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Will wakes up to Ethan shaking him. He doesn't need to have his CIs on to tell the cabin is in total disarray. The other boy is saying something to him, but he doesn't know what it is. Probably something like “Get up! You need to get ready!” Ethan sleeps on the cot next to Will, and is usually pretty nice to him— he just forgets that Will can't hear first thing in the morning. In all fairness, most people forget too.
He sits up to see Luke jogging between different campers braiding hair into neat plaits, tying ties, and finding lost shoes. Luke's dressed in a neat, slate gray suit with a white collared shirt and an emerald green tie. At that point, Will remembers why everyone looks so frantic: it's the Winter Solstice.
Will puts on his CIs and winces as he adjusts to the raucous sound of the cabin. He walks to the closet and finds a garment bag with the suit his mom dresses him in when she takes him to awards shows. The Hermes cabin is always so packed everybody gets one nice outfit they get to hang in the closet, Will’s mom had his specially shipped when she heard they went to Olympus for the Solstice.
Luke darts over to Will, he can tell the counselor is trying to look calm and composed. But, Will’s Deaf ability to read faces means that he can tell how stressed Luke is. Not that he blames him, on the lenient side one might describe the cabin as total pandemonium.
“You ok?” he signs at a true New Yorker’s speed, “Need help with your tie?”
Will shakes his head, “No I'm okay, I can help with ties too?”
Luke warmly smiles, “Nah bud, that's my job. Just worry about getting yourself ready, we're leaving in 20 minutes.”
Will quickly gets changed and is fighting for mirror space to tie his tie. When he finishes, he sits back on his cot and waits for everybody else to get ready. He takes off his CIs, deciding that he can just look for when everybody starts lining up at the door to leave. He starts reading one of the Star Wars comics that his mom sent him.
Somebody taps Will and he looks up to see Connor and Travis Stoll with ill-fitting ties. “Can you help us?” Connor signs.
“Sure,” Will replies, “This tie is too big for you, but you tied it fine.”
“There was nothing better in the camp storage. My mom can't afford to send us anything and Chiron won't let us go on a supply run to get something that fits,” Travis explains.
“Well lucky for you, I've got a trick for this,” Will smiles, tying a more elaborate knot to get it to the right length for each of the brothers, “My mom taught me that trick so I could wear the ties my grandpa gives me. Sometimes he gets confused and buys me adult sizes.”
The three continue talking, Travis and Connor trying to tell Will what Olympus and the gods are like. Will wonders if other gods know ASL too like how Mr. D does. Or are they like Chiron and basically refuse to learn? What if he can't understand what they're saying and they ask him something and then he gets totally smited?
Then, the Stolls abruptly stop talking and get up. Will takes that as a sign that it's time to put his CIs back on and line up. Luke stands at the front of the line in the doorway. Will pushes his way to the front so he can hear.
“Everyone! We're in vans one two, half of you will share with Pollux, Castor, and Chiron— I expect best behavior for you guys not with me! No pranks, hijinks, shenanigans, or heists until we come back, got it?” Luke SimComs, “First half of the line’s with me in van 1, the others with Chiron in 2. Breakfast is to-go today, bagels with cream cheese and an orange, one bag each.”
They make their way to a fleet of vans, piling as many campers as they can in each. Will, Connor, and Travis sit in the backmost row, while Luke's way in the front driving. He's technically not old enough yet, but he has a fake ID to do supply runs and has a Hermes advantage with driving. As they make their way to the city, Connor shouts out directions to Luke. They're the first group to arrive to the Empire State Building, taking up an entire row of parking spots in the hidden garage beneath the building.
When the elevator doors open, no amount of describing from the Stolls could have prepared Will for what he sees.
“BRAIN-FREEZE,” Will signs to himself.
Luke chuckles and pats Will's back, “I know, kid. It's pretty cool. Beckendorf should be in the next elevator, he can explain what everything is better.”
