The rest of the dinner passed in an awkward silence. After Alexa's reaction Melody had been forced to go into a bit more detail about Alexa's past. After realizing just why family was a touchy subject for the girl, and realizing that Lisa knew full well what demons lurked in the house guest's past, the whole family was appalled by Lisa's actions. Not just the speech, but the segregation and the warning she had passed to the children.
Evidently it was a bit of a long running issue with her. She had thrown a fit the moment Joshua had taken up the punk look, calling him everything under the sun, and everyone else had had smaller disagreements with her view of what was proper.
Still, it kind of ruined the holly-jolly atmosphere when you had to tell grandma she was no longer welcome in your home, and that she needed to move.
Several of those attending apologized for their lack of knowledge or action, but Alexa barely heard or cared. Her emotions had found their outlet, now she was just feeling drained and ravenous. After the fourth or fifth "It's okay" and the accompanied savage glare from Jazz, the grown ups got the message that she'd rather be left alone for the rest of the evening.
In the meantime Alexa did her best to finish off the entire ham on her own. She wolfed down six plates of food without slowing down and somehow still had room for Christmas cookies at the end of the meal.
One by one the families left, leaving the trio of Melody, Jazz and Alexa on the couch eating their cookies and watching Frosty.
"Sorry it wasn't the Christmas you wanted, Spits."Jazz said softly.
"If I gotta say it's okay one more time I'm going to burn something." Alexa huffed with a roll of her eyes. "I'm more surprised that I didn't start crying earlier, but I'm not sad that I did. You gotta deal with emotions, not bottle them, that's what you keep telling me."
Out of the corner of her eye she saw surprise then unmistakable pride on Melody's face, her own eyes trained squarely on her daughter.
"Yeah well…" Jazz muttered. They fell into silence, finishing the special and their cookies. The moment the credits began to roll Melody gave both girls a nudge.
"Alright girls, upstairs and into bed! Santa won't come if you're still up!"
"Really mom? Santa?" Jazz asked, giving her mother a flat look.
"You're both children of Greek gods who are being trained by a centaur and see nymphs and satyrs on a daily basis, why shouldn't Santa be real?" Melody shot back. With no real way to argue with that, both girls climbed the stairs, Alexa already yawning.
She changed into her pajamas and quietly climbed under the covers. She yawned.
"Goodnight Jazz."
As her eyes drifted shut she heard the other girl say "G'night Alexa, Merry Christmas."
Alexa's dreams on that particular night were ill-defined at best. A few things stuck out to her, though; A forest in the dead of winter where she spotted a truly breathtaking deer grazing in a clearing, it's coat a brilliant silver, it's antlers gold, a pigeon cooing in an old building at twilight, the number three floating in a whirlwind of numbers, letters and shapes, and a couple of icey creatures playing hockey with candy canes for sticks.
It was a shock to be pulled from that world of strangeness and infinite possibility only to find herself dropped into a throne room. The room was all marble and gold, circular with large columns and some sort of fire pit in the middle, now only coals and a few scant flames. Outside, past the pillars she could see the sky, cold and cloudless with an occasional flurry of wind blown snow.
She found herself dragged, in that gravitational way only really found in dreams, around the fire pit and up to one of the thrones at the head of the room. In this massive chair sat an even more massive woman, both she and the throne cast so deeply in shadow she could only make out her body's shape. However, somehow she saw the woman's lips, coated in a dark red lipstick.
"Yes" said the giantess, her lips spreading into a smile. "Yes I think you'll do just fine. Sleep well little hero and grow up strong, for one day I will have business with you. I would hate to see you fail when the time comes."
Alexa awoke with a start, seconds before the first rays of the sun peeked in through the window. She let out a soft groan and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, the mystery of the dream woman distracting her for several seconds before the date reasserted it's pull on her young mind. It was Christmas day!
She wanted to run downstairs right then and there, but she held off on the impulse. There were a few things to do before then. She reached into her suitcase and rooted around for a minute before her hands brushed the wrapped box. She grinned and yanked it free, as well as something else. She slowly got to her feet, an impish grin spreading across her face. Slowly she brought her weapon up to Jazz's head and hit the button.
The airhorn's loud report was nothing compared to the surprised yelp from Alexa's roommate. The daughter of Ares flailed, getting tangled up in her blankets before toppling from the bed. Alexa burst into laughter, falling flat on her butt and squealing with merriment as Jazz cursed, spat, and slowly extricated herself from her blankets.
"M-merry...C-c-c-christmas!" Alexa stammered between giggles.
"Laugh it up" Jazz huffed, putting a pinky in the ear that had been closest to the airhorn.
"Oh come on! That was good!" Alexa said with a fresh few giggles. "Besides it's Christmas! The youngest person gets to act a bit bratty on Christmas! It's in the rules!"
