Only Thirty Days
Summary: Thirty days is all I need to change my best friend into my girlfriend, but whoever said that it would be easy? To start this off right, this is 'Day 0,' leaving me with thirty more days to make Annabeth mine. Just remember, things are never that easy.

Thank Yous: JRRVS, hellolittleflowers, ChildOfWisdom, strawberrysnares, XOsweetPURPLEcandyOX, fireballer23, riml, veryfunny, flyonfan14, thegayperson, I'm Myself Deal With It, mysterysolvers1, Miette in the Rain, IAmTheThirteenthOlympian, Anonymous, Iruchi-chan, Agent Astro Zombie, Allstar Weekend Fanatic, doifrgac, Sapphire-Zebra, Percabethforever234, Crazy. Lazy. Gurl, Taffeh. , MaGgIe LeRmAn, XxDreamless WorldxX, .Percy Jackson.
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO…

A/N: Ah, I know I haven't updated for a while, but here I am. It's been a month (or at least it's been a month the day that I'm writing this. I probably won't wind up updating the same day.) I actually had a pretty bad case of writer's block for this story, so that's why I hadn't updated sooner. Then, I got an idea and decided to go with it.

This is a fairly short author's note; I hope you all enjoy.

xx

Chapter 4

Day 3.

You know those times when you dream yet can't remember what exactly happened? Yeah, that was what happened to me the night before. Normally, I could recall any of the dreams that I had, but tonight was somehow different. I wasn't quite sure if I liked that fact or not. Breathing out my nose, I stretched, realizing that there were two grey eyes already watching me: Annabeth. I had forgotten that she fell asleep on the couch with me yesterday. Just to be clear, nothing happened past falling asleep. It was probably good that nothing happened because Mr. Chase would definitely kill me for just sleeping on the couch with his daughter, alone. Thankfully, it seemed like Mr. Chase hadn't shown up yet because all my limbs were still intact. Nonetheless, Annabeth still looked good despite the bed hair. "Morning," I mumbled, eyes only partly open.

"Good morning," she smiled, hugging me tighter around the waist. "How'd you sleep?"

"Well I think?" I scratched my head, not entirely sure if I slept well or not. Normally, I would tell Annabeth about any dreams I had, and she would analyze them as to what they truly meant. I wondered if there was something to be said about not being able to remember a dream at all.

She raised her eyebrows slightly, "No dreams?" I couldn't tell if she was disappointed or not, but she seemed to be getting into the whole Annabeth the Analyzer state.

"None," I paused, waiting to see if they might return to me; they didn't, "that I can remember. Is that bad, Doc?" Whenever she became Annabeth the Analyzer, I always teased her by using names like doctor and investigator. Normally, she would just roll her eyes before answering the question I had or give her verdict.

That day was just like normal, it seemed. She rolled her eyes, "No. It's what happens to normal people, Seaweed Brain."

"Are you suggesting that I'm not normal?" I narrowed my eyes at her, waiting to see what she would have to say to that. It was nice to be able to have my normal banter with my best friend again. Considering she didn't have a boyfriend, I actually got the chance to have a real conversation now. I never understood why she completely avoided me when she did have a boyfriend.

"I don't know if you ever were normal," she grinned before sitting up on the couch. I moved my legs toward myself in order to give her more room. Just to make it clear, I was and still am pretty normal. "Thanks. So, what are we doing today?" Her eyes weren't directed towards me anymore but looking for the remote.

I figured that when I told her what my plans were for today she wouldn't exactly be too pleased. Seeing how she just asked me, though, I couldn't put it off or anything. "We don't have any plans," I tried evading her question which seemed to be going all too well.

She glanced at me over her shoulder, smiling, "Well, what do you want to do then?" I inwardly groaned, knowing that I couldn't escape answering her question anymore. It's not that I didn't want to tell her that I already had plans, but I didn't want to get the death glare that she was going to give me when she learned who I would be hanging out with.

"Oh, wait," I paused as if remembering something, "I actually have plans." It wasn't that I forgot or anything, but I couldn't just pretend that I knew from the first place. Then, Annabeth would catch on way too fast.