Right on cue, Beckendorf joins the group with his cabin and the Apollo cabin trailing closely behind. Beckendorf greets Luke and gives him a hug before turning his attention to Will to tell him about Olympus. Will likes when Beckendorf teaches him the best because he always notices the things that hearing people usually don't. He describes the sounds that Will can't hear, like the distant sound of fountains and the music coming from the square, and points out little details about the mechanics and architecture.
“I hope Will gets claimed today, we haven't had any unclaimed like him at the Solstice in a while. He's such a spitting image of dad,” a voice behind him eagerly speaks.
“If he doesn't know that his dad's Apollo at this point, the guy doesn't want him,” another voice scoffs.
Will doesn't recognize either voice, but he recognizes the third that speaks as Luke.
“If you two don't shut the fuck up, I'm telling his dad myself that you said that. See how he likes that on one of the holiest days of the year,” Luke quietly threatens, “I'm telling Lee and Clarisse about you both talking shit. They can deal with you.”
But Will heard enough. And Beckendorf can tell Will heard. Sometimes, Will hates that Beckendorf can read expressions like he can. He doesn't have much time to be upset, because they're escorted to a large room to see a round of grandiose thrones with gods and goddesses sitting in their respective spots.
Zeus begins to speak, loudly but not very clearly. Will can't understand almost anything being said. He looks at Beckendorf, who also looks lost but not stressed about it like Will is.
“It's always like this,” Beck signs small, “Just follow when everybody else bows and don't talk.”
“Why can't Luke interpret?” asks Will.
“He tried one year, he got yelled at for being impertinent. Quiet, now,” Beckendorf replies, turning his attention back to the god.
Will obeys. He watches each deity speak equally incomprehensibly. Beckendorf quickly explains that it's because they're in a form that's closer to their purest form, and when they go down to human size it'll be better. He can't help but have his mind wander to what the other campers were talking about— that he looks like Apollo and that his dad must not want him. It would make sense, he can't hear music enough to be good at it, is comparatively mediocre at archery, and can't understand any English poetry. Why would Apollo want to claim a disappointment like that?
Suddenly, all the demigods around him start moving to a kneel. Will follows, then one more thing is proclaimed and everyone stands up. He gets up and looks around to see the gods shrink down to a regular adult size. Luke finds his way to Will and explains the feast is starting.
The festivities go over smoothly. The hall they're in is beautifully adorned with sparkling celestial bronze detailing and winter decor. Will sits with the rest of the unclaimed campers, while everybody else sits with their respective godly parents. Will sneaks a peak of Apollo— the other demigods were right. He looks like a spitting image of him. There has to be a reason he doesn’t want him. They’re in the same room and he won’t look at him.
A few hours later, they say their goodbyes and start filing towards the lobby. While Will waits in the lobby for the rest of the campers, he turns down his CIs, the area being too loud for them to work anyways. He sees some feet approach him and start talking. He can’t tell what they’re saying, just that they’re definitely saying something to him.
“I'm Deaf, you can talk to my brother if you need anything,” he says by default, pointing at Luke who's working on wrangling campers. He looks up to see who's talking to him, just out of politeness, and then realizes who it is. His mom.
“Mom!” Will exclaims aloud before switching to ASL “What are you doing here? When did you get here? How long have you been here? Is it really you?”
His mom nods, “Yes, it's really me! I'm here for you, just got in town yesterday night. I gotta leave early in the morning for tour again, but we can spend the whole day together! Chiron already knows that I'll drive you back tonight, you ready to go?”
Will shakes his head and walks over to where Luke and Beckendorf are trying to get all the campers in order. He taps Luke and quickly explains that he's going with his mom and she'll drive him back later tonight. The teen smiles widely and tells him to tell him all about it later. Will nods and runs back over to his mom.
As Will approaches his mom, he turns down his CIs and tells her he's ready to go now. They decide to go Christmas shopping first, since he's still full from the Solstice feast. He's so happy to be with his mom again, he doesn't get a lot of time where he can sign at full speed without having to think about hearing. Even with Beck, he's usually with somebody who isn't as fluent as them and needs to slow down.
