“Lexi, what are the rules for Lucy’s Ice Cream Pallor?” Duke asks Lexi from next to Jane. Mateo and I share a snicker. Lexi sighs and turns around to walk backwards as she starts to talk.
“ 1. Respect Lucy and Alice. 2. Don’t pickpocket their customers because it’s bad for business. 3. Alice’s cousin Clive is not an Hephaestus kid, he is a regular kid that goes to the same summer camp as us.” Somehow Lexi’s speech is never affected by the Derek’s tugging on the sleeve of her red leather jacket to avoid obstacles. A stray arrow flies and Derek pushes Lexi’s head down with a frown. A distant sorry carries over from the archery field and Mateo waves them off, Lexi carries on talking like nothing happened.
“I just don’t get why Clive keeps the truth from his family!” Lexi complains. Like it affects her, Lexi’s mom is serving time in jail for a huge scam so she stays at Camp full time. Other than the occasional summer where she stays with Duke and his mom and stepdad. *1*
“Oh yeah that’s a great idea, ‘hey Aunt Lucy, you know my dead mom well she got knocked up by a Greek god so yeah!’ Nothing could go wrong there!” Jane cries sarcastically, her aunt had always known about the godly world -although no one knew how she knew- so Jane never had to explain any of it.
“I’m sure they’d understand, they’re nice people. Clive doesn’t have to keep this from them.”
“The fact that they’re nice people is not being questioned, it’s more about whether they can handle the situation we are in.” Mateo chimes in from by Amara’s side, he’s wearing denim shorts, a black t shirt and a mustard colored zip up hoodie. Her brother turns sideways to sign to them.
“/S-I-T-U-A-T-I-O-N?/” He spells out to tease better. “/You mean our lives?/“ Derek looks amused, he’s wearing his favorite red zip up over a gray shirt and black shorts. He’s added a black choker with red birds embroidered on that Luna gave him, when out in muggle public Derek prefers to cover up the scars on his neck. He’s mentioned to the group that he’s not ashamed of them, just didn’t like the stares and questions.
“We’re here~” Jane sing songs ahead, she’s got on her normal pink and white ensemble. Bleached flare jeans, a pink halter top that Amara’s almost certainly belongs to Drew, pink bandanna in her hair and white pearls going up all 3 ear piercings on either side to finish off the ensemble. She’s also wearing Birkenstocks that she keeps stopping to remove sticks and rocks from and a pink line over a white link rimming her eye lid. And of course, the charm bracelet that contains her sword because gods know Jane refuses to be left defenseless. Next to her Duke is in jeans, a black tee and a forest green raincoat. He has been insisting that it would rain today but with the blue skies no one believes him. Earlier today Jane and herself had helped him attach golden beads to his braids, a gift from his mom and stepdad. It’s a decent spring Saturday, not too warm and not too cool, hence the Band’s different attire. Amara herself is wearing a teal skirt that she definitely didn’t steal from Aura’s closet and a black sweater with holes on the shoulders. Black shoes and her regular hoops, a perfect outfit for ice cream. Lucy’s Ice Cream Parlor was a favorite of the Band’s as it’s pretty close to the Portkey Aura set up and not too busy. The others also love all the flavor options.
The ding of the bell is pleasant as always but can barely be heard over the friend’s laughter. Amara is tucked tight against Mateo’s side, his jacket had been held over both of them to protect them from the rain. Amara pulls the sleeve of her sweater over her hand and gently wipes Mateo’s face as they snicker, she turns around just in time to see Duke swing an accusing finger at the five of them.
“I told you all!” He says in a rare moment of energy. Mateo’s arm is tight around her waist and as he ducks his head in her ponytail, she can almost feel him rolling his eyes. Amara takes the soaking jacket from his hands and starts to wring it out.
“It’s just a little rain! Not like it’ll kill us.” Jane says unconcerned squeezing the water from her hair.
“I think Derek would like to disagree on that.” Amara laughs and nods towards her brother. Derek’s a couple feet away from their quartet furiously complaining to Lexi about the mud he has acquired on his new shoes.
“He’ll live.” Mateo says stretching and moving away from her to grab his jacket out of her hands. Then he turns to the counter to find Alice, a college art student and daughter of Lucy, sitting there watching them amused. One by one each member of The Band adopts a sheepish look, she simply laughs it off and reaches her hands out for their coats.
“I’ll take them to the back coat closet to dry off then I’ll come back for your orders.” They thank her and take a seat at one of the tables, it’s only got five chairs so Lexi drags one over and sits backwards. Mateo is next to Amara on the bench with Derek on his other side, both of them tucked close to soak up his Apollo kid warmth, Jane and Duke are across on the chairs and Lexi sits in between Duke and Amara. It’s a few moments of silence from both waiting on Alice’s return and for their bodies to warm up, which is difficult with the AC blowing on them. Jane finally gets up as the staff door opens again.
