Leo
It doesn't take a long time for him to gather all his belongings, even by foster kid standards, Leo owns very little: two photographs from the better half of his life, a Texas Instrument calculator his social worker had given him two years ago, his notebook full of designs for machines and vessels, a couple rulers and protractors, and a denim blue backpack to put it all in.
He throws the bag over his shoulder with a heavy sigh.
Fantastic, yet another home to leave because he's such a screwup.
"I wish your next roommate the best of luck."
Leo twists around and scowls at Marco, "Just shut your mouth, okay buckaroo?"
He snorts, "I would you see, but you never did that when I told you to every night you pulled a Llorona on me."
He grits his teeth, "Bye, Marco."
And with that he slams the door shut behind him.
None of the other kids bid him farewell on his way downstairs. He couldn't really blame them though, he basically spent all his free time locked up in the tiny closet of his shared room. He preferred to draw designs for machines and build things instead of interacting with living beings. Why? Because when you start talking with people, you grow attached, and when you grow attached, it makes the inevitable goodbye all the more painful.
Waiting at the front door is his social worker, Tina Huang, nodding attentively at whatever Margaret (the bane of his existence) is telling her.
He coughs into his hand to announce his arrival.
Tina's face immediately lights up when she sees the boy she's looked after for the past six years. Relief washes over Leo when he sees that her fondness for him is yet again left intact despite the complaints she's just received about him.
"Leo!"
He breaks into a grin and runs into her awaiting arms. She wraps her arms tightly around him and he does the same to her.
"You've grown taller!" She notes when they pull away from each other.
"And your hair has shrunk!" He replies without missing a beat.
Tina laughs a flips her hair back, "I didn't think you would notice, colonel."
"How could I ever, young misses."
She shakes her head and keeps her arm around Leo's shoulders.
"Thank you very much Miss Ellis for your service."
The obese women who's made Leo's life a living hell for the past two months glares down at Leo with her tiny beady demon yes. "I'm going to have to check his bag before he leaves."
His grin melts away, "Excuse me?"
She extends her hand and curls her fingers repeatedly, "Bring it here, Valdez."
"I'm no kleptomaniac!" Leo shouts, pulling himself away from Tina to get closer to the door.
Margaret crosses her arms over her chest and glances at Tina, "You see what I mean? Rude and uncooperative, this is what I have had to deal with for the past weeks."
Leo grits his teeth and the hand around the strap of his backpack becomes a tight fist, "You're the rude one, what with you accusing me of thievery, you hag!"
"Leo!" Tina reprimands, shaking her head slowly at him.
His face flushes a deep red as kids from the building start gathering around to watch the spectacle.
With gritted teeth, he just barely manages in not throwing the bag at her face at full force. In a very mechanic manner, he stretch out his arm with the strap around his wrist.
She waits for him to walk up to her, but Leo isn't about to give her that satisfaction. With a snarl, Margaret walks the three yards in between them and rips the bag off of his arm.
He stands there fuming as Margaret searches through his personal belongings. Then without warning, she pulls out his notebook and waves it in Tina's face.
"All he ever does is lock himself up to draw in this thing! He draws silly doodles into the late hours of the night instead of focusing on schoolwork or socializing!"
Flames threaten to burst through his palms.
"You have no business-!"
Tina gives Leo a stern look before taking the notebook from the woman's hand and doesn't open it.
"Thank you, Miss Ellis. I appreciate the feedback, now if you would please return Leo's backpack to him."
Margaret's lip curls as she gives the bag back to Leo.
"I feel so sorry for the next person who ends up with you," she hisses this so quietly that only he can hear it.
"And I feel sorry for everyone who's ever had the misfortune of having to endure you." He replies coldly, tearing the bag from her hands with such force, he hopes he's given her a friction burn.
And with that, Leo turns on his heel and walks out of his seventh foster home without looking back once.
After an hour of silence, Leo can't take the suspense anymore.
"Where exactly am I being dragged to now?"
Tina stretches her free arm to reach her purse in the backseat of the Prius, from the purse, she produces a brochure. She tosses it and it lands on his lap, "Check it out."
His heart drops.
"What?"
She purses her lips, "Leo, before you-"
He shakes his head in denial and let's out a hysterical bout of laughter, "So...I'm a delinquent now? Geez, Tina-"
"No, you are not a delinquent! I know you are not-"
"Then why are you sending me to a school full of them!" He shrieks, throwing the brochure to the back out of desperation.
"Leo, please hear me out-"
He laughs sarcastically, "No, no, there's not much that is needed to be said. I'm a screwup, I get it. I mean, all I ever do is runaway from foster homes, so you're left with no other solution than to put me in a rich kid prison. I get it."
Tina removes her focus from the empty road and turns to scowl at him, "Listen to me, Leo Valdez, you are not a screwup! That is not why I'm sending you to this school. I'm sending you here because I truly believe this will help you!"
Leo snorts and even claps his hands for emphasis.
See, Tina has always been this figure-the only figure- in Leo's life who doesn't view him as a complete failure. No matter what happens, she will never call him a mess up, instead she will always say "It's okay little man, we'll have better luck next time!"
And now here she is, rather blatantly stating that she's lost hope for him.
Tina pulls the car to a stop at the side of the road.
She crosses her arms over her chest and sternly begins, "Let me repeat myself: I do not think you're a screwup, I know you are not a screwup. However, you have serious traumatic experiences that you haven't yet been able to escape. I understand why you run away every single time, I've known you long enough to put two and two together."
Leo focuses on his socks.
