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“Percy I have something I need you to do and you’re not gonna like it so your mom made you this delicious dark blue blueberry cheesecake as well as a blueberry chicken salad sandwich with blue bread! It even has BLUE bread! A-and this really nice salad with a blue dressing, she worked SO hard Percy SO hard! Because you know we both love you so much and this is nothing personal it’s just that I don’t have anybody else available that can do this and it’s not going to be the most fun thing ever but I’m sure it’ll all be okay…”
Percy raised an eyebrow, “well good morning to you too Paul.” Percy had always known Paul as a slightly anxious man, but this was laying it on thick to say the least. He usually tried to butter Percy up when he was going to ask something of him that wouldn’t be his favorite (not that it was necessary Percy was usually more than happy to help his mom and stepdad from time to time) but this seemed excessive which made Percy suspicious as to what his boss and stepfather could possibly be asking of him.
Paul looked so embarrassed, “Sorry! Sorry! That came out wrong, I just know this is something you probably wouldn’t want to do but I really need you to do this for me because you’re like one of the only people who has the availability for it where I can send your classes to the library for Elena to supervise without getting yelled at by her instead of trying to find an excessive number of substitutes.”
Percy was quite possibly even more suspicious of whatever this request could be at this point, “Paul, you know I love and appreciate you but I’m gonna need you to tell me what in the Hades you need from me that has got you so anxious. Because I’m about to start asking if I’m getting punished for having well behaved classes.”
Paul made probably one of the deepest signs Percy’s ever heard from the man aside from when he and Estelle argue. “I-I…I need you to…uhhhh…I need you to chaperone a field trip? For the 6th graders? To the Empire State Building? I-I know you don’t love field trips and that there’s a lot of things at the ESB but you have some of the few classes I trust to be well behaved if I were to just send them to the library for a day without getting stabbed by Elena.
Percy did not like this request at all. “You want me…to take a bunch of kids including your clearsighted daughter, her daughter of Tyche best friend, and their new found best friend who’s recently been claimed as a daughter of Apollo…to the Empire State Building…where we both know Olympus, a place where I am VERY popular, is located. Also knowing my track record with field trips.”
Paul looked like he could vomit at any second “Yes?” Percy gave him a very unhappy quizzical look, “I have food from your mother! The field trip is just Wednesday next week and if it’s that bad I will call in a sub for Thursday and Friday, your mother and I can watch the kids for those days plus the weekend and you and Annabeth can go to the beach house or wherever you two want to go for a long weekend, just the two of you. Please! I really need this!” He was desperate at this point.
Percy rolled his eyes, “Paul, it’s alright. If you really need me to do it that badly then I’ll do it but I might just take you up on the babysitting offer.”
Paul practically threw the food at Percy, “Oh thank the GODS! I was so worried you were gonna tell me no and then I was gonna either have to guilt trip you more or I was gonna have to find someone else and then find a sub or have Elena get mad at me and I just don’t have time for Elena to get mad at me so I really appreciate this you are the best and of course you just tell your mother and I when and we will absolutely take the kids you and Annabeth wouldn’t have to worry about a thing I promise.”
—
“What did I get myself into?!” Percy exclaimed as he put his face down onto the table in front of him, narrowly missing his bribe lunch that Paul had “gifted” him with that morning. He was already beginning to regret his decision to agree to this field trip to the Empire State Building of all places.
Elena just laughed, “sorry, sorry it’s just that he really threw you to the wolves! He’s basically serving you to be bothered by every god and who knows what else! Are you gonna tell Annabeth? I’m sure she’d love to watch you lead a field trip.”
“What do you mean by that?” confusion coloring his face, “Also I’m pretty sure she’s got a meeting with Rachel that day for a new youth art museum and activity center or something Dare Enterprises is sponsoring. Plus Rachel’s office is so close they hang out too much and I do NOT need Rachel watching me teach, with ESTELLE of all students mind you, and finding more fodder to make fun of me.”
“She needs MORE?” Percy gave the librarian a look that has literally meant death for many a monster, she continued, “Anyway, do you really not know why Annabeth would want to watch you teach?” his face changed to an expression akin to a baby seal being taught a trick for the first time, “I guess some things never change. Anyway, maybe it won’t be that bad, I mean dad’s currently scared of you and you’ll probably have Cassie there so he probably won’t try flirting with you right now, your dad is almost always in Olympus, and who else would be off Olympus in the building that would try to stop and talk with you?” In some way Elena knew she was probably giving the man false hope, but she had to try. She just hoped maybe that would manifest either an easy day for him…or a hilarious story for her to hear later.
