If there's anyone I hate it's Calypso. She's always bringing me down, telling me I'm stupid, ugly, annoying, etc. etc. etc.

Usually that wouldn't bother me but with her it hurts. I have no idea why. I've never let a regular high school girl bring me down like that. Not with Calypso. Jason says she's flirting but I doubt it. No girl dares to flirt with Leo Valdez. As much as I wish that wasn't true, it just is. I'm no girls ideal guy. I'm too scrawny, annoying, you name it. There's always an excuse.

Today will be different though. I'm not going to let a stupid girl bring me down. Not today. Nope. It's not happening. I just won't allow it. I check my watch. 5 minutes till school starts. I'll be late as always. Oh well.

~Line Break~

I walk into my classroom 10 minutes late. Ms. Cunningham my awful teacher turns her face at me and gives me a disgusted look. "Look who finally decided to show up." She said in a cold tone.

She was in her later 20's for sure and had her sleek black hair cut into a bob. She was the no nonsense kind of teacher yet some of the boys would flirt around with her. She definitely didn't appreciate this and would remind us nearly everyday.

I could say I've never done it but that would be lying. At the beginning of the year I might had said a couple of things that made her hate me for all eternity. But that's a whole other story.

But as you could guess she hates my guts. She held her cold glare at me. "Well? What's your excuse?" She asked with a bit more edge in her voice. "I-uh overslept…"

I heard Calypso trying to hold back a laugh. "Shocker!" she whispered to Piper McLean who happened to be a friend of mine.

Mostly because Jason and her have been together for a while. She smiled but she didn't say anything back. I gave her a thankful look and she nodded.

"Take a seat Mr. Valdez. I will see you after class today." She said and turned back to the board and continued her lesson. I sighed and sat in the one empty seat. The one behind Calypso. She turned around and gave me a smirk. "I'm surprised she couldn't tell. You always look like you overslept." She whispered. I rolled my eyes and cleared my throat. Ms. Cunningham turned around as soon as Calypso did.

"Is there a problem Mr. Valdez?" I could feel my face getting hotter.

"N-no ma'am." I muttered. She turned back around again and Calypso turned around and shot me another smirk. I'm so ready for this day to be over.

~Line break~

Class was about to end and Ms. Cunningham turned got up from her desk and cleared her throat. This was her way of getting our attention. We all looked up just like we're supposed to.

"Class, I've decided that you're mostly ready to do a project with partners." The class broke into excited whispers.

"I have already paired everyone up." she concluded. Naturally the whispers turned into groans. She started naming partners and

I crossed my fingers to not be matched up with you know who. Anyone in this class was better than her. She started to name off names.

"Piper and Jason" Boy were they lucky. I'm sure she knows that they're a thing. I don't know why she would be nice enough to pair them up with each other…

"Percy and Annabeth " This seems unreal. Percy and Annabeth are the most known couple in the school. If this kind of pairing keeps up maybe she'll be nice enough to pair me up with one of my friends.

"Frank and Hazel" Another couple together. What is up with her and pairing up the couples in the class?

"Reyna and Octavian" Okay so maybe she's not being completely nice about this. I sigh a bit. I'd rather not be with either of them. I could see them giving each other looks that possibly said "it could have been worse".

My mind went back to the fact that Calypso and I were partner-less. She named a couple more names and there were only four people in the class left without partners. That included you know who and I.

It also included Rachel Dare and Luke Castellan. I'd rather not be with Luke and Rachel is impossible but at this point I'd rather be with either of them. Ms. Cunningham seemed to be smiling a bit.

"Calypso and Leo." I jumped out of my seat ready to scream a long speech but I stopped myself and took a deep breath. "Ms. Cunningham." I started. Calypso stood up as well and started her speech before I could start mine.

"Would you please pair me up with anyone that isn't…well…that?" She pointed to me. I cringed at her little comment. That one hit me a littler closer to home than usual.

"Now now Calypso. I know it may be hard to tolerate him but that comment wasn't necessary. I paired everyone up with each other for a reason you know. I think the two of you would work well together. So to answer your question, No. I won't pair you two up with someone else."

She turned to Rachel and Luke who were giving each other the sideways glance. "So this means that you two will be partnered." The two nodded.

