Becoming a Father

Chapter 3

To my dear daughter, it read.

Happy Birthday!

Love,

Athena

"Happy Birthday?" he questioned. "Why does she think it's your birthday? Your birthday's July twelfth. Today is..." he trailed off, looking at the calendar. Oops.

Had he really forgotten about his daughter's birthday?

"Well then, Annabeth. Happy Birthday!" her father said.

Annabeth glared at him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Uhh....." he responded.

"You forgot." she said dryly.

Frederick sighed. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. I just got so busy with work and well, I forgot. I'll make up for it though, I promise." he said, knowing it was no excuse for missing her birthday. To cheer her up, he added "I have some presents I can give you."

The presents were from last Christmas, but he had hidden them so well, he forgot to give them to his daughter.

Annabeth perked up at the mention of presents.

"What about cake?" she asked hopefully.

"We can stack cookies on top of each other and pretend it's cake." Frederick suggested.

Annabeth frowned. "But that's not real cake."

"Stay right there." Dr. Chase told his daughter, while he grabbed the phone and ordered pizza. He also managed to find a store that delivered groceries to your home called Whole Foods Market, so he ordered an ice cream cake, party hats, and plates with party pictures. Unfortunately, the groceries would take an hour to be delivered.

Frederick turned around, expecting to see his daughter sitting on the chair. No Annabeth. Now where could she have gone? And after he told her to stay put?

Sometimes he forgot that Annabeth, with all her intelligence was really only a three year old (as of today). She usually acted very mature for her age, but there were times when she would act her age. Like now.

"Annabeth?" he called. "Where are you?"

No response. He decided that she must have been hiding. Hide and seek, perhaps?

Frederick started opening closets and drawers. Because of her size, there was no limit to the amount of places she could hide.

Finally, after ten minutes, Frederick opened a closet to reveal his

tiny blonde- haired daughter.

"Annabeth?" he asked. She didn't answer him, instead only stared at a spot on the wall. Closer inspection revealed it was a spider. He grabbed a tissue and smushed it. Annabeth started to cry.

"What's wrong, Annie?"

"Spider." she said, her eyes wide and full of tears. Frederick wiped them with another tissue (not the spider one) , and picked his daughter up.

"It's gone now, Annabeth." he told her. "You don't have to cry, it's okay. Why were you hiding?"

"I saw a spider, so I had to hide. But it followed me." she explained.

The pizza man took that moment to ring the doorbell. Dr. Chase carried Annabeth with him as he opened the door. He wasn't going to take any chances.

"Here's your pizza." the man said. "Careful, it's extra hot." The pizza guy winked, and started to walk back to his- Ferrari?

"Wait a minute." Frederick said. "Don't I have to pay you?"

"Oh yeah!" said the pizza guy. "I forgot about that! Just make it quick. The sun is on a tight schedule, you know."

"The sun?" asked Frederick, handing him the money. "Lord Apollo, why are you dressed as a pizza delivery man?"

"Er, it's a long story." Apollo said. "I wanted to surprise my kid because I was in the area, and he ordered pizza, so yeah." He then ran back to his Ferrari.

—

Half an hour later, the groceries were delivered. They ate pizza, and Annabeth unwrapped her gifts- a copy of Dick and in Jane in Ancient Greek from her mother, blocks, playdough, art supplies, and a book from her father.

Frederick sang Happy Birthday to Annabeth, who got ice cream cake all over her face. All in all, it wasn't a bad birthday. Although it was one of the more interesting ones, Annabeth never did let him forget he had once missed her birthday.

A/N: So how was it? I literally spent about two hours looking stuff up for this chapter. Oh well. It was worth it. The events in this chapter will be remembered by Frederick in a later chapter.

I know Annabeth seems more like she's four, but she is a daughter of Athena. 

-lunarchronicleslil