Okay, so I was watching my favourite Disney movie of all time and I made a connection between my favourite street-rat and everyone's favourite mechanic...
Warnings: Theft, knives, etc. Plus, it's VERY unrealistic. Helps if you picture them as cartoon characters.
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Come to think of it, I don't own Aladdin either… I'm sad now.
If he wasn't so damn hungry, Leo would've congratulated himself on evading Social Services for an entire month. In fact, the familiar gnawing feeling was about to be cured, so he was feeling pretty smug anyway. A small voice echoed through his mind. What your màma say about you stealing?, it scolded. He felt guilty for a moment, and then his stomach rumbled. He sighed. His head and his stomach were so at odds these days. Yes, he stole two loaves of bread. Yes, he indulged a little and took them from the little family run bakery on the corner because it was better than the supermarket. But he was done with the guilt.
"Oi! Get back here, kid!" shouted a voice. Leo whirled to see the man who he saw cooking in the back was yelling at him from across the street. The maniac was brandishing a kitchen knife. Another man, who could've been his brother, was behind him in the doorway, along with a middle-aged woman and a teenage girl – around 15, Leo's age. Brown hair, pretty good-looking – stupid ADHD. He pretended to think for a minute, the turned and ran.
"Hey!" the man screamed. The four of them took off after them. Leo sniggered at how weird this must look to bystanders. A skinny, Latino teen clutching two loaves of bread, running through the streets of Chicago, being chased by angry bakers with – wait, did they still have the knives?! Leo clambered up a fire escape. Started yelling insults up at him, but things got violent quickly.
"Take that!" yelled the woman, throwing a bottle at him.
"It just a few loaves of bread!" Leo protested.
"And we want it back!" shouted the girl. Leo ducked as she threw the knife at him. It hit the window box behind him and stuck. He really enjoyed being NOT impaled, so he ducked inside the open window.
And straight into a girls bedroom. Three 14-year-old girls stared at him.
"Hey, I saw you a week or so ago!" exclaimed one. "You were running from cops!"
"Wowee, mister, you're like a one-man rise in crime!" said another.
"I'd blame his parents, but he probably doesn't have any!" sneered an older woman – probably the girl's mother, who had come into the room. She shoved Leo in the chest with her broom "Go on, out with you!" Leo put one leg out the window.
"Well, if you girls ever need help, or want a fun story, or want a date or something-"
"OUT!"
Leo left hastily.
The bakers were still there, so he rolled the dice. Balancing precariously on the fire escape railing, Leo waited for his moment. And waited. And waited, till… now! He took a flying leap away from the building, and landed. With a loud thump and an 'ouch' on the top of a moving bus. He rode on top of the bus, and was almost certain he had gotten away.
But then the white 'Social Services' van pulled up behind the bus. And who should pop her head out of the passenger seat window but Andrea, his social worker.
"LEO!" she yelled. Dude, Leo thought, my lucks bad, but this is just ridiculous!
"Greyhound Bus number 1916. Please, stop immediately." Okay, since when did those stupid vans have speaker systems? The bus grinded to a halt, causing a massive traffic jam. "Leo Valdez, please remove yourself from the top of the bus and come to toward the Social Services vehicle". Wow, that guys sounds so bored, like he dealt with bus-hopping runaways all the time.
"I need a nom de plume." mumbled Leo. He slid off the bus, and sprinted away. He could hear the speaker system directing the traffic, telling the bus to move along, etcetera, but undoubtedly Andrea would be chasing him.
On the way past, his eye was caught by some TVs in a window. They showed a cartoon with a young Arabic man running from some fat guards holding loaf of bread. Great, thought Leo sarcastically. Now my life's a Disney movie.
He wheeled around the corner, and (of course) there were the bakers.
"Oh come on!" Leo spoke aloud.
"There you are!" the (supposed) brother said. Leo shifted one of his loaves to the other hand, and drew a small pocket knife. He waved it threateningly at them.
"Whoa, he's got a knife!" yelped the (supposed) brother.
The original man clapped a hand to his forehead. "You idiot, we've all got knives!"
"Oh!" the family said in unison.
Leo didn't stick around; he bolted across the street, dodging four lanes of traffic and a lot of bleep bleeps! Amazingly, he made it across. Like he had super-heightened reflexes or something. He kept running. Suddenly, he saw that several cops on motorbikes had blocked off the street. Can't go that way. He turned, ran two paces and saw the bakers. Can't go that way. Then the Social Service van pulled up. No way to go. Except up. He ran to nearest the apartment building and dashed up the fire escape, till he reached the roof.
The cops were clambering up after him. Well the ones not restraining the bakers anyway. The first of the cops climbed onto the roof in time to see Leo grin, mock salute and leap off the building. They gasped and ran to the side. Their eyes widened as they saw Leo perched on a few blocks of wood that were suspended in mid-air by a crane. They simply stared as the teen was hoisted into the air, munching on his bread.
Best. Escape. Ever.
The song was One Jump Ahead from Disney's Aladdin. And I know I missed bits. A nom de plume is a fake name.
You should all note that I don't live in a city, let alone Chicago. This was based off what I've seen in movies. I will used flames to toast marshmallows. Millions and millions of marshmallows. Aside from that, this has been a fun half hour! Till next time!