“I wanna get something for my friends! Luke, Beckendorf, Connor, and Travis. Oh! And Castor and Pollux too! They're all year round campers like me!” Will exclaims.
“Well you oughta tell me all about your friends so we can find the perfect gifts!” Naomi responds.
They first go to FAO Schwartz, where they buy stuffed animals for Castor and Pollux. Then, they get big bags of candy for Connor and Travis at Dylan's Candy Bar, also picking up a pack of candy bars for the rest of Cabin 11 as a small gift. They stop into an antique store and find something labeled as a broken unknown machine, but Will recognizes that it's a celestial bronze tool that Beckendorf's been looking for and gets it for him. The last person they have left is Luke. And Will is stumped.
“He’s the one you said was your brother, right?” Naomi asks.
“Yep! He’s not my brother as far as we know, though. He’s my counselor though, it’s just easier to say brother to random mortals. He's so nice to me, always makes sure kids are nice to me, and he knows ASL really well. I want it to be perfect to say thanks for being so good,” Will explains.
“What kinds of things does he like?” She follows up.
Will racks his brain, “I don't really know? He's always so busy with being a counselor, the Hermes cabin is really crowded, that he doesn't ever have time to do things for himself. I don't think he has any mortal family, so he cares a lot about his friends at camp like they're family. He can't really read that well, he had to leave school really young, so no books. But he likes it when Beckendorf and I tell Deaf stories.”
“Hmm, I think I have an idea,” Naomi says
She leads Will on their journey onwards, navigating their way like a pro. Granted, she does come to New York City a lot for her record label. After a short subway ride and some walking, they arrive at a bookstore.
“I said no books,” Will says, confused.
“Stick with me for this one, I got an idea,” his mom reassures.
They enter the bookstore, which is filled from floor to ceiling with shelves of books. Throughout the store are cats sleeping atop stacks of books. His mom explains it's a cat bookstore, and all the cats here are up for adoption. She leads him to an aisle with one side of smaller shelves and the opposing side with larger shelves filled with books.
“I always get your books here, it's my favorite shop in the city. The shop owners are dyslexic, so they have whole sections for accessible books. This entire aisle has a two-for-one deal, you can get an audiobook and a matching dyslexic-friendly book together. All the books are large print, printed on pastel yellow paper, and have a special font that's easier to read. I have a portable media player-radio I was planning to give to the camp anyways, but this sounds like a better cause. What do you think?” Naomi explains.
“It's perfect!” Will replies. He combs through the shelves to find the perfect book. He settles on a collection of essays and short stories, that way it'll feel like getting a bunch of books in one.
The two make their way back to his mom's hotel. She asks the concierge for wrapping paper and tape. In the room, she teaches Will how to wrap gifts, saying it's a skill that Will has to know if he ever wants to be a good boyfriend. Then, they go out to a fancy dinner and frozen hot chocolate. When the night ends, Naomi drives him back to camp and hugs him tightly, apologizing that she can't be with him for Christmas. Will's not particularly disappointed, he's used to her being on tour during the holidays.
Will tries to sneak back to his cabin, but fails when he sees that it’s still bustling with life despite it being so close to curfew. He takes off his CIs, he's not ready to go back to hearing everything quite yet. Ethan tries to talk to him, Will smiles and nods along. He doesn't have the heart to tell Ethan that he can't understand him at all. He never has the heart to tell him. Sometimes at night, Will sees Ethan crying quietly to himself. He doesn’t know what it’s about, but Will doesn’t want to upset him even more.
The next days pass uneventfully. A lot of campers clear out to go visit their families for the holidays. All of Will's closest friends stay at camp, though, which surprises him because he knows that Beckendorf is close to his family.
Will asks the older boy about it, who happily explains that he switches between visiting for different holidays because his family can only afford to fly everyone back once a year. Even though his immediate family makes good money, a lot of his extended family doesn't and relies on them to be able to get transportation to his house for holidays. He'd rather be able to see all of his family than just some of them. So this Christmas, Beck's at camp.