Normally, he wouldn’t get his hopes up but Percy thought this time he deserved to be naive, as a treat. “I’m going to choose to believe you but for some reason I just know we’ll be wrong.”
Elena just looked at him, “Just finish your lunch guppy, only time will tell.”
—
The day of the field trip came and Percy still wasn’t happy about what he had agreed to.
He’d asked Estelle, Margot, and Cassie to arrive early that day to conference about the visit because while Elena had tried to convince him everything would be fine and nobody would show up…he knew it was too good to be true.
“Today is the one day (for you kids not me) that you get to actively ignore the gods if you see them. Pretend they DO NOT exist. If someone asks you about floor 600, pretend they’re making a joke and that everybody knows there's only 102 floors. If you see a god, unless they try to talk to you specifically, I will do all the interacting with gods. No kneeling, no bowing, no ‘my lord’ or ‘my lady,’ no full names, I will give them nicknames as needed.” Percy hoped he covered everything.
“Perce, I don’t think us talking to gods is what you need to worry about. You need to worry about gods talking to you.” Estelle remarked.
Cassandra sat in disbelief, “I still can’t believe after everything the orientation video and the other campers said he did he’s worried about us around gods. I mean they said he fought one at our age and somehow WON?! And they didn’t strike him down then and there?”
“Oh and I’ve heard Annabeth rant about it sooooo many times. It’s actually, like, wayyyy worse than what the video tells you. Like he had maybe a week of training and the rest was just survival and relying on having an ocean he didn’t even know how to control yet near him. Annabeth said she and Grover nearly died themselves from the shock of it all.” Estelle piped up.
Cassandra raised an eyebrow, “You watched the orientation video? Why? You and Percy share a mom and I thought Mr Blofis was your dad?”
Estelle shrugged, “I watched it for fun. I like to be nosy and Percy doesn’t tell me everything because he’s worried I’ll tell mom and scare her. Also, I’ve figured out how to get Annabeth on a rant about Percy’s ‘negative levels of self-preservation’ as I’ve heard her call it.”
“Enough about my reckless teenage years! And Estelle, stop provoking my wife into complaining about me!” Percy chastised, “Anyway, your classmates are gathering in the foyer in 15 minutes, go get anything you need for the field trip while I gather my stuff for your group and I will meet you three out there in 10, try not to summon a monster or something in the meantime.”
—
After loading onto the bus Percy went through the names of his group on the clipboard: Estelle Jackson-Blofis, Margot Diamant, Cassandra Goth, Rowan Verboom, Olivette Simmons, and Trevor Farrell. All students in his last period Latin class and, luckily for him, all present.
The bus ride was about 20 minutes full of chatter from the young teens and pre-teens about movies, songs, whatever was going on on TikTok (Percy wasn’t sure Estelle had “banned” him from the app because of something called a “Thirst Trap Edit?” Apparently some former demigod students had found old pictures of him from his teenage questing years and put them into videos with music and she “didn’t want to be scarred more than she already was from seeing them the first time.” Percy also wasn’t too familiar with technology anyway having had to grow up without any due to the whole demigod thing so he was more than fine with not having whatever TikTok was.
They arrived at the Empire State Building much sooner than Percy appreciated, but resolving to get this trip over with he decided to just get started. He gathered his group and entered the large foyer, at the information desk sat a little man with a light brown crew cut wearing khakis and a polo the color of an overripe apricot upon which there was pinned a nametag reading the name Steve. The modest-looking man, being in actuality a very minor immortal whose sole responsibility being acting as a secretary to Olympus from the mortal world, instantly recognized the teacher. “Percy Jackson! Good to see you sir, I wasn’t aware you were coming today. Are you here to visit someone on 600 or should I call your wife, I believe she’s just in a meeting with Ms Dare and they’d both be more than happy to see you, I’ll grab out your key car–”
“No need Steve, I’m actually on a field trip for work and please, Annabeth and Rachel do NOT need to hear about this. And lets limit any more mentions of the floor above 102 right now, I kinda have some” he glanced back to see if any students were eavesdropping, “mortal students here so I’d like to keep any…divine visitors to a minimum.” Percy interrupted before the man could finish.
