A/N: Well, howdy there! What's cracka-lackin'? Yeah…
Anyways, I'm back! Here this chapter is based off of "the Work Song" from Snow White. I hope you enjoy! Oh, and in this we see some drama…some Poseidon/Athena fights….some Ares/Aphrodite lovin'…it's kind of a filler chapter, but not at the same time…
One day I will write and own a book series. But it will never be PJO/HoO. Sigh.
Chapter Two: The Work Song (From Snow White)
Four of the six gods rushed out of the truck, leaving Poseidon in shotgun while Athena turned off the car. "What do you mean they're getting married? And they didn't tell me?"
"Poseidon, they told me. They just wanted it to be to them—not even Nico or Thalia knows. I'm sorry; I know I shouldn't have kept it from you." Athena sighed, taking the key out of the ignition.
"You shouldn't have. Athena—what were you thinking? Percy's my son. Why would you keep this from me?"
"I kept it from you because they wanted it to be just the two of them! Can't we just give them that after all we put them through?" Athena hollered.
"So suddenly you like Percy? Suddenly you think he's not the wrong choice for Annabeth? Huh?" Poseidon interrogated. "Or did he just follow in his dad's footsteps and get her knocked up? Well? Did he?"
Athena glared. "No. She's not pregnant. She knows better; she's nineteen."
"So then why? Why did they just want it to be the two of them, Athena?"
"Because they were afraid!" She shrieked.
"Of what?" He yelled.
"They were afraid that we would fall in love and they never could get married. They wanted it over and done." Athena snapped.
"They were just kidding when they said—"
"No, they weren't!" Athena exclaimed.
"Well then they were stupid for thinking I could ever fall in love with someone like you!"
"I'm afraid you already have." With that, she unbuckled her seat belt, opened the car door and slammed it as she walked into the house. The four all stared at her as she walked in. "What?" she snapped. Artemis and Aphrodite exchanged a worried glance. "Out with it! If you four want to say something, then say it!"
"Athena, we kind of heard the whole—" Aphrodite started. Poseidon walked in the house through the door Athena had previously. She stopped and glanced between the two, who were now glaring daggers at each other. So did the rest.
"I'm just going to go now." Artemis said, walking out of the kitchen. The men soon followed.
"Guys!" Aphrodite whined. "Please, just be—"
"Sorry Aphrodite. I guess as a mortal you'll have no chance fixing this." Athena told her friend. She walked up the stairs to the third-floor living room that separated Poseidon and Athena's rooms. Poseidon didn't dare follow; instead he sat in the main living room and flipped on the TV. Aphrodite sighed. Why did her life have to be so complicated?
Hiiiiiiiiiiii-Hooooooooo!
It was five o'clock the next morning when Athena yelled for everyone to start getting ready. "We have forty-five minutes until we have to leave!" she hollered.
They all came trotting, slumping, plumping, and pounding down the stairs. On the dining room table was a carton of OJ, a gallon of milk, pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fresh strawberries. Athena headed up the stairs, taking the apron off as she went. "Wait! Aren't you going to eat?" Artemis called after her. "I don't want you breaking after making all this stuff!"
Athena shrugged. "I'll see if I have time later." She stated simply.
The five ate sleepily. "This is good nom nom." Apollo said, drifting off again.
"Oh! Guys, its five thirty! We have fifteen minutes to get dressed and ready! Okay, someone needs to work out a—"Artemis began.
"Schedule?" Athena asked, descending the stairs in yoga pants and a long-sleeved silver shirt. "Already done. One for each of you. I already have it memorized, so don't try to sneak it past me. I know Artemis is an early riser from the hunt, and Aphrodite needs a lot of time, so here:
4:00 AM-4:30 AM- Athena's allotted bathroom time—starts breakfast & prepares lunches & provides money for the day.
4:30 AM-5:00 AM- Artemis' allotted bathroom time
5:00 AM-5:30 AM- Apollo's allotted bathroom time
(Whatever time you get up until 5:30 AM for Ares, Aphrodite & Poseidon- Get dressed & ready)
5:30 AM-5:45 AM- Breakfast for all; already prepared.
5:45 AM- Leave for school, arrive at 6:00 AM
6:00 AM-8:00 AM- Grading papers, catching up on teacher work
8:00 AM- Classes Start
12:30 PM-1:30 PM- Lunch period—12:00-12:15 for Athena; has volleyball to coach at 12:30-1:30 on Mon./Wed./Fri.; same for Artemis on Tue./Thur.—supervises clubs
1:30 PM- Classes continue
6:00 PM- All classes finished
6:15 PM- Drive home
6:30 Prepare Dinner
7:30 PM-8:15 PM- Dinner
8:15 PM-8:45 PM- Poseidon's allotted bathroom time
8:45 PM- 9:15 PM- Ares' allotted bathroom time
9:15-Whenever-She-Deems-Done- Aphrodite's allotted bathroom time
Suggested time to go to bed is about 9:30 PM- 10:00 PM for a descent night sleep.
There. And here—you all are in charge of different things. Luckily, none of us have any classes signed up on Saturdays. But Sundays is when this schedule comes in to play:
Sunday Schedule: Chores
Athena: Laundry
Artemis: Kitchen & Living Room (main) clean-up
Aphrodite: Distribute proper clothing to people; hang & fold clothes
Ares: Clean Kitchen, Dining Room, and Main Living Room floors
Apollo: Clean level 1, 2, and 3 living rooms and bathrooms
Poseidon: Walk dogs, grocery runner (take out dogs EVERY morning, afternoon, and night to go to the bathroom—they have a doggy door for when we're not here, though.)
That's that…one more thing, though."
"Wait—what dogs?" Poseidon asked.
