Chapter Text
The big event for Thanksgiving was the cooking. I helped Mom practically all day on Thursday with the Macy's Parade on TV in the background, but we overcooked the turkey anyways. I shredded what I'd been served and mixed it in with my mac and cheese. Mom just covered hers liberally with gravy. We saw a movie on Friday and ate leftovers. Mom and I went to an art museum on Saturday which was a mistake since it was full to bursting. I avoided anything having to do with Greek mythology. I did not need to see any of my relatives, but especially the living ones, completely nude whether or not it was true to life.
Tyson was at the subway station before me when I showed up Monday morning. I let him hold onto my coat again, and we got down to the tracks faster than we had the time before. We made it to school and showering with time to spare, and Mrs. Meredith let us hang out in the reading corner again.
Later that week, I found an email from Darryl to all the counselors.
Hey guys,
I know some of you don’t celebrate Christmas anymore, but I still want to make sure I’ve got your current addresses so if you could send them along if you’ve moved since last year, I’d appreciate it.
-Darryl
I turned around in the desk chair. “Mom?”
“What, honey?” she called from the kitchen.
“Should I be like doing Christmas gifts for my cousins or their kids?”
“Hold on a sec,” she said and then joined me at the computer. “What were you asking?”
“Christmas gifts for my cousins and their kids,” I said. “That’s normal, right? You get gifts for all your cousins? What if they don’t celebrate Christmas?”
“When you say your cousins and their kids, who are you meaning?” she asked, leaning down to take a look at the computer screen.
“Just the demigods,” I said. “Cabin four are really my cousins, but everyone else is my cousins’ kids, except for cabin ten. I’m not sure exactly what they are. It’s a lot of gifts though.”
“How many kids attend that camp?” Mom asked, turning to face me.
“I don’t know, like a hundred?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Uh, yeah, I don’t know that we have that kind of a thing in the budget, not unless you want to get them all pennies.”
“But some of them got me gifts for my birthday,” I said.
“So maybe just focus on them, and we’ll see what we can do,” Mom said, placing her hand on my shoulder. “Send your address for now, and we’ll work on it.”
“Okay,” I said, turning back towards the computer.
I triple and quadruple checked that I wrote our address correctly before sending the reply.
I spent way more time in thrift and second hand stores than any person should to keep my eye out for any gifts, either going along with my mom or our skating group that sometimes included Tyson. He was easy to get a gift for once I found blue mittens big enough for his hands while out with my mom. I'd pair it with some more candy later. I got lucky finding a book on architecture that was in pretty good shape for Annabeth. I also managed to find a guitar songbook for Will, Rolling Stones to match with the Beatles one he'd gotten me. There was a bunch of different horse related stuff, and I ended up picking out a fleece blanket with a running horse on it since that wouldn’t get messed up from shipping.
I was pretty hopeless for anyone else. I nearly prayed to Apollo for help. He had tons of kids. Surely he knew how to buy gifts.
Then I hit the jackpot for Darryl or really any Athena kid at a flea market me and my mom went to in a last ditch effort before the holidays started. A guy was selling a big plastic bin full of yarn for practically nothing. Nothing had tags so I had no idea if it was natural, but I ran my fingers over it, checking the texture. Most of it was soft, but the scratchier ones seemed like they could be wool.
Unfortunately, I then had to carry the stupid bin as I followed my mom around to get trinkets for her coworkers. I paused at a stall where an old woman with wild white hair was selling antique instruments. A lot of them were way too expensive to do anything more than wince at the price, but she had a set of harmonicas laid out. I leaned over for a closer look. The cheapest one had been engraved with a stylized sun.
"Hey, uh, how much for this harmonica?" I asked.
The woman looked down at it then squinted at my face. "It's half off."
"I'll take it," I said, setting down the bin to fish out my wallet.
I paid her, and she handed over the harmonica's case. I put it away and tucked it safely in my pocket before rejoining my mom.
"What'd you get?" she asked me as she made her way to the seller.
"A harmonica for Lysander," I said. "It's got a sun engraved on it."
Mom smiled. "Does he even play harmonica?"
I shrugged. "He can learn if he doesn't."
"Alright," she said then paid for her gifts. "Are we all set?"
I nodded. “As much as we can be.”