Steve just nodded but slid the key card on the counter anyway “just in case” he whispered. Percy rolled his eyes and took the card not wanting to argue with the immortal.
Percy herded his class towards the elevator and pressed the button for floor 63 to attend their first education session on the history of the ESB. The ride was much shorter than Percy was used to but the music was no less random with “Someone New” by Hozier playing on their way up.
As soon as the doors opened Percy pushed out of the elevator, taking several steps back to get as far away from the elevator as possible while still just looking like he was just making room for his students. As he backed away from the elevator he bumped into a man about a few inches taller than him with blonde hair talking to a woman with curly blonde hair and tanned skin; both the man and Percy turned around and made eye contact before the man began running down the nearest hallway away from Percy.
“Ap– LESTER!!! Get your butt back here you absolute COWARD!!! I have more to discuss!!!” the woman shouted. Percy got a glimpse of her eyes, an intense stormy gray that seemed to shift and flow into other colors but mostly settling on gray; he was absolutely not happy the god got away again after the whole incident surrounding Cassie’s claiming. The woman turned around, she was gorgeous. She looked like Annabeth, though she was missing the battle scars and the gray streaks Percy loved so much. He knew this could only be one person.
He sighed, knowing he was foolish to think he’d be lucky enough not to run into any gods. At least it was one of the few who liked him so he didn’t have to worry about fighting anyone.
The goddess greeted him, “Oh Perseus! I wasn’t expecting you here today and I see you have…” she then took a look at the students standing confused behind their teacher, “ohhhhh, you have…students…anyway if you don’t mind my interruption there is something I need to discuss with you about your family history that I have recently learned if you don’t min–”
Percy interrupted, “Not here…uhh…Dite…we are on a…tight schedule, yeah a very tight schedule and we’ll be late for our first education session if we don’t get moving so if you’ll excuse us I can visit your…office later! Okay, bye!”
“Who’s the really pretty lady and why does she look kinda like Lilian in 8th grade? Also why does she know Mr Jackson?” Trevor said so loud Percy thought it was probably heard all the way through the 50th floor.
Estelle rolled her eyes, “She’s a family friend now be quiet Trevor, I’m pretty sure my sister-in-law could’ve heard you from the 89th floor!”
Percy and Aphrodite ignored them both.
She looked concerned, “But I think this is something you’d like to know sooner rather than later. It’s very important about you and your family! I assure you it won’t take long at all. I just need a minute or two of your time!”
“Sorry! I have students and it appears the guide is waiting for us at the end of the hallway right there so we better get going! I will talk to you later! Tell your boyfriend I say hi, I’m sure he’d love to hear from me!” the teacher announced as he walked leading his class away towards the small room.
—
Towards the end of the history session Percy looked at his schedule, they were headed to floor 89 for…art and architecture. Just his luck, the very floor his beloved wife’s office sat, he hoped she’d just be at lunch so he wouldn’t run into her as he kinda “forgot” to mention to her he’d be visiting that day since he worried she may be visiting with Rachel who he really didn’t want to see him on the job.
They collected into the elevator once more and rode their way up, this time playing “Francesca” by Hozier. Percy didn’t like the sign the elevator was possibly sending him playing so many songs by a son of Polyhymnia, a small part of him just hoped that she was the one in charge of deciding the elevator music for the day and just wanted to promote her son’s work. Typically it was Euterpe or Erato or even Apollo choosing the soundtrack of the day but sometimes they’d let someone else in.
When they arrived on the 89th floor Percy let out a sigh of relief when he saw Annabeth’s office door closed and no pretty blondes or mean gingers in sight. They made it to the education session with no interruptions.
The session went smoothly–Trevor asking foolish questions, Estelle and Margot getting frustrated with him every time he spoke or breathed or looked in the wrong direction, Olivette was the only one who seemed actually interested in the session. Then towards the end the guide made an announcement: “And lucky enough for you all today one of our very own tenants here at the Empire State Building was kind enough to open up her office right here on floor 89.” Percy was beginning to fill with dread, “She’s a very accomplished architect and, while she specializes in a more beaux arts style rather than the art deco that the ESB was designed in, she can better walk you through the process that goes into designing such a unique building such as our very own landmark. Her name is Annabeth Jackson.” All the students looked to him but he just acted like there was nothing odd about this but he knew, there it is, the nail in the coffin, Percy was going to have to bring his class into the office he’d visited many times before to talk to his wife who didn’t even know he was there. He.Was.Doomed.
