Ugh. Welp, I'm back after...an indeterminate amount of time. Two weeks, I think. I'm going to be ending this story by Christmas Eve, so just head's up as that's in two weeks. If everything goes as planned, I'll post three chapters after this next one.

Here we have two sets of letters- both from Mira Green, one to Connor and one to Travis- who are obviously the Stoll twins. They'll run parallel to each other for the most part, soooo. Enjoy!

V.M: Thank you! I hope so, as I kind of think I'm a fool for writing this. :) That is weird. Thanks!

Azure Bluet: Yep, I suppose you'll have to wait...if I do the last chapter as planned. I think I will. Makes sense.. after all, if I didn't, I think Ellie might blow her top LOL. No offense to Ellie...hehe.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter, if you want to, review (I love reviews), and yada yada yada. Expect the next chapter *somewhat* soon!

Dear Mira Green, August 19
Mira, I'm seeking advice. How to you stop your brother from stealing from you?
Sincerely,
Travis Stoll

Dear Mira Green, August 19
Mira, I'm seeking advice. How do you steal your brother's gum without him knowing?
Sincerely,
Connor Stoll

Miracle Alycia Green stared in half bewilderment, half amusement, at the set of letters, unknowingly sent the same day.

Dear Travis, August 23
Travis, I'm not sure what you should do. Perhaps you should better hide your things?
Mira Green

Dear Connor, August 23
Connor, I'm not sure what you should do. Perhaps you shouldn't steal his gum at all.
Mira Green

Travis and Connor Stoll, in different parts of Camp Half-Blood, read the tiny responses.

Dear Mira Green, August 27
Mira, I do. But Connor's a child of Hermes too. I'm not sure I'll be able to hide much from him without him finding out. I don't want him stealing my gum anymore!
Sincerely,
Travis Stoll

Dear Mira Green, August 27
Mira, if I don't steal Travis's gum, how am I going to get gum? I'm guessing that if you don't approve of me stealing Travis's gum you won't approve of me stealing it from someone else.
Sincerely,
Connor Stoll

Mira wondered why she even bothered.

Dear Travis, September 1
Travis, I don't think you should be talking to me about your brother stealing your gum. Why don't you talk to him about this?
Sincerely,
Mira Green

Dear Connor, September 1
Connor, maybe you can buy gum. And no. I don't approve of your stealing.
Sincerely,
Mira Green

Connor thought this didn't seem like a solution; Travis was suspicious. however, neither of them knew what to do with Miracle Alycia Green.

Dear Mira Green, September 2
Mira, if I talk to Connor, he's going to deny it! There's a reason you don't trust a Stoll. Or a child of Hermes, for that matter.
Sincerely,
Travis Stoll

Dear Mira Green, September 2
Mira, I live at Camp! I don't have drachmas to spare on gum. That's why I steal it from Travis.
Sincerely,
Connor Stoll

Mira thought these two were awfully dense. She'd first contacted Connor and Travis maybe a year ago, separately. Her usual inquiry- how are you doing, how is your life and all that jazz, though she obviously never thought she'd be getting mail from them because of stealing/family troubles.

Dear Travis, September 8
Travis, you're a Stoll and a child of Hermes.
If Connor stealing bothers you enough to complain to me about it, then you have to talk to him. It's obvious.
Sincerely,
Mira Green

Dear Connor, September 8
Connor, then maybe you just shouldn't have gum.
Sincerely,
Mira Green

Mira signed the letters and put them in their respective envelopes, rolling her eyes as she did so.

Dear Mira Green, September 13
Mira, did I ever say you could trust me?
Sincerely,
Travis Stoll

Dear Mira Green, September 15
Mira, I think you need to stop and think about what you're saying here. Stop eating gum? Really?
Sincerely
Connor Stoll

Mira shrugged at Travis's letter and rolled her eyes at Connor's.

Dear Travis, September 16
Travis, really, what is the point of this.
Mira Green

Dear Connor, September 19
Connor, this is ridiculous.
Mira Green

Mira was not an advice column, thank you very much. This was starting to get annoying- after all, communication was the single most important thing in a relationship according to Dr. Phil or something.

Dear Mira Green, September 22
Mira, I have a genuine problem here! I'm going to run out of gum if Connor keeps stealing it, and if I steal any more 'thinking gum' from cabin six they'll flay me alive!
Insincerely,
Travis Stoll

Dear Mira Green, September 22
Mira, it's a real problem! What if Travis stops buying gum? Then I'll have to have stocked up so that I have enough gum to weather the difficult time.
Sincerely,
Connor Stoll

Mira wished she knew how to stop this. She had other letters to write, other people to talk to, and it was just kind of ridiculous that they would both write to her complaining about a, their brother stealing their gum, and b, how to stop their brother from knowing he was stealing their gum.