“Ok I’m going to go order the ice cream, and maybe get the Air Conditioning turned down.” She says, mumbling the last part, she turns to Amara, “Oreo?” She shakes her head and corrects her with a “Cookies and Cream.”
“Bowl?”
“Yes please.” Jane nods and moves on to Mateo, “Basic Vanilla boy, sugar cone.” he reluctantly nods as Lexi and herself snicker. “Chocolate in a cone bowl?” She asks, pointing a finger at Duke, another nod.
“And what about you two?” Jane asks the remaining members, while the rest of them mostly stuck to their favorites, Lexi and Derek liked to switch it up. Predictably, around Mateo’s side, Amara can see Derek’s shoulders shrug and as he gets up he signs to Jane.
“/ I’ll see./“ She just nods and looks to Lexi.
“I don’t know. What do they have?” Lexi asks, Jane scoffs and answers with.
“How am I supposed to know, there’s like a billion flavors.”
“Lexi just go with them.” Amara pipes up from under Mateo’s arm, stopping the upcoming bickering which earns a grateful look from Duke.
When the trio comes back, Duke, Mateo and Amara are deep in a conversation about the best Superhero team. Amara is adamantly stuck on the X-Men, claiming that they provide lives for all mutants and take care of their home and family. Duke is stuck on the Justice League and DCU in general, he claims that they protect their own cities and citizens. Together the two were ganging up on Mateo who was being buried in the Avengers’ property damage and hero complex’s. Jane arrives with a Strawberry cone and Amara’s Cookies and Cream bowl and immediately begins to make a case for the Fantastic Four.
“Listen, they went through a freak accident together and became a family. Before they hated each other, there was an ex couple! But they came together, saved the world, and even found love! I mean using a blind character for Ben’s love interest, Amazing! Sue and Reed even had kids, you can not convince me that the Fantastic Four is not the best hero team.” Derek shrugs passing Duke his chocolate cone bowl and digging into his own ice cream bowl. She knows that he never really got into any superheros, ask him about Magic Treehouse however and he will talk, or sign rather, until his hands cramp. Lexi reaches over Amara to pass Mateo his vanilla bowl and starts to talk.
“I mean personally I’m impartial to-“
“Derek what flavor is that?” Amara cuts off Lexi, in mild disgust, the ice cream in question is a green and brown color with bits of something mixed in.
“/ P-I-S-T-A-C-H-I-O/“ He spells out, nonchalant. Her lip crinkles, never having been one for pistachios. Duke seems to have a revelation and in slight fear he turns to Lexi and asks.
“What did you get Lex?”
“I asked Alice to surprise me.” She answers with a shrug. Jane’s side eye is more than enough of a show to her thoughts about that decision.
“Are you she that was the best idea? I’m pretty sure Alice is still mad at you for that time with the mop.” Amara points out, she likes Alice but if Clive’s revenge streak is anything to go by then Lexi may have just brought her own doom. Her brother doesn’t seem to share her worries.
“/ Eat! /“ He signed eagerly. Lexi lifted her cone and everyone except Duke leaned forward to see her reaction. She licked it and her face scrunched up.
“It’s bitter!” She cried and the table cheers with laughter. Amara’s mind raced to try and figure out the flavor Lexi had received. Mateo reached past her.
“Let me try it.” He asked. Lexi shrugged and pasted off the cold treat eagerly. Handing Amara his own cone he took a small bite off the untouched side of Lexi’s. His face turned curious as he tasted it.
“It’s coffee.” Mateo determined, the whole table went “oooohhhhhh” and sat back satisfied in the answer to their mystery. Jane suddenly sat up and spoke
“Wait. Were you biting the ice cream?!”
Derek clapped his hands together to get our attention and started to talk.
“/ Says the one who uses a spoon for ice cream in a cone! /“ He signed, Jane makes an exaggerated offended face. Lexi reaches her hand out in Duke’s direction.
“Let me have some of yours.” She says to her brother. His face scrunch’s up in reply.
“You always eat mine. Why don’t you just order chocolate?” Between her bites Amara spoke up.
“Rule number 3 of siblings, everything is better when you take it from your siblings.” Around the table everyone nodded. Lexi snatched Duke’s bowl of ice cream, using her spoon to take a big scoop of it while dodging her brother’s hand. Her face scrunched up and she started to dance around the table.
“Ah ah, ah! Brain Freeze!” The group laughed. Amara leaned back into Mateo and watched amused. His arm wrapped around her shoulder, and for the first time in a while, Amara can relax.
(They probably got attacked by a monster on their way home lol, also this could be pre- or post- Battle of Half-Blood Hill.)