The guide led the class to the very familiar office space, Annabeth was at her light wood drafting desk in a small room with a clear windowed door to the left of the entrance, behind her were colorful square corkboards with some of her favorite lunchbox notes from Percy, drawings from their children as well as some of her favorite designs from her professional career, her Olympian projects, and even her childhood. In front of the large window to her drafting room sat her copier and a counter with her 3d printers for modeling across the room to the right of the entrance sat several emerald green arched shelving units that lined the narrow hallway til they met the window that divided the hall from her small meeting client meeting space the shelves held different books about design, portfolios, and different models of projects she’d done previously as well as a few plants and decorations like the little ceramic owl figurine the kids had painted for her once or the grumpy bear planter Rachel had bought her to “remind her of Percy.”
The 3D modeling counter extend into her meeting space where two green chairs faced away from the counter and a black desk with a wide rolling chair that let her fold her legs whichever way she wanted during meetings because even as an adult her ADHD wouldn’t let her sit in the same position for more than three and a half minutes (Katie literally timed her when she contracted Annabeth to build her a new greenhouse in Connecticut where she and Travis moved after college). To the right of her desk hung her bachelor’s degree in architecture from New Rome University, her masters in construction management from NYU, and her second masters in design from NYU along with matching photos of her receiving each degree, next to the degrees and graduation photos were photos from their wedding, photos from Annaliese and Eleanor’s births as well as Eugene’s adoption, and then several family photos they’d just taken that past summer. On the floor sat an off-white washable rug (all their rugs were washable being ADHD demigods and now parents meant that no rug or carpeting was safe) with two layered arches that looked like rainbows on either side that met in the middle. Behind Annabeth’s desk was a colorful mural of cities and buildings and even a few temples and shrines if you looked for them painted by Rachel herself.
Annabeth hadn’t noticed the group had entered until the guide had called out for her, “Ms Annabeth? The students are here to talk to you!” Percy felt sorry that they were interrupting her when she was focused on her work, he could’ve watched her work all day…though that would’ve been boring for the students who wanted to hear from a real architect, plus Estelle was here, she would’ve said something weird to distract Annabeth anyways, but Percy loved watching and hearing Annabeth focus on her work.
Annabeth stood up and began walking to the door when she made eye-contact with Percy, her eyes widened and she…smiled? He thought she’d be mad he didn’t tell her, but she honestly looked excited to see him.
As she walked towards the group the guide introduced them “Hi Ms Annabeth! This is that class from Willow Creek Middle School and their teacher–” he looked to Percy, “sorry I forgot to ask! What’s your name?” Not realizing no introductions were needed, they’d already met…16 years ago.
“Mr Jackson” Percy informed him. The guide looked confused for a moment.
“Mr Jackson? Huh!” then he looked between the couple “...Any relation?”
“Married” they replied in unison.
“Well isn’t this a nice surprise!” the guide laughed, “I’ll be back in the other room waiting for my next session then, have fun!”
“Well Mr Jackson, what a nice surprise!” Annabeth gave him a look. He wasn’t quite sure what it meant but it seemed good so he wasn’t about to take his chances so he just accepted it. “I’d love to talk to your students here about architecture but why don’t you give them a tour, you know this office nearly as well as I do so I’d love to hear your commentary.”
Percy blinked a couple times “...sure…” he wasn’t sure what she was getting at but he could see Estelle rolling her eyes and Margot and Cassie looking at her confused so he just got on with the tour.
“Well guys, I don’t know if you remember when I mentioned the beautiful, intelligent, clever, kind, funny, stunning, amazing, strong, determined, smart, gorgeous wife on our first day of class but this is Mrs Jackson.” Annabeth looked like she was about to start giggling, Estelle pretended to gag, the rest of the girls all “awwwww”-d at the introduction. “And this is her office, aka, her place of employment which means that the level of good you have to be just went up because you will not embarrass me in front of my wife.” Estelle looked at Annabeth who was all but kicking her feet at this point (Percy didn’t even notice he was so nervous).
