Yup. This is the second chapter. You finally get to see what happens next! Super excited to share with you all!

To ThePinkSheep: I'm so happy you're into my story even on the first chapter. I was planning on making it longer, but where I stopped it seemed like a great cliffhanger. (I'm known for those by the way ;D)

To Guest: I'm updating now, aren't I? Glad you like it! Again, I love writing cliffhangers. :)

This was a fun chapter to write. I will have you know though, I don't know anything about actual official police or social services stuff, so I'm making it up as I go. Hopefully it all seems realistic enough to sound authentic. If not... Deal with it... : /

Let's read, shall we?

WARNINGS: SWEARING

SHOUT OUT!
I don't own the Seven... which makes me cry. :'( I will have an OC somewhere in the story, but not yet. Wait to find out!

~Leo's POV~

Leo sat on a hard chair in a dingy, claustrophobic office room feeling as miserable as hell. The scene was so familiar and depressing, reminding him of his pathetic childhood, and he hated it.

Once again, like so many other times over the course of eight years, he found himself stuck in a police station as if he was a problem no one wanted to deal with, yet, were forced to involuntarily. The sound of ringing phones and people rushing past the office door was nonstop, though there was an uncomfortable stillness of the room he was in at the moment. That made him nervous - like usual. Even though he was used to the scene, this was the part he hated the most. This was where the ongoing rollercoaster-of-a-ride started only to end in one or both of two ways: sitting in a room like this again, or the hospital and then this. Either way, it meant he was stuck in a never-ending time loop that could only be described as his worst nightmare.

Even the layout looked the same. Tall shelving and large cabinets outlined the battered walls, which were of a pale, faded color. It was clear they had seen better days and were in a desperate need of a new coat of paint. Numerous newspaper clippings lined the room from top to bottom, each behind glass frames, offering the observer to "admire" the work of these fine officers.

He wanted to puke. Sure they did good in the community, but under the masks of those so-called "heroes", were demons hiding deep inside.

Okay, so that was a bit dramatic, but to Leo, the description was justifiable.

Suddenly his attention was brought back by the sound of fingers clicking on a keyboard. This unfortunately reminded him that he was still in that stupid office room where a large desk sat in the middle, too big for the place. The man sitting behind it wasn't much better.

Wearing a grey suit, Officer Henry Rowel (from what the little plaque said on the edge of his desk) had his eyes pasted to his computer screen, studying Leo's records carefully. He was a large man with two chins, the bottom larger then the top, and whiskers just starting to poke through his flabby face. He had absolutely no hair on his head which reminded Leo of an Easter egg. It reflected the light from the light fixture above, not to mention the thin window climbing the wall behind him. Leo would have loved to crack a joke about his egghead but he figured he could save it for later. He had more important things to worry about.

Like his freedom.

With a click of his tongue, Officer Rowel finally looked at him, pressing his lips together in a formal manner. "According to these records, you've been missing for a little over a year now, is that correct?"

"Ida know," Leo mumbled. "You tell me. I didn't even know I was reported missing until today."

"Care to tell me where you've been for nearly fifteen months?"

"Around."

"And what does around mean exactly?" Officer Rowel asked with knit eyebrows.

"I've been all over the place. New York, Quebec, Chicago... Rome..." Leo told him truthfully. "Really, it isn't any of your business."

Officer Rowel looked at him funny for a second or two and turned back to his computer. "You were fifteen when you were reported, so you're what? Sixteen now?"

"Yupperoo," he answered while bouncing his legs up and down as he patted a rhythm on his lap. "Turned so in July."

"Mmm…" He continued to study his documents. "You're full birth date is July 7, 1998, correct?"

"Hey, you're good at this," Leo teased. "You should set up a booth or something; tell people you can read their minds and all that crap for the price of ten bucks a person. I bet you'd be rich by the end of the day."

There was a slight growl from the round man in annoyance, but he continued with his gaze staring at the screen.

The problem with these kinds of places was that Leo had gone through exactly the same routine over and over again throughout a whole half of his life, so he knew exactly what they were going to say before they even said it. He knew exactly what they were going to do before they could do it. This whole system worked like a giant clock that kept ticking and ticking and ticking nonstop. Ever since he was eight years of age, he'd been pulled into that clock and forced to obey all the rules so the clock could run smoothly. He'd tried to fight it in the past, but he realized that if he made any kind of mistake, it could seriously bite him in the butt later on. Thus, he stopped fighting the big guys and resorted to becoming a runaway. It was a heck of a lot easier.