On Christmas morning, Will wakes up to Luke shaking him awake. Will’s always the last one awake, the noise can’t wake him up and he’s used to sleeping through vibrations from years of Deaf boarding schools. He rubs his eyes to see the teen squatting next to the bed with a beaming smile. Around the room, most of the other campers are already getting ready.
“It's Christmas morning!” Luke signs enthusiastically, “We can go see what Santa brought us in the Big House once everyone’s ready. Then we do the present exchange!”
Will bolts out of bed and quickly gets changed. He's not sure what presents he could've gotten, but excited still. Will stopped believing in Santa pretty quickly when his aunt let it slip a few years ago that she was annoyed with having to play Santa while his mom was away. Nonetheless, presents are fun and he’s not planning on ruining that for anybody else. Cabin 11 quickly falls into line and makes their way to the Big House. The ground is covered with a sheet of snow with flurries coming down. It looks magical.
When they get to the Big House, the infirmary has been cleared out and transformed into a Christmas wonderland. A large tree adorned with twinkling lights, garland, and ornaments sits at one end of the room with countless presents underneath. A part of Will is shocked that they would endorse a non-Greek holiday to this extent, but he's also just thrilled to be able to celebrate.
Presents from under the tree are passed out first, everybody getting eight presents each. Not necessarily huge presents, but something nonetheless. Will can tell his mom sent his gifts because she included something obviously sent by his grandpa. But Luke and the Stolls also get the same number of gifts, so he knows somebody's at work making sure nobody’s left out.
Then, the gift exchange starts. Will passes out his presents to everyone and then patiently waits for everybody else to get settled. There's too many people to take turns, so everybody opens at once and the room unfolds into chaos.
Will opens his presents. The first one is from Silena, it's a beaded necklace with a pendant shaped like the sign for “I love you.” Beckendorf made him two small automatons that look like an upgraded version of mortal toy robots. Pollux, Castor, and the Stolls worked together to give him a pro shot of a Deaf West musical production and a small projector to watch it on. The last gift he opens up is from Luke. It's a photo album filled with candid and posed photos of camp, Will, Cabin 11, and his friends. On the last page is a drawing Luke made of Will with all of his closest friends.
Ethan walks over to Will, “Thanks for the chocolate, Will. It’s my favorite mortal candy, means a lot that you thought of me.”
“Merry Christmas!” Will replies.
Will is looking through the album again, thinking about how he’s going to describe all the pictures to his mom, when all of his friends come over to where he is. They’re all beaming with excitement about their presents, sitting down to show off everything they got. Will knows most of them don't get to go shopping in the mortal world, so getting anything they vaguely care about from it is worth more than any amount of drachmas.
“JUMP,” Beck exclaims in ASL, “I don't know how you found a celestial bronze cutter in such good condition, but I love it so much!”
“You're gonna regret giving us so much sugar, we're gonna start a black market of mortal candy,” Travis jokes.
“I’ve always wanted to go to Dylan’s Candy Bar! We’ve passed it up a few times on our way to Olympus,” Connor adds.
Castor and Pollux laugh about their stuffed animals, which were purposely picked out to match their father's decor and fashion choices.
When it comes to Luke, the teen almost looks guilty, “Will, this is way too much. There's no way I can accept this…”
“Too bad, you have to,” Will argues back.
“It's too expensive, you shouldn't have spent so much on me,” Luke refutes, “Where did you even get the money for this all?”
“It's what you deserve,” Will shrugs, “You're always so good to me, making sure I know what's going on and I’m not left out. And you sign so much to me! I know you stay up late trying to learn more ASL. I don't know any other hearing people who would do that for me. It really makes me feel better being here instead of my school. Not so alone. I wanted to get you something nice to tell you how much you’ve meant to me.”
Luke puts a hand over his mouth, stunned into silence. Will feels bad, he can’t tell if he upset Luke or what’s happening. It’s almost like not even the teen knows quite how he feels either. Before he knows it, Luke’s pulling Will into a tight hug.
“Thank you so much,” Luke repeatedly signs.
Will smiles almost as much as when his mom surprised him, “Merry Christmas, Luke.”