charlie's spirits were high, higher than they had been in a long time. not only were things looking up, with the last of the attacks getting further and further away from them, but summer was finally upon them, and summer was easily charlie's favorite time of the year. charlie was a bright and bubbly person; he loved excitement, adventure, and convincing his friends to agree to his plans of - harmless - mischief; all of those things were more achievable in summer, charlie typically found. the hot and generally fun-filled months finally being upon them was reason for great joy for charlie, though admittedly, one person in shrike heights had helped to pull that joy out of him for even longer than what the summer had lasted for so far.

reina, to charlie, felt like summer if it were a person. she radiated the same bright feelings of excitement, making charlie feel like he was a child once again, a child who was thrilled to be free from the gruelling school work and boring routine that he was subjected to for the rest of the year. her enthusiasm was a breath of fresh summer air, and for them to have connected as beautifully and as naturally as they had made charlie feel lucky, to say the very least. every day that their paths crossed felt like the peak of the most perfect summer, and for it to actually be that time of the year again only made it all the more better.

—— reina liked to think she was an exceptionally adaptable person. she thrived in any season, but admittedly, summer was her time where she could shine the brightest, closely followed by spring. she valued the colder months and the room for relaxation and contemplation they allowed as she was normally snowed-in somewhere thanks to the mountains of snow that accumulated over the course of just a few days in the wintertime. digressing, summer was when she dedicated most of her time to creativity and innovation, which is why she was so well-equipped for the task she set out to do for charlie. it helped that he was a favorable person in general and they got along splendidly, unlike anyone else she'd ever met outside the commune, really.

it was a real life miracle, meeting someone that complimented her so well even after enduring all of the horrors that had wreaked havoc upon shrike the last few years. she would never stop being grateful for the blessing that was their friendship. while she did believe that opposites attract, in their small town it was more sacred when similar people found one another and could reflect their feelings off the other and feel perfectly understood. she never had to worry if she was putting in too much effort or acting too sunny for charlie, because he would always mirror her enthusiasm and make her feel a little less like a stranger in the secular world around them.

Get out of your head, idiot, Leo told himself. Reina clearly wasn’t the type of musician who acted superior to those who didn’t know how to play their selected instrument (and Leo had met a lot of people like that), and he knew she wasn’t going to judge him for how little he knew. Looking around, he commented, “Your place is so different than mine.  I’m an only child, and a lot of the decor in the house I grew up in was sort of…ethnic, I guess the word is since my family is from Egypt. I was even born there.” His parents had moved out of Shrike Heights before the killings started (which Leo was thankful for), and they’d sold their house. How Leo lived in an apartment with minimal personal touches. “My place now is sort of…Spartan,” he laughed, adding, “like my name I guess.” Realizing Reina might not know what he meant, he clarified, “Leo is short of Leonidas.” At Reina’s suggestion, Leo nodded. “That sounds alright,” he agreed, “just…please be patient with me.” He was feeling pretty insecure, though he kept telling himself to relax. “I sing a bit,” Leo replied, “so I’m okay with that. But I’m definitely not going to make a career out of it.” Although Leo laughed, he felt a little sad too because at one point, he was going to make a career out of being a pianist. But he didn’t want to think about that now. 

"egypt? wow. i don't think i've ever met someone from that far away before," reina said with widened mocha hues. she had been kept insulated from birth, never having left the state since she was born, mostly because she never harbored a desire to. she was content where the universe had placed her, even in spite of all the horror that struck her hometown. "spartan. leonidas. i love it. you just ooze coolness, don't you?" her laugh was light and silvery as she released the pegs and moved to adjust her fingertips on the correct strings so she would strum the right chords for the song. "you never know. you could walk out of here with an all new kind of confidence." she tried to enthuse.

Settling into the living room, Leo put his guitar strap over his shoulder, his guitar resting on his lap as he plucked at the strings, making sure he didn't need to tighten them or anything before they got started. "I like a lot of things," Leo replied, thinking this wasn't an easy question to answer. "Really I'm a classical music guy," he revealed, "though when it comes to guitar, I guess I'm sort of interested in playing more...folksy stuff. Like soft rock maybe? I'm not sure how to describe it." Hopefully Reina understood. Surprised at her offer of tea, Leo replied, "Uh...whatever is easiest." He wasn't really familiar with tea or the different kinds, so he honestly didn't know which kind he'd prefer. "I basically know the chords, but that's about as far as I've gotten. I can play simple songs too, but...slowly."

"soft rock. i dig it," she grinned widely as she returned to the couch, offering him a cup of chamomile tea since the box was the nearest and crossing her legs comfortably. "slowly. we can work with that. how about we start with some pink floyd? wish you were here is a crowd favorite, i've found." she sipped her tea languidly before setting it aside and reaching for her own guitar, painted flowers and ivies decorating the body and encroaching the neck. "do you sing much, or do you just prefer playing?" she wondered as she began tuning her guitar carefully.

