The Little Lightning Girl

40- We've Seen Worse Days

We were walking back to where we'd left our boards and towels when I patted Rose and Kaley on the back, walking between the two of them, "Well, congratulations! You've had a taste of demigod life!"

Kaley's response was a glare, but Rose was frowning, "Literally. I feel like I can still taste that seaweed, disgusting."

As soon as we got out of the cave and the gags had been removed, Rose and Kaley began spitting into the sand and both had run to the ocean to wash out their mouths with salt water. The rest of us were just laughing.

I had to believe that the siren wasn't a bad person, creature, whatever she was. Loneliness drove people to measures they thought they were incapable of. And she had let us go, had agreed to let us go before I had freed her from the cave. If she was willing to continue living such a lonely existence, she couldn't be all bad. Adrian's contemplative face told me that he was thinking similar things.

We must have been knocked out for some time, because we'd stopped surfing before noon, and now the sun was setting.  As we picked up our things and began walking back towards the house, Maya said, "I can't believe you never sung before."

I looked over to find her eyes narrowed, more in confusion than anger. I shrugged, "I did tell you that I could sing, though."

She scoffed, "So can I and so can everyone else. Except my singing would've made the siren drown us, not free us. You're actually good though, really good."

I blushed, "Well, thanks."

Rose elbowed me in the side, "That's all you have to say for yourself?"

"Merlin, Rose! Stop the violence! What else do you want me to say?"

She ran a hand through her hair and pulled it to the other side, "I don't know, I just don't know how I haven't heard you sing before."

I debated not telling them, but I'd told them almost everything else, so I smiled, "My grandmother taught me to sing. We'd sit on her porch, playing ukulele and singing almost every night. I guess it's just... losing her was hard for me, I haven't had anything to do with music since she died. I figured it would be painful."

"Was it?" Kaley asked quietly.

"No."

Bittersweet, but not painful.

We were quiet for a few minutes until Rose said, softer than I'd heard from her in a while, "That's what you thought of when you cast your Patronus, isn't it?"

I smiled, remembering that silvery owl soaring around the classroom, and nodded.

And that was all that was said until we reached the house. As soon as we'd cleaned ourselves up and gotten dressed properly, I dragged my friends out to my favorite restaurant. It was a little known local place that sat right on the beach. They played good music and served fresh seafood.

We sat by the window and as we chatted and ate, the ocean licked the sand closer and closer to the restaurant. As much as it had been an eventful day, overall, it hadn't been that bad. We'd all seen far worse days.

...............

We surfed at sunrise every day for the next week. We did it enough that Rose and Kaley started to wipe out far less. I was glad that they had set their minds to making this trip, it had done me the world of good. They knew me well, and I figured I'd told them enough about Hawaii that they'd eventually want to pay a visit. Kai joined us as much as he could, and the two of us toured everyone else around the town. We'd been notorious as kids, finding all the best hiding spots and places that no one knew about. By the end of the week, we had the rest of my friends promising that they'd come back. Kai and Adrian had actually gotten along quite well after that first day. I wasn't sure what had been said to dissolve Adrian's cold front towards Kai, but it had worked wonderfully.

I'd even bullied Kai into introducing me to his boyfriend, Wes, who'd moved to Hawaii with his family a few years ago, and moved to Haleiwa just last year. I had grilled him a little, just to test him out and see if I like him enough to let Kai date him. Not that Kai would have heeded my advice if I'd wanted them to break up. I wouldn't have ever asked that, especially since I rather liked Wes's dry humor.

But far too soon, we were packing our bags and heading back towards the airport. I once again bid goodbye to Kai with a crushing hug and promises to write or call. He'd presented each of my friends with a classic funny gift, a grass skirt and a coconut bra for each of them, even Adrian. I rolled my eyes at his present and he drove away from the airport cackling with laughter that we could hear through his open window.

We took the same two plane rides as we had to get there, and then Rose and Kaley parted from us in New York. They had lined up a fireplace in Manhattan, one of Rose's father's friends was lending out his fireplace so they could get back to Europe by Floo. Adrian, Maya, and I managed to get a taxi to take us back to the strawberry fields at the entrance to Camp Half blood. This taxi driver looked just as confused as the last one I'd hired to do this trip. And so, our vacation was over. But as I laid in my bed that first night back, I could close my eyes and still smell the salt of the ocean air and feel the spray of water.

................

The next morning, Maya woke me up by pounding on my cabin door. I usually didn't sleep in past dawn, but for some reason, probably because of the plane rides where I hadn't slept at all, I'd passed out the moment my head touched the pillow last night and now it seemed to be past ten o'clock.

"Hey lazy! Adrian sent me to wake you up, he's waiting to train!"

I swung my feet over the side of my bed and shouted back, "He should've come himself, it's gonna take a while."

Then the door flew open and the blonde burst inside, hands already on her hips, "What's wrong with you?"

I snorted, "Seriously? That's your greeting? Nothing's wrong, I just woke up late so I still have to get ready!"

She frowned, "Oh, well, chop chop."

I stood and began getting dressed, Maya had seen me in less clothes, so I really didn't care. I was slipping a shirt over my head when I said, "I'm not his student anymore, he should find someone else to train."

"Oh he doesn't still think you're his student, he says that you're the only person in this camp competent enough for him to really spar with."

I smiled into my shirt. It was a compliment, even if he hadn't said it to me himself. It was also rather motivating to move a bit faster. Shorts and tennis shoes went on, and I strapped my swords to my belt before tying my hair up in a ponytail. I walked up to the singular tree in the training area and found Adrian doing warm ups with his back facing me.

"Heard you were in need of a competent sparring partner," I said with a smirk.

He turned around with a small smile on his face, "Yeah, don't let it go to your head."

I took my swords from my belt and raised them in challenge, "I'd never."

And that quickly, metal clashing and bodies whirling, we were fighting again.