I realized I didn't really explain why they had to take the acting job, so I kind of added in something that explains it a little bit better.


Charlie,

"Get me a coke!" Sam called out to me, and that began people jumping in also wanting something from the gas station we had stopped at. We were out of Texas, and I had just woken up. I had said I was going to get a Gatorade, and somehow that turned into everyone wanting something but being too lazy to get it.

Everyone but Aiden said they wanted something.

Aiden and I hadn't really spoken much, but the distance was getting easier instead of the awkward need for space but want to break it. I could tell that we would be alright, speak again, and that we could even be close again. But, at the same time, I still found myself worrying that this was it.

That we only got two days of us and that I had just given up him for an inkling that there might be something with Chester.

A part of me was angry at both of them. Before I met Aiden and Chester, I was a thirteen year old who was more concerned of earning her place in the ranks of Camp Half-Blood than any boy. And then I just had to stop by Aiden's door to hear him play the guitar…

But I couldn't exactly hate either of them.

Aiden was the angel every girl dreams about. He was a bit rigid, though still fun when you got to know him. He could be a soldier who thought in the mind of what it took to win, but he was still good-natured. He was everyone's dream guy, right down to the small amount of secrets he keeps.

And Chester was the little demon you stayed away from. He had that cocky smile that seemed to be permanently on his lips, and his obsidian black eyes always seemed to be playful. Though he seemed outgoing and friendly, he also had that dark side that you found yourself interested in.

So I had no idea where my standing was.

I hurried my walk into the gas station, and I began to pick up the things everyone had wanted, adding in a few more things that I wanted. And I was waiting in line when I noticed someone out of the corner of my eye, though I shrugged it off.

"Psst," the woman whispered.

I didn't do anything, just kept looking ahead.

And she did it again.

"Psst."

My eyes moved over to a woman in the line next to me, pushing her sunglasses down her nose to look at me.

I gasped.

The woman was trying to look inconspicuous but did the opposite. Her long brown hair was pulled into what was supposed to be a lazy bun, but it was flawless. She tried to look like she didn't do her make-up, but she looked just as perfect. She was wearing a red sweatshirt and jeans, but they complimented her small frame.

Instantly, I knew those high cheekbones, prominent features, and the way that she seemed to be looking down at everyone, even if she was meeting your eyes.

Hera.

My body tensed, and I couldn't help but just stare at her.

"Charlotte," she looked around to everyone, "I need to speak to you."

"Uh, I need to check out," I nodded towards the line, not wanting to speak to her really.

She and my mother had some problems in the past. My mother disrespected her, and Hera went out of her way to hurt my mother from then on, even taking away my father for six months and taking him to the Roman Camp. She had even made my mother's pregnancy with me as hard as possible, including a horrible birth.

Hera snapped her fingers, and my stuff was suddenly in bags.

"You already did."

I let out a forced but trying smile and nodded.

"Come with me, I need your help and your party's."

She started walking off towards the car, unable to hide her confident stride even though she tried, and Sam's jaw dropped as he spotted her from the driver's seat.

"Everyone's here, no?"

I nodded, and Hera snapped her fingers.

The next thing I knew, we were in Old Town in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I remembered this park from when I was ten. My mother had to do something for work here, and my father was teaching something at Camp Half-Blood and my brother was in California with his mom. So my mother and I went to Albuquerque for the weekend, going to all of the Historical Tours. That became our tradition every year, always a different place though.

Hera was no longer in hiding. Instead of the old jeans and sweatshirt, she was wearing a crisp white business suit. Her hair was in a perfect bun, and her brown eyes were hidden with tortoise shell glasses. Her lips were dark red, and they were pursed with displeasure.

And she had made us look better as well.

Kate was now wearing a burgundy wrap dress, and her hair was perfect and wavy. Noah was all cleaned up and wearing a V-Neck long sleeve tee shirt and perfectly-fitting jeans. Sam was wearing the same, only his shirt was grey instead of Noah's blue. Aiden was wearing the same except for his blonde hair being styled. And Chester was still wearing his greenday tee shirt and leather jacket, only they both had been pressed, and his old baggy jeans were replaced by new well-fitting jeans.

