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“Your dad seems cool.”
Nate could hear the gossips filling the air as soon as his father stepped out of the car. Both girls and boys were busy being in awe as the man approached the students waiting for the bus to come pick them up. Nate was in awe too, but not for that reason. His father was wearing a black shirt jacket, which meant he was out early from work. In Nate’s little mind, he figures it was his father’s day off, which means they can go for a walk in central park, eat cold stone or baskin robbins, and feed the ducks veggies while they’re at it. Nate particularly likes the latter, as it was the time his dad taught him how to toss small pieces of food and watch the ducks scramble around.
“He’s like batman.” One of the boys grinned.
For Nate though, his dad, the business tycoon Percy Jackson, was just a regular dad. His mother drives him everyday to school at 8 am sharp, then his dad comes to pick him up at 12 to drive him to his granny until late afternoon. Sometimes it was his “babysitter” (which he argues he didn’t need since he’s already six) that picks him up, but mostly it was his dad (who loves asking him every little detail about school). He was holding the key coming up to the kids and watching them stare at him, then back at Nate, who now seriously thinks some girls have a small crush on his dad, much to his annoyance and weirdness. Moms were also looking at their direction, and oddly enough, stealing glances at his dad.
He’s just a regular dad.
“What do you mean?” Nate asked his classmate.
“He’s got a black lambo, like batman!”
“Batman didn’t have a lambo, it’s a batmobile, which he made himself,” He whispered, but the boy was too engulfed by his car fascination.
“He looks just like you, but taller.” Another one murmured.
“Mr. Jackson,” Mrs. Fletcher smiled at him, to which his dad gave a small grin and looked at Nate, ruffling his head and taking his backpack. Nate Jackson can’t help but hug his father’s legs and smile.
“Hi, I’m here again to pick up Nate.” His dad simply said.
At that point, the girls were giggling, and Nate didn’t know why.
“Of course, thank you and have a safe drive.” She noted. “Is there any chance we see each other for our PTA? It’s on Friday at around one in the afternoon. In case parents won’t be able to attend, feel free to message me to direct students and guardians.”
Nate caught his dad’s glimpse as if reconsidering altering his Friday meetings, but he knows one of them will either go, after all, not one of them missed PTAs.
“Are you going, dad?” He asked.
Percy was looking at the teacher. “I’ll be there, or if by any chance I can’t, Annabeth is sure to follow.”
“Very well, thank you Mr. Jackson. See you.”
Percy smiles, “See you.” then turned his gaze to Nate. Girls were smiling and saying goodbyes to his father, and he waved at them before holding Nate’s hand and heading right back to the car. With one click, the car opens, and Nate finds himself seated in front with a McDonald's cheeseburger and orange juice waiting for him.
Nate grins. “How do you have this?!”
“You like it?” Percy smiles. “It’s a matte black aventador, your favorite model.”
“I know!” The kid smiles. “It’s like the one in hot wheels!”
“Hmm yeah, that’s why I bought it.”
“Earlier?!” Nate was looking at the seats, trying to push the buttons too many for his understanding.
Percy kisses his son’s forehead before returning a phone call, probably from his mom.
“Hi,” Percy was starting the engine before the call was answered.
“Hey, I just got out of the meeting, it’s soooo long, it could have been an email.” Annabeth was muttering about different franchises unbeknownst to Nate, but he figured it was their business, which he likes to listen to, but the words were too complicated for his liking. Unlike regular first grade students, he had understood concepts that won't be tackled until years on, like multiplication, or division, or simple algebra, but business is another different thing. “There are three stock managers and analysts in my team, and I don’t know why I’m still the one understanding one concept to deal with our San Francisco branch. It’s simple business math.”
Percy laughed. “I’m on speaker right now, with Nate.”
“Oh are you? Nate, you didn’t have to listen to that.” Upon hearing his mother, Nate smiles even more.
"Mommy!" Nate looks at the phone. "Dad bought a lamb…lambor…lambr…thing!"
He can hear Annabeth laugh at the end of the line. "Really…"
Percy looked at his son, then back at the phone, as if wanting to clear things. "Guilty."
"Francis junior says it looks like a batmobile!" He added. "He was wrong, though. Anyway, I got an A+ in Math…and D in spelling…I'll get better."
"Hey, it's alright little guy," Percy chimed in."I always get an F in spelling."
"Believe it or not, I do too. It's okay, baby." Annabeth softens. "Anyway, I'll see you guys later, alright? I love you. Don't keep your granny too busy, alright Nate?"
