Hey guys: Next chapter, sorry about not uploading before. I wasn't suicidal enough to try and take the computer from three football mad brothers during a world cup semi-final. Then a load of other stuff came up. I'm sorry guys. Congrats to TheLegendOfTheGreek, (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::) (O)(O)(O)(O)(O). Please review who you want in.

Thanks Drake for pointing out my spelling error. It seems I defiantly spell definitely wrong. I will definitely try to improve that.

Ok, so we have blackjack and Silena. We're gonna have to wait till he's back at camp for those two though.

Last chapter I meant Paul Blofis for the teacher- did it not show up in the story? Maybe it disappeared when I uploaded it. Sorry!

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise, and not much you don't recognise. If you don't recognise it, chances are I've nicked it from somewhere else.

GUYS, if you answered a question and I've not put your character in yet, please PM me- I lost the list of characters I had added and I haven't.

I heard Americans call it taking roll call instead of taking the register, so I put it in. I am trying folks! Please forgive this little English girl for not being American enough to know the terms. :/

In which Leo meets an old friend...

When the door swung open Leo was struck with a wave of noise... Typical school then. The teacher looked up from where he was sitting. He looked rather confused as to why Leo was there- this was remarkably awkward. But Leo was an expert in awkward, so he sucked it up and walked over to the teachers' desk, "I'm Leo Valdez. New student. Tell me does the school make it a habit of letting new students find their way to their first class by themselves, without a map or guide- or was that just me?"

Mr Blofis looked a little shocked at that, and Leo couldn't help grinning. "There should have been someone there Mr Valdez, but I'm glad you found your way. If you'd take the free seat on the second row."

Leo swung his bag of his shoulder and made his way over to the spare seat, next to a girl who looked vaguely familiar, her hair was over her face and she had earphones in her ears. She was really pretty, in a non-conforming way, like a rebel daughter of Aphrodite- wait. Rebel daughter of Aphrodite? It couldn't possibly be...

Leo's train of thought was disrupted by a loud bang from the front. Mr. Blofis had dropped a pile of books on the floor, bringing the babble of noise to an abrupt stop. "Now that I have your attention... I'm trying to take roll call. I appreciate you've just finished the summer, but you are back in school now, and that means you have to act like civilised people instead of the brain dead- house trained monkeys you've been for the last two months. Would you please remain quiet while I take roll call?"

A murmur of accent rippled through the room, as everyone turned their faces to the front, and the girl next to Leo, who he thought he knew the identity of, pulled out her earphones. "Thank-you. Is Callum here?"

As the roll call proceeded, Leo let his mind wander. Another year in therapy inducing school- likely to result in another expulsion, or him running away. He wasn't actually planning on running away this time. A lot of the other times, Leo found the family he was with to be unsatisfactory. Some of them were simply unable to cope with him. Either old couples or ones with too many other kids. He knew he'd never fit in there. He knew he was a trouble magnet even before he found out he was a demi-god. He had run from the old couples before two long so they didn't have time to get attached to him, when he knew he would eventually have to leave. They wouldn't have been able to deal with a trouble maker like him- even if he didn't mean to be a trouble maker. He'd rather they be a little upset that he had run than a load upset when he got caught up in yet another thing.

The ones with a lot of kids... Leo was fine with kids most of the time, but he couldn't live 24:7 with a family that had no concept of privacy, so he had run from them too.

The family he was now in were different. One kid with fairly young parents- who knew he could disappear on 'missions' at anytime, or come back covered in blood or such. Well they knew he could disappear on 'missions' he had yet to determine their reaction should he come back covered in blood... Still- Leo was a little out of his depth. He was used to looking after himself, and relying on other demi-gods occasionally. Having mortals care about him was a little strange, and he felt a little mistrusting of them, he didn't know how they'd actually act till he came in bleeding all over the floor. If they freaked out totally he'd know he had to leave.

There was another thing keeping him here now. Benny. His adopted little brother who was too darn cute for his own good. He'd known him barely a month, yet already Leo felt as attached to him as he was to his siblings at camp. He would rather run than see Benny or his parents' hurt- but this was one family he didn't actually want to leave. He knew he'd have to be incredibly watchful for monsters, and make sure none of them found out where he lived. He wouldn't be the cause of his new family's death- not the same way he was responsible for his mothers.

By the time Leo's self analysis had ended the role call had been finished, and Mr Blofis was saying something else. He looked back to the teacher, and attempted to focus.

"...We have two new students in the class, and I am sure you will welcome them, if they wouldn't mind coming to the front and introducing themselves." He retreated to the desk and sat behind it waving Leo and the girl beside him to the front.

With a little trepidation, Leo got to his feet and moved forward, with the pretty girl who he had begun to suspect was someone he knew from the future beside him. If she was who he thought... This school year might not be as horrible as he thought it would be. When the two reached the front, Leo heard several wolf-whistles from the back of the class-room. He saw the girl beside him tense slightly and almost frowned. Really? Yes she was good looking, not that he would ever hit on her (she was like his sister for Aphrodite's sake), but she was twelve! Wasn't that a little young to be wolf whistled at? Leo saw Mr Blofis frown out of the corner of his eye. Seemed like the man agreed with Leo.

Judging by the way Pi- the girl, (he wasn't completely sure she was who he thought she was) had tensed, she was used to it, and that alone made Leo annoyed, she shouldn't have to be used to jerks hitting on her at aged 12! So stuff it, if he was going to be teased here, he would at least try to make sure Pip- the girl wasn't.

Leo stepped forward and looked to the back, where the jerks who had wolf whistled were, (did he get points for mental alliteration?) and sent them a grin. "Hey, my name's Leo, or Valdez, or any combination of the two you feel like shouting in my general direction. And while I'm glad you find me hot- I don't swing that way."