And then there was what I was wearing. She hadn't put me in a dress like she had with Kate. Instead, I was wearing a new pair of dark wash jeans. As it seemed to be Hera's favorite color, I was wearing a burgundy shirt underneath a black preppy-blazer, and my hair was in a braid down my back.

Sam opened his mouth to ask something, but Hera held up her hand.

"Your car is right over there," she pointed to a parking lot, "Your old clothes are there too, if you missed those old things. And what you bought at the convenience store is also waiting on you."

We all looked to each other, our fear of the goddess evident.

"Now, let's get down to business," Hera began, "Do you notice anything different about me? Maybe the lack of a necklace?"

I focused my eyes on her, but I didn't see what she was talking about.

Then Kate spoke up.

"Your ruby necklace, it's gone."

"Smart girl," she smiled, "And that would be because of my husband."

Her distain was evident in her voice.

"For you see, this is the woman he gave it to," she handed us a picture of a young bleach-blonde woman who looked vaguely familiar, "Her name is Breanna Blue. An ex-model turned actress who is here on location. And my husband's girlfriend. Now, I don't really mind. Just as long as he doesn't embarrass me or impregnate her. And he doesn't give her my stuff. The latter of which he has done. I need you to get it for me."

"Couldn't you ask Zeus to get your necklace back?" Chester asked, and Hera shook her head.

"He refuses to, says it would be disrespecting her and she doesn't know he's married or something like that. His excuses are all the same, you would expect better from a god who does it so much. But its disrespecting me as well. So I need you to get the necklace."

"You want us to steal a girl's necklace?" Sam asked.

"No, I want you to return a necklace that belongs to me. It is not hers."

"But she thinks it is hers," Kate jumped in to keep the goddess from getting too mad at him.

"Well, she is a stupid little Hollywood airhead," Hera took off her sunglasses, and I forgot how sick her piercing eyes can make you.

"Agreed," Kate nodded, "So, how do you want us to do it?"

"Simple, you are the new team for the movie. This is a romantic comedy, and the people who were going to play the friends had to drop out of the film last minute. You need to distract them, they are very strict with security. The only way to get all of you in without one of you ending up in jail is for you to be in the movie. So I got you in. You are playing the star's sister," she pointed to Kate, "You are her boyfriend," she pointed to Noah, "And you are the womanizing friend," she pointed to Sam, "It shouldn't be that hard for any of you. You have two scenes, and they all start soon."

She handed them each a script with Dessert in the Desert written in bulk letters, and she handed Sam a piece of paper with an address.

I looked to Aiden and Chester.

"What about us?"

"You, Charlotte, will lead the real quest," she smiled her perfectly-white smile, "You and your friends will get the necklace."

I took a breath and nodded.

"We can handle it…."

"Great, you've accepted. Now, a few heads up. The woman is the daughter of Venus. And her body guards are sons of Ares who are deeply in love with her and always trying to make her happy. And saving her favorite new necklace could get them in good with her. Goodbye, young heroes."

Like that, she was gone.

We all looked to each other, and we all frowned.

"Let's go then," Sam stood, "I want to see what she did to my car."

Kate,

While we were working towards the set, Noah and I read through the script for Dessert in Desert. It was a forgettable Romantic Comedy about a chef living in New Mexico who owned her own bakery. As you can probably guess, she had what she thought was a perfect life, then a guy came and shook everything up. Problems came, and she ended up with him in the end after a big romantic, dramatic speech.

I knew Breanna Blue for the hit movie, Take a Bite of My Heart, where it runs the typical script. A vampire breaks all the rules by falling for a man named Luke. When she runs off with him, she has to fight those of her kind who disagree with her choice. Breanna Blue played the evil vampire against them. She wasn't really famous for the role though.

