Nope Nope Nopity Nope

( Monday evening)

I had just gotten home from the bookstore. Washed the cake batter off. Thought about Annabeth. Called my mom. And now I had a meeting with my dad.

"Dad?" I asked, knocking on his office door. He motioned me to come in.

"Remember when I told you that we have a meeting today?"

I nodded.

"It's today. So let's go" he said, getting up from his chair.

"O...kay"

Dad and I arrived at another mansion after a quiet drive. It was a huge place, almost twice as big as ours. Sports cars lined the entire front yard. Showoff, I thought.

"Why are we here?" I asked as we walked up a flight of stairs.

"We have a meeting" dad replied

"You don't say" I rolled my eyes. All this mystery was getting annoying.

A butler escorted us to a huge office room within the mansion. It was excessively extravagant, with gold plated furniture everywhere. Personally, I found it tacky.

There was a man sitting behind the desk. He leaned back, grinning. His golden hair flowed in the breeze. And by that I mean, he had a fan in front of him which I'm sure was just for dramatic effect.

"Poseidon! How are you! you old seagull" the man gushed, getting up to shake hands with my father. Behind him, was a girl who looked about my age. She had red hair.

"I'm good Apollo" dad laughed, slapping the man's back. "Now let's get down to business''

Dad motioned to me and pushed me forward so this Apollo guy could get a better look at my face.

Apollo grinned wider than I've ever seen a human grin, "What a handsome young lad!" he beamed, making me uncomfortable. "Rachel! Come here"

The redheaded girl came forward, looking annoyed. Apollo motioned to me, "Now doesn't he look handsome?" he gushed.

The girl, Rachel, smiled. "yes dad" she nodded.

Apollo clapped his hands together, "Perfect! Now that they like each other, the union can move forward as planned! It'll be the wedding of the century!"

I frowned. What in the name of Zeus's Zebra's was going on here?

Dad grinned, "Now Now Apollo! Let the two lovebirds spend some time with each other! And let's talk business"

Apollo nodded, "Of course! Rachel escort your fiance to the gardens"

"WOAH WOAH WOAH WOAH" I backed into the corner, rapidly shaking my head. "What's going on?'

Apollo's eyebrows scrunched up as he looked from me to my father, "you haven't told him?''  he asked.

Dad looked at me awkwardly, "Percy this is Rachel. You two are going to get married"

I felt as though the air had been sucked out of my lungs. An image of blonde hair flashed in my memory. This could not be happening. No No No No No

"Excuse me?!" I practically screamed, "What do you mean by marry?!"

"Apollo industries and Poseidon Co are planning to merge. We need you two to get married in order to....cement the deal" Dad explained.

"No No No No'' I shook my head rapidly, "No way! Dad, I turned 18 like two weeks ago!"

I gave a quick glance at Rachel, who stood awkwardly by the door, "And besides! I don't even know her!"

"Apollo, I need a moment with my son'' Dad dragged me outside by my forearm. I let him. My mind was still reeling from the information I had to process.

"Percy, don't make a scene" he sighed, clutching his temple.

"I'm sorry, dad. I'll take the news that I'm getting married to a complete stranger better"

'' Percy" my dad said calmly. "Apollo and I have been planning this ever since you and Rachel have been born. This wedding is happening whether you want it or not. Besides-"

"Does mom know about this?" I interrupted. There was no way my mother would let dad do this.

"She...doesn't" he admitted. After a few moments of silence, with consisted of me trying not to choke my father, he spoke again.

"Amphitrite and I married for business, look how well that turned out," he said, running a hand through his beard.

"I don't care how it turned out" I whisper yelled. I paused, taking a deep breath. A servant passed by us with a cup of something.

"All you care about is your stupid company!" I yelled. I cupped my face in my hands.

Dad put his hand on my shoulder, "That's not true"

"Isn't that why you and mom divorced?" I asked, "Because you cared more about your company than her?!"

"I cared about your mother a lot!" he said. I glared at him.

He sighed, " It did come up in conversation, yes". Dad hugged me. I pushed him away.

"You're right" he inhaled deeply, "I'm sorry. I should have told you about this. But there's nothing I can do now. The agreement is airtight"

"Well then let me tell mom about this. I'm sure she will have some thoughts"

"No," dad said firmly.

"Why not? I'm sure she'll be glad to know that you bargained me off like goat"

"That will cause her stress"

"Well right now I'm stressed! I don't want to marry a girl I don't know"

"Stress will be bad for the baby," Dad said, effectively shutting me up.

I opened my mouth and clamped it shut. I was seething with rage. I wanted to throw something at him. I grabbed the silver trident chain and ripped it off my neck. Ouch that stung like hell.

"Fine, I'll play along for now. But I swear to God dad-" I threw the chain at him. Right then, Rachel walked out the door.

"We heard yelling. Daddy told me to check up on you two. And you" she pointed at me, "we're going to get to know each other" she smiled.

I opened my mouth to protest. But dad's hand found my shoulder and gave a deadly squeeze. I effectively clamped my mouth shut and nodded.

Rachel grinned and took me on the tour of the mansion as dad and Apollo discussed our....wedding. I tried to put the thought out of my head.

Rachel seemed cool enough. I liked her, she was funny and we got along well.But I couldn't help but think about Annabeth. She looked so cute covered in batter. She kissed me on my cheek a while ago. Her palm was warm against my cheek as her lips brushed against it.

The memory made me blush.

"I didn't know you were so....innocent" Rachel smirked.

It took me to comprehend what she was saying. Only then did I realised we had stopped in front of a statue of two naked people.

"Oh...I...no..nevermind" I stuttered, possibly turning redder.

We spent the next hour or two like that. Rachel continued the tour of the mansion.

She showed me her art room. Which was super cool, not gonna lie. The girl can paint.And we ate some snacks and it was time to leave.

My mind kept wandering back to Annabeth. Her golden curls were so pretty. I wonder how she got them to curl like that.

"I had fun. We should do this again sometime" Rachel smiled. Dad and Apollo nodded approvingly.

I stuffed my hands In my pockets and nodded stiffly. It's not like I didn't like Rachel, like I said, she was nice.But I did not want to marry her.

After a few more words of bye, we left. The car ride back was silent.I crashed into bed and yelled into my pillow as soon as we got home.

There was no way in hell I was going through with this.

Nope Nope Nopity Nope

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Ohhhh crappp

Shit went down!

Stay tuned!!!

------- S