December 25
"Hunter! Hunter, wake up! It's Christmas!" Christina shouted to the blanket cocooned Hunter. He turned to his other side away from her and pulled the blanket tighter. He hadn't really done anything in the past couple days. It was good seeing his uncle again, but he felt bad because he wasn't really being very sociable. He hadn't really had a conversation with anyone. He had just kind of been coasting through the visit. The kiss with Marina really kind of bothered him and what bothered him more was how he left. He was stupid. He kept playing it back in his head and how he should have done it. What he should have done instead of leave. He had to leave, but he could have brought her along or..."Hunter, if you don't wake up, Baxter and I are going to bother you all day until you do." Hunter curled into a ball and groaned a little. "Okay. Up, Baxter. Up." She said, patting on his bed. Hunter felt the weight shift on the bed and felt it move toward him.
"Just leave me alone..." Hunter groaned as he tried to hide from the dog that suddenly appeared in his line of sight. The small chow-lab mix puppy licked at his face, barking and panting at him.
"Hunter, if you don't wake up, I'll get Jojo involved. And if that doesn't work then Wilbur is going to be brought into the mix and you know you can't stand up to Wilbur." Hunter was pretty much awake at this point, but he might as well let Christina have her fun. "Well, that's it then. It won't be long now. Come on, Jojo." She said, then placed another small puppy on Hunter's shoulder. Hunter finally rolled to his stomach and buried his face in his pillow, trying to escape the dogs. "Time for Wilbur." Hunter sighed, knowing that he would have to wake up soon, but it didn't stop him from drawing this out. "Say good morning to Hunter, sweet puppy." Christina said in baby talk as she set Wilbur down carefully next to Hunter's head. Hunter could hear the quiet panting of Wilbur and then a soft whimper as he bumped Hunter's ear with his cold nose. Hunter finally turned his face and saw Wilbur the tiniest little puppy he'd ever seen with big dark eyes and a pink little nose. Wilbur barked and then stumbled over to Hunter and licked his face in a good morning kiss.
"Good morning, Wilbur." Hunter said with a smile. He carefully grabbed the dog then sat up, turning to Christina. "Merry Christmas, Christina." She leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.
"Get up and get dressed and then we'll get you some breakfast." She said, grabbing all the dogs except Wilbur and leaving the room. Hunter set Wilbur down next to him on the bed then stood up, throwing the blanket over Wilbur who barked and bit the blanket, trying to escape. Hunter walked to his bag and changed into a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Wilbur barked at him and as soon as Hunter had his shirt on, he picked up Wilbur and left the room.
"Hey, there he is! Merry Christmas, sleepyhead." Hunter's uncle, Wayne said, walking over and hugging him, giving him a hard pat on the back. Hunter smiled a little and patted his uncle on the back, hugging him back a little awkwardly. He finally pulled away and Hunter set Wilbur down before taking a spot at the kitchen table. "You almost missed breakfast, Hunter." He said with a smile as he sat down at the head of the table.
"Julie, Steven! Come on. We're going to eat." Lucy said, stepping into the living room for a moment before taking a spot at the other end of the table, giving him a look and a seemingly forced smile before taking her napkin and setting it in her lap. Hunter did the same and kept his head down a little. He was seated next to Julie who was about a foot and a half shorter than he was and now that he had been spending a lot more time with his sword he was now much bigger than her.
"Hunter, I'm just now realizing that you have told us how you've been doing at camp." Wayne said, taking a bite of egg. Hunter glanced up at Lucy who calmly ate her breakfast just like everyone else. Wayne wasn't here all year, so it was hard to know when something was a bit of a taboo subject around the table. Hunter still remembered when Lucy had sent him to his room the last time he talked about camp at the table.
"Well, uh..." Hunter said quietly, looking up at Lucy a little hesitantly. "It's fine, I suppose. Making some friends." He said with a nod.
"Wrestling, too from the looks of those arms." He said with a chuckle. Hunter had built a bit of muscle, but he didn't really think it was that obvious. "Have you saved the world yet? From ancient snakes or something?" That got a bit of a laugh out of the table which Hunter couldn't be more thankful for. It let the tension disappear a bit.
"Have you fought any monsters?" Steven asked with a bit of an unimpressed look on his face.
"Well, apparently a lot of the big fighting was all done before I got to camp, but I did kill a hellhound once." He chuckled a little at the memory as he stabbed a sausage link. "It was fun." He said, smiling at Steven who laughed and nodded.
