The Nanny and The Butler
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.
I know it's been a while; I'm sorry. I am really busy at the moment but I'm trying to get updates out. Please enjoy.
From the age of eight, Annabeth usually got herself ready for school. That was when her little brothers were born and her dad and her step-mom were too busy from being up all night to help her in the morning. Her dad made her lunch but as she got older, she took care of that too. So usually, the morning was a quiet time spent by herself.
The exact opposite was true in the Grace house. Chaos was a kind word to use for school mornings.
"Where's my tie?"
"Whose sandwich is this?"
"Leo, stop trying to hide your books."
"Hazel, you can't take your paints with you; I'm sure the school has some."
"Why can't we be homeschooled?"
Annabeth let out a quick sigh as she sorted out the computer tablets into school bags. Percy was handing out lunches and the kids were trying to convince them both to let them stay at home.
"School is a torture chamber of math and gym," Katie stated, her brothers nodding their heads. Hazel, at least, seemed somewhat excited but her incessant bouncing was making Annabeth dizzy.
"Well, tough luck because if I had to go through it then so do you guys. Be happy that you are going to one of the better schools," she said, as she zipped up their school bags.
"Percy!" Jason begged, "Save us."
"Not a chance. When you guys are at school, I'm going to see Nico. Plus, you might actually learn something other than how to glue locker doors shut."
Annabeth gave Leo a pointed look but just pointed at Katie. "What?" she said, shrugging, "Those guys ruined my plants at the school garden."
Percy, meanwhile, glanced at the clock and handed Annabeth the lunches as he said, "You better get going if you guys are walking."
She nodded and after a chorus of goodbyes to Percy, Annabeth and the kids piled into the elevator.
Jupiter Academy was only two streets over, like Percy had said, and surrounding it were students of all ages in matching black trousers or skirts with dark red blazers and white shirts. The school went from kindergarten all the way up to high school and Annabeth made sure that all the kids got to the right part of the building.
After waving Hazel goodbye, Annabeth took a look at the school map for one specific office. She had been bothered by the news that the kids didn't have many friends and she wanted to see if the school had been paying any attention to it. She finally found the administrative part of the winding building and she spotted the guidance councillor's office quickly enough. She knocked on the door, her knuckles clanging against the glass.
It opened a moment later and Annabeth smiled at the man in the door way. He had brown hair with a beard and kind eyes and behind him, his office seemed modified for the wheelchair he was in. "Mr Chiron?" she asked and he nodded.
"Yes, that's me. Can I help you?"
"I hope so. My name is Annabeth Chase; I'm the Grace's new nanny."
He turned away from the door, letting in her before closing it. "Wonderful; I did read in my files that they had gotten a new one. Although, I am sure you know that they change nannies quite often."
He went behind his desk and motioned for her to take a seat. "I am very aware," she said, as she sat herself down, "The reason I am here however, is because of school."
Chiron clasped his hands together across his desk and looked at her, waiting.
"You see, the kids mentioned something a few days ago. They said that the kids at school "leave them". Jason also said something about parents not approving of the Graces."
Chrion was staring at her with curiosity and Annabeth was just starting to worry that she had crossed a line. He finally smiled at her again before saying, "I am sorry. It's just...usually the Grace nannies don't worry about this sort of thing."
"Apparently neither do their parents," Annabeth quipped.
Chrion's eyebrows disappeared into his hair line and Annabeth saw that he was trying to hold back a grin. "Well, Miss Chase-."
"Annabeth, please."
"Annabeth, I commend you for taking such an interest in the children's lives. As you clearly have noticed, they don't have many people who do that. As regards the other children leaving them, well..." He paused for a moment before making his decision.
"You see, how it usually goes is that one of the children makes a friend and for a few days everything is fine. Then word gets back to the parents. Zeus and Hera are-despite their wealth-very unpopular people. They have been ruthless in their actions and have thought nothing of stealing companies from right under people's noses. The parents do not wish to either get on Zeus and Hera's radar or end up on their bad side if their child spills chocolate milk on the couch. So they make it clear that their children cannot be friends with any Grace child."
