Going Viral

Chapter 50

March 21st

As soon as Annabeth woke up on Sunday morning, she was met with the bright light of her phone screen. The glow that it cast contrasted with the darkness of the bedroom and her eyes ached as they adjusted to the brightness.

'Estelle's 4th Birthday'

She had scheduled the reminder several weeks ago when she was on FaceTime with Percy. He'd been devastated when he realised he would miss his sisters birthday. It was unavoidable though, his tour finished the very next day. He would be home early Tuesday morning, but still he was frustrated at the way the dates had lined up. Percy and Estelle were as close as siblings could get - at least out of the siblings Annabeth knew. They were eighteen years apart in age yet they were inseparable when they were together. She had the fond memory of when she'd had a 'sleepover' at Sally's apartment. Stella had been so excited and Percy had pretended to act mature, though the twinkle in his eyes was the exact same as his sister's. The three of them had watched Moana, The Little Mermaid and the first half of Finding Nemo before her parents had returned from their date, by that time, Estelle had dozed off to sleep in Percy's lap. Annabeth had suggested they turn the movies off when Estelle started drooling into his shirt but Percy had been so reluctant because "If I move to turn off the TV, she would definitely wake up and be sad". She hadn't wanted to point out that the remote was right by his hand and instead just let him sing along to the soundtrack and giggle childishly at all of the cringe-worthy jokes.

Going to a 4 year olds birthday party wasn't on the top of her agenda, but Estelle was worth making an exception for.

After a lazy morning of tweaking her video footage and playing fetch across the apartment with Luna, Annabeth and Piper headed over to the party, presents in hand. Piper had only met Estelle a handful of times but Sally was nothing if not welcoming to everyone and Piper and Jason were in the midst of deciding if they wanted to try for a baby. She had deemed it a good taster of parenthood to chaperone a children's birthday party.

The apartment is surprisingly bare of people. Annabeth had been expecting a dozen lively kindergarteners and their parents to be rampaging the small space, but when they arrive, the party seems almost tame. A group of six kids are crowded onto the couch with plates of party food on their laps and engaging in civilised conversation. Or as civilised as conversation could be when the oldest of them was five at best. The only words she caught were 'recess' and 'Mr Snuggles' so it seemed pretty important. In the kitchen, Sally and Paul are stood with two other adults.

"Annabeth, Piper, glad you could make it." Sally smiles and kisses their cheeks, beckoning Estelle over to say hello to her guests.

The young girl looked uncertainly between her friends and the adults but she makes her way over. Maybe she spotted the sparkly gift bag on Annabeth's arm. They share a hug and wish her a happy birthday, but Estelle is keen to head back to her friends so they don't keep her for long.

For an hour or so, they stand in the kitchen politely conversing with the adults. An Asian man that Annabeth didn't catch the name of talked animatedly about his summer vacation plans for him, his partner and their daughter, Miya. He carried the conversation pretty much single-handedly. If anyone wanted to say anything, they first had to butt into a boastful praise for his daughter.

"We plan to take Miya on a cruise this summer. There's all sorts of sport activities on board to occupy her energy; a tennis court so she can keep up to date on her doubles training. I'm not quite as skilled as her partner, mind you, but I'll have to do," He let out a hearty laugh. From the corner of her eye, Annabeth saw Piper hum exasperatedly into her glass. "And of course there's a full size swimming pool. We'll be sure to take her medals with her to prove to the lifeguards that she won't be needing assistance in the deep end. 50 metres. She earned a badge for that only a few weeks ago."

Sally hummed and Annabeth had to admire how sincere her smile seemed. Paul didn't have quite the same natural expression. His eyebrows were just a fraction too high to seem genuinely appreciative of Miya's Olympic abilities. At the very least, Annabeth was expecting one of them to announce that Estelle actually had 100 metres under her belt, though she didn't have a badge to prove it. That family spent enough time in the water, either by the pool or in the sea, that little Stella was a natural swimmer and could probably give Miya a run for her money. It seemed both of them were too humble to challenge. As a result, they were subjected to another twenty minutes of Miya's sporting achievements and her fathers obvious wealth of money as he rambled on about all the competitions he paid for her to attend. No doubt he already had a sports scholarship lined up for the poor kid as if she wasn't a mere four years old.

"Oh! That will be Percy!" Sally beamed at her phone as it sang in her hand. Grateful for the interruption, Paul shouted Estelle and her friends over for a birthday message from her brother.

The six children crowd around Sally's phone all giggling and excitable. They probably didn't know the extent of Percy's fame seen as they were so young, so Annabeth puts their nervous energy down to sugar rush. They all have icing round their mouths and one, a dark haired girl dressed head-to-toe in a New York Mets get-up, clutches one of Sally's signature blue cookies in her fingers.

"Hey, Guppy." Over the phone, his greeting sounds canny, though he's unmistakably just woken up. Mentally, Annabeth tries to work out what time it is in London. That idiot had to get himself ready and on stage for his final show in less than two hours. "Happy birthday."

Annabeth couldn't see Percy's face because the screen was so far away but she could guess that his expression would probably match Estelle's. She was grinning ear to ear and revealing two perfect rows of baby teeth, her eyes - brown with flecks of amber like her mothers - were scrunched up tightly and the one dimple she had on her left cheek clearly stood out as she chatted away at her brother.

Though she hadn't heard from him all day (except for the random memes he sent her while she was asleep which totally didn't count), Annabeth found that she wasn't jealous. Admittedly, she was capable of getting worked up with things like this rather quickly, something she chalked up as a side effect for years of broken trust, but the familiar feeling of blood rushing through her ears never comes. She has confidence that Percy's not forgotten about her. It's his little sister's birthday, after all, so Stella takes priority. Besides, the knowledge that he would be home tomorrow made the pang that resonated in her chest when she heard his voice dissipate almost instantly.

Piper watched with disgust as one of Estelle's friends stuck their finger up their nose and examined it in the mirror above the cabinet. Back in the kitchen, she could hear Miya's dad complimenting his daughters skills at ping pong and lacrosse (seriously, what four year old is playing lacrosse?) while Paul made the occasional comment of "how lovely" and "that's nice". Sally caught her eye and winked, clearly grateful to have missed out on that conversation.

As weird as everything felt, Annabeth decided she could get used to this.