Walking into the house, Leo looked around, again wondering how he'd fare with life on the commune. He knew from hanging out (and getting high) with other commune members that they didn't have the same kind of modern luxuries, but it seemed like a pretty standard house. "So I'm still pretty new to this," Leo admitted, unstrapping his guitar case, "like not quite a beginner, but something close. I've been trying to teach myself. Usually I pick up instruments pretty easily, and I guess I did for the guitar too, but only the basics. So I guess I'm hoping you can help me get to the next level." Looking around, Leo asked, "Where should we do this? Living room?"

her home was well lived in and decorated accordingly, but it wasn't an eye sore, at least that's what she thought. the one thing that attracted the most light had been her glass windchimes on the front porch, which dangled and emitted beautiful notes whenever there was a breeze. "living room works," she said as she closed the door behind him before hurrying toward the kitchen. "sit down where you like! you can just show me where you're at and we'll work our way up from there. what kind of music are you interested in? oh, and what tea would you rather, chamomile or lavender?"

The next day, Leo drove to the outskirts of town, where the commune was located. As he made his way through the fields and farmland to the house Reina had indicated, he looked around, wondering if he'd ever be happy with this way of life. He was used to more modern conveniences, but he didn't think he'd ever met a commune person who was unhappy; maybe they had figured out the key to contentment, and maybe Leo could learn something from them. As he arrived at Reina's house, Leo parked and got out of his car, walking to the door and knocking, his guitar strapped to his back in its case.

tomorrow arrived, and reina dressed herself for the occasion: a pair of overalls painted on by her younger siblings and a shirt that read MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR '69. she couldn't remember where she got it. maybe it was a hand-me-down from one of her mothers. regardless, it was what she considered the least affronting outfit she could've assembled. despite her background in the commune and her affinity for the color pink, she wanted to remain semi-professional whenever she could. once she heard a knock at the door, she hurriedly took the whistling kettle off the stove and walked to answer it. "leo!" she exclaimed with a bright smile. "i was just about to make some tea. come in, please," she opened the door wider to invite him in.

Ugh. That was what Leo was thinking as he looked at the flier pinned to the bulletin board at The Blue Sparrow. It was colorful to the point of garishness, and there were too many exclamation points for his liking; he could already tell that this 'Reina' person was going to bubbly and cheerful, and he was already feeling exhausted just thinking about it. But this was the only flier that advertised guitar lessons, and Leo needed them because teach himself wasn't going as well as he would have hoped. While he knew the basic chords, he felt sort of stuck now, and he knew he'd need more than a book, even with his musical aptitude (he generally picked up the basics of various instruments relatively easily). For a moment, Leo looked around the board to make sure there weren't any other fliers hidden underneath others, perhaps one advertising guitar that didn't look like a box of crayons had thrown up on it, but this was all there was. So Leo took a pen out of his pocket and jotted the number down on his hand with a sigh.

The next morning, Leo sprang awake suddenly, not sure for a moment where he was. Then he realized he'd fallen asleep at the table in his apartment, half of a beer nearby. As he reached for it to throw it out, Leo noticed the writing on his hand, and he groaned because he realized it was smudged. He could barely make it out now, but he thought he could just make out the number. So he walked over to his phone in the kitchen and dialed, holding the receiver with his shoulder while he tried to open a bottle of Tylenol at the same time. When someone answered, Leo asked, "Yeah, is this..." He paused, trailing off as he tried to read the smudged name he'd written on his hand. "Is this, um, Rina?" Leo wondered. "I think it's Rina at least?" And then suddenly he remembered, exclaiming, "Reina! That's it. Is this Reina?" He knew he was not coming off well in this conversation with the stranger, especially since he had yet to mention what he was calling about, so Leo quickly explained, "I saw your flier about the guitar lessons and was wondering, uh...if you were still accepting new students."

reina! that's it. this is reina? she was in the middle of assembling a bowl of overnight oats whenever she received the call, her phone jittering on the hook until she plucked it off and held it up to her ear. "yes, this is she," she said, mixing the oats in with some fresh berries as the other explained the reason for their call. her features immediately lit up and she froze for a moment, silently squealing to herself before she answered. "of course i am. i teach on tuesdays and thursdays in the commune. what's your name?" she inquired as she quickly reached into one of her junk drawers and began scrambling around to find a notebook so she could jot their information down.

Noah had complicated feelings towards Seth. On the one hand, he wanted to tie his laces together and trip him for what he'd done to Eilonwy when he'd left. He had to remind himself that it hadn't been out of malice. Noah knew maybe better than most, what it was like when a way out of Shrike had opened and one had to take it. Ultimately, Seth wasn't a bad person, quite the opposite in fact. He was pretty cool! Nobody was perfect, after all, and Noah had grown enough as a person to know there were two sides to every story that were worth hearing. When he'd first learned that he and Eilonwy had gotten together, he'd been really happy for them and he'd been hoping to get to know him a little better. Now that Seth was back, it surprised him to know that the other wanted to hang out given all that had happened, but Noah didn't hesitate to meet up out of curiosity and a quiet little hope that there was a chance that broken fences could be mended.

—— seth knew things had changed between them. how couldn't they have? one minute he was dating noah's best friend, the next he was packing his bags and booking a one way flight to new york state. as many friends as he had to lean on while they were broken up, he was sure eilonwy had just as many, which meant he had to make it up to a lot more people so he would be in good graces with them. if this had happened any sooner in his life, he wouldn't have cared about the opinion of his ex's friends — but this was entirely different, as he had matured from that contrary bastard he mostly was throughout high school and during college. now, all he wanted was the approval of people like noah so he knew he made the right decision coming back at all.