“Alright guys, let’s start with the drafting room,” he led the students inside the small room, “this is where Annabeth does all her sketches, she likes to have a separate room for this at work because she takes multiple projects on at a time and doesn’t like to get distracted while in meetings by looking at multiple clients sketches at one time. I’m sure you’re curious so I’ll just answer now: these corkboards behind the desk here are filled with notes from me that I leave in her lunchbox every morning, she likes to hang up her favorites, pictures the kids have made for her, and some of her favorite past sketches and designs. They don’t really have much to do with the design process other than creating a welcoming space that she enjoys being in.”
Annabeth was trying and failing to hide the biggest grin Estelle had ever seen, she thought this might be the most nauseating tour she’d ever received in her life.
Percy continued on, obliviously, “She also likes to bring her laptop in here a lot, or just work at the little table in the entry next to the shelves, to do modeling that she then sends to her 3D printers which brings us back out to the hallway.” Percy led them out of the room and back into the narrow hallway/entrance, “I’m sure you can recognize a copier but next to it on this counter are several 3D printers, I got to name all of them.”
He gestured to the counter and began to go down the line, “I’ve actually gifted all of these to her over the years and she uses them all to make her clients models of their buildings quite often–no she will not print you any of those ridiculous little toys so you don’t even need to ask trust me Estelle has tried many many times, the only one who can print silly things on them is ME–this first one here was built by our good friend Leo and her name is Silvermist, she’s a pretty basic printer but she’s been fine tuned to print a lot smoother than most printers so those lines you see on most prints aren’t as noticeable and they don’t get in the way of the design, also if she decides to discard a print due to an edited or discarded design she takes it home and the kids get to color them and it’s easier to color or paint on prints if they aren’t full of those lines. Now this next one is Lagoona and she was made by my half brother to be super fast and use a lot of colors without requiring a lot of filament switching. Annabeth likes to use this one for more finalized designs so her clients get a more realistic view of what the finished product will be. She waits to use colors until they’re in the final stages because clients will get hung up on the colors before they can even take a moment to appreciate the other, more important, details of the design so the designs in the beginning stages will typically be printed on Silvermist so they can hammer out the details and then Annabeth will print them in color afterwards so they can discuss color options. Now this last one is Aisha and she is actually a resin printer, she’s mostly used for things that require fine details like in display models, she’s had a few clients here and there that wanted miniature models of their builds to display inside after the end of construction and public openings and while the other printers did a fine job sometimes even they would get a bit wonky on smaller details so I had this constructed with her, once again these turn out really smooth so they’re easily painted to match whatever the finished builds look like. We also have a really big printer in our basement named Katara that does projects that maybe wouldn’t fit on these printers here but that’s also our personal use printer.”
Annabeth was swooning at this point, Percy…still had no clue.
“Next we’ll move into the meeting space. First off, the rug here, it’s washable; I just feel a need to brag about that any time I discuss any of our rugs. Next, you may have noticed the mural here, it was painted by Rachel Elizabeth Dare herself, who is a very close friend of ours from our teenage years. You may also notice the coffee bar on the opposite counter, no you may not have coffee, that was specifically directed at you Estelle. Next, here’s one of my favorite parts of this office! Here we have Mrs Jackson’s degrees! She has one bachelor’s degree from New Rome University in California and then she has two master’s degrees from NYU here in the city, now as far as I’m aware you don’t need all these degrees in order to be an architect professionally I just have an overachiever for a wife who likes to cover her bases and learn as much as she possibly can. She also has graduation photos when she received each of these degrees, my favorite one is actually the construction management degree because in this photo if you look closely you can see the bump from when she was pregnant with our first daughter Annaliese and I just think that’s super cool that our little Liese got to be with her to get her degree” he then realized he was getting off topic, “anyway…this is where she has her initial client meetings so she’ll sit in the criss-cross chair behind the desk and they’ll sit in these fancy green chairs and discuss all the things they want for a project and then they’ll sign a contract and the clients will leave and she’ll get to work, they usually have a few meetings, sometimes here, sometimes at another location for the client but she really likes to have her initial meetings here…Aaand that’s all I have to say, Mrs. Jackson if you have anything to add?”
