Judy is a punk

August 2031 - Neil Cameron is 57, Viola Cameron is 40, Clara Long and Padma Ramaswami are 13, Alison Cameron and Georgia London are 6, Julien and Melissa Cooke are 44, Anthony Cooke is 14.

One morning, a few weeks before school starts, Clara decides to cut her hair. She's starting eighth grade this year, and she's had the same good girl haircut for as long as she can remember. It's definitely time for a change. She finds a picture in a magazine to guide her, and even though her hair doesn't turn out exactly like in the magazine, she's pretty happy with it.

But when Viola gets home from work, she isn't exactly thrilled with her daughter's new look.

"What did you do to your hair?" Viola exclaims.

"It's my hair," Clara argues. "What's the big deal?"

"Did you cut it yourself? What were you thinking? It's so uneven." She frowns, then says, "I can even it out for you. Where are the scissors?"

"Mom, leave it alone! I like it the way it is."

"Clara, you can't go to school like that."

"Why not? It's my hair, and I'll do what I want with it."


*****

"I don't know why my mom was so angry about my hair," Clara complains. "It's my hair."

"Why did you cut it anyway?" Anjali asks.

"I don't know," Clara shrugs. "I just wanted it to look different."

"Well it definitely does. At least your mom didn't make you change it."

"She tried. But we got into a big fight, and she grounded me for a week."

"Wow, that's harsh."

Clara shrugs again. "Whatever. She's at work all day, and Neil doesn't care what I do."

But when Neil finds out that Clara invited Anjali over, he insists that Anjali go home. "Clara, your mother grounded you," he reminds her.

Clara is furious, not just at her mother but also at Neil. But her peace-loving hippie mother doesn't even seem to notice.

So Clara spends the week stuck at home. Most days Alison invites a friend over, and Clara ends up watching them.

She also spends hours playing on the computer she got for her birthday. She never thought she'd be happy to go back to school, but at least once school starts she'll be able to get out of the house and spend time with her friends.


*****

One Sunday evening, Viola decides to invite the Cooke family over for dinner. She's been working at Julien and Melissa's restaurant for over fifteen years, and she's become good friends with them.

Neil is excited to meet Julien and Melissa. Being a stay-at-home dad means he doesn't always get a lot of adult interaction.

Clara and Anthony get off to a rocky start.

But things go a little better when they discover that they both love astronomy.

"We have a telescope in the backyard," Clara tells him. "Maybe after dinner we could look through it."

"Cool," Anthony answers.

Dinner goes better than Viola had expected. She had been nervous about cooking dinner for a professional chef, but everyone compliments her on her salmon.

Clara seems to like meeting the Cookes, especially when Julien tells her about all of the traveling he's done in Europe.

"I traveled all over Europe when I was younger," Julien tells her. "I got a Eurorail pass, and rode all over: France, Germany, Spain, Italy. I wanted to learn as much about European cooking as possible."

"Cool," Clara says. "I really want to travel someday. I've never been out of Providence."

After dinner she and Anthony hang out in the backyard and talk.

"Do you know the Ramaswamis?" she asks him. "They live next door. Anjali and Padma are my best friends."

"Yeah, I'm friends with Anjali," he says.

"It's weird that we haven't met before this," Clara comments.

He shrugs. "I stay at home a lot," he explains. "I have to watch my little brother while my parents are at the restaurant. Mostly I talk to Anjali online."

"I just got a computer," she says. "Maybe we could talk online sometime."

"Yeah, that'd be cool."

Alison runs outside. "Anthony, your mom says it's time to go. Clara, will you read me a bedtime story?"

Clara sighs. "Okay." She turns to Anthony. "Well it was nice to meet you."

"Yeah." He smiles at her shyly, then adds, "We should hang out again sometime."

She smiles back. "Okay."