Sorry for the lengthy update! I got back from vacation a few days ago, but was suffering from writer's block. Now, this chapter took me FOREVER. I had to do so much research. I didn't proofread it or anything, and I tried to write the beginning fast. Sorry for terrible quality.

Reviews are going good! Thanks to Skywriter5, Unhr25, anakins11, furgil12, and percylover3579! I did have fun on vacation! Oh, and this chapter exceeding 1,000 words! I know that's not a lot, but I've been doing short chapters lately for all of my stories.

Chapter 6: Nothing Could Be Better Than This

"Hey Thals," I huffed, exhausted from my hard work. Thalia was sitting down at the living room table, drinking hot chocolate.

"Why so tired?" she asked me.

"Well, it was hard work to strategize my plan, and even harder work to commence it. I had to be very stealthy and discreet."

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "But no one was home and all you had to do was pour the green dye into a shampoo bottle. Sounds simple enough to me," she said.

I sighed. "It sounded simpler on paper. Someone came back into the house, so I had to be very quiet. Then the shampoo spilled."

"Oh yea, Rachel forgot her purse and she insisted on paying for the tickets, so she went back home. Sweet girl she is," Thalia told me. Yea right.

"Anyway, why are you back so early? The plan didn't take long, and movies are usually a little over two hours," I questioned.

Thalia rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "About that…" she started, "umm, I kinda' got us kicked out of the movie theater." She looked ashamed.

I laughed. "How did you get kicked out?"

"Well, we went to see an action movie. I get pretty excited during those. The good guy was just about to kill one of the bad guys, but he kept missing. Without thinking, I stood up and shouted, "Fight like a man and sock him already!" and other things to go with that," she explained.

"Sounds like you."

There was a moment of comfortable silence, until Thalia asked, "So when will you see your plan results?"

"Once Rachel lathers the 'shampoo' into her hair, her hair will immediately begin to turn green. The olive-green hair dye stays for three days, and then it washes out. So maybe I could treat everyone to dinner or lunch tomorrow at a fancy restaurant. I saved lots of money staying at your house, Thals," I answered.

"I see. You don't need to pay the bill at the restaurant. I won't mind doing that," Thalia said.

I told her, "No. I'll do it, I don't mind."

"No, I'll do it!"

"I'll do it!" Our calm conversation became a shouting match.

"Please let me, Annabeth!" Thalia pleaded.

I sighed. "We'll split it."

"Fine," Thalia agreed.

"But, I'll leave the tip," I said, staring intently at Thalia with pleading eyes.

Thalia groaned. "Whatever. So, how 'bout we go sightseeing? You wanted to do that earlier, didn't you?" she said.

"Yea, but then you forced me to go to Percy's house. Where do you have in mind?" I questioned.

"The Empire State Building. It's really pretty at night. Everything is. Just imagine the breathtakingly beautiful lights in the rigid skyscrapers that tower up. Imagine the stars in the dark moonlit sky. You should really see it sometime," Thalia said, giving a small dreamy sigh.

I painted a picture in my head while Thalia was describing the city at night. It sure sounded astonishing. I'd love to see it sometime. "Why not see it tonight? It's," I paused, looking at the clock on the wall, "7:35 PM. We could go up into the Empire State Building and look out the windows, which would give us a perfect view of the city. By the time we're up there, it'll be dark out."

Thalia smiled. "Let's go." She got up and walked to her car. I followed her, got into the car, and listened to the radio as Thalia drove off.

We passed skyscrapers, houses, apartments, small buildings, grocery stores, etc., until we finally reached the Empire State Building.

I halted. I could definitely see how the Empire State Building needed over 3,400 workers so it could be completed, and cost over 40,000,000 dollars to build. It has 85 stories, and the base of the building looked to be around 2 acres (8,094 m2). The exterior of the building looked as if it were built using Indiana limestone panels. All in all, it was beautiful.

"How tall is it?" Thalia asked. That snapped me out of my trance.

"Its full height reaches over 1,453 feet (443 m, I think). It has 85 stories, and as of today, has 73 elevators. Including service elevators," I responded. I'm an Architect, what can I say?

"Wow. How do you memorize that?"

I pondered that. "Big brains have lots of space for extra information." I began walking toward the Empire State Building.

"The 86th floor is observation deck," I told Thalia. If we wanted to see the city at night, the observation deck would be the best place.

"Let's use this elevator," Thalia said. I walked up to where she was and pressed the UP button on the elevator. One minute later, an empty elevator door opened. Thalia and I walked in.

I walked up and pressed the 80th floor button. The elevator door shut and started going upward.

Classical music flooded my ears (A/N: I don't know if there really is elevator music. But, every other fact Annabeth said is true!). I groaned. Just my luck.

About one minute later, the elevator door opened, revealing the 80th floor.

"That was fast, considering we just went up 80 flights," I told Thalia.

She chuckled. "It's certainly faster than my old apartment's elevators. Those took one minute for each floor you went up."

I smiled. "So, do you want to take the elevator again or the stairs?"

"Although I'm feeling lazy, I choose stairs. I can't bear to hear that stupid classical music (A/N: Sorry if you like classical music.)!"

"I agree," I sighed, relieved. Plus, the stairs were good exercise.

Thalia walked towards the flights of stairs, with me following suit. It took about three minutes to reach the 86th floor.

"We're here," I told Thalia.

"Great! Come on, let's go to the outside observation deck and get an amazing view of the night," she said. I nodded and followed Thalia.

I slid open the door to the observation deck and walked out. Thalia came moments later.

"It's beautiful," I breathed.

"Sure is," Thalia sighed, once again, dreamily.

Lights lit the moonlit sky, while signs flashed an array of colors. It seemed as if one million tubes of glitter were sprinkled upon the sky and the buildings. In my dictionary, the scene is described as one word. Perfect. It was truly breathtakingly beautiful.

Honestly, nothing could be better than this.

Last chapter I told you to stay tuned and find out what happens with Annabeth, but that didn't go as planned.

So, stay tuned and finds out what happens to Annabeth in the NEXT chapter!

Thanks to the readers and reviewers!

- starglow13