A Storms Match | Luke Castellan

Chapter 32

A Day Of Festivities And Sorrow

When someone leaves after they have promised to be by your side forever but then proceed to leave, you never really get over the after shock of your forever leaving. But people leave and the world doesn't stop just because they've left, in the after math of Dixie's leaving nobody knew what to say but the world kept spinning and they had to keep moving with it or they'd be left behind.
Pandora walked towards the dining pavilion with a large sack thrown over her shoulder, it was about mid day when she finally decided the gifts were as good as they were going to get. She was never skilled in wrapping presents so they looked as if a two year old tried their hand at wrapping for the first time but she hoped the others would appreciate the effort she made in wrapping this year instead of sticking them in gift bags and putting extreme amounts of multi colored tissue paper. When the dining pavilion came into sight she could see all of her friends had already exchanged gifts but hadn't opened them yet as they waited for her arrival, they all stood by the Poseidon table with smiles as they led multiple conversations. Her smile got even brighter as she watched as the younger campers waved their new toys around in excitement, "HO HO HO MERRY CHRISTMAS!" Pandora called alerting her friends of her arrival.

Everyone laughed cheerfully as they knew she had no idea what Santa Claus was before her arrival at camp and ever since it's always seemed odd that people celebrated a man a holy fat man who breaks into your house once a year and doesn't steal anything from the occupants of the house and rather leaves gifts or coal depending on if you were naughty or nice that year, in all honesty it freaked her out more then anything because she didn't like the thought of someone coming in her house to eat milk and cookies and then just leave after he dropped off gifts. Lee was first to speak, "you've said that for the last two years yet you still don't know why old Chris Kringle says that do you?" He said with a smile when she slapped her free hand over her heart in mock offense.

"Just because my mom is a nymph who had no upbringing with mortals doesn't mean I don't know what- wait who's that?" Pandora asked as confusion grew at the odd name making everyone laugh again.

Clarisse patronizingly patted the girls shoulder as Annabeth smiled and toyed with the class ring on her camp necklace, "I still can't believe you didn't celebrate any holidays before you came to camp" Annabeth muttered as she felt her eyes began to burn as tears welled in her eyes.

Pandora smiled sadly and dropped her sack of gifts to the ground before digging through it, she stopped and smiled when she finally found all of the gifts for the girl. Pandora slowly walked over to the girl and kneeled down so she could try and meet the girls down cast gaze, "I know the holidays can be rough and the pain of losing someone never really goes away but to help you through this moment I think you should open your gifts" Pandora said softly as she felt her ears beginning to ring.

Annabeth slowly seemed to relax and lift her head, Pandora's face remained impassive as the ringing continued to get more high pitched until it just stopped when and was replaced by a low hum. Pandora smiled slightly when she saw Annabeth's eyes lighten up, she offered a small smile of encouragement and offered the stack of gifts to the girl. Luke smiled softly as Annabeth moved to sit down at the Poseidon table and began to open her gifts, the first gift was a hard cover copy of architectural drafting for beginners. Her eyes brightened as she excitedly looked up to Pandora who motioned for her to continue, the next gift was a Lego set of an Eiffel Tower. Her smile grew as she moved onto the last gift, it was significantly smaller than the rest of the gifts, she slowly traced her fingers over the small package in hesitation. "What's this?" Annabeth asked softly when she finally pulled the box open.