A/N: I want you all to know that I will have irregular updates. I'm busy during the week, but since each chapter is planned, I will try to write up and edit as many chapters as I can on weekends. With that being said, you can expect a splurge of chapter updates at the end of each week, unless I happen to be really busy. (For sure though, I'll update once a week.) It's a little weird, but I guess I'm just excited.
I already received three reviews since I posted last night, and I'm grateful for your guys' encouraging words; I spent all night wondering how people would react to the first chapter. Thank you all again!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything affiliated with Rick Riordan's works.
School, Leo thought irritably. I hate school.
It wasn't that Leo was stupid; he scored pretty high on his tests and his grades never dipped below B- (except for that C in biology one time), but why did school have to be so incredibly boring? The only thing that kept him from dying of boredom was playing pranks on the teachers. Maybe if he had some close friends it would be more bearable, but Leo was afraid to open up his past to anyone, therefore all of his friends were pretty much just a superficial group of buddies that he'd hang out with.
Leo dragged his feet walking into his fourth period English class. Mr. Andrews, the teacher, was sitting behind his desk, flipping through the pages of a thick novel that Leo bet they were going to be studying in class soon. As he was about to take his usual spot (Mr. Andrews was one of the few classes in school with free seating), Leo noticed that there was someone already in the seat.
The kid had blonde hair and blue eyes. There was a scar on his mouth, and Leo couldn't help but think that he looked like one of those Roman statues they have in museums, just more in-the-flesh. Mystery Guy seemed completely uninterested in his surroundings as he tapped his pen against the desk. He noticed Leo when he looked up.
"Sorry, did you need something?" he asked.
Leo shook his head. "Nah, I just usually sit there." He took a seat to the guy's right. "You new this semester?"
Mystery Guy nodded, eyes now glued to the desk as he continued drumming it with his pen.
"Name's Leo." Leo didn't put a hand out or anything, he just rummaged through his backpack and took out his stuff, leaving it on the desk in front of him and setting the backpack on the floor.
The other guy looked at Leo for a second, as if deciding whether or not Leo was a trustworthy person. After a moment he said, "Jason."
The bell rang and Mr. Andrews ordered the class to sit down and be quiet. As Leo predicted, Mr. Andrews took the novel and showed it to the class, announcing that they would be studying it for the next few weeks. Leo also predicted that this would be another monotonous class period, which was why he already had a prank set up.
Come on, Leo thought, he's gonna have to sometime.
Mr. Andrews walked around the classroom and discussed a "brief" introduction of the book, then took a seat up at the front of the room on the chair that was placed behind a wooden podium. The book was still in his hand as he talked, and Mr. Andrews even gestured at it from time to time. Finally, Mr. Andrews ended his explanation and told the class that they'd have to use the school copies for reading, unless they already had the book. He pointed to a box full of books for the class.
"Now," Mr. Andrews continued, "when I call your name you can come up and get the book. Let me go get the list…"
He set the book down on the podium and Leo smirked. As soon as the book made contact, the entire podium crumbled piece by piece, leaving a pile of wooden parts scattered on the ground. Mr. Andrews blinked, wide-eyed at the mess before him. Leo snickered quietly and discreetly high-fived the kids sitting around him. It was a simple prank, but the look on Mr. Andrews face was priceless. Leo wished he'd brought a camera.
Jason heard Leo laughing and looked over. He gave Leo a How'd you do that? look, but Leo just shrugged, smug with his achievement of making a fool out of the teacher. Jason let it go for now, secretly impressed that Leo pulled it off. The class watched as Mr. Andrews called the office to tell them that his podium had been destroyed.
After class, Jason went up to Leo. "Nice stunt," he complimented. "How were you able to get away with it?"
Leo scoffed. "They never catch me in the act. Well, except Hedge, I guess."
"Who?"
"Oh yeah, I forgot," Leo said. "You're new here. Hedge is the gym teacher. He hates my guts."
Jason raised an eyebrow. "No surprise there." He looked around as they walked outside. It was lunch now, but Jason had nowhere to go. "Mind if I join you for lunch?"
Shrugging, Leo replied, "I usually eat alone anyways, so it doesn't matter."
They bought lunch and found a spot at one of the tables in the outdoor cafeteria. It was awkward at first, with both of them eating silently and trying to think of a way to make decent conversation. Leo's interactions with others mostly consisted of playing pranks on them, or planning pranks with them. Jason wasn't exactly much of a talker either, but neither of them really wanted to be lonely.
"So…" Leo finally said, and Jason looked up. "How's life?"
Jason smirked faintly. "All right I guess. Living with my sister isn't as bad as I thought it would be."
"You live with your sister?" Leo asked, genuinely curious now.
"Yeah." Jason pursed his lips. "My parents decided it would be best. They couldn't keep me around. I'd slow down their work."
"Sounds like you got cool parents." Leo's tone was sarcastic.
Jason shrugged, unaffected. "Could be worse."
"I guess."
"Yeah."
There was an awkward pause.
Jason ran his hand through his hair, trying to find something articulate to say. "What about your parents?"
Leo turned away, and Jason sensed that he'd touched upon a very sensitive nerve. He was curious too, though, so he waited a while to see if Leo would answer. In turn, Leo was thinking about whether or not he should say anything. Moments passed, and Leo spoke up.