She was famous for the way she interviewed. She came off as an insanely beautiful, sweet southern girl with a Lousianna accent so sweet it almost hurt your teeth. She took the world by storm, leaving the girl who actually stared in the movie in the dust. She saw her chance of stardom and seized it.

Now she had movies and cameos all lined up, and she took every chance she could to get her name out there.

And now she was dating Zeus….

When we arrived at the area we were supposed to be shooting, the mist paid off, and they had us get out of our car to get into the area in the square we were shooting. Paparazzi swarmed, snatching picture after picture. And it got even worse when a photographer from New York recognized Sam and Noah. Though they were local stars, being on set of a Breanna Blue movie made them a whole lot more, especially after the recent thing about Noah in a teen magazine.

One of the guards hurried us into the set, and Charlie and the two younger boys slipped away.

I didn't even know who was doing it, but someone hurried us to an area where everyone was getting their hair and make-up done.

"Finally!" someone walked up to us, holding a clipboard, and she glared, "We have to hurry because you are late. Breanna has a date, and she wants to be finished in time."

She motioned for everyone to begin, and what had once been a peaceful area became as crazy as a warzone.

"You look fabulous already," a woman smiled, "Just a few touch-ups."

"And a change of shoes," someone chimed in.

"Oh, and get that boy a blazer!" someone with a headset yelled, and interns swarmed around while some make-up artist sat me down to finish-up on me.

"On it, one blazer!"

"Make that boy's hair less perfect!"

Someone pushed Sam down to a seat while another threw Noah a blazer.

"Make-up on all of them! They look tired!"

Noah and Sam both began to object, but they had no choice.

"Change that girl's clothes! Too confident."

For the next ten minutes, I had no idea what was going on. My hair was being curled. My clothes being changed. Make-up being applied. Interns asking if I needed anything. Schedules being read off. Lines being studied.

It made me dizzy, and I thanked the gods when they finally all stepped away from me.

Even I had to gasp.

I looked… amazing.

They had made me beautiful but not too beautiful to steal Breanna's thunder, though I doubted that could happen. My hair was curled around me and manageable. My grey eyes were highlighted, and my make-up was perfect. My jeans were a perfect fit, and my shirt was a loose grey peasant blouse that didn't show off my curves too much but still made me look good. And they even let me wear sneakers…

I smiled, and they all had a look of pride.

And then they moved away from Noah.

I had to gasp.

Noah always looked perfect, but now?

Now, I felt like I was looking at a god.

I couldn't even really notice Sam compared to Noah.

"Come with me," the woman with the clipboard nodded to Sam, "You two can follow Missy."

She nodded towards an eager young intern, and Noah and I got closer to each other while I tried not to stare at him.

"Hello, I'm Missy," a girl stepped up while the other woman led Sam away, "Come with me."

We weaved through people getting ready for a scene and ended up sitting on a bench with scripts being shoved at us.

I looked to Noah, who looked just as flustered as me.

"What we do for the gods," he smiled, and I let out a small laugh.

I looked down to the script and looked for the part I was playing, Sara, who happened to was the star's sister who lived in California and was coming to see her with her boyfriend with the big announcement that she was engaged. The sister showed her that love was worth it, which promoted her to then end up with the male star of the movie.

"So, we're engaged."

"Apparently," Noah smiled a little awkwardly.

"And Sam is a waiter."

Noah smiled.

"What do you think Charlie is doing?" I asked, rubbing my arm nervously as I thought about the fact that the closest thing to acting was lying to my dorm advisor about why I was late to curfew and pretended I wasn't in love with Noah.

"Well, she's not stuck memorizing lines."

"By the way, do you know how to act?"

"I can kind of lie…."

"I can convince my dorm advisor that I got stuck in traffic and that I shouldn't get in trouble."

"I can convince Coach that I had a cold instead of just a hangover."

I smiled, and he shrugged with smile.

"You'll do fine. A lot of people make millions for acting and can't act just like us."

I smiled a little wider.

