Camp Jupiter: War Games

Luke "Rhapsody" Castellan

Nyssa

Cohort 1, Defense

"Trumpets, can you all play quieter? There's so many of you you're drowning out the horns." "We are horns! This is so unfair." "You could switch to euphonium." "No!"

Words: 1,389

So...this is for the Camp Jupiter: War Games forum. My goal is to do all eleven prompts from the October 2020 thread, which are band prompts, eleven, one for each musical instrument in the standard concert band, and each one with one character. My next is 'Trumpet', with Luke Castellan, and this is "Rhapsody", so here it is.

Rhapsody

Luke Castellan had been bitter.

It wasn't that he had wanted to grow up with no father figure and a mother who believed herself to be 'psychic'. And it wasn't that he wanted to play the trumpet, either.

But somehow life didn't work out that way.

But that was neither here nor there.

"Eww, you farted!" Annabeth shrieks, her curls a mess and her gray eyes wide with shock and disdain. "Thalia, Luke farted!" Thalia looks up from the pavement and gives Luke a smirk.

"Oh?"

"Yeah! He's gross!" Annabeth tells her adamantly. Annabeth's a cute kid- a good kid, too- but Luke does wish she wouldn't act like this about bodily functions some of the time.

"Well, what should we do?" Thalia asks.

"Kick him out!"

"Hold your horses, Anna. If you kick me out- we won't be able to get dinner." Luke raises his eyebrows. Annabeth puts on a thinking face. She's only seven, too young to be homeless, too young to comprehend that Luke's stealing their dinners and too young to care. Thalia stares at him over the top of her head. The stare is merciless, but there's an empathy in them. She doesn't like how they get food; Thalia has some standards; but she knows they have to resort to stealing to keep food in Annabeth's belly.

She's a good kid.

"I'm a first trombone, these guys are second!" Thalia explodes. Luke has enough decency to be embarrassed, but not enough to show Thalia, who's not terribly prideful but would bring it up every single time he did something she didn't like. She's fiery, that's definitely true, and he's not really sure about her yet, but she's more talented than the rest of these new recruits.

Luke isn't sure why he's helping new trombonists anyway, he's a trumpet player for heaven's sake, but Half-Blood is an odd place.

Someone chuckles at their show down, and Thalia whips around and glares. "What are you laughing at, Can't-Do-First-Position? And you, Dropped-Their-Trombone?" He appreciates Thalia 'sticking up for him', but knows she's not in it to help him. She doesn't want to be laughed at any more than he does, and Thalia knows enough to do it for herself. The two quiet, however, and he's glad. "That's what I thought. Now, shut up and try to play your parts right. Well?" she looks at Luke. "I think you, Mister, owe me an apology."

Luke grits his teeth. Yeah, he likes Thalia. She's got fire inside her and she's nice, he supposes, in a prickly cactus sort of way, but he doesn't like the condescending tone that comes out of her mouth. She's ambitious, he knows- that's why she's made progress with the trombone so quickly. She wants to succeed, to be the best, which he understands. He's been here many long years...after...

"Thalia Grace?" he asks. He never thought to learn her last name, didn't think he needed to. Their relationship is strictly one of a student-and-teacher nature. Yeah, he thought she looked a bit familiar, with the black locks and the electric blue eyes...but he didn't think-

"What?" she snaps.

It's been a while since Luke Castellan has seen Thalia Grace, but now he can't believe he didn't realize it was her- after all, Thalia used to be his best friend. He's aware of the other trombonists watching with wide eyes. They're younger than Thalia is, and she's younger than him, and he doesn't exactly want them hearing this.

He just shrugs.

"No way." Thalia says. She analyzes him, and her eyes- the ones that could have gotten Luke to do anything- are painfully hard when they look at him now. Once, before they lost Annabeth, there was a hope in them- they had promised family, they were a family, and maybe they could get their lives together and find somewhere to live, and get jobs- if not for the two of them, for Annabeth. Once, when they were still homeless, they'd been a little more than friends. But there wasn't time when you were only thinking of how to get to the next day to have a relationship, and especially not with the seven year old Annabeth Chase in the mix.

But they had lost Annabeth- her rich mother from Olympia, Washington, had come for her- taken Annabeth away and Luke and Thalia as an afterthought- away from the Pennsylvania they had been in to Washington with her. Thalia and Luke, she'd left at Half-Blood middle school for the next seven years.

Then Thalia, too, had been taken away. Her father wanted to see her. Sent for her to live with him in Olympia. Luke's work ethic plummeted. There was nothing to drive him to his next meal now, and Thalia, who might have encouraged him, was no longer there.

Now, she was almost unrecognizable- yeah, she had the same freckles and eyes, but her hair was longer, instead of spiky it had been cut recently and she looked better groomed. She was taller, she'd grown. She had the same sort of personality, always thinking ahead, but Luke had never imagined this Thalia was his Thalia.

"Way." he says halfheartedly. Their interaction is odd now- the relationship withered. Thalia stares at him like she's seen a ghost.

"Well, well. Luke Castellan. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Thalia jostles him as she leads a blond into the circle. Not just any blond, either. "Hey Rondeau," Leo sings. Thalia nods and gives him an evil eye.

"Sonata. I thought you were with the percussionist people." the blond girl she's taken under her wing has long, silky princess curls of gold and her eyes, sharp as flint, are intelligent. Her face is angular, almost entirely devoid of baby fat. Her eyes flicker from Thalia to Leo- Sonata.

"Well, I was, but they got a bit boring." Leo tells her.

"...Rondeau? Sonata?" Luke looks closer at her. He can see her maybe seven years ago- with matted hair and more innocent eyes and a chubbier face...she looks like Annabeth.

"Everyone, this is Annabeth. Annabeth, this is everyone, you already know Rhapsody," Thalia tells them all. Unlike when he reacquainted himself with Thalia, Luke isn't stricken. It makes sense. He waves at her. She smiles.

"Trumpets, can you all play quieter? There's so many of you you're drowning out the horns." Luke rolls his eyes and speaks up.

"We are horns! This is so unfair." he complains. Thalia grins at him from across the aisle.

"You could switch to euphonium."

"No!" he says hastily. Piper's alright, but her section...he shudders.

"This doesn't work." she tells him with heavy eyes. They're tired, sad.

"What do you mean, it doesn't work? Our duet sounds fine." he answers. She's been acting a lot like this recently.

"It just- doesn't. I don't love you."

"Who said anything about that?" her silence speaks volumes. Anything else he says will make it worse, harder, and he looks away and swallows what he could have said.

The Rhapsody&Rondeau piece they've been playing is the only thing she leaves behind; but he can't hear her rondeau part anymore.

Just a rhapsody, lifting up and sinking down. That's what life is, after all. An endless rhapsody.