"So you were born July 7, 1998. You grew up in Houston, Texas with your mother until the age of eight years before she died in a fire."

Leo tapped a new pattern on his lap. "Oh, don't stop now," he insisted. "I want to see how far you can go with all of this."

"Mr. Valdez, I—"

"Oh, I like that. Makes me sound all adult-like, you know what I mean? Mr. Valdez…" he said in a deep voice. "Yeah. Call me that."

"Mr. Valdez," Officer Rowel repeated with a sterner tone. "This is not a game, so I would appreciate it if you would stop treating it like one. It is very important that you behave and simply answer the questions I ask of you, do you understand?"

"Gotcha," Leo assured him and began clicking his tongue like the ongoing clock this was. He so wanted to be out of here.

With another slight scowl, Officer Rowel turned back to his computer. After typing with his chubby fingers on the keyboard, he looked intently at the screen. "I want to look back at how this all started."

Leo smirked. He just loved messing with these guys. It frustrated them all. It was as if they were begging for him to tease them. "Well you see, when my mom met my dad, they fell deeply in love—"

"Mr. Valdez!"

"Present."

The big man sighed with irritation and rubbed his face before leaning on the desk so he was somewhat closer to him. With an even sterner voice, he told him, "I don't think you understand how serious I am trying to be with you. You treat this like a game, still, when I ask you not to. You blurt out whatever pops into your head just because you feel like it, and you are showing no respect to anyone you have come in contact with since you were found earlier this afternoon. In fact, I bet you haven't shown anyone any respect since the day you were first brought in as an eight-year-old child. Now you are going to listen and you are going to behave. It isn't a request, it's an order. Got that?"

Yup. Leo was waiting for him to say something like that. "Sure thing, big man."

He huffed with rage but with the look he gave him, Leo saw he was finally beginning to understand that this was just the way Leo rolled. The repetitive clockwork was being fought and avoided. If Officer Rowel wanted him to cooperate, he will have to learn to let Leo lighten the mood just a tad for his own sake at least.

A minute passed while the two just stared, challenging the other to speak up. Eventually though, Officer Rowel saw it wasn't going anywhere so he went on to the next question. "Tell me about the trip to the Grand Canyon. Do you remember anything that happened that day?"

"Sure," Leo offered with a grin. "That was the day I found an extra five dollar bill in my pocket for lunch. It was a good day."

"Anything else?" he asked lamely.

Leo mulled everything around in his head. Providing the answer was a little harder than the others before it. He couldn't just say, yeah, my friends and I were attacked by evil wind spirits who managed to capture my gym coach, which yes, actually turned out to be some crazed satyr. Then we were taken to this wickedly awesome camp for demigods. Somehow, he didn't think Officer Rowel would believe him, so he went with something a little more believable.

"I was with my friends checking the canyon out for our science and whatnot and there was this huge storm. My friends, my gym coach, and I all tried to help everyone into the building but we never got a chance to get in ourselves. There was, uh, a large gust of wind that pushed us all away from the doors and…uh…" Think, Leo. Think. "I got knocked out I think by something flying through the air so I don't remember much. What I do know is that I got thrown over the side of the canyon at one point and was pulled back up by my coach."

"Then what?" the round man asked with his finger tapping the keyboard, waiting for more.

"Then I found some people who were willing to get me out of the storm and my friends, my coach, and I drove off with them."

"And never came back?" Officer Rowel asked.

"Nope," he said, popping the p.

"So in other words, you were kidnapped."

He laughed. "Ha! No way! We were rescued by a couple of our good friends. We didn't return because we were all pretty bored from that miserable hell."

Officer Rowel made a face. "The Grand Canyon is a miserable hell?" he deadpanned.

"What? Nah, that place was cool. No, I'm talking about that Wilderness School I was enrolled in. I hated it."

"And why's that?"

"Uh, it was a prison," he stated as if it was the most obvious thing. "I couldn't do anything."

"I'm sure that was tough for you," Officer Rowel murmured under his breath and typed on his computer some more, click, click, clicking, until he looked up at him again. "What's your life like now, Mr. Valdez?"

Not understanding his question, Leo squinted. "Uh, what do you mean?"

"You were seen with a group of friends today, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"So if you have that large a group to hang out with, you must live somewhere other than an alleyway, especially seeing how clean you look."

"Are you asking where I live?"

"Correct."

Okay, so now what should he say? "I…uh, live at a strawberry farm on Long Island," Leo said. It wasn't really a lie, just part of the truth while leaving most of it out.