When we got back home, I checked my email to make sure we had the addresses we needed. Annabeth and Will had agreed to exchange gifts when I came up for the weekend after Christmas so nothing was going to be sent from then. I also had a message from Lysander.
Hey,
Your gift's gonna be a little late sorry :(
-Lysander
I wrote back right away.
Hey,
It's okay. Yours will probably be late, too.
-Percy
We couldn’t send anything out until Monday so it was a little late in the game with Christmas being in about a week. Then I sent a message to Darryl.
Hey,
I don’t think I can ship your gift to you. Is it okay if I leave it in cabin 6 for you?
-Percy
I checked my email after I helped Mom wrap up the other gifts and get them into boxes and write the addresses carefully on them. Darryl had written back.
Hey,
You didn’t have to get me a gift, but thank you. How are you going to leave it in cabin 6?
-Darryl
I replied to her.
Hey,
I’m going by camp next weekend to see Annabeth and Will.
-Percy
I got her reply a day later.
Hey,
Yeah, it’s fine to leave it there. Thanks.
-Darryl
I sent her back ok.
We had school until Thursday the week of Christmas, and honestly, the teachers didn't try very hard to keep us focused. I spent music class trying to explain how to do a jam session in music class to our band, but that didn't really work out at all.
"Let's stick to music we know," Ellie said.
"Fine," I said with a sigh.
I gave Tyson his Christmas gifts after we got off the subway. "It's not much, but merry Christmas."
"I'm not Christian," he said as he accepted the gifts with both hands.
"Oh, I'm not either,” I said. “But it’s kinda expected, and nothing wrong with giving a gift.”
"I didn't get you anything," Tyson said, slumping.
"It's okay. I didn't warn you or anything, and you're not even Christian," I said, but he didn't perk up at all.
"You can make me something if you really want to. Like a picture or if you've been tinkering on something," I said.
"You'd like one of my pictures?" he asked shyly.
"Yeah," I assured him. "I'd really like it."
"Okay," Tyson said, squaring his shoulders. "I will have a gift for you when school starts again."
"Seriously, no pressure, dude," I told him.
"But you're so nice to me," he said, carefully putting on the mittens without dropping the candy. "I want to be nice, too."
"Yeah, sure if you want to do it, that's fine," I told him, giving him a smile. "I'll see you next year, okay, Big Guy?"
"Yes, I will see you next year, Percy," he said before trudging off towards wherever he lived.
Mom arrived home with a couple of boxes. One was from Darryl and the other from Emmeline, and I set them both under our little fake Christmas tree Mom had set up.
Mom and I had a normal dinner, but we hung out watching Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate or eggnog, the non-alcoholic kind, instead of writing or playing guitar. We did a big batch of cookies the next day. We used food dye to make them red or green, but we set a few aside to be blue.
Like with Thanksgiving, we spent a long time cooking a big dinner on the actual Christmas day. After dinner, we opened gifts. I’d gotten Mom green seahorse earrings that I’d found in one of the thrift stores while I’d been out with my friends rather than her. She put them on right away. She gave me a book on playing guitar both acoustic and electric as well as for a variety of genres.
“Cool,” I said, flipping through it. It had some horribly tiny print in some places, but I’d figure it out, somehow.
“I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to read with your dyslexia, but I asked like three different guys what the best thing to get was, and they all mentioned that book specifically,” she said.
“I’m a lot better than I used to be,” I said, turning the page. “Darryl’s tips really helped.”
“Good, I’m glad she was able to help,” Mom said. “You used to get so frustrated with it.”
I closed the book, setting it aside. I grabbed the package from Emmeline. I had a pretty good guess of what it was given its size and weight. I opened it up to reveal a horse riding helmet.
“Aw, how nice,” Mom said.
“Do you think Phoebus put her up to it?” I asked.
“Well, she already gave you gloves and got you pants and boots. I think she was running out of options,” Mom said.
“Yeah, maybe,” I said. “Well, I’ll definitely use it in the summer.”
The box from Darryl was way smaller. I opened it carefully. “No way.”
“What is it?” Mom asked.
I held up the keychain with the little stuffed shark on the end. I could tell by the look of the stitches that Darryl had sewed it by hand.
“Oh, it’s so adorable,” Mom said, putting a hand over her heart.
“It’s not adorable, it’s cool,” I insisted, twisting it around. “Look, it’s got teeth.”
