Between the battles: Heroes of Olympus one shots

A Normal Day in the Life of...

Calypso

A normal day in the life of... Well no one but the Valdez family. Calypso blew back a strand of hair as she tried, unsuccessfully, to wrangle her family into the car for a trip to Camp Half-Blood.

She glanced over her shoulder as she buckled her youngest child, Jason, into his car seat. He was only six months old, but already almost as much trouble as his brothers. He had the golden hair of his mother, and big brown eyes. As for his attitude... Let's say he got it all from his dad. His first word had been 'trouble', and he had made himself just that ever since. Calypso sighed as he flung his dragon toy out the window, and screamed in delight as it whirred and slowly spurred into flight.

"Essie!" Calypso called, and her oldest daughter, Esperenza, who was fourteen, ran out of the house with her nose in a gardening magazine. She took after her father, like most their children. She had long brown hair, and a spunky personality. Although she had inherited her father's fire abilities, she almost never used them, driving her jealous brothers crazy, preferring gardening with Calypso. She tripped over the front step, and landed face first in a potted plant near the front doorstep. Calypso groaned, and walked over to her eldest. She had extracted her head from the flowers, which were now charred ashes from Essie's flaming head. She giggled, and, noticing the flying dragon, said "I'll go get that, and I'll wait in the car with Jason and try to keep him calm."

Calypso smiled, and said "That would be perfect, but first kindly extinguish you hair first!"

Essie's eyes widened, and her hand went to her flaming head and her eyes widened. "Styx," she grumbled, and she ran her hands through her hair and the fire slowly went out. She grabbed the flying toy, and hopped in the car and started to make faces at Jason, who shrieked with delight.

Two down, four to go, Calypso told herself. Plus Leo... She thought, and proceeded around the house to the garage.

Ducking beneath the garage doors, she was immediately attacked by her twin sons, Sammy and Charlie, with water balloons. Both of them were the most hyper boys she had ever seen in her life, besides Leo. They were identical, both with curly brown hair and brown eyes, just like Leo. They were seven, but no one knew which one was older, not that it mattered to either of them. They were bouncing bundles of hyper ADHD, constantly pulling pranks, bouncing off the walls, and getting into trouble.

Standing there, dripping wet, Calypso glared at the boys, who were laughing hysterically, doubled over besides two more buckets full of water. Probably for their next victim, Calypso reflected. "SAMMY, CHARLIE, IN THE CAR, NOW!" They giggled, and ran past her, hopefully going to the car as instructed. Probably not.

Doing her best to dry herself off, Calypso ventured further into the workshop, where, hopefully, she would find the rest of her dysfunctional family.

Hearing voices, Calypso veered towards the repair part of the garage, and sure enough she found Ellie and Nyssa, working on repairing a car.

Ellie and Nyssa couldn't look more different. They both loved machines and anything mechanical, and they both practically lived in the workshop. Nyssa was twelve, and Ellie was six. Ellie was Nyssa's shadow, going wherever Nyssa went.

Nyssa was almost a carbon copy of Calypso. She had Calypso's eyes, caramel hair, and fair skin. She was calm and even tempered, and she didn't inherit her father's abilities, save the mechanical brain. She had no taste for plants, and she if she had the choice she would never leave the workshop.

Ellie was the cutie of the family. She had long, dark curly hair that was always loose down her back, and she had huge brown eyes and tan skin like her father. She was currently missing her two front teeth, and Ellie was never without a huge grin on her face. She was always bubbly and outgoing, constantly laughing and having fun. She had fire abilities, and used it all the time to amuse herself and her friends. Ellie had the whole camp wrapped around her little finger, and she always got her way.

"Alright both of you," Calypso said "In the car, we're going to camp Half-Blood." Ellie shrieked with joy, and sprinted past Calypso towards the car. Nyssa followed, a bit more reluctantly, Calypso called to her, "Have you seen your father?"

Nyssa called back over her shoulder. "Last I heard of him he was going to do some repairs on Festus out back."

"Thanks," Calypso replied, and turned and made her way to the backyard.

There was Leo, as Nyssa promised. He was sitting on Festus' neck, probably messing around with the control disk some more. He looked up and saw Calypso, grinned, and hopped off Festus' back. Calypso smiled, and said "Did you forget we were going to Camp Half-Blood today? I spent the morning trying to wrangle the children into the car, and where were you?"

Leo cringed, and said "Oops. Well, I'm here now! Whose left? And why are you wet?"

"Why do you think? Sammy and Charlie. They ambushed me when I came in the garage."

"Oh yeah," Leo commented. "I saw them with those. Meant to ask. Whoops."

Calypso rolled her eyes "Thanks for the thought. Now let's get to the car before-"

She was cut off with a shriek from Essie, who came running in. "MOM!"

"That happens"

Calypso's eyes widened and she groaned. Jason's whole body was in flames, but luckily he was wearing fire proof clothing so Calypso didn't have to worry about that. "Another one!? Leo, kindly extinguish your son, and Essie get a bucket of water for the car trip just in case."

Leo grinned sheepishly, and took a giggling Jason from Essie and put his flames out. Leo started bouncing Jason around, making him laugh even harder. "I'll take this one to the car, which hopefully isn't blown up or in flames like the last five. Come whenever you're ready, I have a feeling you need a minute."

Calypso smiled gratefully as Leo turned and walked out the door. "And don't worry, I'll keep them all from killing each other!"

As Leo walked out the garage, Calypso groaned and leaned against Festus, who whirred comfortingly. As Calypso tried to collect her composure and her thoughts, she put her hand on her stomach and smiled in spite of everything.

This was her family, and she wouldn't trade it for any other. And soon, a new addition. She would have to tell Leo...