A short one, guys! Hooray for updating regularly!
Annabeth was standing in front of eight extremely guilty looking guys, one host unable to contain his glee (think about all the episode promos he could make out of this!) and her father, along with cameras capturing every moment of this bizarre scene.
"You're the most disgusting set of guys I have ever met." Whoa. She didn't mean for it to come out sounding that harsh. Well, actually, she did.
"We didn't know you at the time, though." said Andrew, wilting as he said that, because Annabeth gave him a glare worthy of Medusa.
"I don't care. Don't all of you have enough money already? You're a doctor, you're a software engineer." She shouted, gesturing in every direction.
"Look. Don't yell at them, I'm entirely to blame for this." Said Frederick Chase, placing his hand on his daughters shoulder, which Annabeth instinctively shrugged off.
"You don't need to tell me that you're to blame. Can you not just leave me alone for once? You interfere now, you interfered with R-"
She bit her lip. She was going to say 'Ryan' on national television. She was angry, but not angry enough to let the whole country know that she knew two of these guys way before the show started.
"-my ex-boyfriend, more than a decade ago. You said you would stop, and-"
"Annabeth, I was doing it in your best interest."
"Get out. Now."
'Pick a guy to bring home the bacon. I don't care how, or who, I want money.' Annabeth's father had said, repeatedly, for the last decade.
He had a bone to pick with everyone- well, everyone that didn't have million dollar earnings- Percy, particularly. Frederick Chase thought he would go nowhere in life, and when Annabeth began to exhibit signs of romantic interest towards Percy, he knew what to do.
Ryan Evans. Slightly dim, yes, and not in the erudite field Frederick would have liked, but he was the biggest up-and-coming soccer players of that generation. He was predicted to earn millions, if not for the drugs that got him banned from the league… for good. Frederick admitted his mistake. Percy Jackson, the boy he wouldn't let Annabeth have- graduated top of his class, earning almost as much as him when he hadn't even hit thirty years old. And Ryan, doomed to a life of minor-league and poker.
The odds were stacked up against Frederick Chase making a mistake, yet that didn't matter.
But that meant that it would be a long time until he came close to making another one.
He begged Annabeth to stay away from the Bachelorette, but being the stubborn Athena-born that she was, she wouldn't listen. He tried to explain to her that the only people who had time to go onto the Bachelorette were unambitious delinquents looking for attention. Why else would anyone go on a T.V show, unpaid?...
He couldn't make Annabeth stay away from the delinquents, but he could possibly make the delinquents stay away from Annabeth.
It took a lot of calls, contacts, and, yes, bribing, but Annabeth would thank him in the future when she was in a mansion, instead of a run-down shack in the middle of nowhere with her 'true love'. She'd learn to love the right kind of guys in the future.
He'd gotten all of the wrong people of the show, and all of the right people on. All it took was a little bit of money.
The end result: And unsuspecting Annabeth on a show with eligible lawyers, bankers and scientists who had promised to play along, and a happy Mr. Chase.
He knew how Annabeth felt- partners needed to have chemistry over everything else. She also still values wit over wealth. He used to be like that- young, naïve, but she would learn.
He tried to explain how this was all for Annabeth's good later on, but her only reaction was a disgusted shake of the head and a question: At exactly what point did he, a man wise enough to be matched to Athena, turn into someone that she could only say was worthy of Tartarus?
What did you think? I don't know if this chapter was coherent or not... oh well. Review and tell me!
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