“Very cute teeth,” she assured me.
I shook my head, but I still put the shark on my keyring.
I cleaned up the packaging then we put on ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and ate the cookies we’d made.
I took advantage of not having anything to do in the morning to sleep in. I checked my email once and found myself flooded with merry Christmas emails it took me forever to respond to. We mostly hung out the next few days as I played guitar and read through the book Mom had gotten me and she worked on her novel. She also made sure that we always went on a walk during the afternoon to make sure we stretched our legs and got outside. We went out early and bought bagels one morning just because we could.
The day before we were set to leave for camp, there was a knock on the door. Mom looked over to me, but I shook my head. Mom walked towards the door.
“No, wait, let me,” I told her, shoving my hand into my pocket as I walked around her. I wrapped my hand around Riptide. I hadn’t had to use it in so long it felt a little weird in my hand.
I approached the door quietly, listening as hard as I could. Whoever or whatever it was on the other side knocked again.
I pulled the door open quickly.
“Hey,” Lysander said with a smile.
I launched myself at him, hugging him as tightly as I could. He returned the hug, ruffling my hair in the process.
I recognized an unfortunately familiar scent on his clothes.
I pulled away from him, trying not to cover my nose. “You smell like smoke.”
“Yeah, sorry, it’s a bad habit, I know. Dad hates it. We’re not allowed to smoke anything at camp. I tried to get rid of the smell as much as I could,” he said with a smile, removing his beanie to scrub a hand through his hair then putting it back on again.
Looking him over in the stark hallway lighting, he seemed extremely pale, especially for someone who was the son of Apollo. He had dark circles under his eyes, and he might have even lost weight.
“Isn’t smoking bad for your voice?” I asked.
“Good thing I’m not a singer then, huh?” he asked.
“Percy,” Mom said, still standing in the doorway and looking over the two of us.
“Mom, this is Lysander,” I said, gesturing to him. “I told you about him. He’s the cabin seven counselor.”
“Hi, Ms. Jackson,” Lysander said, giving my mom a smile as he offered his hand out for a shake. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too,” she said, shaking his hand. “My son’s spoken highly of you.”
Lysander grinned as he took his hand back. “He’s a good kid,” he said, ruffling my hair again.
“I’m not a kid,” I complained, trying to dodge his hand.
“Oh yeah? What are you, like, twelve?” Lysander asked.
“I’m thirteen,” I corrected him. “You were literally there at my birthday party.”
“Lysander,” my mom said. “Would you like to come in and have some cookies?”
“That’s not necessary. I don’t want to interrupt your holidays. I just thought it might be easier if I dropped off Percy’s gift in person since I was in town,” he said.
“No, it’s totally fine. We weren’t doing anything special,” Mom said, moving back and opening the door. “Unless you have somewhere you need to be?”
“No, I’m free now if you’re sure you’re okay with it,” Lysander said.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing Lysander’s arm. “You have to try Mom’s famous blue cookies. Nectar tastes like them.”
“Well, if they’re that good, I guess I have to stay,” he said, letting me drag him into the apartment.
“Oh, I didn’t really clean up much,” Mom said, immediately going around and starting to straighten up as Lysander took his boots off.
“It’s really fine, Ms. Jackson,” Lysander said. “I know I showed up unannounced.”
“No, no, it’s okay, let me just clean up a bit,” she said, fixing things up as she made her way into the kitchen. “You want any milk or eggnog or anything to go with your cookie?”
“Uh, sure, milk is fine,” he said, following her to the edge of the kitchen.
“Do you do libations?” Mom asked as she pulled the jug of milk out of the fridge. “Percy keeps pouring our milk down the sink for his father.”
“Mom,” I complained.
“No, not really,” Lysander said. “But that’s just cause I’m in a dorm with a roommate so it’s not really that easy to do any of that.”
“Oh, where are you studying?” she asked as she got out a small plate and a glass for him.
“Oberlin,” he answered.
I frowned as I stole a cookie from our collection. I’d seen that name somewhere before. “I know that school from something.”
“I’d hope so,” Lysander said. “It’s the oldest continuously running conservatory in the country.”
“No, I’m pretty sure I read it,” I said. “Actually, I think Phoebus had it on a shirt once.”
