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Some part of Sally Jackson had known years ago, after Percy’s first summer at Camp Half-Blood, she knew that Annabeth Chase wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon and that she’d be sticking around for the holidays if they had anything to say about it. She just hadn’t expected those holiday seasons to start when they were just over fourteen years old.
Between what Percy had told her and the various things Sally had picked up from Annabeth, it wasn’t too hard for her to figure out that the younger girl’s home life had been less than ideal for a long time. What Sally hadn’t been expecting, at all, was for Annabeth to ask, “What are you doing?” while she’d been beginning the Christmas cookie baking process.
“I am about to start working on some cookie dough.” Sally explained instead, pulling the containers of flour, sugar, and salt down from the cupboards, “Do you want to help with that?” Normally Percy was the one that helped her with all the baking in their house, but he was off doing something with Paul, so he wouldn’t be able to help her right now anyway.
“Oh, uh, I,” it had been a while since Sally had heard Annabeth sound so unsure of herself, and especially for answering such a simple question, “no, sorry.” The look on Annabeth’s face as she declined Sally’s offer just about broke her heart then and there.
She looked terrified, but she was almost hiding it. Almost.
“Alright, that’s perfectly fine dear.” Sally told her, watching the fright behind her eyes melt away, mostly, in an instant, “If you change your mind later, you’re welcome to come help. Okay?” Annabeth gave her a small nod back in response, looking far more relaxed than she’d been just a minute ago.
A few seconds after Sally had turned from her and back to pulling out the last few ingredients she needed to make the sugar cookie dough, just as she was grabbing the bottle of blue food coloring, Annabeth told her, “It’s, I do want to help you, Ms. Jackson, I just, I don’t-”
“That’s quite alright Annabeth,” Sally told her, cutting Annabeth off despite knowing how the girl, according to Percy at least, tended to react to people cutting her off, “I can give you as much or as little instruction as you need. That is if you still want to help, not that you have to by any means.”
Even if Percy hadn’t been thorough in going over how Sally should act around Annabeth in order to get the younger girl to ‘like’ her, as if that had ever been an issue to worry about, Sally still would have given her an out and some space after her rephrased offer. While she waited for Annabeth to make her choice, not that it was all that important either way what she decided to do, as she waited Sally resumed the making of the sugar cookie dough, pouring out measured amounts of flour, sugar, and a few pinches of salt, tossing it all into one of the mixing bowls. Just as Sally mixed up the dry ingredients into a mostly smooth, well mixed blend, she felt as the younger girl found a spot beside her at the counter, watching silently as Sally mixed the dry ingredients.
Soon after she slid next to her at the counter, Annabeth asked, “What do I need to do first?”
“Could you grab two eggs and two sticks of butter from the fridge?” Was the first thing that Sally asked of her, and when Annabeth returned promptly with the requested items, Sally had her switch spots with herself so Annabeth was standing in front of the mixing bowl and Sally was off to the side. “Alright, now I’ll grab the mixer and I will let you fluff the butter with the eggs.”
Sally quickly grabbed the electric mixer from one of the lower cupboards, setting the mixer on the counter near Annabeth, asking her to plug it in as Sally found and attached the paddle to the mixer. When Sally returned to Annabeth’s side, she was apprehensively holding the mixer above the new bowl of butter sticks and cracked eggs, looking into the bowl like the ingredients would attack if she didn’t keep a close eye on them. “What do I do now?”
“Lower the paddle in with the butter and eggs first,” Sally started, waiting until Annabeth did as she instructed before continuing, “alright, now turn it on to a medium-high speed, and keep your other hand on the bowl,” she paused again, waiting for Annabeth to follow her instructions, “now just keep that beating the eggs and butter together until it's smooth and fluffy.” Annabeth gave her a short nod, keeping her eyes trained on the bowl in front of her. “I’m going to get started on the gingerbread dough, but I’ll check back in in a few minutes, okay?” Another nod, this time a bit more confident than the previous one.
With the years of practice under her belt, Sally was able to quickly mix together all the ingredients she needed for her gingerbread dough, sticking it into the fridge once she was done just as Annabeth was asking her if the eggs and butter had been mixed well enough.
“Those look perfect, Annabeth.” Sally told her as soon as she looked into the bowl, “Wonderful job. Now, slowly pour in the bowl of dry ingredients and turn the mixer on low, then just keep mixing until it looks well mixed together.”
The further along they got in making the doughs and then some icings for the various cookies that Sally tended to make at least one batch of around the holiday season, she could noticeably tell the residual stress that had been sticking to Annabeth had, mostly, worn away as she was able to just act like a normal teenager making some Christmas cookies. It was a refreshing sight for Sally herself, she couldn’t imagine how it must’ve felt for Annabeth. She wasn’t entirely sure how long they had been baking batch after batch of cookies, but by the time that Percy and Paul had practically stumbled through the front door, just about every possible surface of the kitchen was covered in cooling or decorated cookies of all kinds.
“Well, I can see what you two have been up to.” Paul said as he walked into the kitchen, and while Percy and Annabeth stood really close to each one another as both of them tried to sneak glances at each other without the other one seeing, both of them madly blushing bright red not that either of them noticed, Paul held no such reservations as he made his way over to Sally, giving her a short kiss, mindful of the fact that her son was just a few feet away, before adding, “Now, are we feeding all of New York City with these Christmas cookies, or just Queens?”