Demigod Daycare
Jason and Percy did not enjoy being tied up in a kid's playroom. The kids (or annoying brats as Percy liked to call them) disappeared and the boys were unsure where those kids were hiding. Their friends may have gotten away, but it was unlikely. Demigod kids were the worst.
"How do we get out of this one?" Percy asked, trying to find a way to untie his hands. He was so exhausted. His hair had glue in it and his shirt had drawings and scribbles from magic marker. And how much glitter could possibly be stuck on his face?
"I have no idea. But let's make a deal to never babysit again," Jason said. He was a mess too. With his black eye and his tattered shirt colored with paint, it looked like he was mugged by five year olds, which was partially true.
"Do you have any idea where those kids went?" Percy asked.
"At this point, I don't care. I would just like to get out alive. Maybe someone will find us and help us," Jason said hopefully.
"I think they have their own problems. Last I saw, Frank was trying to help some kid who was crying and Piper was dealing with the little girls trying to give her a makeover." Percy sighed. "If Annabeth were here, she'd know what to do."
"Hey, I just realized something," Jason said, frowning. "I haven't seen Leo all day."
"You're right. Where did he go? He's probably out doing something fun. Man, I hate being a demigod."
"Me too," Jason muttered.
The story starts when the seven were eating dinner. They were all having a good time and talking about how Leo should make the ultimate laser tag game in the Fields of Mars. He got really excited and was about to talk about the possibilities until Reyna walked over to the table.
"REYNA," Leo exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"I have a question for you guys," she said, eyeing Leo suspiciously.
"Sure," Percy said eating his pizza. "What is it?"
"Well, there's this daycare we opened up to get some extra money. Unfortunately, the workers quit. I need someone to watch the kids, so I can find permanent workers or until I can officially close it."
"So we would be watching kids?" Leo asked. "For how long?"
Reyna hesitated. "Depends. Let's just say from eight to four."
Percy looked at Annabeth. They seemed to have a silent conversation.
Percy: That's ALL DAY.
Annabeth: She needs help!
Percy: Why is she even in charge of a demigod daycare!?
Annabeth: Perseus Jackson. I swear to the gods-
Percy said to Reyna, "I guess we could do it."
Everyone else reluctantly nodded in agreement. They figured if Percy said "okay" then it couldn't be that hard, right?
The playroom was definitely a kid friendly place. It had a huge slide that Leo wouldn't get off of, a painting and coloring area, along with a separate game room. Not to mention the epic snack room that Leo was prepared to steal food from.
"Leo, get down from there," Annabeth yelled. "That's for the kids."
"I think he is one of the kids," Frank muttered. Percy snickered.
"This is going to be so easy, guys. Playing all day long? About time we do some easy work." Leo grinned.
"Have you ever actually watched kids before?" Piper asked.
"No, but it can't be that hard, right?" Leo slid down the swirly slide.
"These are demigod kids or legacies," Hazel said.
"So? Demigods are cool. It's not like they are going to use their powers against us or anything," Leo said, now stuck inside the slide. "Guys…A little help here?"
Frank groaned. "Someone get me a chainsaw."
"NO. DON'T LET FRANK GET THE CHAINSAW. I'LL GET OUT BY MYSELF."
Once all the kids were dropped off, the disaster began. There were kids of all ages from kindergarten to around sixth grade. Some had ridiculous powers and others just sat there bored. There were a few kids hitting each other with sticks they smuggled from outside.
At the beginning of the day, before there were a lot of kids, Piper and Jason were sitting at the check-in. One girl, around nine years old, walked up to Piper. The girl asked in an unfriendly tone, "Why is your hair like that?"
"Because I like it like this," Piper said.
"Why would you purposely try to look ugly?" The girl looked at Jason. "Do you have a girlfriend?"
Jason gave Piper a confused look and looked back at the girl. "Uh, yes. I do."
The girl looked at the two. She frowned. "Oh, I see. So I am stuck here with you guys?" Suddenly, she smiled as if she came up with a brilliant idea. "Which means you guys have to keep me entertained!" She grabbed Piper's hand and pulled her away. "Makeover time!"
"What?! No!" Piper said. "I don't do stuff like that!"
Piper gave Jason a 911 look. He shrugged. Charmspeak?, he mouthed.
After Piper and the girl left and more kids rushed in, Percy walked to the check in. "Is it just me or was this a horrible idea? Piper getting a make-over? Frank being bombarded by evil kids? It's been barely an hour and we're already falling apart."
"What about Annabeth, Leo and Hazel?" Jason asked.
