she’s done ranting about her parents she listens to helen talk about her first girlfriend, the one who later goes to boarding school
and june starts to wonder if the fluttery feeling that never goes away when she’s with helen is, well, if it’s a crush
because it certainly feels like one
she tries pushing it to the back of her mind
tries to pretend it’s not there but
she can’t really hide it from herself anymore
june’s parents, who could never stand to have a daughter make her career in the arts, push her to take up a sport
she joins track, and meets quentin, and god help her he is the cutest button ever and so smart and she helps him train and he helps her with science and he promises to join orchestra the next year
everyone on the track team ships them
early in june’s junior year, they start going out
he always pulls out chairs and holds open doors for her
he’s always ready with a sarcastic quip under his breath, usually intended for just her ears
he doesn’t flinch away from her sharp edges, literally or metaphorically, and neither is he afraid to be soft around her
and somehow, she kind of relaxes into that
they get along sooo well and there’s a Lot of physical chemistry too and she’s just, she can’t believe she’s lucky enough to be with someone like him, someone as good and generous and stable as him and someone who makes her laugh the way he does and-
and june is happy with quentin, really truly happy
and she tries to tell herself that this is enough, that this is all she needs
but god damn she’s still getting butterflies when helen plays with her hair, or holds her hand, or tells her she’s beautiful
and one afternoon they’re watching like a gay movie or something at helen’s and june is upside down on the couch with her head dangling off and she says “hey, helen” "yeah?“ "i think i’m bisexual” “that’s delightful!” “thanks”
(a side note here, if you’re wondering how helen sees her best friend june:
in helen’s eyes, june is so so full of life and passionate and she gets invested in everything and she’s impulsive and impatient and furious and so so powerful
and she loves deep and hates deeper and holds grudges and fights terfs and homophobes on the internet and goes after her goals and never holds back
and sometimes, when june’s with quentin, or laying on the couch, her legs in helens lap and clutching a pillow, sometimes, she melts
and that’s pretty much it and things proceed as normal for them
and june, who is both literally and figuratively growing into herself (shes v tol now) looks online at all the bisexual resources available to her and consumes them all
she comes out to quentin too and they have a “i’m bi!” “i’m a demi guy!” moment and it brings them a lot closer together
more on this in the quentin section
it’s early senior year now and helen and anthony are together and june’s working retail and still doing track and still playing viola and her grades are still less than ideal
and things are still rly hard at home
she can’t sleep because sometimes she hears plates breaking or cabinets getting punched
she wishes there was something she could do to fix things for her family but she can’t think of anything expect to literally plead with them to get a divorce
her brother has moved out and now there is no buffer, any anger her parents harbor at each other gets thrown onto her
so not only do her parents fight with each other, now they’re fighting with her
the mornings are the worst
they are wrought with passive aggressive sugary sweet falsities that make june want to literally rip her hair out
she can hear the venom seeping into her parents voices, she knows they can hear it in each other’s
so why are they pretending everything’s okay?
june doesn’t really deal with any of this well at all
she gets in fights at school a lot, she argues with her teachers
sometimes she just really wants to inflict pain in anyway she can and she doesn’t know why or how and it hurts her too
her friendship with the gang, however, is now fully formed. she loves them all so much? it’s ridiculous to her, that she could care about that many people?? but she does. she so does. even though most of them are so nerdy it physically hurts her.
she is FIERCELY protective of all of them, and so even though she shows no outward affection to most of them, they know she cares
one time some a-hole was talking with his buddies, throwing around all kinds of slurs with regards to esther and bridget
and june just kinda let her fists fly (again)
she got in trouble at home and at school for that
so lately she tries to defend her friends with her words
but it’s so much easier to just sort of, LOOM over assholes until they start crying
at one point, her and quentin both want to try kissing other people but they don’t want to break up so they have what they call The Kissing Week and reported back to each other on the quality of kissing
and eventually, she gathers up the courage to ask him if he’d be down for a poly kinda set up, ever, and he shrugs bc he’s an easy going guy and is like “seriously, that’d be rad, like i love you but if you feel like you want to explore other options go for it”
and she’s like "i love you too, so so much”
the distance from helen’s to june’s is not a normal person walking distance but june is not a normal person, and she is running after texting quentin to make absolutely sure he’s okay with this harebrained scheme
she has some series of vivaldi concerto playing in her headphones and she’s already halfway there before she notices and she has to stop bc she’s doubled over laughing
and like, she can’t believe she’s really doing this, i mean sure things are kind of already poly on helen’s side, what with the weird nerd thing anthony and sally have so it’s not that she thinks helen will be weirded out by that it’s just that it’s been three years and some change and she’s risking SO much on this and she’s finally saying something, and, vivaldi is still playing
she doesn’t have the heart to change the song after that and so she keeps running
and so she shows up at helen’s and she’s like, one of those gross people who looks more beautiful after they work out
and she takes out her headphones and she’s like, apologizing for being out of breath and helen’s like, “you have a REALLY nice car and you RAN here.”
