'Hey, kids!' the Narrator exclaimed. All the children gathered around her.

'Hey! What story are you going to read us?' they asked. The Narrator smiled and opened a big book.

'The Lost Tales From A Demigod's Past,' she said.

'What's it about?' a kid asked.

'Go read the description above, foolish child,' the narrator laughed, quite immaturely. She shushed the children, and opened her book. 'Chapter One: Leo.'

Leo

"I don't want to," the nine year old boy said. The matron, Mrs O'Phinn, looked at him with sympathy, a look that many hadn't used with him.

"Mr. Valdez, you will come with me," she said kindly. She'd been at it for fifteen minutes- trying to get the boy out of his room. She did feel sorry for him, the poor dear had just lost his mother in a fire four months ago. But now, there was a man who wanted to adopt him. Leo wouldn't come with her, though! He was a scrawny boy, who had a great sense of humor, but for now, his sadness covered that up. He looked up at the matron from his bed. "I don't like Dr Kushner," he said. Mrs O'Phinn secretly agreed. An older single man should not be adopting a nine year old boy, especially when that man showed all signs of being gay. But there were no criminal records though, so he was free to adopt the child. "I know, dear. Leo, please cooperate. On the bright side, you're leaving the House in four months- it takes some kids years. Come on, Leo." The boy looked up at Mrs O'Phinn. "Are you sure?" he asked warily. She nodded. He reluctantly got up, grabbed his small suitcase, and followed the matron out of the big bedroom, which now only served as a bedroom for forty-nine boys between six and ten, instead of fifty.

"Hello, Leo, very nice to see you again!" Dr Kushner said cheerfully, taking Leo's bag, but not after touching Leo's hand for about thirty seconds too long.

"Hullo," Leo muttered, looking at the floor.

"Leo, say 'Hello' to Dr Kushner," Miss Nancy, the House's director, said meanly.

"Hello," Leo said indifferently. Miss Nancy scowled, but said nothing. There was an awkward silence between the two old people, and the small boy.

"Well, let's get going," Kushner said, turning, and held out his hand to Leo. Leo reluctantly took it.

"Goodbye, Valdez, hope you're happy and don't come back," Miss Fancy Shmancy said in a half sweet- half sarcastic voice. Leo stuck his tongue out at her, and hurried off.

"So, Leo, since I'll be your new… father… you'll need to know some things about me," Kushner began, smiling.

"Okay," Leo said blankly. Kushner smiled.

"You see, I'm a doctor. An oncologist. For children." Whatever that is, Leo thought. " I specialize in little boys. Unfortunately, I don't save many kids. In fact… the last child that won over their cancer battle while they were under my hands… was… wait, never mind. I've failed every single child I treated. Don't worry, though, my profession is very difficult. Every time I fail a child, my heart breaks a little more." He said this all to Leo, with a large smile on his face, making it very hard to believe he really cared one way or another. Leo made a mental note to never let his new guardian treat him, if he ever got cancer. Kushner still hadn't let go of Leo's hand, which was macho creepo. Leo nodded for him to go on. "It's been very lonely these past few years," he continued, "you see, since my wife-" Kushner stopped talking and puffed out his cheeks for a second. H obviously was making something up. "-Debbie," he nodded, "passed on, it's been like my heart has cancer, and can only be filled with children." Okay, Leo thought. Not only is he lying, but he's also like, some gay perve that's been watching Despicable Me. Like I can believe that. Puh-lease. I mean, does he think that any nine year old kid in America wouldn't recognize that line? And he's probably killed more kids than the rest of the medical world combined.

"Home sweet home, sweetie," Kushner said, unlocking the door to his large home (undoubtedly paid for by the numerous parents who thought that he'd be able to save their child from cancer, and paid him a ton of money), and leading him inside. All the walls were a simply lovely shade of salmon. There was a huge banner hanging above the entrance to the kitchen, that said:

WELCOME HOME, LEO!

"Would you like some pink lemonade?" Kushner asked.

"Uh… no, thanks," Leo said, still in shock from the fact that there were bouquets of flowers everywhere, and there was Bath and Body Works' Red Rose air freshener.

"Then here's a juice box, kiddo," the 'Doctor' slid a box of pink lemonade juice across the counter, to where Leo was sitting. Leo rolled his eyes, and opened it.

"Would you like some apple sauce?" Leo almost gagged. That stuff was nasty.