"Every single time, in the weeks preceding a runaway, your foster homes report that you wake up screaming in the middle of the night. They hear you screaming for your mother, Leo."
Leo furrows his eyebrows when it sinks in that he was stupid enough to slip into mismatched socks yet again.
"I know you're still scared that what happened that night when you were eight years old will happen again. I know you runaway because you believe that by leaving them, you will keep people safe from yourself."
Geez, his socks aren't even a subtle difference in colors. One's a vibrant green while the other is a bight Halloween orange.
"We need you to get that trauma treated because it's because of that instilled fear that you have in your heart that you don't allow yourself to become settled anywhere. Wilderness School has the best therapists in the nation, they're available twenty-four hours a day and are there seven days a week."
"So I'm a nut job?" Leo mutters, his eyes still transfixed on his socks.
"No!" Tina groans and places her face in her hands, "Leo, having PTSD does not make you a nut job."
Leo doesn't answer.
She reaches over to squeeze his hand in between hers, "I want you to get better, Leo. I want others to see what I already see in you."
He bites on his lower lip and starts tapping his foot against the ground faster than a bullet.
"Also, did I mention they have a junior engineers club?"
Leo eyes sprawl and his mouth goes agape.
She grins at him and raises her eyebrows, "Trust me, you're going to love it here."
She starts the car and they're on the road again.
Several hours later, they finally reach the school, which just so happens to be in the middle of freaking nowhere.
"I thought you said this was in Vegas?"
Tina rolls her eyes, "I said it was in Nevada."
"Same thing!"
"Not quite," she chuckles, pulling her car into one of the few available parking spots.
They sit there in silence for a good five minutes before Leo finally breaks it and says, "So...I guess I should be getting off now...or something."
She nods, but doesn't unlock the car.
"Tina?"
She twists around in her seat and smiles down at him sadly, "Remember Devon?"
Leo furrows his eyebrows in confusion, "Um yeah...your husband. Of course."
She twists her wedding ring around anxiously, "Well, I have news."
She doesn't even have to say it for him to know what she's about to say. A pang of panic and dread strikes at his very core, "Oh?"
"We're expecting a baby girl!" Tina grins and brings a hand to her tummy.
I'm going to be sick.
"Oh...um, congratulations!" He wears the most pained smile and tries his best to sound excited for her benefit, but he fails to because he knows what her following words are going to be.
She sobers up and brings her hands together, "Devon and I, after much discussion, have decided that it would be best if I stayed home with the baby until she's old enough to attend school."
His hands start getting very jittery, "That's...that's sensible, yeah."
"I'm not going to have this job anymore."
The blow knocks the air out of his lungs and all he can do is gawk her with an unhinged jaw. If Tina weren't in front of him, he would have begun sobbing uncontrollably.
Tina was one of the first people Leo talked to after his mother's death. She was the one who held him and let him cry into her shoulder while she rubbed his back. She was the one who explained to him that he wouldn't be allowed to see his family anymore, that he wouldn't be allowed to attend his own mother's funeral.
She was the one who drove him to his first foster home. She was the one who didn't scream at him for failing his classes or for getting expelled. She was the one who kept rooting for him.
Tina has been the only person who's been constant in his life since his mother died...and now she was leaving too.
But Tina is in front of him so he needs to keep his emotions on check.
"Right."
She takes his trembling hands into hers and looks him in the eyes, "You have my number. I want you to keep it because I care deeply for you. I want you to keep me updated with your life. I want you to call me when things are going great and when they're going sour."
He nods stiffly, causing the curls on his head to bounce all over the place, "Th-thanks."
She pulls her hands away and rubs the top of his head, "But this isn't a goodbye, Leo. I'm just going to not be your social worker anymore, but I'll always be your friend."
He doesn't reply out of fear that his voice might crack in front of her.
She unlocks the doors, "Come on, let's go big guy."
His legs are wobbly and his face nearly makes out with the asphalt when he gets out of the car. He uses the door for support.
Tina walks around the car and hands him an envelope, "Here's a gift from me to you, since your birthday is just around the corner."
He raises an eyebrow at her as he rips the sealing with his fingers. When he pulls out what's inside his breath catches.
"Oh my God."
"It's against the rules but...I was looking through your files, you know, preparing them for the new guy. And while I was, I found this."
Leo examines every single detail in that polaroid, not daring to lift his eyes from it before he has everything memorized.
It's a photograph of his mother, one he hasn't seen before. She wears overalls and her long brown hair is a braid down her back. She's crouching down with an arm around Leo's three year old self in what appears to be their old apartment.
"I left a photocopy as a replacement. I think you deserve the-"
She stops when Leo tackles her with a tight embrace.
"Thank you, thank you so much." He whispers, over and over again.
She returns the hug with the same intensity as him.
She kisses the top of his head, "I'm really going to miss you."
He never wants to let go of her, but he does eventually. When he does, heavy despair engulfs him.
"I'm going to miss you too."
She holds out a hand, "Leo, it's been an absolute pleasure."
He shakes her hand and curtsies for her, making her laugh. "Likewise, ma'am."
She nods her head at the looming main entrance, "Have fun, big guy!"
He lifts a hand and waves at her and jogs toward the entrance, where other kids are already walking in through. Most, however, don't even bother with waving a final goodbye to their parents.
Once Leo's at the top of the steps, he turns around and his stomach falls when he sees Tina start up her car and start driving away. She waves out the driver's window until she disappears from his eyesight.
He turns on his heels and faces the door.
"Hello, new hell."