Annabeth was getting angry; thinking of how many times those kids' hearts had been stomped on just for being them. Their parents weren't even around enough to notice a stain on the couch; they weren't even around long enough to see if there was a whole new couch.
"Have you tried to talk to the kids about this?"
"Many times. Leo and Hazel seem ignorant of the real reason behind all this but Katie and Jason are very much aware. I fear that as they get older, they will get more closed off. Although I suppose it is good that this has at least brought them all closer together as siblings."
Annbaeth smiled softly before answering him. "They all still fight like animals but I do think they know each other really well."
Chiron gave her another once over-really trying to figure her out-before saying, "I am glad that you are making sure to be part of their lives now. I suppose that because you are still standing, that means you can handle yourself. Plus, it's good that Percy has some help."
"You know Percy?"
"I've met him a few times when he's picked the children up and from how they speak about him, he seems like the greatest thing to walk the planet in the Graces' opinions."
A flash of laughing sea-green eyes appeared in Annabeth's vision but she quickly shook her head. "He is great with them. I think we can help those kids somehow, together."
"I think so too. Just showing up here has proved that. My advice would be to help Jason. If he's not careful, protecting his siblings will be all he has. He would defend them to his last breath if he had to. It would be good for him to have a friend."
Annabeth couldn't agree more. Chrion had a meeting a few minutes later so Annabeth quickly excused herself. She pulled her phone out to find the address of the restaurant Thalia had sent her yesterday. She had been so busy the past few weeks that she hadn't really seen her friends. Percy had said that once the kids were in school, she would have some free time during the day so Luke had suggested they meet up for lunch.
Turning the corner with her eyes glued to her phone, Annabeth nearly collided with a girl in a school uniform. Her brown hair was choppy and the books at her chest were slightly tattered.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" the girl blurted out, "I didn't see you. Well of course I didn't because you were around the corner."
Annabeth grinned at the girl who couldn't have been older than Jason. "It's fine, my fault. You must be in a hurry to get to class."
The girl's eyes widened and she quickly scampered away down the corridor without another word.
Annabeth laughed slightly, hoping the girl would be on time.
"So, what's she like?" Nico asked from his place beside the pool.
The sun was out but he still looked pale in his dark clothes. Percy, who was sitting on the pool's edge with his legs in the water, had just finished a morning swim when his friend had shown up. Percy wiped his face with a towel before answering Nico.
"Annabeth's cool. She can defiantly handle herself; she always seemed to have something up her sleeve. Best of all, she actually seems the care about the kids."
"Have the minions played a prank on her yet?"
Percy grinned, deciding to let the nickname slide. "Yup, they covered her room in spiders; which she is seriously afraid of. They were fake of course but it still freaked her out. But she stayed and she got them to apologise."
Nico raised an eyebrow. "Even Jason?"
"Even Jason."
Nico let out a low whistle, "Well, I have to hand it to her; that's more than the other nannies have done. The question is Percy Jackson, has she hit on you yet?"
Percy could feel his face heating up but he put it down to being annoyed at Nico questioning Annabeth's honour. "No! She-she's an honest person and she really needs this job. She wouldn't do anything to jeopardise it."
Nico snorted, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "You're worried about Zeus and Hera? You could be married to Annabeth and have two kids and they still wouldn't notice."
Percy blushed again but he pushed himself into the water. He was about to do a lap of the pool when he felt someone tap on his head, which was just above the waterline. He surfaced to see Nico leaning over the edge of the pool, pulling his arm back to support himself.
"You cannot get away from me that easily-and from the way you blushed, I'm guessing it's you who has been thinking of hitting on her."
Percy slashed him slightly but replied, "Don't say that; I just think she's a cool girl. She's easy to talk to and we get along. That's all."
Nico just raised another eyebrow at him but Percy quipped, "If you keep talking about this, I'm pulling you into the pool."
Nico jumped away like a cat who had just been told he was having a bath.
Annabeth barely noticed when her sandwich got placed down on the table in front of her. It was only when Thalia continuously clicked her fingers in front of her face did she snap out of her own thought.