"Annabeth is being forced to color or paint. Hazel is reading a story or something. And then Leo is playing video games," Percy said. "I think he's taking it way too seriously. He started betting denarii with the other kids on whether or not he could win 32 races in Mario Kart."
"Seriously? They're kids. How much money could they possibly have?"
Percy shrugged. "I'm not surprised. They're nuts. No wonder the parents send their kids here. They must cause destruction everywhere they go."
Percy looked over at a group of kids. He sighed. "Really? That one is trying to kill the other kids. I hate this. Go scare them with lightning."
"Go make a trident out of water," Jason said, wanting to stick by check-in. He wanted to avoid trouble as much as possible.
"Fine, but next time… you deal with the annoying brats." He went off to break up the fight. "JIMMY, PUT THE PLASTIC SWORD DOWN."
Later that day, there were over twenty-five kids. It may not sound like a lot for seven people to watch, but these were demigod children. They were fierce and insane.
A few of the kids kept bugging Percy on how they could beat him up in a fight. He wanted to whip out his sword and teach the annoying brats a lesson but figured that would be wrong.
Some girls were hanging out with Annabeth and thought she was really cool. They kept asking her questions like "Do you have a boyfriend?", "Is he cute?", and "When are you two getting married?!". Unfortunately, Percy heard that last question and almost passed out on the spot.
Then there was Piper who was getting a makeover against her will. She was waiting for the pain to be over. Where did these kids even get make-up? How did they even know how to use it? Weren't they like nine?
Leo was still playing video games. No one even knew if he was watching the kids. At least he made a lot of denarii from them.
Frank was trying to make sure the kids didn't hurt each other. Unfortunately, they were not listening to anything he said.
Hazel was playing with the kids and reading them stories. They seemed to like her. That is until the kids got bored of books and started playing hide-and-go-seek. (Seriously, those kids have the attention span of a fly.) Unfortunately, she realized too late that she couldn't find them.
She ran up to Percy who looked like he was about to beat up a kid. The kid taunted him. "You can't beat me up! I'm too awesome."
Before Percy could lose his cool completely, Hazel asked, "Um, Percy? Can I talk to you for moment?"
"Sure." He got up and followed her to the side of the room. "What's up?"
"I can't find the kids," she said.
"What? Why? What happened?"
"Hide and seek," she admitted.
"Ah, okay. Don't panic. I'm sure they are around here somewhere."
"I looked everywhere. Where else could they go?" Hazel asked.
"Wait, isn't there a playground in the back?" Percy asked.
"You're right! I think Jason was back there too. I can't believe I didn't think of that!"
"I'll go help you find them," he said, glaring at the bratty children. Man, he wanted to whack them upside the head.
Outside, Jason looked irritated. Two kids, a girl and a boy, both about nine or ten years old, kept asking him questions. The boy asked, "If you're the son of Jupiter, then can you never get electrocuted?"
"I guess so."
"But what if there was this new founded technology that was made, and it was so powerful and stuff, and everyone would die if they even felt a small charge of it. Would you survive that?"
"I'm not sure. I guess I would."
"Because if you did die by lightning, you'd be the lamest son of Jupiter ever."
Hazel and Percy tried not to die of laughter. Percy felt bad, though. It reminded him of when Nico kept asking him questions about Annabeth.
"Jeez," Jason said. "Any more questions?"
The girl raised her hand excitedly. "Are you going to dump your girlfriend on an island like the original Jason did to Medea?"
"NO!" he said.
"If you're the son of Jupiter, then are you just destined to be the worst hero ever?"
Ouch. Percy stepped in after seeing lightning strikes in Jason's eyes. He saw that happen to Thalia before, and it was not a good sight. "Guys! Have you seen anyone out here?"
The kids smiled and shook their heads. The girl asked, "Is it true you beat up Kronos?"
"Uh, yeah?" He wondered where this was going.
She frowned. "I heard that you were never the hero at all."
"OKAY. That's it. I'm done," Percy said. He was going to destroy all the brats. The hurricane was going to come and sweep them away forever. He'd have to tell the parents they were playing outside and a freak storm took them in a bouncy house. That would definitely be believable.
Hazel stepped in. "Uh, guys." She got down to their level and looked them in the eyes. "We need to know if you really saw any kids out here."
The boy said, "I don't answer to dead people."
Percy had never seen Hazel look so mad. "INSIDE. NOW!" They ran inside.
The three looked at each other. "Kids are harsh," Jason said. "I think I'd rather listen to Octavian bash on us than two ten year olds."
