So, I have made the decision to rewrite Burning Hope with the same ideas in mind only taking out the whole time travel aspect as it was a little difficult to keep on top of. Instead we have someone messing around with Leo's destiny so that she meets Percy and goes to Camp Half-Blood before the Gaia rising. I'm hoping you guys like it all the same, The Walking Dead arch won't necessarily happen until after HoO.
Getting Caught
Running was always a good way of staying ahead of the pain. Being quick on your feet meant you had no time to second guess yourself, dwell on the gaping hole in your heart or the four police officers quickly gaining on you as you legged it through the concrete jungle of Manhattan, New York.
At least this was 12-year-old, Leonida Valdez' theory. Most other people wouldn't be too quick to decide running away from 'good' foster homes at least five times was a smart way to deal with grief. But when you're eight, believing you're the cause of your mothers' death and being haunted by a sleeping woman made from dirt, the only logical thing to do is run.
Of course, at the same time authority figures like to think that's reckless endangerment and are more than willing to chase a single problem child over five states before addressing the alarming amount of street kids they've negligently ignored beforehand.
Leo snickered as she ducked into an alleyway and the cops ran past her. With heavy breaths, she swiped a raggedy sleeve of her army fatigue jacket over her face and slumped against the grimy, cold wall to wait a few minutes to be sure the cops wouldn't be circling back to retrace their steps. Leo raised both hands to her face, pointedly ignoring the trembling of her fingers and the paleness that had replaced her usually dark, tanned skin. She didn't remember the last time she'd eaten a proper meal that wasn't a can shared between four or five other starving kids.
Leo pushed the melancholy thoughts that were slowly creeping up on her to the back of her mind as she scooped up her lank, dirty hair and tied it up in a haphazard ponytail. She then set on removing the red bandana that had been tied around her wrist as a makeshift bandage by someone she ran into a few miles outside Manhattan and used it to keep any fly away strands out of her face before daring to venture out of the alley. She'd regained her ability to breathe normally and if she remained calm, playing it cool she'd be able to pass off as any other regular kid enjoying summer vacation.
So, Leo slowly stepped out of the alley digging her hands into the pockets of tattered, old jeans and slinked off towards central park. It was a beautifully sunny day with a cloudless bright blue sky, meaning people would be swarming to the park to walk dogs and have picnics and Leo could essentially vanish. What she hadn't accounted for, was semi-intelligent big city police that would also think to look in highly populated areas for the missing preteen.
Another thing she didn't necessarily account for was a scrawny kid with messy black hair and sea green eyes being dragged along the path by at least a dozen of different dogs. Leo had been spotted by some uniformed cop probably on his break as he immediately tossed his paper cup into a trash can and took after her as Leo sprinted down the walkway, dodging pedestrians, and park employees like a pro. Until the kid appeared out of nowhere, too distracted by the tangle of leashes to notice Leo and Leo was too busy risking a peek over her shoulder for her pursuer, neither of them knew the maelstrom heading their way until they collided. They both hit the concrete in a mix of yapping, yelling and grunts with the occasional loose tongued curse thrown in. Leo kicked and wriggled herself free, jumping to her feet and turning to help the kid she had knocked down, poor guy was still tied up in different coloured leashes each attached to his wrist at one end and a dog at the other.
"Ah, crap." She cursed reaching out a hand to help him to his feet. "I'm sorry about that, are you okay?"
"Uhh… yeah, yeah. I'm fine, just fine thanks." The kid fumbled as Leo helped pull him to his feet with remarkable strength for such a scrawny 12-year-old girl. "Thanks…"
The kid didn't get to finish whatever he was about to say as Officer Porky had finally caught up and dropped a heavy hand on Leo's shoulder, calling in his radio about a runaway being apprehended. Leo sent him a sarcastic, toothy smile, giving the now gobsmacked kid a wink.
"Congratulations, officer, will there be a promotion in it for you if you bring me back?" She asked her tone dripping with faux innocence. "Maybe a doughnut?"
The officer didn't say anything, only giving her a condescending look before dragging her off to his partner and piling her into the back of a police cruiser. Leo spent the night in the drunk tank, silently mulling over the number of health code violations she came across and wondering just how quickly they would find a social worker to dump her in yet another group home.
