Leo missed his mom more than ever.

It had been 6 months ever since she died, and ever since, nothing had ever been the same. He may have only been 9 years old, but he was pretty sure no child deserved to hurt this much.

He was in his first foster home, after living with Aunt Rosa had went pretty badly (he still didn't understand why she hated him so much). So far, it sucked. The mom was a vegan (where eating vegetables took new heights), the dad obviously had a thing against 9 year olds (or maybe Mexicans), and all the kids had been his age at least 5 years ago (as if the rite of passage to teenagerdom comes with a built in pamphlet inside their brains called How to Become a Sultry, Child-Hating Teenager in 5 Easy Steps), so they treated him as the human push pin. It was the last straw when 'Leo' burned down the tofu shelf. It went a little like this.

Mrs Matthews: Now, eat your tofu, Leo.

Leo: I don't wanna eat that! It looks like flattened insulation.

Mr Matthews: Now Leo, eat your tofu, it's healthy.

Leo: (smirks) That's rich coming from the man whose 'late-night business' includes a 9:00 trip to TGIF, Thank God It's Food!

Mrs Matthews: Harold!

Mr Matthews: (blustering) Leo, h-h-how could you?! That was our little secret! I brought you home a prime rib last week!

Mrs Matthews: (scowling) So that's why for the first time I didn't catch you sneaking a late night trip to McDonalds or Chipotle! I just finally thought you made it, but no, my husband brought you a slab of the same animal you watched on Back In The Barnyard this morning! How would Otis feel if you had eaten a piece of Abby?!

Leo: (looking dead in the eye): He'd say 'Chew cud', then 'Milk me'.

Mr Matthews: (bangs on table) ENOUGH! We will discuss this in the morning. Until then, GOOD NIGHT! (muttering to himself) Goodness Gracious, felt like I was in the middle of a FOSTERS marathon.

Mrs Matthews: Fine, but let me tell you boy, until you grow up and leave this house, you will eat soo much vegetables you'll be a spokes campaign for Weight Watchers! You'll spend your weekends marking coupon books for tofu sales!You just wait and see. (Turning around and stomping up the stairs) Harold, get back here!

So that's the last conversation he had with his first pair of foster parents, until he was woken up the next morning as his 'mom' tore his butt up with a frying pan all Rapunzel-style, yelling "What'd you do to our tofu you filthy boy?! What'd you do?! While Leo had never been officially blamed, there were two nine-year-old boy handprints seared into the cupboard, just like the table with Tia Callida. That was the first, but not the last.

So that was Leo's life in a nutshell by nine years old.