"Now. I've made a seating chart for all of you. Obviously you will all be with your partners." She started seating us in different spots and Calypso and I were in the corner. Reyna and Octavian sat behind us and Jason and Piper sat beside us. Jason shot me a sympathetic smile and I rolled my eyes at him.

Ms. Cunningham passed out our project rubrics. Calypso turned towards me in her desk and grabbed my shirt collar. "Alright Valdez if you mess this up there WILL be consequences." I gulped. "Ah…I won't." She gave me a smug smile and released my shirt collar. I rubbed my neck. She had a tight grip.

"Give me a piece of paper." She demanded. I ripped one out of my notebook. She wrote something down and shoved it in my face. "My number. Obviously we'll need some time to work on it besides at school. Now. I suppose I'll need your number as well."

I blushed. "I uh…I don't have my own phone." I muttered. I squinted my eyes shut ready for the humiliation. But she didn't say anything. She just smiled and looked down at the paper. This really surprised me. "So can I come to your house tonight? Mine's a mess. I…live alone."

I cringed. There was no way we would meet at my house. "Uh…if you don't mind…I'd rather not meet at my house." Calypso frowned. "Why not?" she asked. "I live in a foster home. There's about 5 other kids living there. They're all younger than me so you can imagine…"

I could feel my face growing hotter. "Oh…what happened? To you know…" I looked away. "I'd rather not talk about it. You'd just find a way to make fun of me out of it." I thought I was about to get punched square on the nose but she just looked away.

The bell rang and I quickly grabbed my things but Calypso grabbed my arm before I left. "Hey. Why don't we meet at the library?" I nodded

"Oh and Ms. Cunningham wanted to see you." She twisted my arm around and shoved me towards the terrifying teacher. I heard her devious laugh as she walked down the hall and I cringed. She was almost as terrifying as Ms. Cunningham who gave me a cold hard death stare.

"Mr. Valdez. I've noticed that you've been late to my class everyday this week. And you're excuse is always that you overslept. I'm starting to find this hard to believe. What's really going on Valdez?"

I gulped. Did I really have to tell her about my home life. I did oversleep and that's a fact but there were reasons that I did. Now I had to tell him to her. Maybe I could avoid trying to tell her. "I'm not lying Ms. Cunningham. I really did oversleep. But there are reasons why…"

Ms. Cunningham's stare softened a bit. "Really Mr. Valdez? Well what are these reasons?"

I stared at the ground. "I'd uh rather not tell you…" I squinted my eyes shut ready for her to yell at me and shove a detention in my face. But instead she pat me on the back.

"I understand Leo. Now hurry to you next class. I'd hate for you to be late again." I stared at her in shock. She was actually being nice to me! What was up with all these girls today? And since when does she call my by my first name? I had no idea.

~Line Break~

I made my way to the my lunch table. I ate with Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, and occasionally Percy and Annabeth. But they usually ate alone. Not today though. They sat at our table holding hands. I smiled.

I wished that I'd watched where I was going because I found myself tripping over a foot, dropping my tray all over my clothes and falling flat on my butt. Everyone in the Mess Hall stared at me for a minute and I felt my face grow hot.

Everyone in the room laughed. Except for my friends who kind of sat there for a minute looking sorry for me. I felt as sorry for myself as they did. I felt a sharp pain in my lower back and grimaced. I looked up to see Calypso smirking at me.

I guess she wasn't going to be nice today considering she had just tripped me and kicked me in the back. She grabbed my shirt collar and lifted me off the ground. And let me tell you. When a girl is able to pick you up by your shirt collar it's probably one of the worst humiliations to go through.

"See you at the library tonight Valdez." She said in a cold but yet amused tone.

She dropped me and Jason and Frank came to help me up. "Wow…" Jason said staring at Calypso who now sat back at her own table chatting with some other girls I didn't know quite as well. They all laughed along with her.

"Sorry you have to deal with her man…" Frank said pulling me up with his other hand. Frank was one of the nicest guys I knew but he was also one of the biggest ones too. And when I say big I mean ripped. He's huge. And yet he's going out with petite Hazel Grace. They're a good couple but also a strange one considering that Frank is Chinese and Hazel is African American.

I gave him a smile. "Yeah I'm sorry too." I brushed some food off of my shirt but that of course didn't help. This was one of my better shirts and it was ruined. I don't know why she what I did to make her do all this stuff to me but it sure was getting annoying.