"Sounds like fun. Perfect summer camp activity." Lucy said with a roll of her eyes. The table fell silent again. Hunter hung his head a little bit, poking at his food. "What? Is the food not good enough?" She asked Hunter, setting her fork down to her plate with a clatter. "Should I make you do a burnt offering beforehand or is the camp food just better than mine?"
"No, ma'am. I just...I was..."
"You were what?"
"Mom, leave him alone." Christina said quietly. "He's just a little nervous." She said before smiling over at him a little.
"Don't you-"
"Alright! Time for presents!" Wayne said, putting his fork down on his empty plate. "You guys are going to love yours." He put his plate in the sink and then hurried off to the living room where a Christmas tree stood, presents stacked underneath. Hunter took a few quick bites of bacon then placed his plate in the sink with everyone else's. He walked into the living room to find Julie, Steven, and Christina sitting on the couch and Lucy moving to join them at the end in a soft blue armchair. "Come over here, beautiful." He said, snagging Lucy's shirt sleeve and wrapping his arms around her, kissing her gently on the lips.
"Oh, come on, you two! Don't make us get the water hose." Julie said, shielding Christina's eyes. Hunter watched them kiss. Not in a weird way, but in a interested way. He loved it whenever Wayne was in town. He had a way of calming down Lucy and Hunter could tell how much they still loved each other even after all this time apart. It made him feel worse that he was the reason that she had to go without her husband. Wayne started humming really loudly and moved his hands down to her butt. The kids laughed and started throwing things at them to try and make them stop. Hunter moved into the room from the doorway and sat down on the small step in the doorway.
"Okay. Okay." Wayne said, finally breaking the kiss. "MWAH!" He laughed and then moved Lucy so she was standing beside him. "Alright, welcome to the Christmas gift extravaganza. I will be your host, Wayne and this is my lovely assistant, Lucy." She smiled and waved meekly to the kids on the couch before kissing her husband on the cheek. "Excellent, now before we move onto the gifts, I have an important announcement." His face turned serious. A little too serious for Hunter's preference. It immediately made him worry. "Well, I got a phone call yesterday about my job." He took a deep breath and he closed his eyes. Lucy looked over at him with sad eyes, but it looked like she didn't know about whatever news this was either. "They had some...comments about my performance and they said that my job would be..changing." His chin quivered a little and he swallowed, trying to push this news out. "I got promoted." He said finally, a giant smile on his face. Lucy's face brightened in surprise. "What that means is more money, more benefits, and a brand spanking new office at the headquarters in Manhattan, New York, United States of America!" Lucy was crying at this point as she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.
"You scared me half to death you big jerk." She said with a laugh through her tears. Christina was the first one up, but the twins soon followed, joining their parents in a group hug. Hunter smiled a little at the family moment, but sadly his entire body felt like he didn't belong. This was a private family moment and he was intruding. Hunter thought for a second and then stood up, walking into the kitchen and starting on doing the dishes. He knew that Lucy was going to tell him to do them anyway, so why not start them now? He usually didn't get gifts anyway. Or if he did they weren't under the tree. It was only fair, considering he usually didn't give gifts.
He was scrubbing down a frying pan when he heard his name from the other room. He set the pan down and wiped his hands off before looking into the living room.
"Oh, there he is." Steven said, walking over and handing him a small wrapped gift. "A friend of mine gave this to me and I didn't want it. I'm not sure who would, but I thought you might." Hunter looked down at the package in his hands for a moment before going to hug Steven, but he went for a hand shake and he quickly adjusted to the handshake.
"Uhm...thanks." Hunter said with a nod.
"Open it, stupid." Christina said with a laugh, her legs crossed under her, her head adorned with a fuzzy hat that still had the tag on it, no doubt one of her gifts. Hunter turned the package over and ripped the paper, revealing a thick book. He turned it over revealing the title in Greek.
"The Compiled works of the Ancient Greek Poets." Hunter translated with a bit of a laugh.
"My friend bought it thinking that love poems in different languages would help him, but it wasn't til he shelled out 50 bucks for the book that he found out that Greek didn't sound all that romantic."
"I know, right?" Hunter said with a little laugh. He looked down at the book again then shook Steven's hand again. "Thanks. I'll be sure to read it. Tell you how it goes." He laughed and then sat back down just as Julie stood.
