(Annabeth POV)

Friday Night

I stood anxiously in front of the double doors, they were white with golden leaves engraved into them. I had no doubt that there was actual gold in the paint. The elegant doors opened slowly, revealing two men dressed in black tuxedos. They backed up, holding a silver tray in front of them. On the tray were security pins, which were electronic and over 10 feet or so they could scan our bodies, to make sure we were who we said we were.

I found the one with my name on it and placed the pin on my shoulder. I waited for Percy, and when he found his pass, I linked arms with him and proceeded to the main room. The Olympians were known for being over the top, and since they were merging with Denarius Inc. they would certainly be dressed to impress.

The room was simply gorgeous, the walls an eggshell white and columns in every corner. One half the room had chairs decorated with the logo of Olympus Industries, an omega symbol with a lightning strike through it. The other half of the room had chairs decorated with a gold coin with a large 'D' in the middle, which was Denarius Inc.'s logo. The room was set up so on either side there were 3 steps, each leading to a chair covered in red velvet, with the name of a main contributor to the company. Smaller chairs were on a lower platform in front of the velvet chairs, presumably for us.

I took my seat in front of the chair that said, 'Adrianna', my mother's name. She was a leading architect in the company and helped with military planning. My brother, Malcolm, was taking over the military planning and I was taking over the architecture side. Percy took his seat in front of his father's seat, Preston. Percy was his only descendant so he was taking over the entire company.

I noticed that Reyna, Hazel, and Jason all went to the other side, where Denarius Inc. was situated. When everyone was seated properly, I began talking to Malcolm. I hadn't talked to him properly, since he went to a different school and was 16, along with a few others.

"How's the school year been for you?" I asked.

"Good, good. A bit stressful though."

"And what year isn't?" I laughed.

He gave a low chuckle. "I guess you've got that right."

I opened my mouth and was about to ask him another question, when the lights abruptly turned out. A row of lights in the middle of the room remained, obviously creating a runway. The first person that stepped out looked exactly like Jason, and I assumed it was his father, Jason Sr., so called co-ruler of the skies. Next came out his wife, Jacqueline, leading wedding planner. After came Nicholas, leading marine biologist, and his brother Paul walked out swiftly after. He owned many cemeteries and morgues around the country. Mason, the man behind most of the battle strategies, followed close behind.

Miranda was next. She had the same job as my mother, however she focused more on crafts and architecture rather than battle strategies. Brad went after Miranda - he controlled many of the vineyards and luxury wine companies across the country. Diana soon followed. She controlled many of the hunting laws, helped keep population down and ran an organic meat company as well as supported single women.

Then, Alexander, known more often as Alex, stepped out next. He was a judge, who specialized in Medical Law. Victor was after. He ran many forges who replicated ancient pieces. After that Vanessa came strutting out. She ran a fashion, makeup and perfume company.

Next, my family came in, looking stunning in their outfits. My favorite outfit by far was Alexis's, who ran a successful fashion company so it only made sense that her outfit was fabulous. She was wearing a hot pink dress that stopped mid-thigh, and was tight enough to show off her curves. A scarf was draped across the dress, making it one-shouldered, and she wore it with earrings to match. To top it off, she wore black pumps with a clutch in the same color.

I smiled at my fashionable aunt, and she returned the gesture. She sped up her pace and took her seat behind Silena, Drew, and Piper. My mother finally stepped through the doors, dressed sharply in a nude shirt with a black blazer, a black pencil skirt and nude pumps with earrings to match. Her hair was in a serious bun and her make-up was light enough that it was barely visible.

She took a seat behind me and gave Malcolm and I a small smile and a firm nod. Once everyone was seated, Zachary and Jason Sr. stood up.

"I would like to tell you all something you probably already know." Zachary paused for effect.

"We, Denarius Inc., are merging with Olympus Inc. to meet head on with our competitors, Kyojin Co." Jason Sr. continued.

"We've come together because we believe their business has bad practices, and we don't want that." Zachary spoke. They seemed to be switching every sentence.

"We want the world to be fair, so we decided by merging our two businesses, making ourselves more powerful, we would stand a better chance against Kyojin Co."

"So the purpose of this meeting is so that you can learn to work together and strengthen different parts of your industry so our company becomes as powerful as possible."