I made my way to the table and Piper moved to sit by me. She gave me a sisterly kiss on the cheek. "Don't let her bring you down Valdez. She's just a b-" Jason covered her mouth.

"Now now." He joked and she rolled her eyes and moved his hand off her mouth. I was glad I was friends with everyone here but I couldn't help but feel jealous of all of them.

They all got together so easily leaving me being the odd one out. All three of the guys could easily get any girl to date them. They all had some kind of feature that could win any girl over.

Jason was the typical guy that all the girls would fall for with his blonde hair and crystal blue eyes.

Percy didn't have quite the rugged look but was still a champion swimmer and had that perfect tan that a lot of girls would fall for easily.

Then there was Zhang one of the biggest guys in school.

But that left me. The scrawny kid with the elfish face. No one would ever be interested in a kid like me. Calypso had made that obvious.

I promised myself that I wouldn't let any stupid girls bring me down today but that didn't happen. She's just so cruel.

Who knows what she'll do when I have to meet up with her tonight.

~Line Break~

I made my way into the library and I saw Calypso immediately sitting at a table and staring me down. I gulped and hesitantly walked to the table and set my stuff down.

"Valdez." She said in a cold tone again. I still wore my shirt from earlier today and I noticed her staring at it.

"Why didn't you change?" She asked. I immediately felt embarrassed.

"I don't have that many other clothes. I wanted to save my clean shirts for the rest of the week." She frowned at me.

I wanted to hear an apology but she just pulled out the rubric and some other supplies. "Okay so these are some of my idea's." I normally would be pretty interested to look at designs and such but I couldn't get my mind off of lunch.

"What did I ever do to you to make you do what you did at lunch today?" I blurted. Calypso looked up at me with sheer guilt on her face.

"I…uh…Just focus on the project Valdez." Her face flushed.

"Don't change the subject!" I said and she sighed.

"I…I don't know." She muttered.

"Then could you stop humiliating me all the time? I already have enough to deal with at home and when I get to school here you are just doing everything to torment me." I kept on blurting.

Calypso frowned and stared at her plans. "I…I'm sorry Leo." She muttered. I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah. Sure you are." Calypso looked hurt. I felt kind of bad but I shook the feeling off. She had made me feel like that all the time. I shouldn't feel bad about making her feel bad only once.

I grabbed her notebook and studied the design. It was pretty impressive. I nodded. "I like it. It needs a few corrections but overall it's good." I said and set the notebook in front of her.

She smiled at me and it felt weird. It wasn't one of those smiles she gave when she teased me or got me in trouble for something. It was genuine.

We met each other's eyes. I never noticed her eyes. They were almond brown and seemed to gleam a bit.

I shook the feeling off and pulled out my notebook. "I made a design too." Calypso looked down at and studied it. Her eye's seemed to widen more as she looked at it. She pushed it back to me.

"That's roughly one of the most impossible things I've ever seen. I can't see how you could make that…" She trailed off and I chuckled a bit.

"I'm pretty good with building things. I was thinking we could mix our idea's some how." Calypso gave me another one of those genuine smiles.

I couldn't deny that she was pretty. Her caramel hair was braided and it fell perfectly over her shoulder. Yup. She sure was pretty. I shook that thought out of my head.

"That's a good idea." She said simply. I don't know why all of the sudden she was being nice to me but it was better than being tripped and humiliated so I just accepted it.

~Line Break~

It had been about 2 hours and Calypso and I started wrapping up our plans.

We walked to the door together and before I walked off she grabbed my arm.

"Leo…I'm sorry. I really am. I know I didn't have any reason to do all that to you. I suppose you didn't deserve it. Can you uh…forgive me?"

I didn't want to forgive her at all. I was glad she apologized though.

I wanted to say no but my mind got ahead of me.

"Sure. I guess it would be easier to not have any tension between us since we have to work together." I automatically regretted saying that. Calypso smiled.

"Thanks. I wasn't sure if you would. I gotta go." She concluded. Before she left though she completely surprised me and kissed me on the cheek. She ran off after that leaving me frozen where I was standing.

This girl had to be bipolar or something. Earlier today she hated and me and now she kissed me goodnight?

All I know is that I'm confused. I make my back to my house and the only thing on my mind was her and her kiss. Gods she was complicated.