Annabeth's Perspective of the Percy Jackson Books (Annabeth's POV)

Percy's Baby Pictures

(I had a cute/sad Percabeth scene pop into my head so I thought I would share it. It will probably go in a book at some point but I don't have any idea where it would fit as of right now. The first swim lesson is from the show at the beginning of Episode 4.) 

"Oh Percy, you were so cute," I cooed as I flipped through the pictures. Sally had pictures of him doing all sorts of things and even though most of them were a little blurry because, and I quote, 'he never, ever sat still' the ones that weren't were adorable.

"Mom, why?" Percy whined as she told me all the details about his first swim lesson and how terrified he had been. There were a bunch of pictures of baby Percy clinging to the edge of the pool or his mom as they tried to convince him to let go. I was giggling so much I was having a hard time breathing.

"It was so hard to teach him because he didn't want to let go but I also couldn't show him or tell him that he would be protected by his dad," Sally said happily as I turned the page. Next we're a bunch of pictures of a graduation ceremony from when Percy was seven.

"That was the only year he got through without getting expelled," Sally said happily. As I flipped through them, you could see a progression of Percy accidentally setting the entire auditorium on fire.

"See, no monsters necessary, he's always been a natural at destruction," she said proudly and Percy groaned. "Luckily no one got hurt but he wasn't allowed to go back because the building burned down." 

"Did he ever tell you about being a guinea pig?" I asked and she shook her head so I told her about how cute he had been and how we had created a constellation.

"Why?" Percy complained before suggesting, "Maybe I could tell some stories too."

We both looked at him expectantly for a moment as he tried to find a story. "That time you could have just answered the Sphinx's questions but almost got us killed because they weren't riddles and you didn't think they were hard enough."

"I was right though, she was the sphinx, riddles are her whole thing," I shot back and Sally laughed.

"What about when you were a kid?" she asked me. "Does your dad have any pictures of you as a child?"

"Um, not really. My ... my dad didn't really take any and he didn't keep any that someone else took. The only pictures he has from when I was a kid were from his wedding."

"Well those are probably pretty cute, were you in the wedding?" Sally asked and I thought about lying and just agreeing. But I figured that would probably backfire eventually.

"I was the flower girl but the pictures are not cute. I ... I was kind of covered in blood and monster dust by the time we took most of the pictures and I didn't smile for any of them. They tried to fix it but ... well they didn't have me in most of the pictures and the ones I'm in aren't cute."

I wasn't overly upset about it but the fun atmosphere we had been enjoying evaporated. Percy put his arms around me and kissed the top of my head.

"I'm sorry honey," Sally looked uncomfortable for bringing it up.

"It's alright, I mean if the wedding hadn't been a disaster Percy would probably still be a guinea pig," I said and explained how that had helped me remember what we needed to do.

It eased the tension and we went back to enjoying all the pictures she had of Percy.