Annabeth slowed down her flipping through channels, "I thought you said we didn't." Well, it looked like she was catching on quickly anyways.

"Well," I scratched my head preparing for the worst, "we don't." Normally, it was Annabeth who would be that clever as to evading the question with something grammatical. It seemed that she was starting to rub off on me in that fashion. It was a good thing for me, but I had a feeling it was only going to annoy her…greatly.

"Mhm," she stopped flipping through channels to face me with narrowed eyes, "yet you do." It didn't seem like she was mad but more suspicious than anything else. I had never been sure which was worse: suspicious Annabeth or mad Annabeth. They were both extremely unpredictable. I suppose the suspicious one was bad because I kept nothing from Annabeth. Well, that wasn't including the crush that I had on Annabeth for a good, long time.

"Yeah," I gave her a weak smile which she didn't return, "with Rachel."

"Ah, fun." Her face was deadpanned showing no emotion. For whatever reason, Annabeth and Rachel never seemed to get along well, at all. It wasn't just Annabeth who wasn't fond of Rachel, but from what I could see, Rachel wasn't too happy about my friendship with Annabeth. In fact, whenever they were in the same room, it was a lot like sitting next to a dormant volcano: you never know when it's going to go off. It always seemed like I was the one sitting right on top of the volcano.

I eyed her for a few seconds, waiting for her expression to break. As normal, it didn't break. I could never be a good as Annabeth was at hiding my thoughts from my face or people are just really good at their ESP. It was one of those or maybe it was both. I was pretty sure it wasn't neither. "Don't sound so excited." Not that she ever does when it comes to Rachel.

"Mhm." Annabeth rolled her eyes, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. It wasn't like I had to explain my every whereabouts to Annabeth, so I didn't know why she seemed to be waiting for me to say something. It wasn't like I had expected her to tell me every time she had a date Luke before, and I wasn't even in a relationship with Rachel. So, I didn't see what she was getting at.

Sometimes, I just didn't get the girl I was sitting on the couch with. "If I didn't know any better, Wise Girl, I would say you were jealous." That probably wasn't the best thing to say to her.

She chuckled, the joy not reaching her eyes, "I'm not jealous of her: never have been, never will be." Her back then turned to me, and I knew I wasn't getting anywhere with her now that she knew who I would be hanging out with. For some reason, Annabeth always closed up to me after hearing about Rachel. That or she would start acting pretty weird. By weird, I mean she would be somewhat snippy like those small dogs that always try to bite you.

"Well," I got up off the couch, stuffing my hands into my pockets, "I'll catch you later then?" I suppose it wasn't much of surprise when she pretty much ignored what I said to her. What did surprise me was when I went to kiss her bye, and she turned her cheek so I completely missed her lips. I just shrugged it off, but hey, if I was being honest, it bugged me a lot. I never understood what the big problem was between the two girls, and with neither of them telling me what it was, I would probably never know.

…

I was never a big fan of Starbucks, but it seemed that Rachel was. Whenever I asked her why, she would always say something about it being homey and somewhat artsy. You could also say that I never paid much attention to why she liked Starbucks. Either way, I would always wind up meeting her here when she told me that she needed to talk to me, so it didn't really matter to me whether or not I knew why. Generally, Rachel didn't just invite me out for no apparent reason, so I was expecting her to want me to help her in some way again.

"Merry Day After Christmas," she smiled when I walked into the shop. Well, I called it a shop, but I suppose some people might call it a restaurant. For some reason, it never seemed like a restaurant to me which made me stick with the term shop.

"Right back at yah," I shook my head at her jacket covered in paint splatters. "What have you been up to?" I asked her aloud, taking a seat across from her. I cringed realizing that I said it aloud, but thankfully, I left out the part about my asking being because of her jacket. I guessed that the rest of her clothes looked the same way.

She already had her hands around a coffee, so I figured she had been waiting there for a while. "My newest project," she shrugged, watching me with interest. "Let me guess," she seemed amused, "you don't want a coffee, right?"

It had always been a running joke between us that if it weren't for her, I wouldn't step foot in a Starbucks. "Right," I smirked, "I could buy a baseball for the cost of one of those things. And, a baseball would probably taste better."

