Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution

At orchestra the next morning, Maestro is tough on the entire class. He constantly scolds them for messing around or not taking it seriously enough. In particular, he tells Lotus that she has a lot of responsibility and that he expects more from her. Adolpho also challenges Lotus for her spot, and Maestro agrees to let him on Friday.

At the end of class, Lotus has three more paper airplanes fall out of her afro when she picks up her violin case. She pretends that it doesn’t bother her but thinks of how “rude” it is of the other kids.

After school, Lotus goes to the MacArthur Park Community Center, which is run by Uncle “Unk” Stevie. Unk asked Lotus to volunteer there teaching a music class, and she agreed. This is her first day, and Unk introduces her to the six children who want to learn piano or violin. They ask her questions about Atlantis, then she plays for them. She is impressed that some of them already have musical training and are excited to learn. It makes her think of Rebel and the idea that students like this deserve a better school than MacArthur offers.

On Thursday morning, Lotus’s dad calls before school. He is in a jazz band and an orchestra in Paris. Lotus desperately wants to live with him but knows that neither of her parents would let her. However, she secretly applied to a music school there, Académie, and signed her parents’ names on the application for a scholarship. She starts to tell her father, then decides she should wait to see if she gets in, as it will be easier to convince him it’s a good idea.

On Friday, Lotus wins her challenge against Adolpho. Maestro asks the room who won, and they give Lotus a standing ovation. However, she notices a few of the students don’t stand.

Lotus and Rebel walk around town that weekend. They have casual conversations until Rebel starts discussing what life was like for Black people in the 1930s. She tells Lotus that they had to walk around with identification to even be in that area of town. She then brings up school and the board meeting, telling Lotus that they are going to another one next week. However, Lotus tells her that her mother will not let her go. To Lotus’s surprise, Rebel is not upset, but changes the subject to her new boyfriend, Connor Woods. She tells Lotus that he is smart and political, like she is. When Lotus asks what he looks like, Rebel scolds her for caring too much about looks.

Later, Lotus thinks about Taj. She knows little about him, other than the fact that he is part Haitian and speaks French at home. She realizes that, if she tried to talk intellectually with Taj, she wouldn’t even know what her opinions are or how to discuss them.

Lotus goes to the beach on Sunday with some kids from Atlantis, including Dion and Taj. Taj asks her about the paper airplanes, and Dion tells her that she needs to report whoever is doing it. The other kids agree, but Lotus isn’t sure she wants to make a big deal about it.

That night, she asks her mom what she thinks. Her mom tells Lotus that she needs to ignore it and not “make waves” (76), then she says that the boys likely just have a crush on her. Lotus thinks of how everything revolves around looks with her mother, probably because of how critical Granny is.

Lotus wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep. She thinks of how her mother is the “anti-Rebel” (78), refusing to make any trouble or draw attention to herself. She quietly plays the violin in her room to calm her thoughts.

With the orchestral performances just a few weeks away, Maestro grows even more assertive and critical. However, Lotus also notes how much she is learning from him. The paper airplanes have become more frequent, “as in every other day” (80), but Lotus has decided to ignore them. When one lands in her hair on the last day of the week, she sees Adolpho throw it and scolds him but still doesn’t say anything to Maestro.

At lunch, Lotus is still in awe of the great food that they have, with stations dedicated to different foods that are all fresh. She usually sits with her friends Mercedes, YaYa, and Taj, and sometimes Dion joins them. Mercedes praises Lotus’s clothing, so much so that Lotus wonders if she is being sarcastic; however, she decides that “middle school [is] making [her] jaded” and ignores it (83).

Lotus notices a girl sitting alone across the cafeteria. She asks Mercedes if she knows who it is, but Mercedes dismisses her as “boring.” Again, Lotus wonders how good of a friend Mercedes is, which makes her miss Rebel. When she thinks about Rebel and her old friends in the MacArthur cafeteria, she feels guilty over how much worse their lunch experience is.