The next week became a blur to her as her expectations were completely tilted on their heads. Leo did end up in a group home but only for the summer which was mostly filled with tediously long meetings with social services and school administrators. In the last few weeks of summer, Leo found herself being dragged all over the tristate area to half a dozen different boarding schools that refused to accept her admittance until finally board of directors for Yancy Academy looked over her case and agreed they could stretch their scholarship program – that was really just the tuition fee halved, it was another way of making a preppy boarding school look good – for another student.
As august rolled to an end and the new school year crept up Leo was kept under close scrutiny from just about everyone, each making sure she wouldn't take off again. Two days before September first, Leo was unceremoniously dumped on the upper East end of Manhattan with a duffle bag full of clothes, a backpack slung over one shoulder with notebooks, pens and other necessity items. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she stood in a sea of rich delinquents saying farewell to the fancy chauffeurs and personal assistants that were dropping them off. She squared her shoulders and started up the white stone steps of Yancy Academy towards reception where she had to sign in. A woman with a strict, high ponytail and bangs that just barely brushed her narrow-lensed spectacles sat behind the desk in a freshly pressed skirt suit and a pen tucked behind one ear, there were at least forty stacks of papers of varying sizes in neat rows along the table.
"Name?" The woman demanded in a clearly fed-up tone, although Leo could completely understand why, it was barely hitting eleven O'clock and it seemed the Latina was the first student to register.
"Leo Valdez." Leo stated, awkwardly shifting from side to side as her ADHD got the better of her and she just itched to move or fiddle with something.
"Leonida Valdez, DOB April 15th, 1993?" The woman read off from a stack of papers she'd picked up, peering up at Leo through narrowed eyes. "You're one of our… scholarship students, correct?"
"Uh… yup, I guess so. Also, it's pronounced Le-ah-nida." She quipped with a grin, the woman remained stone faced as she flicked through the papers reading off what seemed like important information that Leo should probably remember but it sounded like rules and regulations.
"The girls' dormitories are located to the east area behind the actual school and opposite the gymnasium. Your dorm room consists of a share living space and there is communal bathroom at the end of the hall…" The woman continued to explain as Leo turned her focus on the semi formal looking adults milling around and occasionally introducing themselves.
Most likely teachers, no parent… She mused to herself, dark eyes scanning the surroundings with apprehension. Rich brat… another brat… clearly a narcissist with an eating disorder… holy schist that one is terrifying, her freckles kinda look like they were sprayed all over her face…. Leo shook the thought from her head… Doting mother dropping her son off…executive brat…. Trust fund baby...
"Miss Valdez." A stern voice interrupted her inner musings causing Leo to jolt slightly and half turn to face the receptionist woman with curiously raised brow. "Your class schedule, dorm number and everything else you might need."
A handful of papers were shoved into Leo's hands before the woman turned back to her work leaving the Latina to her own devices. Leo squinted down at the jumble of numbers and letters that floated off the pages before her and danced around her head mockingly, with a huff of frustration she stomped off in the direction of the girls' dorms a headache already making its presence known. It was going to be long year.
Leo, at first, had high hopes for her dorm mate until she actually arrived and Leo was graced with the best Coco the clown lookalike she'd ever seen. The girl, who had introduced herself as Nancy, had bright red hair that was thick with corkscrew curls, bright orange freckles covering her face and crooked teeth. Leo had elaborately introduced herself with a half grin and playful wink, Nancy had sniffed disdainfully looking her up and down wrinkling her nose in revulsion when she noted Leo's torn jeans and ill-fitting top that was covered by the oversized army fatigue jacket that was also ripped in some places with loose threads and buttons.
Days passed surprisingly quickly and Leo found herself on the wrong side of a lot people. Nancy and her rich delinquent friends had rallied together within hours and created a special hell for Leo, the scathing looks curled lips were nothing new to the Latina but the theft of her limited number of valuables was. Typically; no one wanted or dared to take another kid's stuff both on the streets or in homes so when she hid the photograph of her and her mama under her mattress along with her mother's blue rosary beads, she thought they would be safe. It would've been nice to know that Nancy Bobofit was not only obnoxious and nosy but a kleptomaniac. September first brought a new form of hell known as school, living in school was bad enough but living in school were your teachers – especially the strict grouchy sods – could legally keep you in detention for hours after five o'clock was a whole other batch of awful.