"Uh…no. I'm allergic to apples," Leo lied.

"Then some falafel, perhaps?"

"No, thanks, I would not like some fluffy waffles," Leo said, exasperated. Kushner smiled at Leo.

"Let's go to your room, shall we?"

The room, of course, had to be next to Kushner's, complete with a door leading into Kushner's room, on one side of a wall. And it had to be a shade of magenta, and the bed was a pearly white painted loft with a slide coming down. It would have been cool, if only hearts hadn't been painted on it. Leo sighed, and, -for the first time- Kushner left the room. Instead of unpacking, Leo made sure everything was in his bag. There was no way Leo was staying there. Not in a million years. He'd build a rope ladder, or something- anything. Just to leave. He couldn't live with a gay doctor! He'd rather live on the streets, or in a forest.

In the next three hours, Kushner and Leo had done everything that, like, eleven year old girls would have done, from hide-and-seek, to telling their deepest darkest secrets, to drawing. Leo was a GUY. Kushner… maybe he might not be all man, but Leo still had a shred of dignity left. Or not. Then, when they were done with that, Kushner decided to make cup cakes. Of course, you did, Leo thought. "Would you like red velvet or chocolate?" Leo chose red velvet, because that had been his mom's favorite. Oh, god, he missed his mom so much. That horrible night had been so recently… "Cream cheese or chocolate frosting?" Leo snapped right then and there.

"What kind of idiot uses chocolate instead of cream cheese on red velvet?!" Leo shouted. Then he realized how gay that sounded. Oh, god. What's wrong with me? Overreacting over frosting? I need to get out of here- fast! This crawler is already ruining me!

That night, after a nice dinner of take-out Mexican (Racist pig, that man), apple sauce for dessert (so much for being allergic), and a 'movie party,' (Barbie and the Diamond Castle), Kushner sent Leo to bed. Leo immediately got to work. "It's Leo Time," he declared, just loud enough to make it official. He looked around his room for ideas. There were two large windows on the side of the room that faced the outside. The door leading to Kushner's room was on the wall opposite to the window wall, so that was good. His castle was in the middle of the room, not against a wall, and it was huge. He made a smart move, and pushed it against the door leading to Kushner's room. Then he piled all of the flowers (there were a lot of them) against the other door, so that Kushner couldn't enter through there either. Then Leo started coming up with ideas for something to get him down four floors. He thought of the movie 'Brave,' but quickly ruled out that idea. The one where all the men in the kingdom were locked in a tower, and used their kilts to get down. Leo didn't even own a kilt. Thank god for that.

He decided to take a bunch of blankets (again, way too many for some old guy), and tie them together. Leo wasn't feeling all that creative, and he was pretty tired and out of resources. Now, if he'd had a tire, twine, yarn, a knife, and kiddie pirate swords- that would be something. But he had a loft bed, flowers, a duffel bag, and blankets. Whoopdie-freaking-doo, he thought. I get to use like the oldest trick in the book. Who wants that? He got to work by tying the blankets' ends together, so that he eventually had a sixty foot long rope. He went to open the window, and sighed when he realized something: Kushner was down there, directly below the window, looking up at his window through binoculars. When he saw Leo open the window, he put his binoculars down. "Leo!" he cried happily. "I missed you, so I decided to get out here, and enjoy the view." Leo was genuinely scared now.

"Um, it's one o'clock in the morning. Shouldn't you be asleep? Or… What about at your hospital, caring for a kid?" Leo asked.

"Nonsense. I'd rather be out here, watching you. And no, I don't have any kids under my wing for now- except you. The last one I finished caring for… I think he died several days ago. Ronald… Johnson? Ronald… Thomas, yes. Ronald Thomas. He was four. Oh, well." Leo was seriously worried for this womanly man. He wouldn't shut up about all his failed kids. It depressed Leo.

"I'm going to bed!" Leo called.

"Aw, I'll miss you!" Kushner called. Leo gave him an awkward half-smile, and shut the window, closed the blinds, and covered them with his thick Pottery Barn curtains, so that no light would escape the room.

"Whatever," Leo muttered. He closed the window, and cursed. "Seriously! Stupid man, that perra," Leo cursed. He had heard his mother call some customers that, and wasn't entirely sure what it meant, but she'd always told Leo to never say it to anyone whenever she said it.

