Annabeth's POV

"And that's the end." I finished, closing the story book I'd just been reading to Luke and Zoë.

"Aw." Luke pouted. "I want more story!"

"Yay!" Zoë jumped up. "No more!" She ran for the door.

I laughed. They couldn't be more different.

"No, Zoë, it's time to brush your teeth." I called to her. "C'mon!"

"I'm playing Karate Babie!" came Zoë's voice.

"You can play tomorrow, Zoë." I called.

"I got her!" came a grunt from the living room. "I---oof! No, Zoë! Come here!"

I peered out the door. Percy was chasing Zoë round and round the living room while Zoë held two Barbie dolls with marker drawn on their face and hair chopped off. I recognized one as the one Jason and Piper had given her, the Unicorn edition one. Now its beautiful purple-pink long hair was chopped uneven and it looked really fierce and weird because Zoë had drawn thick "eyebrows" for it. "It's too beautiful to do karate, Mommy." she had answered before.

Anyway, it took both Percy and me to drag a screaming Zoë to the toilet. "I WANNA PLAY LONGER!!!" she screamed. "DADDY, YOU TELL MOMMY!!!"

"Sorry, Zoë, but you gotta brush teeth now." Percy smiled apologetically. "Play tomorrow."

"NO NO NO!!!" Zoë yelled.

"Here, your toothbrush." Luke said, giving it to her.

I held the cup full of water up to her face.

Then, it happened.

Zoë screamed, louder than any of her screams I'd heard before, and the water flew out of the cup. It hovered for a second in the air, then zoomed down the drain in the sink.

Percy and I stared at her, open-mouthed.

"Better." Zoë said, smiling and clapping her hands.

"You-you-Zoë, what happened?" Percy stammered.

"She made the water get out of the cup." Luke said matter-of-factly.

"We know, Luke." I said. "But how?"

"I have superpowers! Like Daddy!" Zoë had a big grin on her face. "Water likes me."

Percy gave me a look.

We had never told the kids we were demigods. Besides, they were too young to understand, they were only 1 year and 8 months-old. But how could Zoë know about Percy's ability to control water?

"I guess she saw me doing it." Percy said sheepishly.

I glared at Percy, then turned back to Zoë. "Well, Zoë, this power is very important, but you must never show it to anyone except if we say you can. You understand?"

"But why?" Zoë pouted.

"Because this power is---strange." I said, trying to explain it in a way that she would understand. "If you show it to some bad people, they will take it away and you will not be able to use it anymore."

"I won't show it to bad people." Zoë said stubbornly. "If they come near me, I will karate-chop them."

I stifled a laugh. "Zoë, sometimes bad people are in disguise. They will pretend to be good people."

Zoë nodded slowly. "Okay, Mommy. I won't show it to other people unless you say I can."

"And Percy!" Percy added, making me hit him gently.

"Now go brush your teeth, okay, Zoë?" I asked her.

"Okay." she said, pouting. I guess the excitement about her power had made her too tired to argue.

After they had brushed their teeth, I tucked them into bed. "Good night, guys." I said softly. I swiftly walked over to each of them and kissed them both on the head. "Sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite!"

"There are bed bugs?" Luke and Zoë squealed fearfully in unison.

"Don't worry, about 'em, Zoë, I know you'll kick their butts. And Luke, Zoë will protect you, buddy." Percy added, then kissed them both as well. "'Night."

----🌊💖🦉----

The next day, it rained heavily. Outside, the sidewalk was full of puddles, and I had to restrain Zoë from jumping in each and every one. Luke did not care about the puddles. I don't think he even noticed it was raining because as usual, he had his head in a book.

I had invited everyone over for a playdate, which was of course before it started raining. Esperanza couldn't come because she had a cold, which Zoë was quite disappointed about because apparently they were "best friends" already. Sammy was of course too small, and Jasper had dance class in which he and three other boys twirled around, stepping on each other's toes. There was no one available! So the kids were stuck inside with no one to play with, and honestly, it was driving me crazy because Percy was at work, and I had to manage the kids by myself.

"Mommy, I wanna play outside!" Zoë begged, tugging at my T-shirt.

"No, you can't yet, Zoë. It's raining, see? You don't want to get all wet and catch a cold like Esperanza, right?"

"Yes I do Mommy! Because best friends do everything the same." Zoë said stubbornly, crossing her arms. "Achoo! Atishoo! You see? I got it already. I am sneezing very loud."

I stifled a laugh. "Zoë, Luke, what if we read a story together? Come on, it's rainy but we can still read."

"I don't like reading." Zoë moaned.

"I would like to read by myself, Mommy." Luke informed me, holding up the book he'd been reading, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I was so surprised.

"Luke, how'd you get that?" I asked curiously.

"Your bookshelf, Mommy."

I laughed. Maybe he was pretending to be all grown-up like me.

"Okay, Luke, so can you read to us then? Come on." I teased him gently.

To my surprise Luke started to read, and he knew every single word. "It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now." Luke read with ease, smiling when he got to his favorite parts.

"L-Luke, how...? Okay, wait for Mommy, I'm going to get you something." I said, stumbling as I ran to the study, which of course was full of books. I brought out the encyclopedia and opened it in front of Luke. "What's this one?" I said, pointing to the word "enormity".

Luke read it out, and its meaning, and ten other words and their meanings too. By the time he had finished, my mouth was open, Zoë was sulking in a corner because no one was paying her any attention, and it was eight o' clock, the time Percy usually got home.

And he did.

"What? What did I miss, Wise Girl?" he asked me, seeing my expression.

I laughed. "Oh boy, Seaweed Brain, you have got a lot of catching up to do. By the way, Luke got his power too."