Finding the Sun

Chapter 19

Aster sighed as she reached her front door, key in hand. She had forgotten just how draining a school day could be. As she turned the key into the lock, she thanked the gods that she at least didn't have any homework that she needed to complete. Instead, she wondered just what she would do to entertain herself until Jack was dropped off from school. Because of her odd schedule, she had about an hour at home alone before Jessica and Jack would arrive, and it had been quite the battle to get Aaron on board with Aster walking home after school.

It normally wouldn't have been a problem. Her high school was only a five minutes walk away, and Aster was a generally self-sufficient teenager. And with no one really available to pick her up, it only made sense. But the possible monster that seemed to be currently out for blood had made Aaron understandably hesitant.

However, Aster argued that the chance of that thing attacking her on a busy street, she wasn't the only highschooler walking home at that time, was slim. No, it was much more likely that it would attack Aster at home where they were isolated, so really, what did it matter?

Aaron had not been very reassured.

Either way, Aster now threw herself into her very comfortable bed, and groaned. Despite having her last class with her new friend Jackie, and the fact that they had a blast in PE absolutely decimating the other team at dodgeball, she still couldn't bring herself to be excited about going back the next day.

Looking around her room, her eyes settled on her collection of Ancient Greek and Latin books that she had gotten from camp sometime in the last week. Many of them were about architecture (from Annabeth, of course), various different myths and gods, but the one that pulled Aster's attention was her encyclopedia of ancient Greek and Roman monsters. She had no idea where it came from if she was honest, probably written by some long dead demigod, but if she was looking for some obscure mortal-turned-monster type creature, it wouldn't hurt to start there.

Resolving herself to an afternoon of dismally boring research, Aster grabbed the book, as well as some others about the mist and spells, mostly written by Hecate kids, and moved herself into the living room. Her thinking being that if she stays in her bed to read, she would almost immediately fall asleep.

Some time later, Aster had made little to no progress. She had left some tabs on pages that might be of interest that she could show Nico, but other than that she had gotten no solid leads. So it was to her immense relief when Jessica walked through the door, Jack following behind her.

"Aster!" He yelled, still just as excited to see her as he had been every other day last week when he came home from school to find her sitting on the couch.

She closed her book, marking her spot with a random piece of paper, and opened her arms just in time to catch the little boy as he barreled into her arms.

Jessica watched the two of them from the door, smiling broadly. They were so cute. "Did school go alright?" Jessica asked her.

"Yeah, better than I thought it would be. I made a few friends." Only one, actually, but Jessica didn't have to know that.

Jessica smiled. "That's good! Well, I'm glad it wasn't completely horrible." She winked at Aster, which made her laugh.

After that, neither of them really knew what to say to each other. Things were still slightly awkward between them, as Jessica was still trying to get a grip on her fact that her entire world view has just recently been altered. The silence stretched between them before Jessica cleared her throat.

"Well, I'm just gonna go get some work done in Aaron's office. Do you two need anything before I start?"

"We're good aunty!" Jack said, already having grabbed the remote off of the coffee table, looking forward to watching his cartoons. Jessica raised an eyebrow, ready to tell him that maybe he should be getting out his homework, and not putting on SpongeBob, when Aster reached over and plucked the remote of his hand.