"When did you start getting into baseball?" Her frizzy hair seemed be to be untamed as normal, and I noticed a few flecks of paint in it too. Whatever her new project was, it seemed to be a messy one.

"I didn't," I shrugged when her eyes widened. "I'm spent Christmas with Annabeth, and her brothers kept talking to me about baseball. I guess it's not half bad, but I'm more into swimming." That's also probably because I had been the captain of the swim team even though I was only a junior last year.

She looked at me skeptically, "Yet, it's your senior year, and you don't seem too happy with the swim team." I wondered how Rachel knew that because I didn't tell anyone how I wasn't too happy with swimming right now. Sometimes, Rachel could pull things out of nowhere, and she always seemed to be right on track with it. It was pretty weird at first, but I had gotten used to it after a while.

"There you go again," she gave me a slight smile while I shook my head, "coming up with things out of nowhere and being right. You're almost right as much as Annabeth." Crap, I knew right away that I made a mistake comparing Annabeth and Rachel to each other. It was definitely a mistake since I said how they were alike.

Her eyebrows rose almost right after I said Annabeth's name. This probably wouldn't end well, at all. "Hm and how is your little friend doing?" She took a sip of her coffee, eyebrows still raised. Her green eyes didn't show anything of anger but something different. It seemed that Annabeth's dislike of Rachel was more outward, yet for me, Rachel's was much more confusing. Still, though, I didn't know why they disliked each other.

"She's good," I scratched my head, not sure of how this new conversation would end. "She and Luke broke up." I wasn't sure why I included the last part, but I couldn't help but grin slightly when I said it. In my jacket pocket, my hand bumped into the black box, and I remembered how I still needed to give Annabeth her ring. I pushed off my nervousness since I couldn't now anyways; I was talking to Rachel.

"Aha," Rachel tapped her fingers on her coffee which distracted me a little, "so is she back to you again?" When I focused again on her, there seemed to be distaste written on her face. I was pretty sure it wasn't due to the coffee or anything.

"Yes," I answered shortly, deciding that either I should change the subject right then and there or find out what the two of them had against each other. "So, why do you hate Annabeth again?"

Rachel chuckled before settling with a smile on her face, "I don't hate her." She seemed to be watching me to gauge whether or not she should tell me the reason why. Considering I didn't break eye contact with her, she mumbled, "I can't do much harm." Her voice, then, went back to a normal loudness, "Look, she uses you all the time. That's what I don't like, and I don't hate her. It's more of a dislike sort of thing. If she ever stops using you, then I won't have a problem with her whatsoever. Until then, no promises can be made."

"She doesn't use me," I paused, hearing Rachel make a sound of disagreement. "She's not using me since I'm fine with it." Thinking back on that, it probably wasn't a great argument at all, but it was the best that I had then.

Rachel shook her head, "Just because you enjoy it doesn't mean she's not using you. Come on, she makes out with you until she gets her next boyfriend. You don't count that as her using you?" I never really considered Annabeth as having used me, and Rachel's version of it didn't sway me. Annabeth and I were friends, and all I needed to do was ask her out. I was just waiting for the right time. Plus, this was just my friendship with Annabeth from the get go.

"So, why I am here?" I changed the subject, not wanting to discuss Annabeth with Rachel. At least I knew why Rachel didn't like Annabeth even if I didn't think her reasoning was right.

She broke her gaze from me, "Well, there's this project that I'm working on…" Of course, Rachel wanted me to help her with her project in some way. I should have known since that was what she always did. It wasn't as if I had a problem with helping her, but her projects normally had some sort of catch. Since she broke her eye contact with me, I had a feeling that this project had a big catch. "I don't need you to paint or anything," she assured me.

I wasn't worried about having to paint or anything considering I would probably mess up whatever she had me paint. Plus, Rachel was already skilled enough in that area so she definitely wouldn't need my help there. "I figured as much," I said, waiting for her to get to what she actually needed me to do.

"Well," she brought her gaze back to me, "I'm doing the scenery for this play that the school's doing in March."

"That's cool," I grinned, knowing that she had always been somewhat interested in having people see her work. Although her parents had suggested buying her a gallery, Rachel never wanted to do it with her parents help so she turned them down. This would probably be even better for Rachel, so I was genuinely happy for her yet waiting to hear where I came into play.

