I found myself sitting on a bench in the lobby of an orphanage, while my rescuers were talking to the front desk. All of my journey so far had been too much for me, what with my Mom dying in the fire, then managing to escape. I was on the run for 3 days, before a strange couple in a minivan came to pick me up. They said some strange stuff about expecting me, and who wore black leather jackets in summer? I stared down at my lap, and starting swinging my legs, because my 7-year-old legs couldn't reach the floor. Finally, the receptionist called,

"Alexandra! Come up, and collect your luggage, and then I can put you in your dorm, with the other girls!" she beckoned for me to come over, so I slipped off the seat, at went over to her, giving her a cold stare.

"My name is Alex. Alex Maxwell. Never call me Alexandra." I guess that pissed her off a little, because she returned my stare, then proceeded to show me down a long narrow corridor. It smelt musty, and gave me a cold feeling. Finally, we came into a small room, with 3 beds free. There were 7 other girls in that room, and when I walked past, they turned their nose up at me, as if they were above me. I put my salvaged goods down on the bed at the very end of the room, so I could have nothing to do with the other girls. I looked into my mirror, and instantly recoiled at what I saw. My blonde hair was a tangled mess, with twigs, leaves and dirt caked into it, from nights of sleeping on the ground. One of my hazel eyes had a bloody scratch over it in a diagonal line, and my clothes were ripped and torn like nobody's business. I walked over to the shower, to tidy myself up, and put on new clothes. I was quite independent for 7 years, and I was definitely way more mature. When I came out, all the girls were putting on nice clothes, and when I asked them why, they told me they were getting ready to go to the town. I scoffed, and asked why they were going to that stupid place. When the only answer I got was,

"Bakewell snob," from a petite girl with jet black hair, I flicked my hair, and proceeded to go to the window, and I leaned against it. When the room was empty, I looked out of the window. I saw the supervisor unlock the orphanage door and unlock the gate too, for all the children to go through. Once the last child was gone, lock went the door, and lock went the gate. This place was so old-fashioned. Well, I said to myself. There's no way to escape this place now. Then I flipped the latch on the window, and saw the space was big enough for me to go through. The bottom wasn't that low either, so I proceeded to reach my arms out to the drain pipe, and I began to climb down. Once I had both feet firmly on the ground, I took a deep breath, and started to walk, when I heard a gasp, from around the corner. I went to see what it was, and it turned out to be a boy of my height. He had dark brown hair, and lightly tanned skin. His nose was turned up, and his ears were slightly pixie shaped.

"Who are you?" I asked, rudely, maybe, but I was still 7, and curiosity got the better of me. After getting over his original shock, the boy stood up straight, and stuck his hand out to greet me.

"Leo Valdez. What's yours?"

I took his hand and shook it. "Alex Maxwell." Then he looked at me seriously in the eye, before bursting out in laughter.

"That was kinda funny. Are you new here? I saw you coming in with your luggage through the window."

"Yeah," I replied. "I came in today, but I already hate it here. What do you think of this place?"

"It's total crap," Leo said, plain as hell. "I've honestly thought about running away quite a few times, but I've never thought I could pull it off, and there's no-one here at this place who'd wanna run away, much less with me."

"Why?" I asked the most obvious question, hanging in the air.

"Well," Leo said, smirking slightly, "Everyone else thinks I'm a freak."

*Leo explains every thing about his fire thing, and Alex explains everything about her life, and her special power of healing people, and Leo talks about his life and they're all on the same page.*

It was the middle of the night, and everyone else was placidly snoring, but I couldn't sleep, so I lay there, thinking about the events during the day, but more of the boy I'd met, Leo Valdez. It seemed like a charm, though, because as soon as I turned around to face the window, a figure came slithering through the window. My ADHD got the best of me, so I leaped from under the covers, to pin the figure to the wall.

"Hey, Alex, can you put me down?" came Leo's voice.

"Oh, sorry, natural instincts," I whispered back. Leo beckoned for me to come through the window. I followed him until we were safely two feet on the ground.

"Why did you do that, Leo?" I asked.

"I was thinking about what you said, about running away, and I've decided to run to do it. Are you coming with me?"

I was honestly a bit taken aback. "Leo, I have absolutely no issue with that, I mean sure as hell, but why me? Isn't there someone else you can trust, and we only met today."

He nodded, and said, "I'm fine if you don't want to come, but as for why I can trust you, well, you're the only person who's like me, and you had nothing against me doing the weird fire thing. Even if you're not coming, then I'll go, but I just want to tell you any way, so you know."

"Oh, come off it, of course I'm coming. It's kinda weird, but even though we met today, I think I can trust you. When can we do it?" I asked.

In the end, we made plans to gather supplies the next day at breakfast, lunch and dinner, and gather all our luggage to meet here the following night.

All throughout the day, I was constantly around Leo. He knew this place better than me, so he showed me everything, like we were never leaving. I figured that it was a show to make us look less suspcious.

'Daang, this guy's smart,' I thought. By the end of the day, between us, we had a large haul of food, to last us weeks. When it was time to leave, I wrapped my portion of the food in two plastic bags, and put them inside my luggage. I took my bags, and dumped them on the grass outside. I hoped no-one heard the bang. I quickly climbed down the drain pipe, and went to the place me and Leo were at the night before. Before too long, he showed up, and gave me a pixie -like grin.

"Ya ready?"

"Oh, absolutely."

Between us we managed to haul the luggage and ourselves onto the other side of the fence, and then we started walking into the great outdoors.

And that is the story of how I lasted barely two days in my first and only orphanage home.

Hey there! This is my first Fanfic, so if you have any criticsism for my work, please tell me, but can you please tell me how to improve as well? Thank you so much!

Yours,

MilkAndCheez

P.S- In this chapter, the credit for Leo Valdez goes to Rick Riordan.