C a l y p s o
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Calypso was not having a good day.
Even though it was only lunchtime, yet she already knew that she'd only be getting a few hours of sleep tonight. Calypso's day had started out horrible when she overslept her alarm by an hour and had shown up five minutes late to her first period class, earning her a scolding from her ever strict AP English teacher that left Calypso humiliated. Every single one of her teachers – even her U.S. History teacher, which rarely assigned any homework – had assigned large piles of homework that were all unfortunately due the next day. On top of that, not only did Calypso have an extra long Gardening Club meeting planned for after school that day, her dad was now forcing her to pick up the family car from the auto shop simply because he didn't want to.
So, yes. All Calypso wanted at this point was for her horrible day to be over.
It was kind of funny. Calypso had actually enjoyed high school the first two years. Her workload was little to nothing every night, despite her taking several advanced classes, and she actually liked most her teachers. Calypso had this almost naive hope that the rest of high school would be just like her first two years, and all the rumors about junior year being the hardest were just a bunch of lies.
Yet here Calypso was, a little over a week into her junior year and she was absolutely miserable. If this was an indication of how the rest of the year was going to be, Calypso was almost ready to drop out right now.
Calypso slumped down in her seat and hid her head in her hands, letting out a loud groan that was noticeable to the whole table.
Annabeth, who was sitting next to her, raised an eyebrow. "Well someone's in a cranky mood."
Calypso stuck her tongue out at her friend. "I have a right to be! I have too much homework I need to do after school, and my dad is forcing me to go pick up his stupid car simply because he's too lazy to."
A small knowing smirk appeared on Thalia's face. "Are you sure that's such a bad thing?"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Have you forgotten all about your lover boy?" Rachel teased, leaning over to nudge an incredibly embarrassed Calypso in the shoulder. "Or should we call him Repair Boy."
"I highly doubt she has," Reyna chimed in, a teasing grin on her face. "She's always staring at him in Physics class."
Calypso's mouth dropped. "I do not!"
"Do too!"
"Do not!"
"Do too!"
Calypso let out another loud groan of annoyance, causing the group to burst into loud laughter. "You all are absolute menaces," She informed the table. "I hate you all."
Even though they teased her a little bit more, Calypso was thankful when they finally started talking about the upcoming musical auditions that had Piper panicking. Calypso, however, couldn't stop thinking about all the jokes her friends had made. Sure, Calypso found Leo incredibly funny and cute – even if he had a habit of pushing her buttons. She seemed to "flirt" with him more than the average guy, not that Calypso was much of a flirt in the first place.
But that didn't mean anything.
Calypso turned her attention back to the table, trying to keep her mind over thoughts of stupid crushes and "flirting." Piper was still stressing over the musical, freaking out because she had never really auditioned for anything before, and the group was trying their best to calm her down.
"Piper, you know you're going to do amazing right?" Hazel reassured sweetly. "Knowing you, you'll probably do so well that you'll get cast as Cosette."
"That would be an absolute dream," Piper sighed. "But sadly, that role is probably going to some senior or even..." She paused in the middle of her sentence and pretended to gag. "Drew Tanaka."
The entire table groaning, knowing Drew much more than they ever would have liked after spending years of school with her. Piper seemed to bear the worst of it, having to be the one to deal with year after year in the choir program, where Drew seemed more stuck-up and self-centered than usual.
"If Drew gets cast as Cosette, I'm boycotting every Goode High musical," Thalia asserted defiantly. "I don't even care that Jason wants to participate in every single one of them. I'll refuse to go."
"Amen to that," Reyna high-fived Thalia. "Drew's talented, but her horrible personality overshadows all her semi-good qualities."
"Her personality isn't going to stop Mr. Apollo from casting her," Piper muttered dejectedly.
"Yes it can!" Calypso responded eagerly. "You're just as talented as Drew, if not more!"
"Wait, wait, wait, hold on!" Rachel cut in. "If Piper ends up as Cosette, doesn't that mean that she'll kiss Jason?"
The lunch table burst into giggles which only seemed to grow when Thalia pretended to vomit over the back of her chair. "That's disgusting," Thalia exclaimed in a horrified tone of voice. "That's my little brother!"
"Your extremely hot little brother."
"Rachel, ew!"
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School had finally come to an end, and Calypso had finally trudged her way to the workshop. She would've been there much earlier, but the Gardening Club meeting went a little too little long and she ended up missing the bus. Her annoyed mood, however, seemed to disappear when she saw Leo bent over the hood of a car she recognized to be her father's. Grinning, Calypso asked,"You busy?"
Leo turned around with an almost impish grin on his face "Just finishing the last few details."
He then went on to explain all these technical details about the car, but since Calypso didn't understand most of what he was saying, she instead stared at him blankly and grinned. "I really didn't get that, but you sound like you know what you're doing so I trust you. Do I need to pay?"
"Nah, your dad already paid Burt. All I need to do at this point is fix up a few little details and then it'll be ready to go. I know it's a little dirty, but do you want to sit on the folding chair? It's a little better than standing."
Calypso didn't mind this at all, so she sat down on the slightly dirty chair with ease, despite knowing that she was almost surely getting her pale yellow dress dirty. "So how long have you been working on cars?" Calypso questioned curiously, hoping that Leo could talk and work on the car at the same time.
To Calypso's delight, he could.
"It's pretty much in my blood," Leo replied with a wide grin. "My mom's a mechanic herself and owns her own garage across town, but I got a job here because she wanted me to have experience out in the 'real world' or whatever."
He pulled a wrench out of his tool belt, and Calypso instinctively rubbed her wrist where her soulmate tattoo was located. "So..." Leo began, twirling the wrench between his fingers. "What do you do when you're not at school or hanging out in the workshop with me?"
Rolling her eyes in a good-natured sort of way, Calypso said, "My family thinks I'm a little weird for this, but I've always loved gardening. They think it's taking over the backyard, but they don't seem to be complaining when they taste the fruits and veggies."
Leo froze for a split second, almost out of shock, and then quickly recovered as if nothing had happened at all. Calypso was curious as to why he reacted the way he did, but she didn't want to ask too many questions.
Leaning over the hood of the car, Leo asked, "Any other hobbies you want to tell me about, sunshine?"
Calypso tried to ignore the small flutter in her chest and answered, "I also love cooking and baking. My dad actually doesn't mind that one, considering it means that he gets to eat really good food as a result."
There was a loud crashing sound that came from the car, and Leo yelped in pain and raised his head from under the hood of the car, rubbing the back of his head as if he had just hit it. Calypso rushed over and worryingly asked, "Are you alright?"
"I'll be fine," Leo grinned, brushing the worried Calypo away. "By the way, the car's done!"
Something about the way he was avoiding her stare made Calypso think that Leo was hiding something from her, but she decided to let it go. "Thanks," Calypso grinned appreciatively as Leo pressed her car key in the palm of her hand. "Just one more question before I drive out of here."
"Hit me."
"Don't tempt me," Calypso teased, pulling open the driver's side door. "But what's with the new nickname for me?"
"One, you keep calling me Repair Boy, so I figured I'd return the favor." Leo leaned against the passenger car door as Calypso sat in the driver's seat. "Two...you kind of remind me of a ray of sunshine."
Calypso's hand slipped, and she nearly slammed her fingers into the car door. Laughing as she let out a colorful string of curse words, Leo asked, "You alright there? Do I need to close the car door for you, or are you going to break your fingers again?"
"You're an asshole, you know that right?"
"That's rude. You know what? I take back calling you a ray of sunshine. I will now only refer to you as 'Darkness.'"
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