"Oh, you're such a comedian." Nico replied, sticking his tongue out at his cousin.

"And you're oh so mature." Thalia shot back rolling her eyes.

"Annabeth? Aren't you late?" Percy asked.

"Darn it!" she exclaimed checking the time. He was right. She ran into her room and quickly got dressed, brushed her teeth and shot out the door.

Fifteen minutes late she stood in her office.

"Annabeth? Thank the gods! Your so late, Andy's having a melt down about the floor color of the Dare mansion." a strangely familiar voice said behind her.

"Travis?"

"Uh... yeah, come on, we don't have time for this." he said.

"Travis Stoll?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah we all know my name, hurry up!" he urged.

"What in the name of Zeus are you doing here?" she asked. Travis sighed.

"Working at a dead end job where I could be doing much better, you know I'm covering the story on the Dare mansion, who isn't? Whatever. Now get down to your boss's office before we're both fired." Wait a second Travis was a reporter? What? And Dare as in Rachel Elizabeth Dare?

"OK." she sighed and followed him down the hall.

"Annabeth, thank god!" her boss said. OK, not a demigod. Inside the office was a group of people. Andy Weston was the president of the business and he was asking her opinion on floor colors.

"Yes, the pink marble or the black obsidian?" he asked.

"Is this house for Rachel Elizabeth Dare?"

"Yes, yes, it's her father's birthday present to her."

"But she hated her father." Annabeth said aloud.

"What?" Mr. Weston asked.

"Nothing, I knew her as a kid... I don't think she'd like either of these, is there a blue tile pattern?"

"Um.. yes, I think there is..." and so it went on for a couple of hours. She learned from Travis that he was married and had a little girl named Maddy, that Conner lived in Hawaii and visited often, that Travis was done with the business and was quitting after this story. She also learned a lot about architecture and design, which she enjoyed. She decided she liked her job. When she got home Percy and Nico were sitting on the couch lazily flipping through channels while Luke was making them all sandwiches. Thalia jumped up from playing with Izzy and whispered in her ear.

"You OK?"

"Yeah, work went fine... I quite liked it actually."

"You must be the only one Annabeth." Thalia laughed.