Percy said to all of the hiding kids. "If you don't come out now, there's going to be a hurricane to blow you away!"
The kids jumped out of the bushes and ran inside. The three of them went back inside, satisfied that they got someone to listen to them.
Meanwhile, Leo was in a deep trance of video games. The kids got bored with him once they realized he wasn't going to even acknowledge them and was going to steal their money. As Leo was playing, he realized how thirsty he was. He needed soda. Soda would make him ten times hyper and give him a better chance at getting further in the game without unnecessary interruption. He paused it and walked into the back room to get some when he overheard some kids talking. So, of course, he had to listen in.
"We have to break these guys. They are so boring and not even fun," said one of the kids. Leo figured that was their leader.
"How? We've done everything," said another kid. "What else do we do? Attack them?"
"Perfect! That is genius!" exclaimed the kid. "If we can't bug them with questions and needs and stuff then we scare them! It'll totally work."
The other kids started muttering. Leo realized that the kids were acting like it was a good idea. The kids were going to terrorize them. Leo had to warn the others. Then he stopped to think for a moment. He could get out now. They could deal with it.
He walked out of the room to the front of the daycare. Annabeth gave him a weird look. "Where are you going?"
"I have some…games to bring for the kids," Leo said. "I was going to get them real quickly."
"Oh, okay. That's a good idea." A little girl pulled Annabeth's hand. She said to Leo, "Hurry back."
Leo was not going to hurry. And he definitely was not going to be back.
"Annabeth, I really want to play a game!"
"No, Annabeth! I want to paint!"
"Annabeth, play with me!"
"No, me!"
"I'm tired, Annabeth!"
"Annabeth, I'm hungry!"
Annabeth was about to lose it. So many kids wanted so many different things all at once. She would rather be on a quest. She wished she went with Leo to bring games. Then she had a brilliant idea. She saw Piper looking like a Barbie and motioned for her to come over.
"Thank you so much! I was about to die," Piper said.
"I have a plan to get a break from this place." Annabeth grinned.
"Yes! What is it!?"
"We go get food for the others. It's the perfect excuse to leave and have a break," Annabeth said.
"Oh, I like it!" Piper frowned, seeing the others dealing with the kids. "Are you sure they'll be okay?"
"Yeah, I'm sure they'll be fine. Besides, Percy and Jason can always cause a storm to scare the kids if they need to," Annabeth said. "Now let's leave and go get food."
"I like food."
Frank wanted to turn into a bird and fly away from those kids. He kept telling them that climbing up the slide was dangerous. When one kid fell off and started crying, Frank said, "Don't cry! Uh, think happy thoughts!" That didn't help. Frank tried again. "Uh, how about we go play another game?"
"No!" the kid said running away.
"Come back! I can be fun!" Frank yelled.
"Frank?" Hazel said to him. "Let it go."
He frowned and sighed. "I know."
"There are some games in the back. We can bring some up and force the kids to play." She laughed.
"I guess so. Maybe they'll think I'm cool," Frank said hopefully.
"Well, I think you're cool." She smiled, grabbing his hand.
The two of them went into the backroom to get some games, unaware that Piper and Annabeth left and that Leo ditched them because the kids were starting a rebellion. They both grabbed some games and heard the door lock. Hazel and Frank looked at each other.
Hazel dropped the games and tried opening the door. "Open the door!"
Someone on the other side yelled, "LALALALA! I CAN'T HEAR DEAD PEOPLE!"
Hazel and Frank exchanged nervous looks.
"You better let us out!" Hazel said.
"We just have two of you guys left to get rid of! Everyone else disappeared! HA! Have fun!" the kid said.
Frank asked, "Wait, what happened to the others, and who's the last two left?"
"I don't know. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen Leo all day. I wonder if they locked him in another room."
"I bet he's in the video game room then. Lucky," Frank muttered.
"I guess now we just wait."
"I hate daycare."
Percy wondered where Annabeth was. He was getting really tired of those kids. They kept asking him questions, and they would not sit still to eat their snacks. What were their parents even doing, anyways? Percy was going to have a serious talk with those parents. Especially about CONTROLLING THEIR KIDS.
He was so busy complaining in his head, he didn't realize that all the kids seemed to be too quiet. He walked into the main daycare room and saw Jason looking just as confused as he was. Being in a room where there were no kids was definitely scary.
"No kids?" Percy asked.
He shook his head. "I haven't seen Piper, Annabeth, or Leo around either."
"Wait, where's Hazel and Frank?"