"Sorry!" she blurted out, "I was off in my own world; what were you saying?"
Luke was busy digging into his own lunch but Thalia was content with sipping her drink for now as she frowned at her friend. "I was just complaining that we never see you anymore. Apparently, when we do see you, you are off somewhere else."
Annabeth winced and leaned on the diner's shiny table. "Again, I'm sorry. It's been a crazy few weeks with the kids getting ready for school and this morning, I've been worried that I've forgotten to give them something for their first day back. I'm sure I haven't but still. But now that they are in school, it means that I can meet up with you guys more often."
They both stared at her before sending each other a glance. Annabeth tried not to let her shoulders droop, preparing herself for a lecture. Luke turned to her and seemed to be choosing his words carefully.
"Annabeth, don't you think this job is a little...odd for you?"
Annabeth just raised an eyebrow, causing Thalia to take over. "What he's saying is that you are so smart! But you've taken a job that consists of picking up after children and walking them to school."
"Are you kidding me?!" Annabeth exclaimed, in a voice a little too loud for a diner. Thalia and Luke looked taken aback but Annabeth just continued.
"I would love to see you two try and look after those four kids for even an hour. They have limitless energy as well as imagination. They can go from calmly reading a book to bouncing off the walls in the space of two seconds. Katie has -I kid you not- a feud with the downstairs neighbours while Leo thinks dropping eggs off the balcony is hilarious. Jason hasn't decided to use his gifts for good or evil yet while Hazel considers jelly donuts an acceptable breakfast. So, just spend a few minutes with those guys and then tell me I'm "too smart" for that job."
Her friends just continued to stare at her, not one of them noticing that the waitress was standing by the table with a drink order. The brunette woman just nodding at Annabeth and said, "You tell them, honey. I can't count the amount of times someone has said looking after kids is easy."
Annabeth just smiled at the woman-who gave her the drink on the house- before turning back to her friends. Luke recovered quickly, sending Annabeth an apologetic smile-even if it was a little patronising.
"We are only worried because we want you to get into school like you wanted."
"And that is still my plan."
Thalia, however, was still frowning at her. "Well I really hope so because I don't want to see you getting distracted."
Annabeth was about to respond but a shock of black hair caught her eye. She looked over her friend's shoulder and smiled widely. Both Thalia and Luke turned around to see what could get such a happy response from their friend.
"Percy!" The boy in question paused on his way to the counter and spotted the three easily. He grinned and walked over, sliding in beside Annabeth in the booth as she moved over.
"Hey, I see lunch is going ahead," he said, giving Thalia and Luke friendly smiles.
Annabeth introduced him quickly, "Percy, this is Thalia and Luke; you know, the friends I was telling you about? Guys, this is Percy. He's the butler for the Graces."
"The butler? So technically, you are the one cleaning up after the kids?"
"Thalia!" Annabeth exclaimed, slightly shocked at her friend's insult.
Percy, however, brushed it off easily enough. "Pretty much. Although the perks do kind of make for it. If I'm smart I can keep this job all the way through college. What do you do?"
Thalia stared back at him, Annabeth and Luke exchanging worried glances. No one challenged Thalia and from her point of view, Percy had just waged war. Even though, Percy seemed to be just asking a simple question. "I work for Hermes' company; so does Luke. We're working our way up the ladder like everyone else."
Percy just nodded and Annabeth let out a sigh of relief as Thalia sat back in booth.
"Sounds good," Percy stated before turning back to Annabeth. "Listen, when you are picking the kids today, I was thinking that you might want to bring them to the ice cream shop down the street. It's become a tradition that I started for them on their first day at school."
"They'd love that, of course," Annabeth replied, "Do you want to come too? We can meet them together?"
Percy shrugged and looked towards the clock on the wall. "I've got a few things to pick for dinner tonight-."
"I'll come with you; I'm not really that hungry anyway."
Thalia blinked, glancing at Luke before Annabeth and Percy stood up. "Look, we're sorry we aren't exactly supportive but-."