Officer Rowel gave him a blank expression. "A strawberry farm on Long Island. How does that work? To live there, I mean."

"I'm glad you asked that," Leo grinned. "You see, it's not only a strawberry farm, but also a camp for special people like me."

This seemed to get Officer Rowel's interest. "A camp? What do you mean by special people like you?"

He shrugged. "You know. Troubled teens. It's kinda like that Wilderness School I was talking about earlier except way better. There are always tons of activities, three large meals a day, and the whole strawberry farm thing going on. And," he pointed out, "it's not only a summer camp, but a year-round camp."

"So, you live there then?"

"Sure! I love it there!"

Officer Rowel leaned against the table and looked at him in all sincerity. "And what are all those activities you learn? Is there a proper school you attend in the middle of it?"

Sorta?

"Basically the whole camp teaches self-defense and all that stuff and there's school too." Does plain history count?

He took this all in with great consideration, digesting everything he had told him. Then a look of concern came across his face. "Does this camp of yours allow you to live there full time? And if so, who is your legal guardian? You can't stay there without someone being accountable for you."

Oh shit.

This was one of those rare questions that he didn't see coming. And the stupid thing is, he should have! He was sitting in the middle of a police station talking about all this social services crap for Zeus's sake! Of course they were going to ask if he had a legal guardian! After how many years of sitting through the same clockwork system, he still didn't realize that was going to come up? What was up with him today?

"I-I have a legal guardian," Leo lied. His fingers tapped wildly on his lap and he willed himself to stay in his seat instead of pacing the room. Nervous energy ran through his veins and it was times like this that he wished he wasn't ADHD.

Officer Rowel was typing on his keyboard once again, waiting for the information. "And who is that?"

Just as he was about to say Chiron, Leo stopped himself. No. He couldn't say that. That wasn't a modern name. Officer Rowel wouldn't believe that. "Uh…Ca-Car…. Carl Ron," Leo settled with. It sounded close enough. "Yeah. My guardian is Mr. Carl Ron. He lives full time on the strawberry farm too."

As Officer Rowel fell silent, his eyes skimmed the text on his computer. Leo knew what he was looking for and he started to seriously panic. He was looking for any sign of recent legal guardianship in his records and he knew he wouldn't find any. Leo had dug himself into a hole and he feared he couldn't get himself out.

Dammit! Why was his luck so bad all the time? Not only did he have to worry about saving the world as a demigod (which was enough work for any person), he was considered a runaway orphan in need of foster-care. After all the effort he made trying to avoid getting pulled back into the system, he could see himself failing, drowning in the unfortunate outcomes of his stupidity. If he hadn't let himself lose his natural instinct to run and hide as soon as he saw people of the law, he wouldn't be in this mess. Now, he sat here in this depressing office, watching a man who had more or less control over him, looking for Leo's legal guardian who wasn't even there. Could things get even worse?

"I-I don't think you'll find anything of him on there," Leo said, hoping he could actually find a way to turn things around. Unfortunately, watching Officer Rowel's gaze lift to him with suspicion, Leo began to panic again, leaving him stumbling on his own tongue and at a loss of words. His voice fading away, he uttered, "It's, uh, pretty recent that he agreed to be my guardian... so... the files, uh... won't..."

Oh, what the hell was he talking about?! There was no way he could explain why "Mr. Carl Ron" wasn't mentioned on his records other than admitting he wasn't telling the truth. For once, Leo Valdez didn't know how to lie himself out of this one.

Picking up on his uncertainty, Officer Rowel studied him quizzically, his elbows resting on the table and his fingers threaded together like a villain scheming a master plan, which, in this case, was to fiddle with Leo's life. "I've worked here for over twenty years and never before have I ever heard that excuse. Now why, Mr. Valdez, is your guardian not mentioned in your records?" he questioned him.

His heart pounded as he recognized the inevitable corner he was being backed into. His palms began to sweat and he fiddled continuously with his jacket's zipper. Part of him hoped his friends would barge through the office door and save him with their wickedly cool demigod powers, but he knew that wasn't how it worked. If it was, Leo could burst himself out of here with his flames, but it was like an unspoken rule between all demigods: their powers were for monsters only. Mortals weren't made to handle those kinds of things... well, most anyway. Rachel and Percy's mom were different. The point was though, he couldn't wiggle his way out of this one. Leo was stuck.

"U-uh... I ..." he stuttered.

