I actually liked this one. Sad, but it was nice. And mushy, don't forget mushy.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO.
Stars
He had never quite fit in. Always the odd man out. Jason and Piper had got together, making him the third wheel once more.
Nyssa and Jake were already dependant on each other, like clockwork. They were siblings, but they might as well have been the same person in two different bodies.
No, he was doomed to be alone forever. Khione was hot. Way hot. But she was oh-so-cold. Fire and ice didn't work. Apparently, for him, opposites didn't attract.
The only person he had ever really felt at ease with was his mother. She had been the one to foster his habit of keeping tools and bits and pieces in his pockets. It was her who he had turned to. Then that fateful night… and she was Just gone. Forever.
There was only one person who had understood how he had felt. It wasn't Nyssa. Or Jake, or Piper, or Jason. It certainly wasn't his dad.
It was the Stolls. Like him, they had developed their joker selves as a self-defense mechanisms. Bullies would keep them around for laughs. No hurt, no injuries, still living. As long as there was life, there was hope. Another thing his mom had drilled into him. But no, there was no hope. After her death, he was hopeless.
The Stolls had lost their mom, too. Car accident, they told him.
Apparently, the strawberry fields weren't just his, as he found out one night as he slipped out of his cabin, silently making his way to the rows of plants.
He sat there, taking in the sky, the stars. His mother had pointed them out to him. "Mijo, do you see that star? The North Star. If you can find it, you will never be lost."
That star had always been his favorite. Absently, he lit up a finger, staring into the flickering light.
There was a slight rustling of grasses as the Stolls slipped onto either sides of him, laying back.
"North star?" Travis asked.
"Mm-hm." Leo replied, picking a strawberry and eating it.
The Stolls did the same, staring up at the sky. "Mom's favorite star was Sirius. The dog star." Connor laughed bitterly. "She said that she thought that if she could find it, she would always be safe. Like it was a good-luck charm. Fat lot it did with a drunk driver."
"It was our fault." Travis said softly. "We fought with her, so she was late to work. If we had just been a few minutes earlier or later... We were brought from school to the principal, and he broke the news. I was only eight."
They sat in silence, somberly gazing up at the stars that had meant so much to their mothers. And maybe, just maybe, they were comforted by the knowledge that somebody understood.
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