Gone Girl.¹

𝟬𝟭𝟭. perfect family

gone girl.
━━━ chapter eleven

❀

When the last day of camp arrived, Amaryllis felt too many emotions at once. She woke up to the sound of flute coming from the top bed of the bunk bed. Kayla, in a traditional annoying-younger-sibling style, decided to wake everyone up by practising her musical abilities. Austin had thrown a pillow at her, which lead to a pillow fight taking place in Cabin Seven, long before anyone else woke up. So the children of Apollo had the opportunity to pack without having to stress over preparing their luggage at the last minute, like they usually did.

Amaryllis didn't have any things to prepare, considering she didn't have any clothes or belongings and was just borrowing from the Aphrodite cabin, so she decided to help Will pack. While most campers waited for the camp van that would take them into the city, Mrs Solace always drove to the camp to get her son. Will offered to ask her if she could drive Amaryllis and Percy to Amaryllis' mother's place, but she didn't want to burden them, so she had said no.

"Why do you even take so many clothes with you, when you're always wearing the camp t-shirt?" she asked her younger brother, while he was sitting on his suitcase in a desperate attempt to make it close.

"Because... shut up!"

"Fair enough," she chuckled and helped him.

When it was finally closed, Will got up and approached Amaryllis with open arms. "I'm going to miss you, Lilly," he said as she brought him close to her chest and hugged him. "Promise to Iris-message me at least twice a week."

She snorted. It sounded funny and very much not tragic when he said it like that. "I'll miss you too, sunny. I promise I'll keep in touch," she said when she finally pulled back.

Will gave her a small piece of paper with a phone number on it. "And that's my mom's number. If you ever need anything..."

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the worried, protective older sister," she joked but shoved it in her pocket anyway. It meant a lot to her to see that he cared so much - she had a decent relationship with most of her siblings, but her and Will always shared a special kind of bond.

He grinned. "The roles changed when you got yourself kidnapped by some random god." Amaryllis snorted - it sounded funny and ridiculous, not at all tragic when he said it like that. He dragged his orange suitcase across the wooden floor the moment he heard a car horn outside. "Bye guys!" he yelled and a wave of goodbyes were heard by the rest of their siblings.

Later, Amaryllis found Percy and Annabeth standing on the top of Half-Blood Hill. The daughter of Athena just came to see them off, as she decided to stay a little longer at camp before she headed back to her father's place in San Francisco. She'd attend a private school, but even though she seemed to hate the idea, it was slowly growing on her due to the fact that she'd be away from her family.

"Maybe I could stay as well," Amaryllis said hesitantly, but Annabeth shook her head.

"You can't keep putting off visiting your mother," she said, to which Percy nodded. Amaryllis knew she was right, but pressed her lips together and didn't say anything else. "I'd come with you but I promised Chiron I'd help him with some last-minute chores."

"It's fine," Percy said and the two exchanged a weird look, like they were telepathically having a conversation about Amaryllis in front of her. "Call me, okay?" he told her after some seconds, that felt like whole minutes.