"Yeah," she smiled weakly, "but the thing is… The person that was playing Romeo, well he can't be Romeo anymore." I raised my eyebrows, wondering why she was telling me this part. They always had some other person ready to take the part right? So, this didn't seem like that big of a deal to me.

"That sucks," I said halfheartedly, figuring that there was already another person rehearsing for the part.

"Sure," she muttered, taking another sip of her coffee. It was a long drink, so I waited for her to finish and continue. "Look, I said I could get someone to do it." This was where I got confused since they already had someone doing the part of Romeo, right? So, why wasn't she just getting to the part where I came into play. "And, you're the luckier winner."

I scowled, wait, what? I was supposed to be the backup? "What aren't you telling me, Rachel," I narrowed my eyes when she kept looking anywhere but me.

"You could get extra credit for English?" She questioned, putting on a rather large smile.

I knew she was covering up, but I could still use the extra credit for English. I was only pulling a really low C, and if it got any worse, I would be kicked off the swim team. Sadly, extra credit seemed to be exactly what I needed. Still, it seemed like she was leaving something out. "Rachel, what aren't you telling me?"

"Oh, you know, Calypso is Juliet." I grimaced, realizing that Rachel wanted me to play the lover of my ex-girlfriend. From all that I knew of the play, Romeo and Juliet fell in love then killed themselves in the end. Great, I was supposed to do that, and the lover was supposed to be my girlfriend? If I didn't need swimming for a college scholarship, I probably would have risked getting a D in English. Too bad it was my senior year.

"So," I paused, deciding that I was being left with no choice, "I've already been selected haven't I?"

Rachel shrugged, no longer seeming nervous, "It wasn't my idea. Chiron, I mean Mr. Brunner, had told everyone a group of people for it. Then, Calypso was saying how you guys would have chemistry and all, so she convinced everyone you would be best. And, I knew your English grade needed help so I saw no problem with it. Look, you just need to have the lines memorized in a month and attend rehearsal every Tuesday and Thursday. It's really not that bad Percy."

Well, seeing how I was already decided, there wasn't much I could do about it anyways, "Fine." Rachel smiled, pulling out the play Romeo and Juliet and getting ready to thank me. "Don't thank me, alright? I don't even want to be in this thing," I held up the book to her that was covered in dust. It's probably dusty for good reason. "I'll be at the practices, but this better be one of the last favors you ever ask of me, Rachel." I got up, leaving the place. Rehearsing for a school play definitely wasn't how I planned to spend my winter break. What I was hoping for was to chill out, spend some time with Annabeth, and go to the swim practices that I had to attend. I definitely didn't plan to hang out two days a week with my ex-girlfriend and the girl my best friend hated. Plus, how do you explain that to your best friend who hates both of the girls?

…

December 26 ~ Day 3.

…

AN: I know it's shortish for me, but I decided to keep out the last part for the next day. I was going to have it be a part of this chapter, but I then decided against it. Because of that decision, there will definitely be more Annabeth and Percy in the next chapter. ;) Well, I guess this is quite a dilemma for Percy, somewhat. I'm also sorry about the length. I know it's a bit short than I normally go for, but I really wasn't feeling this chapter. I'm out of my writing groove at the moment.

Don't be afraid to ask me any questions if you have them, whether in pm or in a review. I'll be sure to do my best to answer them. Well, what did you guys think of it?

~ Jam.

Anonymous review replies and reviewers with pms turned off. Also, I would like to thank of all of you guys as well for taking the time to read and review. (I didn't want to sound like a broken record, writing that for all of you guys.)

XxDreamless WorldxX – Aw, thank you! I'm glad that you like it

Crazy. Lazy. Gurl – Hahah, I'm definitely continuing it. I suppose I should update the author's note on the first chapter? That would probably be a good idea… Aw, thank you so much! I'm glad that you like it

Anonymous – Aw, thank you! I don't think it's that well thought out since I somewhat hit writer's block before. That was why I was unable to update sooner.

Riml – aw thank you! I'm happy that you like it! I thought that one was somewhat cheesy, personally.