"Here's my gift." Julie said with a smile, walking over and handing him a gift bag. Hunter took it gingerly in his hands and then opened it. Inside was a lighter. A little confused, he looked at her then back down at the bag before reaching in and grabbing it. On closer inspection he saw that there were letters etched into it.
"It's supposed to be an H. My boyfriend got me a new one that was officially engraved, so I changed the J that I scratched into it into an H, so...H-U...You're Hunter."
"Why do you have a lighter?" Christina asked. Julie's eyes looked pleadingly into Hunter's for a moment before turning around.
"Well, uh..."
"Incense." Hunter said with a shrug. Julie turned around and looked at him. "You can get these like...focus-inducing incense sticks now. A lot of the children of Athena use them at camp."
"My study group always uses them and we ran out of matches, so I decided to buy a lighter."
"Wow, all these new ways to study, huh, Luce?" Wayne said, his arms wrapped around Lucy who was sitting on his lap in the armchair at the end of the couch. Julie hugged Hunter and kissed him on the cheek.
"I owe you one big time. Thanks." She whispered in his ear before pulling away.
"Thanks, Julie." Hunter said, holding up the lighter a second. Christina finally stood up and handed him a big box.
"Now, before you say anything, you should know that I made this myself and wasn't positive on some of the measurements, so...You can't say anything bad because I tried." She said with a giggle. Hunter smiled and unwrapped the box and took the lid off. He took out the tissue paper and pulled out a piece of clothing. He unfolded it and on black fabric with orange letters it was a scarf that read 'CAMP HALF-BLOOD.' He held it up and found it to be longer than he was by a good amount.
"This must have taken you forever!" Hunter said bundling it up a little bit. She smiled and took it from him doing a quick slip knot.
"It's still really long..." She said, frowning a little. Hunter smiled and hugged her tightly.
"I don't care, Chrissy. Thank you. Thanks to all of you." He said with a nod. "This really means a lot."
"Hey, now, Hunter. You didn't let me give you my gift." He carefully stood up out from under Lucy and reached into his pocket, retrieving a small box. He handed it to Hunter who opened it to reveal a car key.
"Oh, Uncle Wanye...Sir, I don't deserve this."
"Oh, calm down." He said with a laugh. "It's not a key. It's a promise."
"You're getting me a car!?"
"Let me finish. I'm telling you that, you're going to learn how to drive. Lucy told me that she didn't see much point in it, but I think that you knowing how to drive is very important." He quickly checked his watch and then turned to Lucy. "When are we eating lunch?"
"Right about noon."
"Fabulous. Let's go now, then." He said with a smile. He grabbed him by the arm and started to pull him toward the door, but Hunter stooped, looking down at the gifts he had received.
"No, I...I'll be right back." Hunter said, walking back to his room. He set the book and the lighter and the scarf down on his bed then sat down, pulling out his bag. There had to be something. Five somethings. He reached into the bottom of his bag and pulled out a shoebox full of keepsakes from his life at camp. The pink Barbie watch that belonged to Arabella. His first camp shirt. A few photographs. His camp necklace. A small charm bracelet that belonged to his mother. Hunter laid it all out on the bed then stood and looked at it all. "Okay. The feather for Chrissy." He said quietly. "The tooth necklace will go to Steven....The chain that Marina gave him will go to Julie..." He just had two more. One for Wayne and one for Lucy. "What to get Lucy..." He paced a little and then sat back down. He pulled the gifts aside and then started to put things he couldn't give up in the box. The watch. The photos. The shirt. He went to grab his camp necklace when there was a knock on the door.
"Hunter?" Wayne said, stepping inside and closing the door. "You okay, Hunter?" Hunter looked up at him a little sad.
"I uh...I got all these great gifts and I don't have anything to give in return. So...I'm looking for things."
"Hunter...this is your stuff. No, son. Listen, you don't have to give us gifts. Don't worry about it."
"No, no." Hunter said, shaking his head. He felt like he was going to cry, but he needed to hold it together. "If I don't give gifts then Aunt Lucy is going to yell at me or something. Not giving gifts back would be unfair, so..." He felt a tear build up in his eye and he wiped it with his sleeve before pointing to the three gifts he had pulled aside.
"Oh, is this...is this for Steven?" He said, holding up the necklace. "That's perfect. He'll love it. And I'm assuming the feather is for Chrissy? It's really good that she has you as a cousin." Hunter was crying at this point, but he was staying as quiet as possible and he had to or he'd feel ashamed or weak or ungrateful or helpless. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve then looked down at Wayne's hand as it ran down the chain. "Where did you get that?"