Lysander smiled. “Yeah, likely place to see it. Dad’s got a shirt for every college any of us go to.”
“Who’s going to Columbia then?” I asked. “I saw him wearing one of those, too.”
“Yeah, that’s my older sister,” he said.
“Wait, the math one?” I asked. “She got into Columbia for math?”
“Yeah, she’s getting her graduate degree in applied math there now,” he said.
“You just said she was a good math tutor,” I said.
He shrugged. “She is.”
I stared at him. Getting into Columbia for math was on a completely different level from being a good math tutor.
“I wonder what it’s like being that good at math,” Mom said as she handed over the plate of cookies and glass of milk over to Lysander. “You can sit at the table or the couch or wherever.”
“Thanks,” Lysander told her then took a seat at the table.
I sat down right next to him.
“And I don’t know,” Lysander said. “I was good not great at math. I stopped at multivariable calculus.”
Mom shook her head as she sat down. “I never even got that far. I didn’t even do pre-calculus.”
“Oh,” Lysander said awkwardly. He picked up a cookie and took a bite. “These are really good.”
“Thank you,” Mom said with a smile. “So what are you studying at Oberlin?”
“I’m getting a bachelor of music for violin,” he said.
“Violin?” I asked. “But you play guitar.”
“Guitar’s just for fun,” he said, shaking his head. “Violin’s what I’m serious about.”
“What do you want to do with violin?” Mom asked him.
“Oh, um, I, uh,” Lysander cleared his throat. “I want to become concertmaster for the New York Philharmonic.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“They’re the principle violinist. They do the solos if there isn’t a guest. They’re also the go between the orchestra and the conductor,” Lysander explained.
“Sounds like a big job,” Mom said, resting her chin on her hand. She looked at Lysander with that pinched expression she gave me on visits home last year and every year before that.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “It is. But that’s kinda why I want to do it.”
He sighed heavily.
“Is that what you’re here for?” she asked. “To see the orchestra?”
“No, I have a friend who got into Juliard. I’m here visiting him,” he said.
“You’re staying with him then?”
“Yeah, sleeping on his dorm room floor.”
“Oh no, that has to be awful for your back even at your age,” she said, frowning in concern.
He shook his head. “Nah, it’s fine. I heal up quick.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, why do you want to be in the New York Philharmonic specifically?" Mom asked.
"Well, it’s like the best orchestra. It's also New York City, who doesn't want to be in New York?" Lysander asked with a smile then shrugged. "My mom's up in Saratoga Springs, camp's out on Long Island, and, well, Dad's here, so."
Mom smiled at him. "That sounds like a lovely plan."
Lysander nodded then shoved half a cookie in his mouth.
"Are you planning on seeing Will while you're up here?" Mom asked.
Lysander shook his head, covering his mouth with his hand as he tried to finish his cookie. "Kinda hard to get out there without a car, and camp’s kind of shut down in the winter. Don't know that I'd be allowed in."
"Of course, you'd be allowed," I said. "Chiron said we could come up this weekend."
"Really?" he asked. "You're going to camp?"
"Yeah, we leave tomorrow," I said. "You could come with us."
Lysander smiled. "I'd really love to, but I have plans for New Year's Eve. I can't stay the whole time."
"Only Percy's staying through Sunday," Mom said. "I'm just driving there and back. I'd be happy to give you a ride."
"Really?" Lysander asked.
"Sure, I'm gonna have to drive up there and spend the gas money anyways," she said with a shrug. "Having some company will make the ride back easier."
"Come with us," I said, grabbing Lysander's arm.
"Alright, you've convinced me, I'll come," he said, giving me a smile before turning back to Mom. "Thank you, really. I know you don't know me very well—,"
She waved him off. "It's alright. Your Percy's cousin once removed or whatever it is."
"Yeah, I think once removed is right," he said, turning back to me to ruffle my hair.
"Stop," I complained.
He chuckled and pulled his hand away, letting me try and put my curls back in order. He finished his cookie then chugged his milk. "Have you kept up with guitar at all?"
"Yeah, of course," I said. "I'm in music class now, and I'm learning electric guitar, and Mr. Nick showed me how to play fingerstyle, and Mom just got me a big book on like everything guitar for Christmas."
"Cool," he said. "You wanna show me what you've got?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'll be right back," I said, practically running to my room to grab my guitar.