"My dad had to leave when I was young. I don't know why. I've lived with my mom ever since; we struggled a lot." He took a deep breath, surprised to feel the sensation of relief. It was the first time he told anyone that. Except for Mrs. Jaramillo, of course, but she had already known his mom anyway.
"Oh," Jason said. He didn't give any words of pity, for which Leo was grateful.
Leo tried to change the subject. "You know, I just can't get over Mr. Andrews' expression in class today when the podium fell apart." He attempted to mimic Mr. Andrew's face, but he ended up laughing instead.
Jason grinned. "That was hilarious!"
"He looked like a cow that got smacked in the face with a shovel!"
Soon enough the two boys were joking away, doubling over from laughter as the conversation progressed and they found more and more things to laugh at. Leo noted that it felt good to actually laugh along with another person. Jason wasn't a bad guy. He tolerated Leo's lame jokes and wisecracks and listened well when Leo told him about him and his mom's struggles: how they had to keep moving from place to place while his mom looked for a good job, then finally settling in LA and opening up the mechanics shop. Leo even told Jason about his mom trying to get a patent for a machine design.
The bell went off, signaling the end of lunch. Leo asked what classes Jason had next, and was a little disappointed to find that they didn't have any more classes together.
"I guess I'll see you around then," said Leo.
"Yeah." Jason smiled. "Nice meeting you."
Leo walked off to his next class, not really aware that he had just made a lifelong friend.
School ended after what seemed like forever and Leo was anxious to get to the daycare so he could relax a little. Mrs. Jaramillo might ask him to do some work, but at least she never gave him painfully tedious work. Leo went to retrieve his bike.
As he rode to the daycare, Leo contemplated his new friendship. He thought it was kind of strange for him; he had never thought about telling anyone about his past life, yet he so willingly spilled the beans to the new kid in school. Then again, Jason had been equally open about his own life. Leo learned that Jason's mom was a popular actress before and his father was now the owner of a large company. Jason used to live in New York, but since his parents were hardly around, he was left with a "babysitter" most of the time.
Jason's parents eventually reasoned that keeping Jason in the house would just be another hassle, so they sent him off to his sister, Thalia, who lived in LA. Thalia was about five years older than Jason, making her twenty-two years old. Thalia was furious about Jason coming to live with her, not because she didn't like her brother (on the contrary, they were really close) but because she was still finishing college, working part-time as a guitar teacher at a local music school. She obviously didn't have enough money to support both her and Jason. For compensation, Thalia and Jason's parents offered to send their kids enough money every month to cover any extra expenses.
It sounded a bit ridiculous to Leo, kind of like they were saying, "Oh hey, we don't want you around anymore, but here's a thousand dollars! Have a nice life!" He wondered what kind of parents kicked their son out of the house and sent him to live all the way across the country.
Leo kept himself from feeling sorry for Jason; he knew that in that type of situation, the last thing you want is pity. When people give you that look like, Oh, you poor, poor child, it was enough to make you angry about your life all over again. Sure, life wasn't fair, but no one had to remind you about it. He tried to imagine being in Jason's shoes, although he couldn't picture his mom doing anything like that to him. And as for his dad, well, Leo couldn't picture him at all.
I wonder what dad is doing right now, Leo thought to himself solemnly. Was he missing them? Was he looking for them? They had moved around a lot, maybe Leo's dad had lost track of their whereabouts. Leo was aware that his dad was forced to leave them, but was it so bad to dream that his dad was trying to get them back?
After all these years, Leo doubted that was true. His dad hadn't even contacted them once, as far as he knew, so why would he care about finding them now?
Leo turned the final corner on his bike and was quickly approaching the front gate of the daycare. He was so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed the person who was already standing there until it was nearly too late. The person, whom Leo saw was a girl, was unaware that he was about to crash into her with his bike.
"Look out!" Leo shouted, swerving to the side.
The girl turned quickly and when she saw Leo on his bike, she swiftly dodged by opening the gate and taking a step inside. Leo righted himself before veering off the sidewalk and onto the street, just as a moving truck passed them by. The girl stepped back out carefully and closed the gate behind her. She hadn't said a word, she didn't even look surprised. Her expression was annoyed, like she couldn't believe that Leo had the nerve to almost run her over.
Leo sighed, relieved that he didn't become road kill. "Thank God, that was a close one." He faced the girl and attempted to apologize. "I'm really sorry about that, I was just distracted. I didn't mean to cause an accident or anything."
The girl looked at him skeptically before saying, "Then I guess it's a good thing we're still both in one piece."
Leo chuckled, trying to get rid of the tension, because the girl was still glaring at him accusingly. He rubbed the back of his head and racked his brain for something to say, but as he looked at her, realization hit him.
"Wait," Leo faltered. "Haven't…haven't I seen you before?"
A/N: Yay! Jason's here, and eventually Thalia will be too, which means I'll have more characters to work with. Not to mention Mystery Girl. I'm pretty sure you clever people have already figured out who she is. I'm not big on cliffhanger endings, really. If you have any questions, or if I've left something unclear, let me know and I'll address it as soon as I can.
And yeah, Thalia plays guitar in my story. I don't know, I needed some kind of part-time job for her that didn't seem too far-fetched.
Have a lovely day everyone!
~Abi-Jewel
