Prompt: "What do you want?" "Uhm… That's my locker."

Written for the Camp Jupiter forum.

Cohort: 3

Striding through the hallway, Calypso fought to keep the scowl off of her face. Stupid Valdez, she thought. Gripping the straps of her backpack, Calypso seethed as she made her way to her locker.

"Calypso!" someone cried out from behind her. "Wait up!" Turning, the scowl melted off of Calypso's face as she saw one of her best friends, Piper. Not far behind her was Reyna, not even bothering to hide her usual intimidating frown.

Pausing, Calypso waited for Piper and Reyna to catch up. Out of breath, Piper glared playfully at Calypso. "Why'd you run out of class like that? You used to wait for us, you know."

Reyna laughed quietly. "Isn't it obvious?" she asked, smirking at Calypso.

Groaning, Calypso swatted Reyna's arm. "Look," she said, gritting her teeth. "The only reason why Mr. D put Valdez next to me is because he wanted to torture me. And unfortunately, it's working. I just needed to get away from the idiot, okay? It's getting unbearable."

Piper smiled gently as Reyna rolled her eyes. "Calypso," Piper said carefully, "Perhaps it was because Leo was misbehaving next to Jason near the back of the class, as Mr. D put it? And had to be moved to the front, where you sit? And he doesn't do anything, not really. Just harmless jokes. He doesn't even prank you, you should see the stuff he does to Jason and Percy."

Balling her hands at her side, Calypso scowled. "We all know perfectly well that there's an empty seat in the middle of the class," she growled. "Mr. D just wanted to aggravate me. And it's working. And just because the jokes and comments he makes to me aren't as bad as others, it doesn't make it any worse. They're still annoying and rude."

Piper pursed her lips together thoughtfully. "Or he knew you would put him in his place?" Piper suggested. "You and Reyna do have a reputation for being the most serious in the class. And besides, you could just ignore the comments. He does it to everyone."

"You just can't complain because you got to move next to Jason," Reyna whispered playfully. Calypso was rather surprised that Reyna was comfortable making a joke like this. A while ago, Reyna herself had a crush on Jason, but it seemed like Reyna had moved on. Moved on enough so that she could joke over Piper and Jason's relationship.

Blushing madly, Piper sputtered madly, attempting to form an excuse. "It's fine," Calypso said tiredly. "I just can't deal with him, the idiot. It's so annoying the way he calls me Sunshine..." miming gagging, Calypso made retching noises.

Reyna nodded in agreement. Aside from Calypso, the only person who had almost as much dislike for Valdez as her was Reyna. Perhaps that was because Valdez had a tendency to call her RARA, which Reyna hated. Something to do with her heritage. But Calypso was just glad someone disliked Valdez as much as her.

"Come on, guys!" Piper pleaded. "Leo's not that bad!" Calypso snorted. Sometimes she forgot that Piper and Valdez had been friends in elementary school. Still were, as a matter of fact, something Calypso tended to ignore.

"And besides, I still think you like him," Piper said stubbornly. Groaning, Calypso rolled her eyes at Piper. Sure, maybe once Calypso had remarked that Valdez made scrawny work for him, but that was months ago. Sure, maybe Calypso had thought some of his jokes were funny, but that didn't mean she liked him.

"What do you think of him, Reyna?" Piper asked after Calypso remained silent.

"He's... interesting," Reyna said finally, scowling. "Perhaps he would be fine if he would stop calling me that stupid nickname and stopped with the stupidly corny jokes."

"Reyna!" Calypso gasped jokingly. "I never knew you would be one to compliment him!"

Shrugging, Reyna gave her a half of a smile. "I worked with him on a group project once," she said. "It wasn't the worst thing I had ever done. Well, I'll see you all later at lunch?"

Calypso and Piper nodded, before heading their separate ways. Calypso continued to dwell their discussion, frowning as she pushed past the steady stream of students. Could Valdez really not be that bad? He was an insufferable dimwit though, even if Piper said he had gotten a scholarship in some engineering college. And no, Calypso had not been paying attention to that conversation.

Arriving at her locker, Calypso turned the dial on the lock and swung her locker door open, shoving her textbook into the locker. No matter what Piper and Reyna had to say about Valdez, he was still an annoying idiot who didn't know when to shut up.

Still aggravated over Valdez, Calypso grabbed her binder and slammed the locker door shut with a resounding bang, but not loud enough for everyone in the hallway to hear.

Turning, Calypso seethed in fury as she saw the one person who managed to get under her skin like this.

Stupid freaking Valdez.

"What do you want?" she demanded, gritting her teeth and glaring.

"Uhm... That's my locker." Valdez pointed to the locker ever so conveniently next to hers. Of course. Of course the gods of high school wouldn't let her catch a break. Calypso felt like swearing, but after the detention it had gotten Percy Jackson, Calypso wasn't brave enough to do that.

How did she never realize his locker was next to hers? They were never at their lockers at the same time, but still! This was a nightmare. Except that Calypso couldn't wake up.

