The second chapter is up! And thank you for the reviews. Oh yeah, I don't know if there's such thing as a "recruit meeting" and if there is, I'm not sure if that's the kind of meeting I want in this chapter. So just forgive me for wrong facts. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I own nothing and I'm not Rick Riordan.

Shit! was the first word that came through Annabeth Chase's mind. Time seem to freeze. So Xandra Wrangler was the other girl. The other girl that Percy dumped her for. Annabeth's stare of suprise became a shooting glare as the lost puzzle in her mind suddenly came to their places. She could feel her hands clenched into fists at her sides. She wanted to punch a wall or something. She always knew that having a Wrangler in the company would be annoying but when a specific Wrangler, who was sleeping with your ex-boyfriend, it was not hard to transform your annoyance to anger and hatred. Yeah sure, maybe Annabeth moved on and doesn't care where Percy was but she still has feelings for him. She always had.

Lelaine, who was standing by the door, was staring at Annabeth, confused at her sudden hesitation. Xandra just simply narrowed her eyes. "What? Have a problem with my husband?"

Annabeth recovered quickly, "Huh? Ah...of course not! It's just, 'Percy' is a unique name." she lied.

Xandra, still suspicious, took the bait. "I thought so, too. He said he was named after the son of Zeus, Perseus."

Duh. I knew that! "Oh really? That's interesting..." she said, getting a file full of papers.

Xandra nodded. "So where will you put me? Ugh! If you'll make me carry cemented blocks. I'll make sure Daddy'll fire you." she said, checking her finger nails.

Annabeth controlled her anger and counted one to ten in her mind to keep herself from exploding, "It's a company not a constuction site. You'll start as Lelaine's accountant and then let's see from there." she said, handing the file to Xandra.

1...2...3...

Xandra took the file without hesitation, "Good. I hope typing won't destroy my manicure."

"Lel, as she is your accountant, be her tour guide for the day and lead her to the east building before going to the west building, she'll work there." she instructed.

And it was a glare cycle. Xandra was glaring at Lelaine and Lel was glaring at Annabeth, who was glaring at Xandra.

"Why her?" Xandra asked, totally disgusted.

"Why not me?" Lel shot back.

"Have you seen yourself in the mirror? Total lame fashion sense!"

"Atleast I'm not a bitchy, spoiled daughter!"

...4...5...6...

"Fuc—" Xandra was interrupted by a polite cough.

"Shall we save the beautiful language for the meeting?" Franklin Crooke sarcastically asked. He was standing just outside the door, that was, the whole time, open.

Franklin Crooke or "Big Frank" was the owner of Crooke Inc.. He wasn't really big, people just call him "Big Frank" because he was really built up. He has dirty blonde hair. Grey eyes. Tan-skinned. He was around his forty's. If you look closer he looked so much like an older Malcolm...

...7...8..—meeting? What?

Annabeth's anger slipped away and was replaced by curiosity. "What meeting, Big Frank?"

Big Frank smiled at her, "We have so plenty new employees and I just think that we have the right to have a recruit meeting. You know, to get to know each other easily?"

"I guess. What do you think, Lel?" Annabeth asked.

"Fine with me." She replied.

Xandra snorted. "Meetings. Boring."

Big Frank's attention turned to the Wrangler and tried to smile. He hated Wrangler children. Especially their father. "So you're the Wran-Xandra who was coming in today?"

"Of course. Who else it would be?"

Big Frank tried, with much effort, to not roll his eyes, "Yes. As I was saying, there'll be a recruit meeting with the new employees, me, Lelaine and you, Annabeth. The meeting will be at tomorrow at 3 PM." he smiled before walking down the hall.

Annabeth was still controlling herself from strangling Xandra, who was glaring at Lel like she wanted to kill her as much as Annabeth wants to kill Xandra.

"Lel, I think you should start your tour." Annabeth said.

"Fine." Lel responded.

"Yeah. Whatever." Xandra said.

The two went out of the office and Annabeth can still hear their-not so kind-bickering.

Annabeth shook her head, tired. "I need a break."

And she did. She exited her office, walked to her car and drove home. Her house was more like a mansion with the whole "it's big" thing and the expensive furniture. Don't get Annabeth wrong, she did have fun designing the whole house but at times she gets lonely. Those times were when Thalia was too busy to visit her or Grover was searching for more half-bloods or Nico who was mostly at a bar, downtown. Annabeth already befriended Rachel now that Percy doesn't care for both of them.

Percy, the name made Annabeth shivered. It was only today that she heard the name again come out from a mouth that was not hers. Annabeth was happy that she knew that he was safe and somewhere out there and, somehow, he will be a part of her life again even if its her assistant's accountant's husband. Hearing that, Annabeth doesn't know whether to be angry or annoyed. She just wanted to scream for help. That's it, Annabeth thought.

When she arrived home, she quickly pulled off her coat and put it on the coat rack before she settled her bag on the bed. She took off her work clothes then put on some sweats.

Annabeth searched the whole house for a golden coin. She screamed victoriously, picking up a drachma under the couch. She ran towards the bathroom and turned on the sink. She tossed the coin then a mist appeared in front of her.

"O Goddess, accept my offering! Show me Thalia Grace!"

Then the mist showed a young girl who was in a ready position, bow and arrows ready.

"Thalia!" Annabeth cried.

Thalia was pissed, who dares disturb her from her hunting? When she turned around, her face softened.