"Rules shmules." Jazz grumbled
"Oh okay, I won't do it again" Alexa promised. As a peace offering and to get things going properly, she pulled the present out from behind her back. It was wrapped in green wrapping paper, surprisingly neatly for someone her age.
Jazz quietly took it and shook it, listening to the contents shake and rattle next to her ear. Slowly, Jazz unwrapped it to find a wooden box about the size of a pencil case. That she deftly popped open with a flick of her fingers to reveal...a bracelet.
The links of delicately woven bronze chain sparkled as Jazz pulled it out of the box, the four little charms attached to the links lightly clicking as Jazz examined the largest of them. It was a simple disc of polished bronze, made in the style of a dog tag. It read: Jasmine Sherman, Daughter of Ares, her date of birth, Cabin 5, Camp Half-blood. Beneath this was a small symbol that Alexa had invented by overlaying the lower case alpha and beta symbols. Her maker's mark. Sapphire had taught her the concept, and had even shown her the one she used, but this was the first creation Alexa had ever put her mark on.
Without a word, Jazz put the bracelet onto her wrist, wrapping the chain around it and closing the claspe, placing it in a spot of honor on her left wrist, beneath the shielding bracelet. Alexa relaxed slightly.
"I'm not so good at the linking charm yet, so I couldn't touch it myself. They'll come back now, even if you lose the charms. " she explained when she caught Jazz watching her. She took a step back from her roomie. "Try one, pull it off, any one besides the dog tag."
Jazz did as she was told, pulling on one of the charms, one that looked like a moon. It came off with relative ease, and seconds later it grew from a simple inch long charm into a full sized axe, two bronze crescent shaped heads attached to a solid oak handle with a leather wrapped grip.
"Woah!" Jazz gasped, quickly adjusting her grip on the unexpected weight so it wouldn't crash to the floor.
"The other two are a Dory and a Xiphos." Alexa beamed. "I was going with something of a Spartan theme since you talked my ear off about them at Hallo-" She was interrupted by Jazz, putting the axe down and pulling Alexa into a tight hug.
"I love it!" Jazz said with a laugh. "Three weapons in stocking stuffer size!"
Alexa was surprised for only a brief moment, then quickly returned the hug. Jazz pulled away after a moment, a grin still on her face as she began to examine the Labrys. She'd find no flaws on the axe, or any of the weapons. Alexa had forged them at least five times each just to make sure they were perfect. Satisfied, Jazz put the handle of the axe to the bracelet. It immediately shrank back into charm form, attaching itself to the bracelet as if it were magnetic.
"I got you something too!" Jazz said excitedly, reaching under her bed and retrieving a package in red paper, wrapped not nearly as neatly as Alexa's had.
With the ferocity and eagerness only known to children on Christmas morning and wolves at a kill she tore into the package and extracted...a box. A box she quickly flipped over to the front to read the dark blue label and show off the picture of the cream colored device held inside.
"You got me a gameboy?" Alexa gasped with wonder.
"Had to do Mel's chores for a month, but yeah!" Answered Jazz with a grin. "Do you like it?"
Did she like it? No one had ever spent so much on her at once before! She gave Jazz a quick but fierce hug, one that got a gasp from the larger girl.
"I swear you could pick up a car by yourself if you wanted!" Jazz grunted, rubbing her back.
"Thank you!" Alexa chirped. Jazz grinned.
"Now come on, let's go wake up mom. We'll see if she likes that airhorn!" Jazz led Alexa from the room.
It turned out that the airhorn was not necessary as Melody was already up. The girls found her in the living room, cup of cocoa already in hand, a modest pile of presents on the floor in front of the tree next to her chair, and a garbage bag rolled up next to her hip. She beamed at the two as they entered. "Merry Christmas!"
They both responded in kind and without a word of invitation or prompting they both sat themselves on the floor and started looking through the presents to find one with their names on them.
They began tearing into their presents, Alexa found a large cardboard box full of new clothes, and another with baked goods and candies, then she opened a few stacks of children's books, a few electrical and mechanical manuals, a couple of games for her new gameboy and a few toys. Eventually she got to the last item. It was small, small enough to fit in her pocket, and covered in orange paper with a bright blue bow. The label read
"To: Alexa. From: Dad"
Alexa quietly pulled the bow free of the parcel and unwrapped it, revealing a small folded up piece of paper and what appeared to be a Swiss army knife, with a small loop at one end to put it on a keychain and a stylised H etched into the other end. She frowned at it for a second before unfolding the note and beginning to read aloud.
"Alexa, we don't often celebrate Christmas on Olympus, Apollo tends to get carried away with the carols, but I thought you might appreciate this. It's something I came up with a few years back, I call it the omni-wrench. As the name implies, it works on any screw, bolt, fastening, or rivet known to man, and most known to gods. I hope it comes in handy in the years to come. With love, Dad." She found herself smiling slightly as she tested the wrench, unfolding a Phillips head screwdriver, promptly followed by a torx screwdriver. "Cool!"