Leo wondered what to do. He would simply not put up with his new guardian any longer, so he began weighing his options. He started pacing his room, looking around. He was about to check his bag for anything, when he tripped into the wall, knocking down a vase onto his head. "Ow!" he cried out, rubbing his head, and picking up the vase. As he looked at it, an evil idea began to form in his head. He examined the pink (what a surprise) vase, and measured its length, width, and thickness. "Perfect," he muttered, walking to the window. He peeked out, and Kushner was still there. "Oh, god, that guy has issues," Leo whispered. He opened the window, and Kushner waved.

"Hey, buddy! shouldn't you be asleep?" he called.

"Nah, I wanted to give you a present," Leo said innocently.

"And what is that?" Kushner asked, an even larger smile forming on his face.

"This." Leo dropped the vase onto the old man's (woman's?) head, and did the first ever thing that made Leo such a rebel. He crumpled and fell out of his chair. "Dear god, please don't say I killed him," Leo said, suddenly worried. He tossed his things down, hitting Kushner, and hooked his rope up. Right before he left, he grabbed one of the darkest, un-girly blankets that were there, and tossed it down as well. He didn't know where he was headed.

He climbed down the makeshift rope, and when he got to the bottom, he checked Kushner's pulse. Ba-bamp, ba-bamp. Leo breathed out in relief, and stood up. "Leo out," he told the still-unconscious Kushner. He turned to go, but thought of something that just might be useful. Food. He ran to the front door, which was- locked. Leo cursed under his breath, and went to one of the ground floor windows. He picked up a rock, and did the second rebel-Leo thing: break a window. He nimbly climbed between the shards of glass, and into the kitchen. In there, he saw something that genuinely scared him. It was very dark, and everything was knocked over- the pots and pans, the chairs and table; even the Leo banner was in shreds. He walk backwards into the fridge in shock. He quickly opened it, and grabbed the first thing he felt- of course, it was that stupid applesauce. "Argh! That stuff is out to get me!" Leo yelped. All the same, he dropped it into his bag, along with a box of chex mix and a water bottle. Suddenly, there was a growling noise from outside. "Leo…" it said dreamily. Leo immediately thought of the dirt lady, the one that had caused his mother's death. Suddenly, a shadow came in front of the window, still growling. Leo's heart beat overtime, and his stomach was a merry-go-round. "Leo…" the voice said again, closer. Leo didn't wait to see who it was. He picked up his stuff and ran.

Leo sprinted as long as he could, which he figured out was pretty long. He ran into a forest that was on the side of Kushner's estate, and went until he found a stream. He gasped for breath, and got a drink of water. He looked around for the owner of the voice, but no one was there. He walked down the stream for about three miles, and eventually Leo realized that he was very tired. He checked the old watch that his mom had given him on his fifth birthday. It was 3:45 AM. He made sure he was alone, and took out his blanket, and passed out.

The next morning, when he woke up, Leo was slightly confused, and very frightened. He stood up, and gathered up his things and ate a small container of applesauce, which even that tasted good. He started walking down the stream, and it must have been for a long time, because he came after a while, he walked into a neighborhood. There was no one around, so he walked down its street, and out onto a big roadside. A couple drivers stared at him like, What the heck? Where are that kid's parents? And what, is he doing on the side of the road? Stupid boy… That's what Leo would have thought if he'd seen someone sitting on the side of a highway. He kept walking, until he found a park close to the neighborhood. He sat on a swing, and reflected what had happened in the past day. He'd been adopted, found out that his guardian was a gay 'murderer' of children, and ran away. Life was goo- not good.

'Leo may not have known it then, but that was the beginning of a very important story. Well, the second part. The first part had been had been his mom dying. But this was the first part of his life where he needed a quick mind, an ingenious invention, and some serious swag,' the narrator finished, closing the big book. ''Well, kids, that was fun. Join us again whenever the next chapter is out! Next demigod: Reyna! And maybe Hylla!'

'Aw!' the kids said.

'Don't worry! Reyna is seriously kick-butt!'

'YAY!' the kids cheered as they scrolled down to review, favorite, and follow the story.

"But wait, there's more!' the narrator said happily. 'The first person to answer this question gets their name used in place of 'the children' for the next chapter! So then, you get publicized!'

'Yay!' all the nameless children cheered, as they got ready to answer the question, hoping to get it right first.

'OK... what is the LAST THING in all of the Percy Jackson and Heroes of Olympus series, that Miss Annabeth Chase said?'