Welcome back, friends. Here we are again! Also, please read the notes at the end for this chapter.

Bigoldpileuvpoo: Happy to be your dealer!

PercabethShipper: At least he didn't forget Euron's fleet LOL. Also, yeah, Percy's not a morning person, I'd say.

Anyways, I don't own the rights to Juniper or PJO characters. Those are Rick and Disney's. But these Days in the Life chapters are MINE!

Chapter 13

A Day in the Life of the Gang: Juniper

September 14, Sophomore Year

Gooooooooooooooood Morning, New York!

My alarm woke me at 5 am, just like it does every day. There's something so rejuvenating about the early morning air, especially on a Saturday. You have the entire weekend ahead of you and more time than anyone else to enjoy it properly.

This Saturday in particular had the potential to be the best one I'd ever had. After all, it was the Inaugural Goode Green Earth Club Central Park Clean Up. The IGGECCPCU, for short (it sounds as it's spelt).

After getting freshened up, it was off to the kitchen for breakfast. Neither my parents nor my brothers were up yet. Their loss, missing out on a glorious early start.

A few minutes of cooking later and I was tucking in to an amazing pancake breakfast. Served with skim milk, of course. Some people feel the need to add garnishes to the actual pancakes, which should be made illegal. Grover actually adds both blueberries and blueberry jam… it's enough to make a girl sick.

After finishing and getting my dishes cleaned up, I checked my watch. 5:32 am… I still had time before Grover would be here. Time still to double check whether I had all the materials we were going to need today.

I had packed everything up on Thursday night, but you never know when you might have forgotten something important. Grabbing my checklist and the backpacks I had prepared, I knelt on the floor and checked each item off again. Breathing a sigh of relief, I saw that I had everything.

I was about to lay back when I felt my phone rumbling against my leg. Pulling it out to see who was contacting me, I smiled when I saw the screen-name that popped up.

GOAT BF: Im outside J-bug

GOAT BF: Can u let me in pls

I skipped to the front door and opened it to greet my amazing, cute boyfriend Grover (who likes blueberries, but no one's perfect).

He kissed my cheek before stepping inside and saw the newly reorganized backpacks on the floor.

"May I help you with your bags, J-bug?"

A bold question, considering the three backpacks that he was awkwardly balancing on his back. I opted for mercy.

"No, I think I'll pass. But that was awfully chivalrous of you," I replied before returning his earlier kiss.

He turned red and looked at the floor, mumbling something about "cuteness" under his breath.

I smirked, picked up the bags and straightened to stare into my adorbale boyfriend's eyes.

"Shall we go help to save the planet?"

⁂

We arrived at the meeting spot with a half hour to spare. We had chosen to meet at the statue of some dog named Balto. While I wasn't overly fond of dogs, this one had apparently helped to save a bunch of kids in Alaska. In any case, with all that extra time, we were able to set everything up so that we could get started as soon as all our friends arrived.

Once that was done, no one had arrived yet, so we decided to hold hands on the nearby park bench.

Seconds turned to minutes and before I knew it, the time was 8:15 am. And no one had shown up yet. Worse still, we had left our phones at my place (trust me, you do not want to bring your cell to a garbage pickup), so contacting our friends was out of the question.

Sitting next to Grover is usually an excellent source of calm for me, but I had reached the point where I had got up and started pacing.

"There is no chance they would forget. It's too important to forget. They must have gotten lost. Or eaten by a bear. Or… something. But they didn't forget."

Grover was watching me pace and, to his credit, attempted to calm me down.

"They'll be here, J-Bug. You'll see. Those guys are a lot of things, but they aren't liars. They're just running behind is all." He said that, but I could tell by his face he was talking himself into believing it as much as talking me into believing it.

Time continued to pass and the park filled up with people of all sorts except for our so-called friends. I looked again at my watch and saw it was 8:37. And still nothing.

I sank to my knees and began sobbing into my hands. Grover knelt next to me, sobbing into my hair with me.

"It's okay, J-Bug. We'll do it ourselves," he said through the tears.

"Save the planet?" I replied scornfully.

"Yes, we will. But first, we are gonna clean the area around this Balto statue. It's going to be the cleanest spot in the city. And then we'll keep going, bit by bit, until this entire planet is clear of litter."

"Just us?" I asked. It didn't sound that bad, as long as we were together.

"Well, I mean, hopefully other people will help out a bit. Just not our friends. Especially that dirtbag Percy."

"Ahem."

I looked up from our embrace and glanced around to see Percy standing behind me. And… not just Percy.

I saw Annabeth, Will, Thalia, and our entire gang standing there. But not just them. Thalia's brother Jason had brought a bunch of his freshman friends. Percy had brought his swimming buddies. Annabeth and her architecture club pals were present. In all, I saw at least fifty people standing around, looking at me and Grover crouched together.

"Dirtbag, Grover? Really?" Percy said with a wry grin.

"Bu-W-Hold on," Grover sputtered. "Why are y'all so late?"

"You don't have your phones, I'm guessing," replied Percy. "We sent a message over an hour ago that we were all gonna meet up by the school instead. Apparently, some people can't read a basic map." He and everyone else turned to Thalia at that remark.

"Oh, sooooorrry that some of us aren't equipped with the directional sense of a homing pigeon," Thalia responded sarcastically.

I was still stuck on the sheer volume of people though.

"But how is this possible? So many people, I mean."

