PYRRHIC, percy jackson

━━ XII

WITH SUMMER CAME LYRA'S FRIENDS. She was pretty happy about that. After spending the last few months surrounded by the year-round campers, such as Lee Fletcher, Michael Yew and the Stoll brothers, most of her acquaintances had decided to head home until June. Chiron had said something along the lines of 'things are stirring, better spend more time with your families'. A really nice thing to say to the kids that fought for their lives almost everyday.

Now, listen, Lyra wasn't a selfish person-slash-constellation-slash-lyre, or she wasn't perceived as one–but she really wished her friends had stayed with her, instead of leaving her almost completely alone at camp for months, nothing to do but train and try to find someone to spend time with.

Don't get her wrong: she loved them all! Travis and Connor, with their mischievous smiles and troublemaker ways, had helped her gain a vast knowledge in what they deemed Twenty-first Century Appropiate Vocabulary. Annabeth, in the few times she'd visited camp for reasons unknown to Lyra, had also joined their lessons to explain to her how to use contractions, because some people started to mock her Yoda-like speech (Cabin Seven had organized a Star Wars marathon one weekend, so she could say for sure she did not speak like Yoda!). Percy became a great friend and company, their lunches and dinners full of easy conversations and many laughs, instead of the silence they'd had prior to their quest. He taught her many things of the modern world, like what skipping class was and how to get away from handing in assignments by relying on your ADHD–though Lyra didn't have ADHD nor did she have to hand in assignments. It was still useful knowledge, should she need it someday.

He left two weeks after their quest, as he needed to go back to school, alongside the Beam twins, Sol, and Drew, which made her feel lonelier than ever.

They still kept in contact via Iris Messaging, so that was nice. Marisol introduced her to her mom, Tamara Bach, a pretty brunette with a natural tan that seemed to pull the sun towards her face whenever she smiled, and who offered to teach her how to surf in the summer. Lyra still remembered the cookies Sol had shared with the entire cabin. No wonder Apollo had fallen for her. The twins' calls were very short, usually filled with poetry or songs (technically the same, but they liked to be different from each other so it was poetry from Felicity and song lyrics from Alex) and some praise from Lyra. Drew even sent her some of her favourite make-up through the mail, along with her favourite treats from Silena's dad's chocolate store.

She'd invited Lyra to hang out some weekends, given she wasn't all the way across the country, like Annabeth, and so had Percy. She'd alternated between them at first, but then things got complicated when Drew got herself a boyfriend and wanted to spend more time with him, so Lyra ended up at Sally Jackson's living room's couch, eating something delicious every weekend.

Luckily, none of the camp's authorities seemed to mind her weekly excursions to the Upper East Side (whatever that was). Chiron told her to go ahead and enjoy her life, whereas Mr. D didn't say anything at all, he just raised an eyebrow and went back to his business.

And even though Percy was a constant in all those months, and even though Lyra enjoyed his company perhaps a little too much, she couldn't help but feel miffed that she couldn't always have what she had on winter.

She wanted Drew to come look for her, exchanging quick words with the children of Apollo and dragging her towards the stables, their usual meeting place where they exchanged gossip and laughs over make-up and chocolates. She wanted weekly archery classes from Lee, even though she didn't truly need them (more on that later), while the twins beside her practiced their rhymes as they hit bullseye every single time they shot–well, everyone in Cabin Seven had excellent aim, so they didn't need to train, they just liked to show off. She wanted combat lessons from the children of Ares, who took pity on her once they tried to ambush her and she was scarily defenceless–no one would be unable to defend themselves on their watch, that's what they told her (Clarisse La Rue took teaching her how to punch someone very seriously, even putting herself on the other side of her fist to see if she got the hang of it or not)–, though most of them had left and Clarisse became busy with some other matters that involved the authorities and Annabeth, and no one else.