This is dedicated to Fan Anon, who left a very nice request on my tumblr and was very sweet about asking me for a couple I've never tried before. Here you go, I hope that this story does the trick!
Disclaimer: I don't own the two characters shown below.
Dedication: Fan Anon
Strike Three
Lou Ellen tried to sing the camp fire songs that everyone else knew like the back of their hands, but she kept messing up the words. She hadn't been at Camp long enough to memorise them yet, most newbies were still clueless, but it was okay. The old-timers made it work anyways; they sang really loudly and poked the others in the ribs in vain attempts to educate them more quickly.
Percy Jackson was the one trying to make Lou Ellen learn faster. She spent most of her time giggling or scrunching up in a protective ball when she knew she'd screwed up.
The boy sitting with Percy looked pretty pathetic. He was gloomy and pasty-skinned, with unruly black hair and clothes a size too big for him. He had his sword on him- so clearly he hadn't been expecting to come to the campfire. Judging by the look on his face, he'd been dragged here against his will and was possibly glued down to the amphitheater's bench.
After the camp fire her cabin kind of spread out around camp. Still confused about the rules, Lou Ellen let them. She figured that they'd drag themselves back to the cabin before curfew.
She saw the same boy, she didn't know his name yet, wandering near the edge of the forest. She frowned and slipped out of her inconvenient but comfy flip-flops so that she could run after him.
"Hey!" She called. "You! Black hair, moody looking!"
He looked over his shoulder frowning and looking around as if she might be referring to anybody else.
"Yes you!" Lou said. "I did say moody looking!"
He scowled and she caught up to him.
"You, my friend, look miserable." Lou Ellen said.
"Am not," he said.
"You do," she said. "I don't know what your problem is man, but you shouldn't have gone to the camp fire. If I were you, I'd have gone right to bed, earlier than most, and I'd have made extra efforts to wake up on the right side of the bed tomorrow morning."
"I'm not in a... It's not like Percy gave me a choice to... Who in all of good Olympus and sweet Hades are you even?"
"Well that was rude, so I'm not going to answer," she said. He scowled. "But I can on the other hand ask you what your name is."
His scowl faded and he grinned a bit. "My name is Nico. That was a complete sentence I used right there- do I get a second chance to ask for your name now?"
"Hmm, maybe," Lou Ellen pondered. "You can give it a try, Nico."
"What's your name?" He asked.
"Ooh, no. Sorry. I'm afraid that I can't answer that question."
"What?" Nico said. His voice was outraged but his face was smiling- decently at that. Maybe he wasn't such a mood kill after all.
"I don't find contractions acceptable if you're having a non-personal or informal relationship with someone," Lou Ellen said.
"You just said 'don't' and 'you're'," Nico said accusingly.
"Yes, well, I know your name don't I?" Lou Ellen said raising her hands.
"Alright, let's play –I'm sorry- let us play this like baseball," Nico said. "Three strikes and then I'm out, how about that?"
Lou Ellen nodded.
Nico got down to one knee and raised his arms up poetically.
"Young Damsel!" He cried, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Wise demigod! Noble daughter of the stupendous Hecate! Will you please give me the nearly imponderable pleasure of being informed about your given name!"
He'd obviously done that to screw her over, not seeming like a very expressive type, and make her laugh. She bit down on her lips and did all that she could to keep the reaction away.
"Ooh, that was very pushy. You scared me off there. Strike three, you're out." Lou Ellen said walking away.
"Oh my gods," Nico said from behind her. He sighed and shook his head. "I'm just going to find a dead person who knows you."
"Good luck with that," Lou Ellen called to him, smiling to herself as she walked away.
"I'll advertise you as 'short', 'black hair', 'skinny as a stick', 'annoying as hell and its fire'," Nico said.
Lou Ellen laughed and walked on. She stopped and turned to look over her shoulder.
"Lou Ellen," she said.
"Pardon?" Nico asked.
"My name is Lou Ellen."
"You just broke the strike-three rule," Nico said. He paraphrased her: "I find that very inappropriate in informal, non-personal relationships."
"I know your name, you know my name," Lou Ellen said twisting around and raising her hands up. "We are technically in a personal relationship now."