Goodnight Moon ↣ P. Jackson + A. Chase

2.01

Winter in Manhattan was hectic, really, when it snowed softly and people suddenly forgot how to drive. It was pretty, though, picturesque, as she travelled the Upper East Side in the direction of Rockafellar Center. 

Her boots made soft tapping sounds against the wet pavement that were muffled by the downtown shoppers that were out en masse full of Christmas spirit. 

Winter was a beautiful season, sure, perfect for heartwarming poetry or sad songs, but it was nothing if not dark and exhausting at times. The days were shorter, the hours of sun sparse, and Kassandra always found herself slightly more on edge when she couldn't feel the heat directly on her skin. 

(But she still loved to see her air puffing out before her, see the snow melt before it could ever dream of touching her skin. She loved the hats with faux fur pompoms, loved her winter coat that had a red belt around the middle that her mother had gifted her two winters ago. There were so many things that she loved about the winter...

Even if she hated being so long away from camp. There had only been two years that she had spent year-round, but she missed them at times, moments where she would want to spend time with friends or her family in a way that she normally could never dare to.) 

Her flute case bumped against her leg as she moved through the steadily growing crowds. Normally, Kassandra didn't walk anywhere after school, but it was a half-day and the last before winter break, and while she was supposed to be going to rehearsal, the orchestra director had fallen terribly ill over the last few days and had been forced to cancel -- luckily, the winter performances had come and gone at the beginning of the month so that they didn't interfere with exams, which, as a dyslexic with ADHD, Kassandra found herself incredibly thankful for. 

RNYAPA was incredibly understanding and accommodating to talented children with learning impediments, but that didn't mean that there wasn't struggle and a degree of embarrassment whenever she needed extra time or help with tests or exams. 

She was between the Diamond District and Midtown, having already walked at least ten blocks by now, ten blocks at a fast pace that was nothing for the fifteen-year-old track star and demigod, but apparently was still enough for Pauline and Kevin to follow her even as she tried to very subtly and clearly tell them to get lost.  

Since last summer when she had a sort of typical conversation with Pauline after their performance in the park, the violinist had been determined to become her friend despite the many hints that she wasn't very interested. 

Because Kassandra wouldn't admit that she was worried about what could happen when she trusted people, but she would admit that she was sort of worried about letting a couple of mortals get too close when she was having a sort of a rough start of the year. 

There wasn't normally so many monsters that came for her, only one every now and then, but they were much more numerous now and while she wouldn't make the claim aloud, she would suspect that it had something to do with the traitor Luke. 

Where Pauline was easy to come up with conversation, Kevin was all the willing to let her speak. The boy was very quiet, the silent type, and she was sure that he hated everything aside from science, oboe, and Pauline (somewhere along the way she had come to be included as well, which made no sense and was rightfully ridiculous). 

"-- and so Daddy is taking us on a ski trip come Monday," Pauline goes on, Kassandra missing the entire first half of the story or how they had even gotten to this point. She could have sworn that she had already heard all of this already, however. "Have you ever gone skiing, Kass? I think you would be really good at cross-country." 

"I haven't been before," she notes dryly. "You'll have to tell me all about it when you get back." 

"Yeah! Maybe I could call you sometime."