Jason shrugged. "No clue. Everyone seemed to disappear."
"Which means something is going on here."
One kid appeared from behind the counter looking menacing. Could a twelve year old kid look menacing? Oh well.
The kid crossed his arms and glared. "You can't tell me what to do."
Percy raised an eyebrow. "Unless you want water shot up your nose, you better."
Jason face-palmed. "Not helping the situation." He turned to the kid. "I don't know why you're so angry at us, but whatever the reason, let's just forget it and try not to kill each other, okay?"
The kid thought about it for a moment. "Nah." He pulled out a slingshot and shot a rock at Jason. It hit him right in the eye.
"OW!" Jason yelled. The sight would have been funny, but the kids came out and started throwing markers and colored pencils at them. Soon, they were overthrown and tied up in the middle of the play area.
"Here are our demands!" the kid said. "We want all the ice cream you have, for you to never work here again, and to publicly humiliate you."
"You're kidding right?" Jason muttered.
The kid pulled out a camera. "Say cheese!" The camera flashed. "I'll make sure to upload that later. I can't believe we beat you two. I mean come on. What happened to saving the world?" The kid laughed. "We'll be back with more demands! BYE."
The kid led everyone else outside to the playground.
"I'm starting to think Leo had the right idea," Jason said.
"I have a feeling they've done this before. So, why would they try to close the daycare?" Percy said, thinking aloud.
"Probably because they want their parents to acknowledge them," Jason suggested. "Maybe, they figure if they shut it down, their parents will have to watch them and play with them."
"Kind of genius, but flawed," Percy commented.
"Maybe we can help them," Jason said. "I have an idea. A crazy one, but I think it might work."
"Does it involve scaring the crap out of kids?"
"NO. Maybe on Halloween, though."
"So, then, what's the plan?"
"We do absolutely nothing."
"What? Why?"
"Sooner or later they're going to need something from us. I say we just give them what they want until they realize what they want is stupid."
"Hmm. Okay, I don't have any better ideas. So let's go along with it. Well, let's go along with it once we escape. I'm not staying tied up in here."
"Agreed."
It took them a good forty-five minutes to figure out how to escape. These kids were definitely demigods, if they had a hard time escaping.
By the time they were free, the leader kid ran up to them with a worried look. "Uh, I need your help."
Percy and Jason exchanged glances. Percy asked, "You need our help? You made it pretty clear that you are better off without us."
"Please, you have to help me!" When Percy nor Jason wouldn't budge, he said, "My friend was climbing a tree and a branch broke. She's stuck and about to fall!"
Jason and Percy got up and rushed outside, the kid following behind them.
Sure enough, there was a girl hanging onto a branch. Jason flew up to the girl immediately and helped her down. Once she was safe and okay, Percy yelled at the kids, "INSIDE. NOW." They rushed inside.
Jason and Percy glared at the girl and boy. The boy said, "Go ahead. Yell at me."
"I'll yell at him," the girl volunteered. "You're an idiot!"
Percy sighed. "We're not going to yell at you. We just want to know why you're kicking out all the workers?"
"Because Ben's an idiot," she muttered.
"Tess!" Ben said.
"When you want to apologize, then you know where to find me!" she said storming off.
He groaned and looked at Percy and Jason. "She's just mad because she doesn't really care for her parents. The last thing she wants is to be stuck with them."
"So, then, this whole thing is because of your parents?" Jason asked.
He nodded. "They always send me here and then I end up at an aunt's house over the weekend. Maybe they'll want to spend some time with me."
"Well, you have to stop convincing the other kids to attack the workers, because some of them, like your friend, might need to be here," Percy said.
Ben sighed. "I know."
Percy looked over and saw Annabeth appear inside. He said to Jason, "Hey, Annabeth is here. I'm going to talk to her since she probably wants to know what's going on. You go this?" Jason nodded. Percy headed inside.
Jason and Ben stood in silence. After a while Jason said, "I think you should talk to your parents. Try to spend some time with them, okay?"
Ben rolled his eyes. "Sure, okay."
"You know, I never really had parents. Jupiter is kind of busy all the time. As of right now, I've never even met him. Consider yourself lucky because not of lot of people, especially demigods, have parents."
Ben grew quiet. "Yeah, I guess you're right." More silence. "Sorry about tying you and your friend up. And attacking you guys. And giving you a black eye. And locking two of your friends in the storage room."
"Wait, you locked who in the storage room?!"
Ben shrugged. "I don't know their names."
