Blessings from Khaos

|he is half my soul, as the poets say.|

Leaneira had summer school.

It was embarrassing as it was infuriating and it was so damn relieving because Lea was not about to repeat a grade. And sure, she was a little worried about Percy since the trip to the museum that she had not been allowed to go on since she had in-school suspension. It was like only he and her remembered Mrs. Dodd who looked at them as if they were dead walking the earth.

She wasn't comfortable with the idea of sending him off alone even if it were just to their Mom's apartment. They were not crazy. At all. But still; sending him off while they were being gaslighted by the entire faculty—see, Mr. Burt, Lea does pay attention in class—to spend the summer with Gabe?

He just had to say the word and she would find a way to get him stuck there with her for the summer.

Percy waved away her concern though. If anything, he was trying to get her to ditch it. It wasn't like she was going to be back the next year since her name had been printed right alongside his on that pretty cream-colored expulsion letter.

She was not the one to call the teacher an old sod. She had only said that she understood what people meant when they said God doesn't like ugly.

But they were being kind to let her make up her work from when she was placed in protective care within her dorm room after Mr. Brunner had testified to seeing someone stalk her on school grounds. He didn't mention her not-soulmate, but some creepy old hag that put a nest of poisonous snakes in her backpack.

Lea was sure she had screamed loud enough to crack glass when she opened her bag to see the reptiles.

They caught her quickly enough, learned that she wasn't working alone while Lea was trying to figure out what the hell she did to piss off the demonic grandmothers. Did she not help them across the street? Refused one of their oatmeal cookies?

They lived in New York, clearly they saw worse things than a preteen girl just trying to survive middle school.

And when the day ended, she hugged Trent and Medea goodbye as they were going across the country to visit their summer home like the little nepo babies they were. She promised to write and try to call Percy as much as she could before summer school ended and she could go home.

Then she was left by herself at the school, no friends with the other little delinquents and troublemakers that had gotten saddled with extra courses.

Woo-hoo!

The days passed by quickly. She was a little frustrated with the makeup work, but she was also relieved that she had unlimited access to the teachers' attention so that way she wasn't struggling in silence. Things were a lot easier when the letters weren't doing the tango across the page.

And one of her more favored teachers, Ms. Renae, showed her a few tips to utilize for her adhd and some dyslexia friendly worksheets. Lea could have cried.

And then—

And then June Ninth as she was coming out of the library, her breast lit with a flame as she caught sight of those bright eyes once. He moved towards her, and like the girls in the old greek stories, she took off down the halls.

She swore she heard the shadows laughing as the sound of her pounding feet echoed from the walls.

"Run. Run as fast you can."

It was when she caught sight of the police cars outside of the building did she slow to a stop. Her heart beat furiously in her chest and yet—the fear she felt had not abated. In fact, it seemingly grew in strength, dread clinging to her like chains when she saw Gabe approach the doors.