Annabeth was feeling the beginnings of a headache so she threw so bills onto the table and smiled at her friends. "Look, it's fine. How about we meet up for another lunch later in the week?"
They seemed to accept this and Annabeth and Percy walked out of the diner with a take out for Percy's lunch.
"Well, your friends are...um..."
Annabeth chuckled as Percy tried to find the right words and she put him out of his misery when she replied, "They are very ambitious people and they know what they want. They don't really understand where I'm going with this job."
Percy nodded as they dodged people on the busy side walk. "I got that. I mean, they seem so disapproving. I kind of want to take over a country just to rub it in their face."
Annabeth laughed loudly, only to get shoved in the shoulder by a business man in a hurry. "I swear, it is crazy busy this time of the time," Percy complained.
He took Annabeth's hand so he could link their arms together. Annabeth didn't say anything, guessing that he was only doing it to make walking easier. That doesn't mean she took her hand away when they got through the crowd.
"Do you really think it was a good idea to make Leo and Katie take the stairs?"
Annabeth lifted her eyes from the school booklet in her hands to look at Percy. The kids had marched out of the school, happily surprised to see them both there. The trip to the ice cream shop had left Annabeth with four school information booklets to read and the kids with various different treats.
Katie and Leo, however, had gotten into an argument half way home and proceeded to dump ice cream on each other's heads. Annabeth had ordered them to take the stairs all the way to the penthouse and think about what they had done on their way. She and Percy had taken the elevator with all the bags and Jason and Hazel.
She shrugged at Percy's question and replied, "We'll find out, won't we? How fast do you think they can get up those steps?"
As if to answer her question, the doors of the elevator slid open to revel a screaming Katie standing in front of an equally annoyed Travis Stoll. Leo and Connor were standing beside them, apparently taking bets to see who would win. Percy wisely said nothing as Annabeth marched over to the four children to break up the fight.
"What on earth is going on?" she demanded which Katie answered with, "He started it!"
Travis looked genuinely insulted and exclaimed, "How does 'Do you and your siblings want to have a play date?' sound like a threat to you?"
"It could be a plot; this is you we are talking about."
When Annabeth saw Travis simply roll his eyes and Connor just laughing, an idea sparked in her mind.
"Katie, Leo, go to the penthouse with Percy. I'm going to walk the Stolls to their door."
Leo practically had to push Katie into the elevator. The Stolls stood side by side, staring at Annabeth with slightly fearful eyes.
"Look, I really didn't mean to fight with her!" Travis said, "She just...thinks everything I do is to annoy her and that annoys me and then we just start shouting-."
"It's alright," Annabeth said calmly, "I just want to talk to your mom about this play date idea."
The brothers seemed to buy this so they walked down the hallway to escort her to their door. Connor walked right in, calling for their mother in the process. Travis nodded to Annabeth before hurrying inside the apartment. Their mother appeared a moment later, dressed in a neat business suit and her long brown hair streaming down her back. She had a smiling face, like her sons, and she turned her wide grin on Annabeth.
"Can I help you? Please tell me the boys didn't set your door on fire or something?"
Annabeth let out a short laugh before replying, "No, nothing like that. I'm Annabeth Chase, the Grace's new nanny. Travis said that he and Connor wanted a play date with the kids. I was just wondering if that was alright with you?"
The woman smiled even more and nodded. "Yes, of course. My name's Angela, nice to finally meet the infamous nanny."
When Annabeth looked confused, Angela added, "You've last longer than most of the previous nannies. Plus we haven't heard any screaming from the penthouse in weeks."
Annabeth was defiantly starting to like this woman. "That's great; Travis and Connor cam come over tomorrow afternoon if they want. I just want to know...you don't mind that their parents are, well, their parents."
Angela simply raised an eyebrow and braced on hand on the open door. "Not everyone is afraid of Zeus and Hera. Plus they're hardly here and I've dealt with enough of my boys' pranks to have fantastic lawyers."
Annabeth exchanged details and practically skipped away from the door. When she got back in the elevator, she realised that the booklets were still in her arms.
As she flicked through them again, a grin formed on her face; as did a plan in her mind.