Pyrrhic

━━ XII

SUMMER MEANT THE RETURN OF HER FRIENDS' LAUGHS. Lyra was quite 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.

In any case, that meant Drew Tanaka enrolled in high school again, because she wanted to have the full experience; Annabeth Chase decided to spend the following months back in San Francisco with her mortal (and cool) family, and Percy Jackson, after New Years, went back to his mother's apartment to, in his words, "properly finish at least one academic year".

Now, listen, Lyra was not a selfish person-slash-constellation-slash-lyre, or she would not consider herself as such—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 find someone to spend most of her 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 (Chiron did not approve, but it made her friends laugh whenever she said something in a completely wrong context, or used curse words when inappropiate, or simply tried to find the words to express something and ended up speaking like a toddler, according to them. If it made them chuckle, she would continue doing it!).

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! Wait. She didn't). 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, when the holidays were over, alongside the Beam twins, Sol, and Drew, which made her feel quite lonely at first, but she soon realised she still had friends in camp, and the opportunity to become close to the others that remained, as well. That was enough to keep her entertained.

With her friends, she still kept in contact via Iris Messaging. It was nice. Marisol introduced her to her mom, Tamara Bach, a pretty brunette with a natural bronze tan that seemed to pull the sun towards her face whenever she smiled, and who happily offered to teach her how to surf in the summer, if she decided to accompany Sol to Florida. The twins' calls were very short, usually filled with poetry or songs (technically the same, but they liked to make their differences from each other very clear in spite of their similarities, 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 found herself most Sundays on Sally Jackson's living room's couch, eating something delicious and blue every time.

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. According to Annabeth, his indifference was the best answer possible.