It was almost a month into the academic year and Leo wanted desperately to jam a pencil into her ear if only to drown out the droning of the English teachers reprimanding. He liked to single out Leo more often than not, maybe it was because of her ADHD and dyslexia or it may have had something to do with English being her second language, it made her a target for a fair few people most of which she was able to laugh off. But with Nancy it was ten times worse, during November the redheaded monster had snuck into Leo's room while she was serving an annoyingly long detention writing lines and had stolen the only two things Leo kept after her mothers' death.
Leo spent days agonising over the picture and necklace's disappearance, searching the entire dorm no less than five times. She even went to some of the slightly kinder teachers to report the items as lost, but nothing really happened until the week before Christmas break when Nancy and her gaggle of harpies had cornered her and waved the rosary under her nose tauntingly. Leo was never one to fight aggressively, she was normally quite adept at laughing or talking her way out of any situation but as Nancy toyed with the string of pale blue beads, wrapping them around her finger and yanking them until they were taut, something primal unleashed in Leo's chest.
A white-hot burning fury she had been painfully cautious about since she was eight years old and she lunged at the red-haired heiress. Her hand curling into a fist that aimed straight for Nancy's temple if one of her lackey's hadn't gotten in the way before delivering a harsh kick to Leo's gut. Leo almost begged for Nancy to give her the stupid necklace back, she didn't care about anything else but from the growing crowd of onlookers a short, deeply tanned boy with ink black hair and the deepest, expressive sea green eyes pushed forward his face twisted in a mix of fury and disgust. At first glance Leo was certain the look was aimed at her when his eyes landed on her sympathy and recognition flashed through them before he turned on the other kids.
"Beat it!" He demanded in a painfully deceptively calm voice that had a cold shiver run down everyone's spines. The crowd was quick to disperse with loud mutterings and hushed whispers. "You as well Bobofit, it's one thing to pull her hair or kick the backs of peoples chairs but it's another to steal private property and use it to humiliate and torment them."
A few seconds passed were Nancy and the stranger stared one another down, until Nancy gave an ugly sneer and gross sounding snort of amusement. "What are you going to do about it, Jackson?"
"I have a rule about hitting girls..." The kid started, his hands clenching at his sides. "But I think I can make an exception this one time."
His words didn't seem to sink in until he took a threatening step forwards, Nancy flinched back and seemingly by accident, pulled the rosary to hard snapping the thread. She dropped the broken necklace in a spray of colourful beads that clashed with the linoleum floor in a sound reminiscent of loud rain battering against a window. Leo was unable to hear the clattering of the metal cross or the mocking hyena laughter of her tormentors or the shredding of her only picture of her mom over the breaking of her own heart. Leo felt an unbridled heat sear beneath her skin, prickling against her flesh like pins and needles and knew that her own temperature was falling from her in waves – like heat from a furnace or a fire. But in a matter of seconds, it had passed and she was left with only a overwhelming sadness, her heart ached with remorse, and a hesitantly gentle hand brushed her shoulder knocking her out of vacant staring match.
Leo turned to see the kid still standing there, shifting from foot to foot nervously, "I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't think she'd actually do something like that, it's my fault really I shouldn't have threatened her like that."
"Don't worry about it." Leo murmured, wiping a hand over her dry eyes as she crouched down to scoop up the discarded beads. "S'not really your fault. I guess I should know better than to think under the mattress was a good hiding place, I haven't had to hide valuables from people like her before."
"People like her?" He asked, kneeling down to help. "I'm Percy by the way, Percy Jackson."
"Yeah, brats that have never been held accountable for the stuff they do because papa just throws money at lawyers and judges to get them a sweet deal." Leo half joked, not noticing Percy slip the silver cross into his pocket an idea to make it up to Leo coming to mind. "Leonida Valdez, most people call me Leo though."
"Nice to meet you, Leah."
They shook hands with matching grins, cementing the start of their friendship. Far below the earth, were souls of the dearly departed travelled in hopes of a better afterlife, three old women huddled together. Their shrivelled hands and puckered, leathery faces looking around them with unseeing gazes, all looking for their one eye the spindle that held the threads of one's destiny shimmered, before strangely enough entwining two brightly coloured threads together tightly.
Clotho, plopping in the eye triumphantly squawked in astonishment as the fire-coloured thread that flickered like a real flame in the Greek fire surrounding them braided itself with an equally brightly glowing sea green thread. There was no question once the shimmering and glowing dwindled to nothing, destiny and the universe had decreed that these two fates were now irrevocably, unquestionably intertwined.
I personally like this better than the original version but I still value your thoughts or comments as long as its not cruel