and june’s like, “i had to????”
and she comes in and helen already has their tea ready and it’s done just the way june likes it and they sit down at the table and june is like, shaking. she won’t even pick up her cup bc she knows it’ll rattle too much
and helen knows something’s up and she doesn’t say anything she just picks up june’s hands and holds them to steady them
and june says “helen, i- i didn’t really think this through, because i don’t think anything through, but, i’m here and i might as well just,”
she takes a deep breath, “i’ve kind of been a little in love with you, like, forever? and it wasn’t until last year that i realized how much and then i was with quentin and then you were anthony and things were really good and i didn’t want to ruin it but then like, it occured to me that it could be possible to have both ? maybe? if you want that? and if not that’s okay and if i tanked my relationship my favorite person in the world i’m so sorry,“
and helen, who has not let go of her hands, is smiling her shining heavenly smile
and she says "darling, it certainly took you long enough”
and june, for the first time in her memory, cries
and they spend the rest of the afternoon cuddled on the couch and they don’t talk as much but helen does text to make sure it’s okay with anthony, who just sends back
(ofc helen told anthony that she liked june ages ago. he’s as observant as a brick he had no idea june liked helen too)
(but sort of like how she knew june was bi before june did, she didn’t say anything to her bc june is the kind of person who can’t be told things, she has to go her own way (which is the slow way)))
(but helen is a goddess and she has the patience of a saint so she waited, and boy did it pay off)
june is really good at time management
she’s also very tall- that’s the first thing you notice about her. the second thing you notice is that she’s rich.
you know this because of her sunglasses, her purse, the way she stands, the way she looks down her nose at you like she’s just a litttttle more important than you are
she has a lot of hair. it is long and luxurious and curly and it falls around her face when she pushes her sunglasses to the top of her head
she’s kind of streamlined, like, aerodynamically efficient? like she toned herself to cut through the air and probably your face
she wears her hair down in school and up when she works out and when she is nervous she twirls and twirls and twirls
and her tinted lenses she uses for reading do not come with her to school because she is afraid of exposing weakness
she has greenish blue eyes and she doesn’t break a stare and her eyebrows are always perfect
she dresses half masculine and half feminine
she loves white tank tops and jeans but also
soft floral dresses and blouses
she really likes combat boots
she 100% owns her position as the Dad Friend
bridget got her a shirt that says “Dad Bod on fleek” and she wears it unironically
this also means she does view all her younger friends as her kids and absolutely responds to “dad” or “pops”
she recently developed a close friendship with anthony but neither of them will ever admit that’s what it is
they have, surprisingly, a lot in common
when it gets rough at home they meet at the gym to box
anthony brings gatorade and june brings music
fighting each other is better than getting in fights at school, of course
(helen is the one who made them both get gym memberships and she is quietly very happy that the two of them hang out, even if they’ve never exchanged a single nice word)
one time june tricked anthony into buying three matches from her at five dollars each
one time anthony “accidentally” gave june a black eye
june and sally tolerate each other, which mostly includes them making fun of each other’s heights
her and esther are finally in a good place too
and there is no one better to plan a prank with than jack wyatt
june is still kind of in shock that she’s dating two perfect humans
despite her haughty and conceited attitude she sometimes wonders if she even deserves them
but they remind her that she does and she is happy
though the dynamic is really so different with each one
oh and OF COURSE quentin and helen never have any reason to be jealous of each other
they know that june has enough love to give for both of them