Noah,

I watched Kate try to memorize her monologue, and I thanked the gods that I got off so easy. Sam got off easier. He had to just be a quick role of a college-age waiter who is friends with the male co-star and reminds him not to give up. It was a quick little scene. But I got off the easiest. All I had to do was look good, smile, and carry a few bags.

We were currently waiting on the star, Breanna Blue, to get off the phone with her new "beau" as everyone called him and get ready for the scene. I couldn't decide whether I was happy about this or not. On one hand, the longer she took, the longer I had before having to act. On the other, the less time Charlie had to get the necklace.

I tried not to think about it though. Instead, I focused on how Kate that that adorable little furrow in her brow from studying the script.

I used to tease her about that look when we were younger and use to study together. I would usually do it when I didn't want to study anymore because teasing her about it would usually end up with us throwing pillows from the couch at each other or something like that, something that started when we were kids and continued when we grew up.

I missed being kids. It didn't mean anything when I wanted to spend all of my time with Kate. It was cute when I loved Kate, and it made parents simply smile. I was too busy thinking of a lie to tell my teacher about how I forgot to do my homework than how to lie to everyone about how I felt about Kate. Everything was so simple back then…

Now everything is so complicated.

"Okay, I think I've got this," Kate leaned back, taking in a deep breath, and I smiled at her.

"I don't even have any lines."

She playfully shoved me (or maybe it wasn't playful, but I took it was playful), and I laughed, which made her stick her tongue out at me.

"You are five years old, you know that, right?"

"That would make you six, Noah."

Now I stuck my tongue out.

Kate let out her adorable laugh, and her eyes met mine, which made me forget what we were even talking about before that.

Her eyes quickly darted away from mine.

"I wonder where Sam is. He must be done by now."

"Probably hitting on an intern or some pretty young actress."

"Sounds like Sam," she rolled her eyes.

"And I'm starting to think that he is more worried about whether his car will be hurt in the quest than if we will," I smirked.

"Well, we're bound to get hurt. His car is his baby," Kate laughed.

"You and your laptop are just as close," I smirked again, and she crossed her arms.

"What about you and your cell phone? You have barely put it down since we got in the car. You think I don't see you texting?" she smiled smugly, thinking she had won.

But it was a different story.

It wasn't the phone. It was Pixar…

"What about you? You've been doing exactly the same," I told her, trying to avoid the question that I knew she would ask about who I was talking to. I could tell her it was someone I had started talking to online, but that would soon start on her wanting to see the messages, even if she did try to respect my space for a little while. It might take a while, but she would soon still my phone and read the messages.

And I couldn't imagine how on earth I could handle her reading them.

The thought even made me a little sick.

But then I remembered that she had been texting someone the entire time as well.

"It's not like you aren't doing the same," I pointed out, and she even seemed to blush, though she continued to fight with me.

"It's different."

"Oh, really who are you texting?"

She seemed flustered, but, like I had earlier, she countered.

"Who are you talking to?"

"Well… uh," I stopped, "A person."

She raised her eyebrows, laughing.

"And who are you talking to?"

"Someone…" she pushed her hair behind her ear.

"So, I'm not telling, and you're not telling."

"We have a deal?" Kate put out her hand for a handshake, and I took her hand to shake it.

Our eyes met, and I felt my mind blank again.

"You guys are really taking this role seriously!" Missy's voice broke through the haze, and we both looked up to her, "You know, I have known actors with really important parts who barley even cared about it. But you guys are really committing to these parts."

She smiled, impressed with us, and we quickly moved away from each other, not wanting to tell her that we weren't exactly acting.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Did I break your focus?" Missy asked, putting on

"Course not," Kate smiled weakly.

"Well, here's the engagement ring you need to wear. And just keep up with what you were doing. You guys are really great," Missy handed Kate the ring box, and Kate held the box in her hand as she turned back to her.

"What we do for the gods," she quoted me, and I smiled.

"Need help practicing your lines."

"Most definitely."