“Nono Seaw–Mr Jackson!!” Annabeth said staring a hole into Percy’s lips, “that was probably a much more in depth tour than what I typically give anyway. I usually just walk people through the space and ask if they have any questions. Which reminds me, does anyone have any questions they’d like to ask about my career or this space? I know Mr Jackson here went pretty in-depth…”
Estelle wanted to vomit, she needed to know whichever god decided it’d be funny to subject her to watching her sister-in-law flirt with her brother and just acting overall lovesick watching Percy teach. And the worst part yet is that he didn’t even notice! He couldn’t even be flustered so she could laugh at him because he was absolutely OBLIVIOUS! She needed a way to embarrass them for being so grossly in love but she couldn’t think of anything at first.
Thankfully, Olivette had a question for the architect, “Hi Mrs Jackson?” she spoke hesitantly as she raised her hand, “what kinds of architecture do you do?”
Annabeth considered the question for a moment before asking, “do you mean in terms of style? Or what kind of clients do I take?”
“Ummm…the clients I think?” the girl answered.
“Well most of my clientele tends to vary, most of it is for businesses and non-profits but I require a level of creative freedom to incorporate my own style. I also sometimes do residential or other personal projects for friends or family,” she pulled down a portfolio and opened it, “I once designed a custom greenhouse for some friends of Mr Jackson and I, I also got to do some redesigning on our beach house in Montauk…” Annabeth explained.
“I have a question!” Estelle raised her hand.
Annabeth nodded, “Oh? Go ahead Stella.”
Estelle grinned, “Have you ever designed anything for animals, like, maybe a stable?” She then began to mimic kissy faces.
Annabeth and Percy both flushed immediately. Estelle was biting back a laugh.
The teacher then called out, “Ms Jackson-Blofis, will you please meet me in the drafting room?” he then turned to his wife, “…If that’s okay with you, Wise Girl?”
Annabeth nodded, “go right ahead, I’ll answer some more questions out here or maybe I can go through some past designs or models…”
Percy and Estelle walked back into the drafting room. Estelle wasn’t sure if this was Teacher Percy or Brother Percy or Somewhat Parental Figure/Role Model Percy but she could sense whichever version of her brother she was getting, she was in trouble. Especially judging by the unimpressed look on his face.
“Estelle Josephine Jackson-Blofis, what in the world was that about?” Percy scolded.
Estelle looked guilty “You and Annabeth were being all gross and lovey like did you not even see the way she was looking at you with heart eyes the whole time? It was so gross! And I-I thought using the stables joke to embarrass you like I do at school would be funny! I don’t know why you’re mad at me!”
Percy sighed and softened his voice, “I’m not mad, I AM a bit frustrated though. I’ve already set the boundary that I don’t like to joke about that in front of people and frankly I don’t appreciate whoever told you about that incident in the first place. And it’s disrespectful to bring that up towards Annabeth at her place of work, even if she is the boss, when she volunteered her time to talk to us. We can joke about that at home and I let you get away with a lot in the classroom because I can just redirect the topic away from that but when we’re elsewhere it reflects poorly on me and the school and it bothers Annabeth too.”
“I’m sorry.” Estelle mumbled.
“You don’t have to be sorry, Starfish. I understand it’s not always easy at this age to separate the different working relationships between brother and sister-in-law and teacher and professional. But I do want you to take this as a learning experience on how we behave in public because if you were with another teacher, they wouldn’t know the story or your relationship with Annabeth and then you’d have embarrassed and disrespected a generous professional and you’d probably have to have a talk with Paul and possibly detention over it and you don’t need that here.” her brother clarified. “Now let’s go join the class and we can learn and move on from this.”
They walked back out to the rest of the class, “I’m sorry for the interruption Mrs Jackson. We’re back now. I just needed to talk with Estelle here for a minute but all is good.” Percy spoke. “Now if there’s nothing else to discuss I think we’ll head down to 50 for lunch–which you are welcome to join us if you would like–and then we just have the observation deck to visit before we have to meet at the busses and head back to school.”
Estelle gasped, “Annabeth can come with?! Annabeth! Annabeth! Pleaseeeee come with us! Pleaseeee! I promise I’ll be nice! You should come with us!”
Annabeth laughed, “Fine but let me grab the lunch Mr Jackson packed me first.”