Letting out a tortured groan, Calypso glared at him hatefully. She was a more than a few good inches taller than him, so she managed to look down her nose at him, pleased when he had to crane his neck up to see her. Good. Let the scrawny idiot feel inferior. A small part of her felt guilty for being so rude, but Calypso was fed up today.

"Whoa there, Sunshine," he said, still managing to sound cheeky even when she towered over him. "I haven't done anything to you."

Calypso felt like screaming. Of course he had to continue with the gosh darn awful nickname he had come up with the first time she had ever met him. Why? Why did he have to bother her, and not Drew or Octavian? Surely, surely the gods would have pity on her eventually, right?

"Oh yeah?" she challenged. "Well, has it ever made it past your thick skull that maybe I don't like it if you incessantly nag me every single day?"

And not only that, every time she finally snapped, throwing insults at Valdez after enduring jokes and distractions, it always managed to attract the attention of Mr. D. And every time, she would get admonished for it, just because she was fed up with Valdez. Piper usually put it down to her nearly yelling at Valdez, but Calypso was always aggravated at the time. And it wasn't like he would listen otherwise.

"So you know what Valdez?" she continued, not even caring if she looked deranged, "you can fall into a pit and die for all I care, but just leave me alone!" Perhaps that was more than a little harsh, but Calypso had a tendency to let her anger overtake her.

Taking a step back, Valdez took a moment to compose himself before putting his usual cheeky smile back on his face. "Wow, Sunshine! That hurts!" he put a hand over his heart and pretended to be wounded. Pouting, Valdez adopted the look of an innocent child. And no, it totally didn't look cute. Not at all.

Sighing angrily, Calypso ran a hand through her hair. "Look," she muttered finally. "Can't you just leave me alone? There's not a single good thing you've done or said to me, and one of these days I'll punch you in the nose."

"But we were getting along so well before now," Valdez said, pouting.

"Really? Is that what you think? We can't stand each other." Calypso shook her head exasperatedly. "Clearly nothing good can come out of you. Look, Valdez - just leave me alone, okay?"

For once, Leo - no, Valdez, Calypso thought - was shocked. There was a moment of vulnerability that not even Calypso could brush away. Something... different than his usual carefree manner.

"Is that what you really think of me?" he asked carefully. "That I'm nothing good?"

"Well, how am I if you're going to be an annoying dimwit?" Calypso asked angrily. "I haven't done anything wrong, and you are constantly bothering me with annoying jokes and comments."

Valdez paused for a few seconds. "I didn't think you were so bothered by them," he said quietly, smiling slightly. "I didn't think you cared so much. Besides, I see you smile at them sometimes."

It was true, as whenever Valdez made a particularly funny joke, Calypso would turn away and let out a small smile. Perhaps she hadn't been as discreet as she thought.

And looking back on it, perhaps Calypso had been a little harsh on Valdez. Maybe the pranks and jokes he made were normal to him, things he did to other people. Piper had complained on numerous occasions about pranks Valdez had pulled on her. Maybe she had overreacted, and there were worse pranks and jokes he had done.

"Fine," Calypso said, relenting. "I'll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine." In reality, Calypso sort of wanted to get to know Valdez better. In the past month or so, Calypso had discovered another side to him. Nice. Funny. Witty. Sure, he could be annoying, and was, but sometimes he wasn't.

Over the past few years, Calypso hadn't really paid attention to him, just knew him as the annoying kid who played pranks on her friends. But things had changed over the past month. Ever since he was moved to sit next to her.

"But Sunshine," Valdez said, smirking devilishly. "We all know you can't keep your hands off of me."

Calypso rolled her eyes. Of course. Valdez always said things like this, to everyone really. Not that it bothered her that he did it to every good looking girl in the high school. He could do it to anyone he wanted to, and in fact, it would be better for him to do it to someone other than her. Yes. That is what she would tell herself. "Whatever," she muttered, moving to push past him.

Valdez stepped in front of her, blocking her from making a hasty exit. "Look," he said, for once mildly serious, "I'll tone down the pranks and jokes. Okay?"

Calypso's eyes widened in shock. Valdez? Offering to stop with the pranks and corny jokes? Okay, he said tone down the jokes and pranks, but still! "I doubt you'd last a day," she challenged. "And you'd still claim that they were toned down."

Rolling his eyes, Leo - no, Valdez, Calypso admonished herself - smirked. "We'll see about that, Sunshine," he taunted.

Fighting back a small grin, Calypso raised her eyebrows. "You'll be eating your words soon enough, Valdez." Turning, Calypso pushed past Valdez, finally letting herself grin.

"I saw you smile!" she heard Valdez call from somewhere behind her.

Rolling her eyes, Calypso fought back a laugh. "I doubt it, Valdez!" Walking with the steady stream of students, Calypso let herself smile. Perhaps a tentative truce with Valdez wasn't so bad.