"My uh...friend. She made it." He said, looking a little closer at it. It looked like several roses and the stems tangling together into chain. "I'm not too sure how much of a friend I was to her in retrospect, so I figure I can give that away." He said, feeling another wave of guilt hit him.
"I'm assuming it's for Julie?" Hunter nodded and then wiped his eyes again, finally feeling a little bit more composed. "So, that leaves...Lucy and I." Hunter nodded again, looking at the remnants of his keepsakes. He grabbed his camp necklace and put it in the box then looked down at his mother's charm bracelet. He picked it up and ran his thumb over the few charms she had. A winged hat, no doubt from his father. A bunch of grapes. A pair of held hands. Finally a small crown. "That belonged to your mother, didn't it?" Hunter looked over at him and took a breath, nodding a little.
"It's all I really have left of her." Hunter said quietly. He felt tears threatening his composure again, but he resisted this time, taking a deep breath.
"You know what each of these charms represents?"
"I know the winged hat was...that was from my dad, but...she didn't tell me the rest of it before she uh..." He let out a sigh of frustration as he started crying again. Wayne took it gingerly from his hand and examined each charm.
"Well, the grapes. She said that it reminded her of Mort. The twin sons of Dionysus. Castor and Pollux. She explained this all to me one night. She said that whenever she ate grapes, she would save half of the bunch for Morton." He said before moving to the next charm. "She told me and Lucy agreed that the thing that she could remember most distinctly about her parents was that they always held hands. You never met them, but I can say for a fact that they did. It was sweet how much they loved each other even when they were so old." He cleared his throat a moment and moved to the crown. "Queen Elizabeth of Reed and Connecticut. That's what Lucy used to call her. Do you remember when your mother would be into a discussion and she'd sit up all straight and she'd cross her legs and put on a face that was very...y'know regal, kind of?" Hunter sniffed and laughed a little at the memory. He barely knew what was going on most of the time, but he did remember. "Well, Luce would always call her Queen Elizabeth of Reed and Connecticut and that's why she wore a crown charm. When she was off with your dad, traveling and going wild she would always remember her family. Your uncle Mort and your grandparents and your Aunt Lucy."
"It's not fair, Uncle Wayne." Hunter said quietly, hiding his face in his knees which were hugged tightly to her chest.
"I know, Hunter. Cancer never is." He twisted the bracelet in his hands a moment before placing it on the bed next to him. "I really think it would mean a lot if you gave that bracelet to your Aunt Lucy." Hunter looked up at him stunned.
"After how she treats me, I should give her the only thing I have left of my mom?" Hunter said, a lump in his throat. "My mom is gone, uncle Wayne. I miss her so much. It's my mom and she's dead. No ten year old should have to bury his mother."
"And no person should have to her younger brother, her younger sister, and her parents." A silence entered the room and they both sat there for a while. Hunter knew he was right. How could have been so selfish? That's all he had been is selfish. With his family here and Marina at camp. He looked over at the bracelet and picked it up, running his thumb over the charms.
"How am I going to remember her?" Hunter whispered. Wayne put his arm around him and rubbed his arm.
"By making her proud. By growing up and being the man that she'd want you to be." He took a deep breath. "You've got memories of her and you'll never forget those." Hunter took a deep breath and wiped his eyes, his sleeve officially saturated with tears.
"Thanks." Hunter said before gathering the four gifts and heading out of his room. He held the charm bracelet tightly in his hand as he tried to have a few more moments with it before finally giving it up. He walked into the kitchen where he found his Aunt Lucy hard at work making lunch. "Uhh...Aunt uh...Aunt Lucy?"
"What?" She said, not turning to look at him. He took a deep breath then cleared his throat.
"I guess, I just wanted to thank you for everything you've done for me over the years and I'm sorry for all of the trouble that I've caused you, but I just wanted to give you this." He said, finally holding up the bracelet. She looked quickly at the gift and opened her mouth to give some sort of retort, but her head whipped back at it as she gazed at it.
"Hunter, I could never..."
"No...No, no. It's okay. You need it more than I do." He said quietly before dropping it into her hand. Hunter felt better and better about giving it up with every moment with every teardrop that was starting to drop from his Aunt Lucy's face. She ran her finger over the charms and then stepped forward, giving Hunter a tight hug. "Merry Christmas, Aunt Lucy."
"Merry Christmas, Hunter."