"Yes, mommy." Nate bit his lip while deep in thought, a habit he clearly got from Annabeth, Percy notices.
Before she hangs up, she and Percy were talking about business and cancelling flights on Friday, his dad probably cancelling Amsterdam again (and even in his little mind, he figures it was because of the PTA), but he wasn't all sure.
Finally after ending the call, his dad starts the car, and buckles his seatbelt for him, putting on a light music that sounds like his dad's favorite.
"Good to go?" Percy smiles. "Don't tell mommy, I'm taking you to the ocean park."
Okay, so maybe a bit cool. Only for a bit.
He grins.
The PTA took two hours more to his liking. Nate was with their teacher along with some other students playing in the art room when the meeting was adjourned. He figures he wants some chick-fil-a and ice cream, and boy were the parents probably starving. Once his teacher made them line up to the hall, he saw a bunch of guys in white uniform holding what seems to be food in platters- a whole lot of them.
The parents were dining and talking to each other, laughing and greeting while he saw his mom and dad talk to one of the teachers- Ms. Fabian, the one subject he's having trouble with. Nate bit his lip.
"Woah," James looked amazed. "That's a lot of food."
Nate would be amazed, not for the fact he's even more nervous as to what his teacher might say.
"It's from the Jacksons." Sophie, the blonde girl nodded. "They always bring food for everyone, that's probably why everyone is present at this point."
"My mom could be a little…extra." Nate shrugged.
"You guys must be hecking rich." Another classmate told him.
"What?"
"My parents told me not to say bad words." Then proceeded to get something on the platter.
Before he knew it, his feet were dragging him across the room where his mom and dad conversed with the teacher. Sure, her mom does the talking, but casually his dad chimes in and nods, glancing at Nate and asking him to come.
"Is tutoring gonna work?" He hears his mom say, "An hour everyday, to make him catch up?"
And he's pretty sure they made a silent agreement. Nate feels a little less, but he trusts his mother, and he was sure it's good, even if having an hour less of play time.
There were a lot of words delivered back and forth, but he was focusing more on his dad holding his mom's purse, and he smiled a bit.
After the meeting, Annabeth was adamant to go home. Nate figures it was the many talks that wore his mother out, but he was glad they were there every time. It wasn't until one of the parents were rushing up to them, the same woman Nate recognizes as the one asking a lot of questions when Percy would fetch Nate. That woman was friendly.
"Hi Percy," The woman smiled. She was probably in her late 20s like his mom and dad, only being twenty eight and twenty nine as they had Nate a bit earlier than expected. The woman's eyes perked up when Percy gave her a small smile, saying hi.
"Is that your girlfriend?" He saw his mom look up from the car seat, as if just registering things on her own.
"My wife, actually." Percy had a grin.
"Oh, a bit early on that, I didn't know you were married." She replies back. She catches a little invisible dust in Percy's jacket and holds her hand out as if trying to shake it. "I thought you were single."
Nate catches her mom's gaze.
She was NOT amused.
"Yeah, like I said. Happily married." Percy laughed nervously, and proceeded to introduce Annabeth who was trying her best not to give the woman a death stare. When all is said and done, Percy was finally reaching out to the red button, wanting to get out of school.
"Are you not gonna tell me who that is?" Annabeth raised an eyebrow.
"Bailey, uh mother of one of Nate's classmates…Sam, I think." Percy reversed the car, looking at the back, before heading out of the gate.
"She's all touchy." Annabeth remarks.
"She talks a lot to daddy." Nate side comments. "I don't like Sam. He's rude."
"Oh really…" Annabeth looks at Nate, then back at Percy.
Percy laughs, but this time it's more of the laugh you control, careful not to sound like anything else. "She's a co parent, we talk sometimes while waiting for our kids. But if you ask me, I'd rather talk and talk to my wife who is clearly sitting beside me giving death glares to strangers."
Annabeth snorts. "Yeah right."
He chuckles. "Hey."
"What?"
"You know I'd love to be stuck by your side," Percy added. "Everybody else? No."
Annabeth still wasn't convinced, until Percy kissed her cheeks.
"Let's take Nate to this museum, I know a place we can enjoy."
They drove straight to the museum of history, and although his little brain can't comprehend things perfectly, he sees his mom and dad smiling, mostly mom, who was busy talking and talking until the end of the tour, and after getting dinner at an italian place he can't pronounce, with her mom smiling and holding his dad's hand as if it's the only thing right in the world, while he buys her flowers. He thinks this is the time his little self believes in what they call love, whatever that may be.
