The Parenthood Drabbles

Genevieve V

Genevieve V

In the style of Sally and Percy Jackson

There were many ways to describe Paul's family. Delicate, sensible, open-minded and pleasant weren't the usual four words Sally picked, and Paul knew it. He loved his family as much as any man loved his family. He'd grown up surrounded by his people so although he'd thankfully immigrated out of the dark ages, he was used to them and used to ignoring them, used to picking his battles, and used to seeing the nice things in all of these people. Sally was told that those were in fact in existence.

Sally tried to tell herself that her in-laws were good people. Besides, some of them were genuinely nice on a permanent basis. On the bad days she told herself that she'd married for the husband, and thankfully he was very different. They had been very nice to Sally, except for his mother of course who just couldn't believe the age she'd had Percy at and had fondly nicknamed her the serial bride- which was super appreciated. Sally was waiting for the day when her son would hear that and loose it.

Today was a good day. It was a party day for them, actually. Paul had convinced them to back off and leave them both alone about Genevieve until Percy came back and Sally's nerves and conscience settled, until her family was whole again. They hadn't liked it but Paul had made several good points about how he could accidentally lose invitations and so they'd waited. Now they were tired of waiting.

So today they were throwing the baby-celebration parties that they always threw. Mrs. Blofis had seemed nearly smug when she'd asked if there was any of Sally's family to invite, to which she'd replied no. To which Mrs. Blofis had replied "not even your son?" Paul had made the save that one time by saying that Percy was part of their family already, which was good because Sally was virtually insomniac and would not have answered as patiently as she usually did, nor would she have been as kind as Paul had.

It was in the loft of her brother-in-law Sean's loft that they were all gathered. The apartment was big and it had a gorgeous view of the skyline, which was the kind of place you lived in if you were a lawyer who'd been hired for Dare Enterprises just before they were sued by environmentalists.

Things were going alright. Genevieve was being passed from arm to arm, and having a blast looking at all these strange new faces. Sally was a bit edgy because she was often out of her sight, and she was too used to monitoring children who were demigods. It was safe in here though, and she had to remind herself of that.

Speaking of the demigod child in question, he'd spent about ten minutes in the apartment before escaping to the rooftop with his cousins Jennie and Cleo. That was their usual routine: say hello to a few people and then run for it. The three of them would be back when cake came if routine was followed.

"It must be weird to have had Genevieve so long after the first," Sean's associate, Pierette, said.

"Not really," Sally said.

Pierette swirled the wine in her glass, bored and uninterested since Sally didn't have wildly fascinating or dramatic stories to tell on the subject. The stench of wine and beer was horrible. Nobody was drunk, but Sally had a keen nose when it came to alcohol.

She clung onto Paul's arm for solidarity.

"We have a few options for when you get sick of this," Paul said quietly. "One, you make an excuse about being tired because I'm a lame father- which will convince my mother and by osmosis the rest of my family. Two, I fake an epileptic seizure."

Sally smiled.

"Three, fake phone call from Percy telling me he's in New Jersey and needs a ride. They were all at your sister's wedding, right? They'll all buy it."