"Thank you."

A projected image popped up on the white screen. It showed the groups that would be working with. Apparently I'd be working with Melissa, Malcolm, my mother and one other girl.

My mother whispered to me, "We're meeting in room 223."

I nodded back to her and walked over to the doors along with everybody else. Once outside the doors I waited for Malcolm and the other girl, Lauren. Lauren was a beautiful girl in a long, high-low strapless dress with a sweetheart neckline. She had dark brown hair and a caramel skin tone. She looked very different from her mother, who had light blonde hair and a pale complexion.

"Hi Lauren," I extended my hand out, "I'm Annabeth, it's nice to meet you."

Lauren shook my hand and replied, "It's a pleasure meeting you as well." She had a low voice but it was soft.

I smiled back at her, "Well, c'mon then. I think our mothers' will meet us later, but we're going to room 223."

We were on the 7th and final floor and the room was on the 2nd so we took the elevator down 5 floors and walked until we found a door with the number 223 engraved into it. I turned the doorknob and the door swung opened easily. I walked into the room and Lauren and Malcolm followed me. The table had three sleek computers. I walked over to one of them and Lauren and Malcolm followed suit. A bar popped up and told me to enter my username and password.

Quickly, I entered my code. But big bold letters showed up, spelling out, "REJECTED." I frowned. I tried my email username and password and my school account. Both didn't work.

I decided I would ask. "Hey, d'you guys know how to log into the computers?"

Lauren shook her head and Malcolm replied with a "Nope," popping the 'p'.

"Yeah, I tried my email and school accounts, but neither worked."

We all sunk into a silence again.

I fidgeted with the waist cut-out in my blue dress. Malcolm was sitting with his elbows propped up on the table and Lauren was playing with her security pass.

"I got it!" she said enthusiastically, "It's on the back of the security pass!"

I looked at the back of mine and sure enough, there was two lines that seemed like a username and password. I typed annabethc0712 into the username bar and olympus0712 into the password bar. I pressed enter and I came to the home page. Only one icon was a Word Document which I clicked.

In large italics it read, 'Denarius and Olympus Inc.' underneath was various information about each company. I scrolled down and the next page three web links were displayed, I clicked the one next to my name. A bio on Lauren and Malcolm popped up and under it was another web link which I clicked on after skimming the two bios. The link simply described what we had to do today and what my role was.

Basically, we had to mimic a day at work that our parents had and they would evaluate how we did. It went on to say that we would be doing this every month for the year to get used to working with the other company. I closed the webpages and document and shut my computer. Lauren was still reading and Malcolm had finished before me.

We waited patiently for Lauren to finish. Once she finished we started discussing our strategy and got to work.

(Grace POV)

Friday Afternoon/Night

My roommate, Piper, had to go to some fancy-schmancy meeting with the rest of the Pretties so I decided to hang out with my friend, Lexi.

"Hey Lex!" I waved at her enthusiastically.

"Hey, Gray!"

"It always amazes me how you can actually shorten my name."

"My name is shorter than yours." She reminded.

"Still, my name is one syllable yours is two."

"Whatever. What're we doing today?"

"I was thinking of having a girls night out."

Her face brightened. "So, we're going to go Go-Karting, eat pizza and get mani-pedi's as usual?"

"I was thinking we should go rock climbing."

"Oh, that sounds fun, but we're still getting pizza right? You're not gonna go all Chinese food on me are you?" She laughed.

"No, pizza is a must." I replied with a smile.

"Alright, let's go!"

Lexi called a taxi and we went to the nearest rock gym. On the ride there, we laughed about things that had happened during the week, like Percy getting another detention but this time, the perfect Annabeth Chase got caught skipping with him too.

"I probably shouldn't have worn the shorts." Lexi laughed, biting her lip.

"Oh, yeah. Plus some of the bilayers look pretty young." I said, smiling mischievously at her.

"Well, who cares, maybe I can get one of their numbers?"

"Must I remind you that you have a boyfriend?"

"Oh, yeah, I kinda forgot."

"You seem to forget every time there's a hot guy around." I said, raising my eyebrows, "Hm?"

"I'm sorry, there are too many of them in the world."

"And here I thought, he was the player."

"He is! I'm just... just...just."