Percy knew exactly how to reassure his mom, and he knew what could make them both happy. And after a while of walking he gets a piggyback from his dad, and he thinks maybe, just maybe…
his dad might be a little cool after all.
It was when he and his mom got the flu that he believes his dad has a superpower. That, or he's just an immortal god that so happens to be here on earth. The flu was mild for Nate, only a bit of a dry throat and coughing, a little cold and getting mildly hot and annoyed because of his stuffy nose.
His mom had it worse though. She couldn't get out of bed because of fatigue, her skin was pale and dry, almost white as a sheet, and her nose was stuffy like Nate's, and to top it all, she's burning.
Percy had to sleep on the couch for almost four days, and do paperworks in his office room while he's at it. He could simply hire someone to take care of both of them, but he'd rather be there anytime they need him. Nate didn't feel so good, but his dad always made sure to cook soup and buy him electrolyte drinks, along with cleaning up after him.
"You alright there?" Percy damps a clean sheet of cooling pad on Nate's forehead. "Anything hurts?"
"No." Nate coughed.
"I asked our doctor, and she'll be here soon, okay?" Percy kisses his head. "Do you wanna sleep?"
Nate shook his head. "I miss mommy."
"She's in the other room for now, but you'll see her soon, alright?" Percy made him sit up to change his clothes, buttoning the little boy's pajama shirt. "Tell you what, once we're not sick anymore, we'll go ice skating in central park, and maybe feed pigeons?"
Nate giggles. "Alright. We get to make snow angels right daddy?"
"First to hundred gets a cake." Percy agrees. "And we'll keep it a secret to mommy."
"Is mommy okay?"
Percy bit his lip. "Yeah…she's getting better, alright? And she wants Nate to get better also, so that's why both of you are in different rooms. Do you want me sleeping here, Nate?"
"Take care of mommy." He shook his head.
"I take care of both of you." Percy reassures him. It wasn't long until he's feeding him what could possibly be the best soup he's had, but it was his dad, so it's fair to say he's the best (his mom's soup was the worst, to be fair, but he wasn't gonna say that).
"I love you, daddy." Nate hugs his side,tears starting to form in his eyes, grateful to have his dad by his side at all times.
"I love you." Percy grins. "a ton."
It wasn't long until Nate recovered, and although Annabeth was doing much better, Percy prevented him from still seeing his mom. To his understanding, sometimes Percy was just selfish a bit, but now realizing that his father did it for him makes him a little bit cooler after all. He sees them inside the room, the door wide open and Percy was spoon feeding Annabeth, and she was smiling as if he's teasing her, if only a little. They were talking about, weirdly enough, painting walls for the house, thinking if Annabeth will like a shade of this and that.
She was the first to notice he was there.
"Nate!" She looked more like herself now. "Wait no, baby, you can't come in yet."
"Mommy!" Nate held out his big blue teddy bear with a very bright, very pink bowtie.
"Nate, mommy is sick, alright? So let's leave her first so she doesn't get sick, okay big guy?" Percy puts down the plate on a side desk and proceeds to open a pack of cooling sheets, probably for Annabeth herself.
Nate nodded. "You take care of mommy! I take care of teddy!"
Percy laughed. "Do you have to go to the bathroom?"
"No." He shook his head. "I want…to play Super Mario."
Annabeth was looking at both of them, and to Percy, suspiciously enough. "You let him play Super Mario?"
He shrugged. "He was technically in bed."
"Fine." Annabeth muttered. "You should go to bed now, and sleep."
She gestured at Percy, who looks at her and the half eaten soup. "I'll stay a bit more, just to make sure you're okay now."
Annabeth smacks his arm lightly, then pretends to be slightly mad at him, but his charm was overpowering and she knows it. At the end, she was defeated, and Percy was walking Nate to his bed, opening the door and handing Nate the controller while he grins, reminding him that it'll soon be time for bed.
"Should I close the blinds so you could sleep the night through?"
Nate nodded, playing until curfew.
And no later it was time for bed.
He saw his mom and dad cuddled up in bed, his mom resting her head on his chest, and he didn't know how to close the tv, but he figured he could try to solve it later. Nate smiles, wanting to cuddle with them, but like what his dad says, he didn't want to suffer again. He was sleepy too, but he wanted to do something nice before he did.
The next morning, Percy finds the teddy bear on the kitchen countertop, with a hastily written note that says:
World's coolest dad.