Jason groaned. "Why don't you go work things out with Tess, okay? I'll try to find, who I'm guessing is, Hazel and Frank locked in the storage room."
Luckily, Jason found Hazel and Frank.
"FREEDOM!" Frank yelled.
"Jason, what happened to you?" Hazel asked. "You look like you've been attacked by five year olds."
"Long story. Are you guys okay?"
Frank ran pass Jason once he saw that Annabeth and Piper brought food. Hazel laughed and said, "Thanks for freeing us." Then, she went to eat.
The seven of them, minus Leo, sat at the table eating food. The kids were coloring and reading stories. A few were even taking a nap. Plus, Ben and Tess seemed to be friends again.
Piper frowned at Jason. "They seriously gave you a black eye?"
"Not my proudest moment," Jason admitted.
"Least he wasn't unconscious," Percy muttered. Annabeth laughed.
"Anyways," Jason said, changing the subject. "Where the heck is Leo? "
Percy shrugged. "I checked all the rooms and he's not here."
"He told me he was going to get games for the kids, but I bet he just ditched us," Annabeth said.
Just then, Leo burst through the doors carrying a bunch of water balloons, squirt guns, and a baseball bat. "GUYS! THEY'RE PLANNING TO ATTACK YOU!"
Jason and Percy glared at Leo.
"You mean to tell me that you knew they were going to do this to us?" Jason asked.
"If it already happened, then no," Leo said nervously.
"Leo…" Percy warned.
"Okay! Okay! I KNEW! And I left! But after spending all the money I stole from the kids, I realized that I shouldn't have left! I mean, someone could die! And by someone, I mean me, if I didn't come back."
"You could have at least left a note," Jason said.
Leo shrugged. "Well, it's all over now. I guess I'm off the hook."
Percy snapped his fingers and the water balloons exploded all over Leo and the squirt guns started shooting him in the face.
"GAH! PERCY- NO," Leo said running outside.
"That was a bit much, don't you think?" Annabeth asked.
"Nah," Percy said.
Later that day, most of the kids were already home. A few were left and everyone was exhausted. Reyna said they would be out by four. It was six o'clock. Leo was asleep in the game room and some of the remaining kids drew random butterflies on his face. Hazel and Frank were coloring with one of the kids. Jason looked like he was dozing off and Piper had to keep telling him to stay awake.
Percy and Annabeth were by the check in where Jason and Piper were sitting, waiting for the kids' parents to come.
"Dude, wake up," Percy said, clapping his hands in front of Jason.
Jason's eyes snapped open. "WHAT?!" He sighed. "Oh.."
"We have five kids left," Piper said to Percy and Annabeth.
Percy groaned. "They were supposed to be here, like, two hours ago."
The little girl, who gave Piper a makeover, walked up to the counter. "Is my mom coming or not?"
"Uh, I would assume so," Piper said.
"I still think you need to work on your hair style," she said, walking away.
Piper muttered, "Where's Leo's bat at?"
"You should totally charmspeak her into a wall," Percy suggested.
Annabeth hit him. "Percy!"
"What?" he asked innocently. "Just a suggestion."
Annabeth and Percy went on to entertain some kids. Fifteen minutes later, a few of the parents picked up their kids. Ben was the only one left.
Frank and Hazel said their goodbyes; they didn't really need to help out anymore. Leo volunteered to go, but everyone yelled at him to stay after ditching them. So, he just fell asleep in the game room again.
Percy and Annabeth were about to leave when the final parent came to pick up their kid. "I'm here for Ben."
Ben walked up and gave his dad a small smile.
"I'm sure he was good today, right?" the dad asked.
This was it. The moment for Percy and Jason to tell the truth about everything. But instead, Jason said, "Yup."
Ben looked shocked. Annabeth and Piper did too.
"Isn't that right, Percy?" Jason asked.
"Definitely," Percy said, nodding.
"We all think Ben can definitely be a great leader one day," Jason said. "He was a great help."
The dad smiled. "That's really great. Have a good night, guys."
As they walked out, they heard Ben say to his dad, "Hey, how about a day where we hang out?"
"You know, I think that would be great idea."
Annabeth and Piper stared at Percy and Jason. "That's why you lied," Annabeth said after hearing the few lines from the son and dad.
"I felt bad for him," Jason admitted. "He seemed like he needed to be on good terms with his dad."
"Plus, I'm totally getting my revenge on Halloween," Percy said. "He better watch his back."
"I'm ready to go home," Piper said. "Who's with me?"
They all agreed and everyone left. Well, except for Leo who was left in the game room. Poor Leo.
The end.