Lotus decides to sneak off to check on her. She sees that Rebel has just posted a photo. She is shocked to learn that her new boyfriend, Connor, is white. The idea surprises her, as Rebel is so focused on her Black skin and what it means in the world. She realizes that their relationship is falling apart, as she feels like she knows so little about Rebel now.

The next day in her combined English and history class, Lotus’s teachers, Miss Jackson and Mr. Burke, introduce a new project. They are going to read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and study Black migration during the early to mid-1900s. As Mr. Burke talks about social revolutions and the work they are going to do studying them, Lotus’s mind drifts to Rebel. She feels stressed by how little she knows about it, wishing that Rebel were there to help her. Between the project and their upcoming performance at a football game, Lotus feels overwhelmed but tries to reassure herself that she’ll be fine.

The orchestra has their first public performance. It is at the town’s first home football game. While she plays, Lotus forgets about school, Rebel, and everything that is bothering her. Despite Adolpho’s glares and rude comments, their performance goes well, and Lotus feels like she can finally relax.

After the game, she goes to the locker room to get her things. She runs into Adolpho, who pushes past her and tells her that her hair looks “ridiculous.” Lotus feels like she is going to cry, but she ignores it, insistent that she is capable of continuing to ignore him. She also chooses not to tell anyone about it.

With two weeks before the open house, Lotus continues to practice each day. She keeps “finding it hard to breathe” when she “think[s] too much” (95), but she ignores it and tells herself she is fine. Through it all, she keeps thinking of Rebel and how sure she is of herself. Lotus continues to wonder who she is, but lately she can only think of the word “coward” to describe herself.

At lunch one day, Lotus sees the same girl sitting alone again and approaches her. She introduces herself as Fabiola French. Lotus invites her to sit at her lunch table, but Fabiola says that she does not want to sit with Mercedes. She warns Lotus that she and Mercedes used to be friends, but Mercedes is a “backstabber” and will do the same to Lotus eventually. Despite her warning and harsh tone, Lotus still feels as though Fabiola is friendly, and the entire interaction unnerves her.

Back at Lotus’s lunch table, YaYa tells her that Adolpho posted about her on Snapchat. She shows Lotus a meme of an old image of a young Black boy. Adolpho wrote the caption, “When you lose your orchestra seat to Buckwheat” (100). Although Lotus doesn’t know who Buckwheat is, she feels humiliated by the image. She notices that Mercedes and some of the others are laughing, and Mercedes tries to reassure her that it’s not a big deal.

That night, Lotus looks up Buckwheat and discovers he is from the 1930s TV series Our Gang. She is appalled that he is so ignorant and simple in the show, then reads several articles about old Black stereotypes in media. It upsets her so much that she realizes she can no longer pretend that she is okay with Adolpho’s actions.

Lotus works with the kids at the rec center again the next day. After, Rebel visits and they talk, mostly about Connor. Rebel can tell something is wrong, but Lotus refuses to tell her about Adolpho. Rebel again invites her to a board meeting, but Lotus declines, insisting she is too busy with the orchestral open house coming up soon.

Everyone at Atlantis practices for the next several days. The entire performing arts department is participating in the open house, putting on a show together to impress the public.

The night of the show, everything goes perfectly for Lotus. She performs with Maestro like she did on the first day of orchestra, and the crowd gives her thunderous applause. Then, everyone is impressed by the group performance. Maestro introduces Lotus and Tatiana, as concertmaster and first chair, and Lotus is proud of everything she’s done.

However, at the end of the night, Adolpho corners Lotus in the locker room. He calls her “Buckwheat,” then he and a handful of his friends start throwing paper at her in the form of airplanes, wads, and balls. She realizes that most of them are older boys and she doesn’t even know who they are. She wishes she were like Rebel, able to use her words to defend herself, but they don’t listen when she tells them to stop. She runs from the locker room.

In the car ride home, Lotus starts to cry quietly with her head against the window. Her family does not realize anything is wrong, instead assuming she is tired or overwhelmed after her performance. When Granny begins to bicker with Lotus’s mom, Lotus sees her mom look to her for help. However, Lotus thinks how she doesn’t “have the energy or desire to fight her battle,” instead thinking “it’s time to stand up and fight [her] own” (119).