—
Lunch went smoothly enough for a group full of 6th graders. The girls created their own little club leaving Trevor and Rowan to go find clusters from other classes to sit with which was allowed as long as everyone stayed in the little room they were provided and rejoined their original groups once lunch was over. Annabeth had joined Percy off to the side where he could supervise the classes while enjoying his own lunch. They also used that time to discuss details like Nori’s second birthday coming up soon and the ominous conversation Aphrodite wanted to have with Percy. Annabeth decided what would be best was for Percy to visit the ESB again after he returned to school with his students and then Annabeth would join him to visit Aphrodite’s temple on 600 and see whatever it was she needed to tell him.
After they’d finally thought of their agreement on how to handle the Aphrodite situation and made arrangements for Sally to pick up the kids from school and daycare, lunch was over. Percy gave Annabeth a quick kiss goodbye before she went back to work and then gathered his students once more to head to 102.
On their way up, the elevator played “Safe and Sound” by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars…which concerned Percy to be hearing a different artist for once that day but he was choosing not to pay it any mind in the hope that it would manifest at least one normal hour of their day.
As they stepped off the elevator he was relieved once again to not see any surprise guests on the floor. He led his class to the observation deck where the class got to look out the windows and hear from a new instructor about the history of the city. Percy watched on quietly until someone tapped him on the back.
The teacher’s face fell immediately and he turned around knowing it would be another surprise because it was never that easy for him, ever. He muttered as he turned, “What is it this time can I not get one day of peace from you peop–” He stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed just who was behind him…his father but more importantly his favorite immortal relative Hestia.
“Hi” he squeaked before he enveloped the goddess in a hug.
“Good to see you too son. Thank you for telling me of your visit on the one day I'm on Olympus to visit my sister. I appreciate the greeting.” Poseidon grumbled as his son was still hugging Hestia.
Percy straightened, “Hi dad. You can cool it with the attitude or next time you need someone to cover for you to get out of whatever duties, you can ask someone else.” At this point students were starting to stare at whoever the two random adults their teacher was talking to, one of which looking near identical to him but older. “Sorry kids, this is my dad Mr…Don–”
Poseidon was about to interrupt until Percy shot him a look, shutting his mouth instantly.
“And this is his sister, my aunt Ms…Este. And I didn’t even know they were in town today, let alone in the ESB.” Percy continued as he stared holes in their heads to keep them from arguing.
Cassie and Rowan looked pale, Margot appeared uninterested, meanwhile Estelle was practically bouncing. Trevor looked confused, “Uhhhhhhhhh Mr Jackson? I thought Principal Blofis was your dad?”
“Are you telling people your father is that Mr Blowfish man your mother is married to? Are you embarrassed of me? I thought you liked me now? Do you not like me? Did I do something wrong? Do you need something? I will have my…” Poseidon began nervously rambled at Percy before Hestia stopped him.
“Why don’t you let your son answer the question before we begin to spiral…Don” she soothed.
Before Percy would even begin to answer Estelle cut in. “We’re HALF siblings Trevor!” she spat at the boy, “His mom is MY mom but my dad is MY dad. Mr Don is HIS dad. We’ve had classes together since preschool! For the gods sake! You should know this!”
Percy finally regained control of the conversation after Estelle’s rant, “Estelle, I need you to breathe, he was just confused. Trevor, Estelle is correct, Principal Blofis is my STEP-dad, he married my mom when I was 15, he is not my bio-dad. My biological father is Mr Don here.” Trevor still looked confused but decided he didn’t want to be eviscerated by Estelle any more than he already had been that day.
“Hi Este! It’s sooo good to see you again! Did you see that drawing Jasper made for you? I promised him last weekend that I’d bring it to you when I was leaving camp but you weren’t at your hearth when I stopped by so I left the drawing next to it…” Margot interjected, “oh and…hi…Don…” Having been best friends with Estelle since they were little and being claimed as a daughter of Tyche since she was 8, she’d seen and heard far too many things about Poseidon’s desperate desire to be liked by Percy that she really did not care much about the god, however, she always enjoyed seeing Hestia since camp.
