Percy Jackson One Shots and Short Stories

#34 - The Hot Lifeguard

Chapter 34 - The Hot Lifeguard
published: Monday, 17 June 2019

Prompt: Percy takes up a part-time job as a lifeguard while in high school to save up for college. Many people start "drowning", so he starts a swimming class. There's also a sharp increase in the number of people who can't swim.

—*—

Percy had been staring at the list of quotes in his hand for roughly thirty minutes. Firstly, he hated Literature. Hated it. With a passion. Almost more than he liked Annabeth. Secondly, his handwriting was atrocious. That was a word he'd learnt from her, actually. But no matter how well he phrased it, his dyslexia was giving him a major headache.

He groaned inwardly. SATs were no joke, especially since he was actually trying this time. There was a pact he'd made with Jason that the both of them would make it to university.

It was partly because Percy knew his mother wanted him to, and partly because he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do with his life yet. And NYU had a great biology programme.

"Help!"

A loud shout caught Percy's attention and his head snapped up. There was a boy, about five years old, thrashing around in the deep end.

Percy leaped into action; he tossed the sheets down and jumped off the lifeguard's chair and into the water with a splash.

As he felt the water envelop him, Percy had to force himself to fight the grin that threatened to spread across his face. He swam over to the kicking boy, grabbing him by the waist and shushing him comfortingly.

The boy whimpered as Percy paddled to the edge of the pool, hoisting him up onto the ledge.

Percy treaded water to stay afloat. "You okay?" he asked in concern as he climbed up to join the boy.

"Oh my god, Jamie!" someone screamed.

It was a girl, only a little older than Percy, probably around 18 years old. She squeezed Jamie in a hug so tight Percy wondered if he should save him.

"Are you okay?" she said hysterically. "You-you almost drowned! I can't believe you would do something so irresponsible — after Mum told you to stay out of there!"

Percy grabbed a towel off the rack and wrapped it around Jamie's shoulders. The boy pulled the towel over himself gratefully, still trembling.

The girl sighed. "I'm sorry, Jamie. I was just so worried!" She glared half-heartedly at him. "Don't ever do that to me again." Her gaze slid away from her younger brother — Percy assumed — to Percy, where her amber eyes widened slightly. "Oh, oh — hi."

"Hi," Percy replies awkwardly. "Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt your..." He trailed off uncertainly.

She laughed. "Yeah, I'm a little protective of Jamie." She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear with a blush as she realised that people were glancing over after her shouts.

"It's fine," Percy assured her. He leaned down towards Jamie. "I know the deep end's pretty cool, but maybe you could stick with your big sis before trying it out?"

Jamie nodded sheepishly. "Sorry. Thanks for saving me there."

Percy grinned. "It's fine. Don't worry."

"Thank you," his sister said again. "Really." She extended a hand. "I'm Layla."

"Percy."

"So you're the new lifeguard?" Layla guessed, glancing at the band on Percy's wrist.