Leo could almost feel the shock emitting from the girl, as the majority of the class burst into laughter, and the boy in question went red. He didn't seem to be angry at Leo though. More embarrassed than anything. When the laughter died down she stepped forward and smiled. "I'm Piper, and no, I do not play pipes. I prefer the drums. Apparently drummer doesn't have the same appeal as a name. Who knew?"

Her comment resulted in a load of grins from the class, as Leo and Piper headed back to their seats. Leo was trying not squeal, he had a feeling it would lose him points with the class, it not being a particularly manly pastime. Still, it was Piper! Granted he had thought it was since he had entered the classroom, but it was nice to have it confirmed. Piper was here! He could get to know her years earlier than he had figured. It was great! He wouldn't be able to talk to her about demi-god stuff though. Well he could, but he knew if he told her then she'd want to go to camp, and... Even in his head this sounded cruel. He didn't want her at camp yet.

Now Leo wasn't in the habit of being cruel, teasing yes, but outright cruelty was a bit far- a lot to far. But he couldn't help but think that Piper was part of the second great prophecy, and shouldn't get involved in the first one. And yes, he was aware of how much of a hypocrite that made him. He just had this gut feeling that he shouldn't let her get involved till the titans were out of the way, and being a demi-god he tended to trust his gut feeling. More often than not it was what kept him alive.

But how could he hang around Piper and not tell her. He was used to being able to turn to her and tell her anything, she was pretty much his sister. It had been bad enough coming back in time and seeing Percy without bursting into tears, which was another manly activity he seemed to be doing a lot recently. Though if Piper heard him talking like that she'd probably give him a lecture on not conforming to stereotypes and that letting his emotions out wasn't something to be ashamed about. His Piper that was, and though he had no doubt that this Piper would eventually be just as close- she wasn't yet.

Hanging out with her while keeping secrets from her was a recipe that spelled disaster- he knew, in a moment of weakness he would slip up and say something wrong, and he wasn't prepared to deal with the fall out that would cause. He slumped in his chair, his previous excitement fading away- it was better for all involved if he stayed away from her. Sure he'd not be rude- but he wouldn't try to be friendly with her. He'd stick to just being the class jester. Easier that way. Hang around with anyone, but don't make any close friends. They were all (apart from Piper) mortals anyway. They'd never understand the world the way it was (except from Piper). They wouldn't ever need to care about saving the world, (other than Piper)... For Hephaestus's sake! This was not helping his motivation to stay away from her!

Even if he did make close friends among the mortals, the fact remained that unless they were clear sighted, like Rachel, the friendship couldn't last or be very strong anyway, he was just too different from them. Suddenly Leo wanted to grab a drachma, summon the chariot of eternal damnation and go straight back to camp. He forgot how lonely he could be surrounded by people who just didn't- couldn't know.

Before the time travel, it had been awful yes, quite literally apocalyptic, but he was with people, even right at the end, who knew what it was like. Knew the world how it was- the truth behind the mist. Suddenly he was struck with a wave of pity for the mortals. Sure some of them did amazing things, but they lived in a bubble, unaware of the true nature of the earth- unaware that the ground they were walking on was actually a evil goddess who could wipe them all out if she awoke, but wouldn't because it simply wasn't worth the effort. Suddenly he felt exactly like Neo, from the matrix film (seriously the guy who wrote that script must have been a demi-god, because he got the isolated yet included aspect spot on).

So, he'd avoid Piper, generally play the fool. A role he was almost perfect at by now, practice makes perfect after all, and wait till he could go back to camp- going out and killing any monsters in the area if he got bored.

Leo sat up again in his seat after he'd come to this realisation, and realised that it was almost time for his first class. Biology- fun. He had decided that since he was technically 16 and now void of dyslexia (thank-you Chaos!) he should be able to do most of these lessons with little difficulty, so he really didn't need to try at all; he would set himself a project to do in school time- just a simple one. His first idea was assessing how much information that they were taught was actually applicable to demi-god life; and the second one was correcting any mistakes teachers made. Anonymously of course- he didn't particularly want the know it all status. That was Annabeth's job.

Now, this didn't seem like Leo. He was generally a 'I don't really care unless the consequences are fatal' type, and he was not the sort to give himself extra work- unless it was anything to do with inventing building or forging. Then it was all he really wanted to do. But he could foresee school being so incredibly boring- unless he gave himself something to do to stop his mind exploding. Of course he could just cause trouble and prank, but he'd promised Jo and Harvey to try and behave at this school- and while he may be a troublemaker, he put great stock in his promises. Leo Valdez did not break his promises.

Just then the bell rang, and the class all stood and made their way to their next lesson, which, fortunately was just down the corridor, so Ryan, the kid who Mr Blofis had asked to show Leo around- didn't really have to do anything. He seemed a bit miffed at having to drag Leo around, which Leo could kinda understand- and he was pretty welcoming. But anyone could see he'd rather be with his friends. So hey, Leo didn't hold it agaist him. As he walked down the hall, Leo spoke to him.

"Hey Ryan, thanks for the welcome, but you don't have to stick around if you don't want to. I can find my way around."

"Really."

"Sure, go ahead."

Ryan sent him a grin, and then rushed to catch up with his mates. Leo grinned back and proceeded to the classroom he was supposed to be in. The teacher sat them in alphabetical order by surname, so Leo was right at the back- with was perfectly fine by him. The trouble was the announcement that she gave.

"This year, you will be doing a project with a partner of the opposite gender, and hopefully you'll actually get some work done. Most of you will be in the same pairs I put you with last year, and the two new students can pair together." Leo looked across the room, the other new student. Seriously fate hated him, yep, it was Piper. So much for staying away from her.

Whats the name of the monster who wears a chainmail Mumu?