Officer Rowel leaned back in his chair as if feeling successful in something. Leo's insides twisted seeing the look on his face. He was tempted to make a hate-filled insult at him, but knowing the kind of situation he was in, he at least had enough decency to see it wasn't going to get him anywhere. All it would do was push him further into the ground and that was the last thing he needed.

The fat man crossed his arms. "You seem to get yourself in trouble quite often, don't you, Mr. Valdez?"

This time, he stayed silent, inwardly throwing insults at the man. They were surprisingly satisfying.

"Not only do you talk back, you think you can weasel your way out of problems you've made for yourself. You see, there are two types of runaways. The first would be the innocent child escaping dangerous living conditions. The other: troublesome teens in search of attention and independence. Now, I'm aware you have had a difficult past, Mr. Valdez, but I will also point out that some of those hardships were caused because of you and your childish actions. Is attention what you're looking for? Do you want attention? Cause I will assure you, you have ours."

Leo gritted his teeth with anger and nearly jumped to his feet. He consciously had to keep himself from smoking. "You have no right to condemn me of acting out just to catch someone's eye! Sure I made mistakes in my past, but you can't base my whole being on one or two unfortunate outcomes! You make mistakes too! And you're also forgetting that those two damn officers of yours tackled me to the ground after accidentally finding me on a lunch break! I didn't go looking for them!"

"No," he agreed surprisingly calm for the sudden uproar of anger in the atmosphere. "But you have made quite the record for yourself; well, from what was in your control that is. I'm simply stating the fact that this situation right now, the reason you're here in this room and the fact that you don't actually have a guardian, implies that you are still on the run. You don't have a home on any strawberry farm and you don't have schooling."

"What?" Leo asked flabbergasted. "I do so -"

"It also implies that you are misdirected in the way you are formed in the real world, therefore, you have never learned the meaning of respect or responsibility," Offer Rowel continued adjusting his suit sleeves by the cuffs.

Leo leaned further on his chair so his was closer to the desk. "Officer, I have a home! I am directed the way I need to be in the real world! I know what it means to -"

"No you don't," Officer Rowel told him out right with certainty. "You're problem is that you act without thinking about the outcome. Responsibility isn't even a thing for you and you profusely rude and sarcastic. Where's the respect, Mr. Valdez? You've lived on the streets for much too long -"

"Officer, please just -"

"- and look where it got you? Look at you!" he said with his hands motioning to all of him. "An unfortunate kid with little to no experience of what it feels like to have a stable family. We can offer you that with the help of a good social worker. We can offer you so many wonderful things if you could only see past your tunneled vision of your small world. There can be so much more than running and living on the streets. Don't you want a chance at a happy life?"

"I am happy!" Leo fought back angrily.

The fat man simply shook his head as if highly disappointed in his son, his head shining from the light above. "Leo, Leo, Leo... Just because you don't have a stable life like most, doesn't mean you have to settle for what seems somewhat acceptable. Don't lower your expectations at such drastic measures -"

"I don't! If you could just listen to me, I -"

"I'm sure we can change all that for the better." Officer Rowel then picked up his phone and placing it against his ear. He began dialing a long number. "Don't worry, Mr. Valdez. Things will turn out. Once your social worker is informed of the situation, he can assure you a safe home in which you will be very happy in."

This time Leo actually jumped to his feet with the building frustration and panic, slamming his hands on his desk. "No! You can't do this to me again! Please, Officer Rowel! Please! I'm begging you! Don't make me go back into that system! I'm sixteen now! I can look after myself! Please! Don't do this to me again! Officer, I'm begging you! Please!"

It seemed his pleading was simply a waste of breath however because Officer Rowel just turned away slightly in his desk chair and greeted the person on the other line with a cheery hello.

Reluctantly, Leo slid back in his hard chair and buried his head in his hands, pulling at his hair and reminding himself to breathe.

Ohmygodsohmygodsohmygods... This couldn't be happening. After finding a home at camp, he didn't think he would ever have this problem. If this was a work of the gods, they were seriously cruel to him! What were the chances two officers would recognize him from something that happened a year earlier without them even being there? Oh, gods.

Jason, Percy, Annabeth, Leo found himself mentally saying to them. HELP ME!

This took FOREVER to edit. DX However, it's done now and I should be working on the next chapter soon enough.

How was this chapter? Are you enjoying it? Please review and let me know what you think! PMs are okay, but reviews are preferred. :) THANK YOU SO MUCH IF YOU ALREADY HAVE! YOU GUYS ARE DA BEST!

Chapter three in the making...

~supworld~