"Looking at other guys." I smirked.

"Whatever, it's our turn anyway."

We got onto the rock climbing wall, scrambling up, trying to beat each other to the top. I finished first, laughing when I rung the bell. When we got back on the ground we collapsed into a fit of giggles.

"Oh my goodness, I was just reaching for it and then you rang it."

"And that bilayer, he so wanted to talk to you."

"He's coming over now!" Lexi said, "What should I say?"

"Tell him you have boyfriend if he asks."

"But what if I don't want to have a boyfriend?"

"You do, trust me." I responded, and it was true, she really did like her boyfriend. Sure, he was a player but he had stayed with her for a few months now and you could really see that they had a connection.

Sure enough the guy came over. "Hi, I saw that you guys were really good at rock climbing."

"Oh, thank you!" I responded before Lexi could say anything stupid.

His attention shifted to Lexi, "It's a shame your friend beat you, I thought for sure it would be a tie. My name's Alex by the way." He stuck out his hand.

"Lexi." My best friend responded.

"Um..., I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back." I announced, blushing. I hurried over to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror, and hastily pulled out my phone.remember u have a bf!. I texted.

I hoped she read the message and realized what I was saying. I looked up and saw an older woman looking at me strangely, I gave her a fleeting smile and headed out of the bathroom. I scanned the room and saw Alex and Lexi talking, I headed over to where Lexi and Alex were holding a conversation.

"Lexi!" I forced a smile, "I'm so sorry Alex, but we really have to go. Remember Lex? We have an appointment later. We have got to go!" I said, pointing to an imaginary watch.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," she flashed Alex a smile, "We really do have to go, but we'll be here again, see you later!"

We headed out to the parking lot and I called the taxi, as soon as I got off the phone Lexi started talking.

"He really was nice. But almost too nice. Not my type, but he would be a great friend."

"I see, I'm glad, lets just hope I don't tell your boyfriend that you were looking at other guys."

"You wouldn't!" She gasped.

"Stop being so dramatic and cliché, you know I would."

"Yeah, you would." She chuckled.

I laughed along with my best friend as we slid into the taxi. When we arrived at the mall, we paid the taxi driver. We headed over to the Pizza Hut. I got a slice of pepperoni pizza and Lexi got Hawaiian.

"Stop putting your ham on my plate!" I laughed

"I only like the pineapple, you know that!"

"But I don't want your ham."

"You don't have to eat it."

"But that's wasteful."

"Then eat it." She deadpanned.

"Haha, you're so very funny." Sarcasm dripped from my voice.

"I know, it's a talent of mine." She said arrogantly, flicking her hair.

I laughed at her antics, "Yes, I know. Being annoying is a talent of yours."

"Hey!" she shouted, covering her heart, "That hurt, I can feel the throbbing. It got hurt and now it's swollen and throbbing."

"You're ridiculous." I joked.

"Not as ridiculous as you!" she backfired.

Then a man, who had a pin that said manager came over to our table, "Ladies, you're disturbing the peace, and since you're finished eating I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

I responded before my cheeky best friend could, "Oh, yes sir. We're so sorry, we'll go immediately."

As we threw away our trash and exited the restaurant, Lexi said, "I would've told him that it was a nice offer but we were okay with staying there."

"Which is exactly why I answered." I responded.

We got to the nail salon and talked to the owner, who came out of the back room.

"It's so good to see you!"

"Yes, yes. You girls haven't come in so long. I still have your favorite colors in the back and Louise and Margaret are just finishing up with a customer, can you just wait five minutes?" She asked.

"Of course Miss Leanne!" I chirped. Miss Leanne was an English lady who ran the nail salon at the mall. Since we had come many times over the school year she knew us personally. And she adored us which you could see since she saved our favorite nail polish colors and knew which manicurists we preferred.

Soon we were whisked away to get our nails done, my color was a pale sea green while Lexi chose a sparkly black with her fourth finger white. We chatted with our manicurists to see how their lives were going and we updated them with facts from our own lives. After our nails were done we headed back to the dorms.

"G'night!" I yawned.

"Yep, see ya!" Lexi said perkily.

We went our separate ways. I quickly took off my makeup, brushed my teeth, got into my pajamas and fell asleep.