"Annabeth!" Thalia shouted. If there wasn't any mist, she could have hugged her right there and then. She missed her best friend and she felt a little guilty for not visiting Annabeth nowadays especially when she knew what Percy did to her, leaving her lonely.

"So, how is ?" Thalia teasingly asked her best friend.

Annabeth smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. "I'm fine."

Thalia crossed her arms over her chest. "What's wrong, Annabeth?"

"What?"

"Something's wrong and I know it." she said using her motherly voice.

Annabeth let out a defeated sigh. From all of her friends, Thaila has the best intuition. "Fine. I give up. There's something wrong. That's why I IMed you. I'll tell you everything."

Thalia raised her eyebrows. She is no daughter of Aphrodite but some little gossip won't hurt. "I'll be there in thirty minutes. I'm sure Lady Artemis will let me. See ya later!" with that Thalia slashed her hand through the mist, destroying the communication she had with Annabeth.

Thalia entered the house, since Annabeth gave her the spare key so that she could visit anytime, when Annabeth was drinking her bitter coffee at the kitchen table.

"Hey, Annabeth." she reached for her best friend and hugged her tightly.

"I missed you, Thalia." Annabeth said, hugging her back.

They released each other but still in arms length.

"What's with the bags?" Annabeth asked, indicating the luggages behind Thalia.

"Oh! When I asked Artemis permission to visit you, she said I could stay with you for a week." she replied. "Cool with you, right?"

Annabeth grinned. "Of course. Just bring your bags up to the room." Thalia always knew how lonely Annabeth life was, so at times they will have sleepovers and Thalia always slept with Annabeth at her room.

"Thanks." She grabbed her bags and quickly dragged them to her room.

Moments later, they found themselves watching Discovery Channel for no reason. Impatiently, Thalia turned off the TV.

Annabeth let out a sigh. "I really can't hide anything from you?"

Thalia smiled. "That's why I'm your best friend."

Annabeth sighed once more, not looking at Thalia. "Do you know the Wrangler family?"

Thalia tapped her finger at her chin in a thinking position. "Is that the family with the rich dad, the mother who is a slut and three spoiled children?"

"Yep, that's the one." she said, popping the 'P'.

"What about them?"

"Well, their company fell at the month I started working at Big Frank's company. Somehow, their father ordered them to have jobs for no reason at all."

Thalia nodded understaningly. "So one of them will work at your company?"

Annabeth nodded.

"Isn't the Wrangler Inc. the enemy of your company?"

"Before."

"You know, they might be spying at your company."

"What? Thalia that's not the point. Besides, there are bigger problems in hand here." she said, making gestures with her hands and finally looking at her.

Thalia frowned. "It's spying Annabeth. Their father might be using her to spy at your company. To spy at your secrets and everything so he can have his revenge." making hand gestures herself.

Annabeth caught her wrist to stop Thalia's flying hands with gestures. "This is much worse."

Thalia continued to stare at her. "What can be worse than hav-hmm! Hmmm!" Annabeth covered her mouth with her hand just to shut her up.

Annabeth lowered her head, so their noses were just inches away. She lowered her voice as if someone could hear them. "What if that Wrangler was the wife of your ex-boyfriend and the reason he left you at all? Isn't that much worse?"

After Thalia's eyes widened, Annabeth released her grip on her and sat back on her original position on the couch. Thalia's eyes were larger than Zeus's balls!

"No freakin' way!" was all she can say.

Annabeth nodded. "Yes freakin' way."

Thalia sank back at the couch. "Oh. My. Gods."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "It's more of shit really."

"Shit!"

Annabeth chuckled but the tears were obvious.

Thalia's eyes turned back to their original shape. "This must be very hard for you Annabeth."

"It's fine. The fates are just cruel. We'll also have a recruit meeting tomorrow." she said, trying to change the subject but failed.

Thalia nodded. "Wait. Isn't that those kind of meeting where the employees bring their families so the boss can know them too or something like that?"

Now it's Annabeth's turn to widen her eyes. She smacked her forehead after muttering some curses. "Crap! I'm gonna meet Jackson tomorrow!"

Thalia raised an eyebrow, mimicking Annabeth's actions earlier. "It's more of shit really."

She smacked her head again. "Shit! I'm gonna meet Jackson tomorrow!"

Thalia smiled and waved her hand dismissively. "Nah. You'll be fine. Hey, want to get a sundae?"

Annabeth smacked her arm, getting an "ow" from the Huntress. "How can you think like that? Your best friend's love life is in crisis here!"

"Sorry. Sheesh, overreacting much!" Thalia laughed.

"What should I do, Thalia?"

Thalia smirked. "You're talking to the wrong girl. Literally, you're talking to the wrong girl. I'm a Huntress, anti-boys, remember?"

"And I can't talk to Rachel about this either. Great, two of my friends that I can talk about this, it's either a Huntress that is not allowed with boys or a virgin Oracle that can't date. How fantastic is that?" she sarcastically said.

With a final pat on the shoulder, Thalia stood up and headed for the the stairs but stopped right before the first step. "What a life you got there, Annabeth. Think about it. You're a daughter of Athena and a though one, too. You'll get through this mayhem in time. It's just your luck that Aphrodite picked your love life to mess with. I'm gonna sleep already just tell me what happens tomorrow." With one wink she climbed up to her room.

"Don't even remind me..." Annabeth muttered.

There you have it! Please Review.

~Tammy Boomerang