"Oh, right. Zeus decided to give us more responsibility. We have, err—three new dogs. One for Aphrodite and Ares, one for Apollo and Artemis, and one for you and I. We each get to name them—we have to take care of them together, but Poseidon has to walk them since we'll all be busy. The house is fairly large, and they're all friendly, so they'll run around most of the time. I'll be right back…"
Athena left the dining room.
"Dogs? Really?" Poseidon asked.
Athena walked back in, carrying a huge kennel. "Okay, we'll decipher who gets which after we come back from setting up our rooms today. We'll be gone from six to two today, so we'll be back shortly."
"Wait, what was the last schedule?" Apollo asked.
"We'll get that later. You guys need to go get dressed. I'll clean up here," Athena said.
Hiiiiiiiiiii-Hoooooooooo!
Athena pushed up her sleeves and crossed her arms. Not bad. So far she had already had the twenty student desks up, lined with four rows with five in each. Her desk was in the corner of the room, her rolling chair along the left window-wall she had in her room. The front wall was covered by a blackboard; the side wall on right covered with posters of types of literature, authors, and how to plot a story.
Artemis, as well, was all set up. The left side wall was a huge blackboard, which she was using as the front of the room. The would-be-front was where her desk was, as was an extra stray black table. Instead of desks, the room was made of black tables with stools. The would-be-back-but-now-left wall was where the door was, and the last wall was plastered with posters in crime evidence, how to properly handle it, and what not to do to a crime scene.
Poseidon, the oceanography teacher, had the front wall plastered with a wallpaper of the ocean's layers (it was already there when he arrived), where his desk sat in front of. The desks were the same as Artemis', and just like hers, had five rows of two tables that each sat two. Aquatic life, ocean facts, and any poster imaginable were on the side walls.
Apollo had his music room set up. He was teaching a class of only fifteen each period, so, like Athena, had the seat-desks in the room. He had various instruments on tables, wrapping around the room, with a poster above each explaining it. Music notes were wrapped around the top of the room; his desk sat in the back, while the blackboard and piano sat in the front.
Ares had a fair sized room in the boys' locker room; it had his desk in it and two chairs in front of it. It was all he needed to be the men's sports coach.
Aphrodite had a small office, like Ares, but not in a locker room; it was two doors down from the dean's office to the right; the girls' side of the dormitories. It had a red velvet couch, a pink scoop chair, and a purple rug (she had personally brought all of this from her quarters on Olympus). She had a small desk. All she had to do during the day was check on the rooms to make sure all girls were accounted for—and if not (example: if one was sick) she was to tell Dean Molly Hedge before classes began. She was also the girls' counselor.
So, in all, they were done in one day. They wouldn't have to come back for the next three days—until Monday.
They all headed back and Athena started a late lunch of grilled cheese. As soon as they were placed on the table, excited barking was heard. Everyone turned to see three small Jack Russell Terrier puppies running and jumping.
"Oh! They're so adorable!" Aphrodite said, instantly picking one up and nuzzling it. "Darling, I like this one." She told Ares. "Can this one be ours?" she asked. The one she had chosen was white and had a tan bulk across its back and stomach and its ears and left eye was covered by tan.
"Whichever you want, Babe," Ares grinned.
"Ooh! Can we name…is this one a his or her?"
"Her," Athena said.
"Oh! Can we name her Bitty?" Aphrodite asked, "'Cause she's itty bitty!"
"Sure," Ares said, kissing her on the head.
"Hmm, I rather like this young female," Artemis said. She picked up the puppy that was all white; except for a tiny spot of tan fur on the right side of the right eye and left side of the right ear. "Don't you, Apollo?"
"Yeah, she's cute! Can we name her Jackie? Since she's a Jack Russell Terrier?" he asked.
"I like that, actually. Hey, Jackie!"
Athena smiled as she picked up the little male. "I liked you the best, anyway," she whispered to him. She picked the small male dog up and asked Poseidon, "What should we name him?" She held up the dog so he could see. The puppy had fuzzier white fur than the rest, and had a strip of white going up his face while the rest, besides the nose area, was tan. The whole back of his head matched the front, with the stripe going all the way down it. His tail was tan, but the rest of him was white.
"I don't care, you name him." Poseidon told her.
"No, because I'm going to chose something then you're going to be all 'I don't like it,' and then we'll just confuse the poor thing!" she explained.
"Then what about Mickey?" he said.
"What?" she asked.
"He looks like a Mickey. Plus, it keeps the 'e' sound going in the dogs' names.
"Aw, I like it! Hewwo, Mickey!" Athena mumbled to the puppy. He barked excitedly and wagged his tail as she held him.
"Good, good. Are they potty-trained?" Apollo asked.
"Yes, Zeus said they were at least that. And they're fixed, so we don't have to worry about more puppies." Athena told them. They all let their dogs run around in the back yard.
"So, let's eat lunch, I guess." Ares said.
They all sat around the table and ate the grilled cheese. Then, Athena brought out the last schedule.
"Okay, here's the last one that we didn't have time to get to this morning; you guys may not like it that much, but it's necessary:
Saturday Schedule: Off Day
On Saturdays, we will spend time together as a 'family'. This is Zeus-required. So, there's a tiny job for everybody to do.
Apollo & Artemis- Pick out the movie/game we watch/play at night
Ares & Poseidon- Pick out place we go during day
Athena & Aphrodite- Make snacks for movie
See, it's not too terrible." Athena told them.
Well, with them, yes, it could be a lot worse.
A/N: Wow. I finished this at 1:20 AM where I live! Now, about twelve hours later, I am uploading…
Well, I hope you enjoyed this! It was kinda boring I know.
I love feedback almost as much as Aphrodite loves love!
~Suzie
Sorry for any mistakes!