Poseidon beamed, “Hello Margot, very nice to see you as well. You were at camp last weekend? Did Percy bring you? I heard nothing from his cabi–”
Hestia once again interrupted his rambling, “Don? Sweetheart? Would you mind if I answer the girl’s question? I hear mother is…on another floor…why don’t you see if you can catch her? It’s been a while since you’ve spoken and she’s spent an awful lot of time with Z lately…”
Poseidon stiffened, “Mother is…” he gasped, “I cannot have our brother getting more favor than I have this must be rectified immediately! Before I go though, Percy, your step-mother wishes to see you and the grandkids soon if you could please find time in your schedule for even an afternoon at…our home…” And with that he ran off to the elevator.
“Well with that interruption gone. Margot, I did get that drawing from Jasper! Thank you! That was very kind of you both to leave at my hearth, it’s currently hanging up in my home. I will treasure it.” Hestia responded, “I must be going as well! I expect to see you soon, Perseus. And Rowan? Cassandra? You may breathe, it’s okay! Have a lovely day kids!” And off she went.
Percy just hung his head in his hands, exhausted from all these godly encounters. “Well kids, it’s time to head to the busses so you all can go home. Let’s get back to the elevator.”
Percy didn’t even hear the music on his way down, electing to just dissociate before he had to come back and have whatever conversation he needed to have with Aphrodite. As soon as the elevator hit the ground floor with a ding, the class made their way to the bus and chattered the whole way back to school.
—
Sally had picked up Liese and Eugene from school but on his way home, as if enough hadn’t happened to him yet, Percy got a call from the daycare that Nori had jumped off the climber and landed hard, she wasn’t hurt badly or anything but she was a bit upset, so he took a small detour and just picked her up before heading to the ESB.
When he met Annabeth at her office once more she raised an eyebrow at him but they decided to just take the toddler with them. They got in the elevator, Percy swiped his key, and they went up to floor 600.
Aphrodite was already near the doors when they stepped out onto Olympus. She greeted Percy and Annabeth and then took note of the small child, cooing “Who is this little lovely? She is just precious! May I see her?”
Percy and Annabeth shared a knowing look at the toddler on his hip, “This is Eleanor Zoë, but we call her Nori, she’s our youngest, I had to pick her up on our way to this meeting because she’s a maniac who jumped from much too high off the climber at daycare so I think for today it’s probably for the best I just hold her.”
Aphrodite sighed, “Nori, what a sweet name for a baby of the sea! I have a soft spot for sea children. I was born from seafoam y’know…anyway I’m getting sidetracked from what I wanted to discuss with you! Anyway…”
Percy and Annabeth gave the goddess an expectant look.
She took on a pensive expression, “So…some of my divine children and I were looking through some of the demigod backlogs and…I found something…interesting to say the least…”
Percy looked unimpressed “Lady Aphrodite, with all due respect, Annabeth and I still have to get home tonight to feed Nori as well as our other two kids and get them to bed for school in the morning so it would be appreciated if you would get on with it before we just leave.”
“Fine!” huffed the embarrassed goddess, “...Your godly sister Rhodes and I found an interesting old file…titled…Estelle Jackson.”
Percy was even less impressed by this point, “Please tell me this doesn’t mean what I think it means.”
“Hah” if goddesses could sweat she’d be drenched, “So if you think it means that your maternal grandmother was a demigod, specifically a daughter of mine…you would be correct.”
“WHAT?!” the son of Poseidon shouted, slightly startling the toddler, he pressed a kiss to the little girl’s head before continuing “You mean to tell me that you are just now discovering that my grandmother was your daughter…thus making you my maternal great grandmother?!”
“Well, looking at it, that kind of makes sense Seaweed Brain. First of all, you’re very pretty, I don’t know if I could even count on both hands the amount of friends who’ve had crushes on you, and you were always very persuasive with your stupid ideas on quests when we were younger so maybe it’s a like a light form of charm speak?” Annabeth interjected before her husband could escalate more.
“Annabeth? My love? Please stop while you’re ahead, I do NOT need a spiral from the discovery of MORE powers, I have enough of them already.” Percy responded.
Aphrodite took the opening to start her escape, “Alright well I have a…meeting with Hera…that I better get to…I just wanted to let you know personally…anyway…byeeeee.”
Apollo walked by and laughed, “Who’s the coward now?”
Percy shot him a glare that sent him running once more before he and his wife made their way back to the elevator. He shook his head on the way down while Annabeth patted his shoulder.
Once the elevator opened, he pulled out his phone and made a call, “Paul? I’m gonna need those days off.”