Next to her Jazz began to unwrap a package of her own. From it she pulled a note just like Alexa's. She didn't read it aloud.
"Dad... really does know a lot of curse words." She said, glancing at her mother. Melody peeked up a bit at the mention of Ares.
"Like an encyclopedia of sailor talk." Melody chuckled "What did he say?"
"Well he says that he enjoyed what I said to Lisa, and that she had it coming for years...and he wants me to have a Merry Christmas." She reached into the small box beneath the letter and pulled out a navy blue baseball cap with a bright red, stylized NY above the bill. Alexa recognized it immediately as a Giants hat. Jazz put it on without a second thought and returned her attention to the note.
"When you want to use this the right way, just use the word 'deimos'." The moment the word left Jazz's lips the hat turned into a bronze helmet with a bloody red plume. The moment it took it's new shape Alexa felt her nerves rising. An unidentifiable but undeniable dread washed over her, and only grew worse as she stared at the helmet masking her friend's face. She shuddered and promptly looked away.
"Oh yeah," Jazz grinned, "this I can use."
The rest of the winter holiday went by quickly and before Alexa knew what was happening she and Jazz were being hugged goodbye by Melody.
"You two write as soon as you get back to camp, okay? I want to know the moment you get there." Melody said as she straightened Alexa's scarf.
"We will. Thanks again for having me over, Mrs. Sherman" Alexa replied.
"It was no trouble at all, Sweetheart. Now you two better get going before you miss your flight!". She gently pushed Alexa towards check ins.
"Bye mom, love you." Jazz said, stepping forward for her own hug.
"Love you too, dear. Be careful and don't break too many bones, okay?" Melody said with a soft chuckle.
"No promises!" Jazz laughed before turning and leading Alexa into the line.
Alexa spent the entire flight on her gameboy, playing tetris. They landed in New York around midday.
"So who's going to pick us up?" Alexa asked, turning her gameboy off and slipping it into her pocket.
"Probably Argus." Jazz answered "Keep an eye out for him."
It only took Alexa a few seconds to spot their real escort.
"Chiron!" She all but squealed, making her way through the crowd to get to her wheelchair bound teacher.
"Welcome home, Alexa. Did you have a good time?" He asked, smiling broadly as she approached.
"Jazz's mom was really nice and I don't think I ever ate so much!" Alexa reported brightly. Chiron nodded and turned in his chair to face Jazz.
"Any issues, my dear?" He asked softly.
"Nothing out of the ordinary, Lisa was a pain but Mom finally kicked her out." Jazz almost cheered at that but held herself back. Chiron pursed his lips and nodded.
"Regrettable, but there's one in every family. Come along, children." With their bags stuffed with Christmas goodies Jazz and Alexa followed the disguised centaur out of the airport. Getting back to Camp put Alexa at ease. A knot of tension seemed to disappear from her stomach the moment they passed the boundary lines.
This only lasted until they got within view of the Big House. She felt Jazz's body tense. She followed her gaze to the front porch and found the boy from Aphrodite cabin standing there, someone with dark brown locks wrapped in his arms.
"Jasmine!" Chiron yelled as Jazz popped open her door and leaped from the van before it could fully stop.
As Alexa climbed out and Chiron struggled from his wheelchair Jazz yanked free one of her charms, the spear sprouting to its full six foot length as she rushed towards the kissing couple. Jazz reared her hand back only for it to be caught in a vine. A vine that rapidly began to grow grapes.
"As much as I would love to see one less demigod in my care, I'm afraid I'd get a pretty stern talking to if I let you commit murder under my watch." Mr D said with a yawn.
Only then did the pair realize the danger they were in. Jazz was spitting and cursing as Alexa ran up. Alexa didn't understand most of it but she caught the phrases "Backstabbing cheater" "Ring your scrawny neck" and "Fuck you Jeffrey!"
It was then that the pieces began to fall into place. Seeing him around so often, Jazz's disappearances, even certain looks she had noticed from him. Jazz and Jeff had been dating! Which meant…
Alexa's eyes flicked to Jeff and the girl he had been kissing. She recognized her as a girl from Cabin 4, Rose if she recalled right. On her face she saw confusion, hurt, maybe a bit of anger, and fear. On his however, she saw anger, fear, but no traces of confusion. He knew what he was doing...and moreover, he almost looked satisfied. Alexa felt sick.
Mr D snapped his fingers and the vines retracted. "Now, go before you really try my nerve. Off you go Miss Jade. Leave the lovely couple to their own devices."
Without another word Jazz turned and stormed off, fury causing her eyes to shine. In no time she had left Alexa in the dust despite her attempts to keep pace.