Lotus Bloom and the Afro Revolution

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying.

Lotus Bloom, a seventh grader in Miami, walks to her first day of school with her best friend, Rebel Mitchell. She can tell that Rebel is bothered that they are now going to different schools. Lotus is starting at the Atlantis School of the Arts, a new performing arts school that was built in their neighborhood, while Rebel is still going to MacArthur Middle School.

Lotus tries to make light of the situation, but Rebel gets angry. She complains about the fact that, instead of fixing MacArthur, they used money to build a new school. Then, they took away as many of the talented students from MacArthur as they could to funnel them into Atlantis. Lotus doesn’t understand why Rebel feels so passionately about the matter, but she acknowledges that it’s just part of Rebel’s personality: She is always finding ways to fight injustice.

To calm Rebel down, Lotus plays music on her violin. A few passersby comment on how good her music is. Lotus thinks of how her life revolves around music, but she is still not sure she will be good enough for Atlantis.