"Well, everyone wanted to help," replied Annabeth. "Maybe not enough to attend three meetings a week, but when you need people to help clean the park? We all figured the more hands, the merrier. So we put the open call out to all our friends in all our clubs. Oh, and that reminds me, Clovis and the sleep club said they'd get here as soon as they finished sleeping in."

Just five minutes prior, we had been cursing out our friends and, all the while, they had been planning this.

Just then, Will stepped forward and stared at Grover and I.

"So… where do we start?"

⁂

That morning went better than could possibly be believed. We had the clearing cleaned within ten minutes and it was obvious we'd need to organize how we should split up.

As we went about our business, a bunch of people stopped to stare at us. Some came up to ask what we were doing. When we told them, a bunch of them congratulated us on our endeavours. Three of them offered to help us. One jerk in a suit heard what we were doing and proceeded to drop his coffee cup on the ground.

But that guy didn't stop us from making Central Park a far cleaner place than it had been that morning. As we met up at 3:00 pm, we were all hot, sticky, and in desperate need of food and a shower.

Rachel had gone to get a bunch of pizzas and sodas while Silena went to her father's to pick up assorted chocolate goodies.

Those two had been our MVP's today for sure. We all knew Rachel's relationship with her father was… strained, in no small part because of Mr. Dare's harmful relationship with the environment. Rachel always worked to make sure she was nothing like her father.

And Silena… the girl was concerned with making sure her clothes stayed stain-free and that she didn't mess with icky things, but she would be dammed if the world didn't have someone to keep it pretty. And she was willing to help with that in any way she could.

After the food and drinks arrived, we had a mini feast. Everyone was laughing with one another, comparing all the awful, disgusting things we had picked up today. When there was only one slice of pizza left, it was decreed it should go to the person who had found the grossest item today. After Annabeth's architecture buddy Hana told everyone what she had picked up, she was declared the unanimous winner. After she picked up that, I'm not sure how she even had the appetite for food.

Once everyone had been stuffed with food and were only left with their drinks, I heard a voice which sounded suspiciously like Jason's friend Leo in the back shout "SPEECH!"

Apparently, my compatriots that day were a bunch of sheep since a cry of "SPEECH" echoed throughout our party.

I confess, public speaking is not my forte, but I figured I owed it to them for spending their Saturday cleaning with us.

"Thank you all for coming out to help us today, everyone. Having a crew like you guys is amazing. You are the best friends that anyone could ask for. If we each do our part, we can help beautify this planet together. So here's to all of you. CHEERS!" I finished, raising my diet coke in the air.

A cry of "CHEERS" and clinking of soda cans ensued and I sat down. Grover patted me on the shoulder.

"Good speech, J-Bug. Nice and short."

I smirked, but as the weight of everything that had happened today hit me, I began to sob into my hands. Today had been a roller-coaster, but we had done far more than we could have hoped to accomplish.

⁂

One by one, people began to make their goodbyes and head for home. Eventually, it was just Rachel, Silena, Beckendorf, Grover, and I sitting on the hill overlooking one of the clearings that we had, well, cleared.

Silena cracked her knuckles and stood up, looking at the rest of us.

"So, shall we get back to it then?"

If it wasn't for the fact it might make Grover and Beckendorf upset, I might have offered to marry her on the spot. But even I was too tired to continue.

"Maybe tomorrow, Silena," Beckendorf said.

She seemed a bit put off, but she relented when she saw how tired the rest of us were.

"Of course, Char-Char."

"We were actually thinking about making this a monthly thing," offered Grover.

Silena and Rachel's eyes lit up at that, as a look of determination washed over them.

"YES! THIS PARK IS GOING TO SPARKLE BY THE TIME WE'RE THROUGH WITH IT!" shouted Rachel.

"But now I kinda just want a shower and a nap," said Grover.

"Ditto," said Beckendorf.

I looked at the five backpacks and multitude of trash pickers that we had to take home with us. Grover and I had the energy in the morning for it, but after a day of picking up garbage, it was not going to be pleasant.

As if reading my mind, Silena jumped to our rescue.

"Hey, all of us are heading the same direction. Why don't we help you with all this stuff?"

"Watch out, Beckendorf. I'm going to steal your girlfriend if you aren't careful."

Everyone smiled and laughed at that. As we gathered one backpack each as well as a few trash pickers apiece, we made our way for home.

⁂

In a time that felt too short, we arrived at my place, sides sore from the hard work and hard laughter. The rest of them waited outside while Grover accompanied me inside. As we set everything neatly in the corner of my room, he smirked at me.

"What?" I asked accusingly.

"Nothing. I just love you is all."

"Oh, just that," I replied with a smirk of my own before pulling him in for a kiss.

As we kissed, I suddenly became aware that I had been cleaning garbage all day and that my odour reflected that fact. Not that my beloved smelled much better either, to be fair.

As he walked out the door with a final farewell, I smiled. Life wasn't perfect. The planet wasn't perfect. But with enough good people working to make it better, it could come to feel like perfection.

Yes, Happy Earth Week, everyone! I don't know if little acts like sorting garbage/recycling/compost and all that, but we owe it to Grover and Juniper to try.

The next couple chapters are written, but I still have one for this particular chapter revolving around Rachel. If anyone has anything they'd like to see, shoot me a PM/comment/review about what you'd like our favourite Oracle to get up to.

Next week, chapter uploads on Thursday at 5pm again. Until then, take care!