percabeth ; the babysitter

chapter 10.5 (annabeth POV)

If it's possible, Percy's sister is the cutest yet most annoying human being I have ever met in my life.

Sure, Percy is extremely annoying, but Estelle, on the other hand, is just difficult.

When I signed up for this job, I thought this would be relatively easy. I had thought Estelle was a baby. No one had actually told me her age, but I inferred she was young since Percy started babysitting her in the middle of Sophomore year.

In reality, Sally, with good reason, would never trust Percy with a newborn child. She was 1 ½ years old when he started babysitting her.

You must be thinking, Oh Annabeth, you poor thing! You have to babysit Estelle during her Terrible Twos?

I appreciate your condolences, but she isn't as bad as other babies I have watched over in the past. She's potty trained already and she can talk.

Sally had entrusted me with teaching Estelle the basics, like colors, shapes, numbers, the alphabet, etc. She chose the right person.

"Annie!" Estelle called from the living room.

As usual, my bathroom break is cut short. I speed-walked into the living room, not risking another incident. I had learned my lesson.

Yesterday, my first day, I had ignored her call, thinking it was unimportant, when in reality, she just barfed all over the carpet.

I had just finished deep cleaning it when Percy got home. If he came earlier, when he was supposed to, he would have had to deal with that mess instead of me.

When I finally got there, it wasn't anything close to an emergency. Estelle was sitting criss-cross applesauce, staring at her tablet screen. I'm kind of concerned, since she's so addicted to technology already, but that's less work for me.

"I heard Percy and Mama talking about a swim competition today. Can we please go?"

She looked up at me with those baby doll eyes.

I shook my head and she pouted.

"Please Annie?"

I stared at her cute, pleading expression and I sighed in defeat.

"Fine, I'll get you dressed and we have to leave soon, okay? It might be starting already."

Estelle cheered and ran off to her bedroom and I dashed after her.

What a wholesome sibling relationship, I thought. It's good that Estelle wants to go to the swim comp. I really want to go anyway so I can watch Percy's expression after he finally loses.

I finally caught up to Estelle and raised her up, tickling her armpits. "Oh, I got you, O'Naughty one!" I teased as Estelle giggled happily.

I put her in a cute, blue dress with tights and some flats. I grabbed my bag and unlocked the door, revealing the one and only Sally Jackson.

"Oh! Hey Annabeth and my little cutie," Sally cooed as she tickled Estelle's chin. "Where are you guys going? Estelle is dressed up so nicely!"

"Estelle wanted to go watch Percy's swim competition, and she was so cute and convincing that I agreed," I admitted.

Sally surprisingly smiled. "I'm heading over there as well. I would never miss my son's first swim competition since I had locked him up in here...Well, hop in the car, let's go together."

I smiled back and we headed to the elevator. Sally is such a nice mom, I mused.

Surprisingly, the bleachers were packed with people as Coach Hedge finally let the audience in.

The three competitors walked out of the locker rooms: Luke with a confident expression, Jason scanning the audience apprehensively, and finally Percy with an expression like Hedge just stabbed him in the gut.

Jason whispered something into Percy's ear, which made him relax a little. His smile grew wider as he scanned the audience, right until he laid his eyes on me.