A/N This fanfic is spread over a few time points in the series, and you should be able to judge when is when. For example, if there is a section with Leo that takes place after BOO, than you should be able to judge that this is after Leo comes back.
"Hey, junk-face, what happened to your leg? Did you accidently trip in your own puddle of stupid and break it?" Shane's eyes watered, but he managed to not cry until the pack of 4th graders turned the corner, laughing at their own idiotic joke. But then he couldn't help it; tears started rolling down his cheeks.
Shane had broken his leg in the battle against Gaea, and he had had to wear a cast and use crutches.
He was a year round camper; when his mother had found out she was pregnant, she was furious. She didn't want a child. She had known the father was Hephestus, and she had heard him mention Camp Half Blood, so she tracked them down and handed Shane over to them as soon as he was born. Even though he was a year round camper, the camp sent him to school.
The rule had been put into effect after the second Titan War; just in time for it to effect Shane. Chiron sent all children elementary school age children who were year-rounders and had no family of their own(except for cabinmates of course) to school, and they came back to camp in the bus everyday. The Hecate cabin had used mist to fool mortal bus-drivers into thinking the entrance to "Delphi Strawberry Farms" was a bus stop.
Shane had been bullied all throughout kindergarten for being ugly, but now that he came back in first grade not only being ugly but having a broken leg as well, the bullying had only gotten worse.
When Shane got back to Camp that afternoon, he ran crying to Leo, telling him about how he was bullied.
Leo lifted the little boy into his lap and started comforting him and calming him down. As soon as Shane wasn't crying anymore, Leo started to talk.
"You know what you should do when those big, mean, scary 4th graders bully you? You know what you should say when they ask you how you broke your leg?"
Shane shook his head.
"Well you should look them straight in the eye and tell them, proud and strong; I broke it in a fight with a dracenae." Shane looked up at Leo, frowning.
"But what if they don't know what a dracenae is? Not everyone knows about greek mythology.", he asked.
Leo smiled and said, "Well then you should tell them how silly they are for not knowing what a dracenae is. I mean really, who doesn't know what a dracenae is? No offense to you at all, Shane, but for people who manage to make a kid as strong as you cry, these people really are astoundingly stupid." Shane started to giggle.
"But I can't tell them I'm a demigod, Leo. It's a secret.", said Shane, his face scrunched in confusion.
"Well then don't tell that that!", Leo replied,"It'll sound even more impressive if you make it sound like you defeated a dracenae and were mortal. You tell them how that dracenae was about to stab you in the chest, but becuase of your awesome reflex skills, you dodged it, and it only hit your leg instead. You tell them how you used you sword to pull down her sunglasses(where did she get those anyways?), and how they fell down her tropical Hawaiian shirt.", Leo started to tickle Shane, causing him to roll with laughter, "You tell them how she screamed and shrieked and when she were distracted you managed to destroy her, and you tell them how her last words were, 'My glasses!'!".
By now, Leo and Shane were on the floor, roaring with laughter, from tickling each other,
And the next day, when the bully 4th graders asked Shane, "How'd you break your leg? Did you fall downt the stairs and land on it becuase of your own ugliness?", he looked them proud and strong in the eye and said, "I broke it in a fight with a dracenae."
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An amazing thing about the Hephphestus cabin was how amazingly they worked together; they never seemed to need to tell the others what they needed; another cabin member would just hand it to them.
When Jake fell off his "working chair", and couldn't get up becuase his legs were paralyzed(he used to be in a full body cast, but his upper body got better. His legs were paralyzed though), he didn't have to say that he fell. Nyssa and Harley would just instantly reach over and lift him back into the chair.
Whenever Leo realized that he had, yet again, set himself on fire and was standing only in his underpants, there were usually a few giggles, maybe a few jokes, but for the most part, of cabin members would go get Leo some clothes and nothing more would be said on the subject.
When anyone needed a wrech or screw or hammer, Leo instantly seemed to know, and he would walk over and give them one from his toolbelt.
Christopher, the unspoken guardian of the fridge, seemed to be able to know exactly when everyone was getting hungry and he should serve some snacks or give everyone some water. . "Wow.", said Malcom as he watched the beautiful thing that was the Hephestus cabin working. And that was just about all there was to be said. Wow.
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They were considerate of each other. When the rest of the Hephestus cabin was coming back from the forge, they expected to find Beckendorf, who had said he was going back to he cabin to "work on some new designs".
Instead, they came back to find Silena and Beckendorf making out in the cabin. Too immersed in kissing to notice the newly returned Hephestus kids, they didn't notice when Beckendorf's siblings kindly shut the door, closed the curtains, and decided that it was a nice day to go practice archery.
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When Camp Jupiter and Camp Half Blood made peace, they accepted the Vulcan children as part of their family with open arms. You could often see them at both of the camps, talking mechanics with each other.
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They might not always seem like it, but the Hephestus cabin was a family.