Dear Travis, September 25
Travis, if this was really bothering you that much, you wouldn't be complaining to a girl you don't know via letter writing about it, you'd be confronting Connor. Therefore, this is not enough of an issue to talk to me about.
Miracle Green

Dear Connor, September 25
Connor, I can safely say you are one of the biggest idiots I have ever had the pleasure of writing to. Talk to your brother. Perhaps you can share the gum.
Miracle Green

Mira changed her signature- allowing the slightest bit of frostiness to seep into her full name. Connor and Travis would never decode the subtle hints left in her letters; not many, perhaps not any, could.

Except her.

Dear Mira Green, September 28
Mira, it's harder than you realize. Children of Hermes are tricky, you know. It would be hard to pin down Connor and have the conversation. That's why I need your help. Can you write a letter to Connor and ask him to stop stealing my gum? It's been more than a month now and I'm running low.
Travis Stoll

Dear Mira Green, September 27
Mira, I'm hurt. Deeply and truly hurt. And sharing? We're not five years old anymore. When we were five years old, we didn't share. We Stoll. Get it? Stoll?
Connor Stoll

Mira rolled her eyes. Travis didn't know she was already writing Connor about the same predicament- even though Connor was sort of the 'bad guy' in this situation. What good would it do for her to tell him to stop? She already had. He wasn't going to change. People seldom did, she'd learned. Not enough to make a difference.

Dear Travis, October 2
Write a letter to your brother? This is so insane. You're demigods. Worst case scenario you fight a little. You heal. You hopefully stop getting your gum stolen. It's not fair to me to be roped into your conversations. You don't even know me, Travis. You don't want to know who Mira Green is, and that's the cold hard truth of the world. So do me one favor and patch things up with the brother that may as well be your twin.
Because like it or not, he's the most precious thing you have.
Mira Green

Dear Connor, October 2
Connor, if you were deeply and truly hurt, there would be no brother for you to steal gum from. If you were deeply and truly hurt, you wouldn't be writing a nameless girl. It would be the other way around. If you were deeply and truly hurt, you wouldn't be the person that you are.
So don't say you are.
It just makes you sound bratty.
I don't want to talk about punny jokes.
Mira Green

The postman who took the letters noted the names scratched onto each letter had ripped the paper with the intensity of the writing. Everything about the girl's handwriting conveyed irritability, anger, maybe a little bit of wistfulness if he was reading into it. But that was silly. How could you tell emotions through writing? How could he, an innocent postman, know what was going on here?

Connor and Travis Stoll, however, had faith in the detection of the wistfulness and wanting embedded into the black ink. They knew it was there, because for two and a half months they had talked to the girl named Miracle Alycia Green, had come to understand some of what lay encoded in her letters. They'd never know it all, but the tone of their inner monologues made it clear that this was more than the voice of a parent telling them to be grateful- that so many kids would kill to be in their position. This was the voice of a girl who knew exactly what she was talking about.

But neither one reacted the right way.

Dear Mira Green, October 6
Mira, it's not that easy. You don't have a sister. Connor is my only real family. I could never live with myself if I lost him accidentally. I don't think you could understand. We're blood- more than other Hermes kids are. You don't get how it feels to know that all those kids in the Hermes cabin that are children of Hermes aren't your true family. But Connor? He's my lifeline.
Travis Stoll

Dear Mira Green, October 6
Mira, I don't need your silly be grateful talks. I came to you for a problem. It's not like I want to steal gum from Travis- but nobody else has gum. Now you're just making this into something angsty, and it's kind of silly.
Connor Stoll

Two letters from two Stolls were ripped to shreds and burned in a bonfire on the Laguna Beach. Was that illegal? Mira Green didn't know. She didn't care very much. Even the envelopes were reduced to ashes, blown into the sea. She didn't write back; not yet at least. Perhaps she was melodramatic- she knew she was melodramatic. But she was her and that was who she wanted to be, so she would go on being herself and leaving Connor and Travis Stoll alone. It was obvious to her that they didn't understand what she meant, obvious to her that they thought they knew the answers.

But they didn't. A girl on the beach, her hair in her face and her eyes, stood and walked the distance back to the lonely home in Laguna Beach, the home where a father no longer walked and a sister had never set foot.

"It's for you both." Travis and Connor stared at the familiar half-cursive handwriting of one Mira Green, glancing at one another.

Dear Travis and Connor, November 6
Connor and Travis, I feel that your problems with trusting one another come from a lack of communication with each other.
Therefore, I am cutting off communication with you both for perhaps forever. When you stop stealing gum or being stolen from and writing me about it, and you two actually grow up, feel free to address a letter to Mykines.
Mira Green

The last letter written to Mira Green in Mykines was never answered, because Mira had already gone.