Sorry for the delay, but 2nd semester... forget Hell. The 2nd semester of school is worse (I'm exaggerating, but you get my point)
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Peviously on Pop Quiz!
"Because you got all but one wrong on the quiz."
"What?!" The demigods gasped.
"B-But-" Piper stammered. "What about number two? Leo told me he ran away from six foster homes; we had to have gotten that one right and the one about Leo's mom!"
"He said he ran away from six foster homes. He didn't say he went to six foster homes," Hera corrected. "Now, I suggest you all sit because you're not getting out of this."
She vanished, leaving a few couches and a flat screen television in her wake.
"I gotta admit; that's pretty cool," Percy said before sitting beside Annabeth on one of the sofas. Frank and Hazel curled up on one to their left while Jason and Piper seated themselves on the one to the right.
Still unconscious, Leo shifted, mumbling in his sleep about tea and fireplaces and snakes and nightgowns.
Piper giggled. "That's Leo's mind for you!"
The television flickered to life, revealing a beautiful woman. She was tall and thin with long brown hair that cascaded down her back; her eyes were chocolate brown and sparkling with love and humor. In her overalls, her profession was made clear, if the oil and grease had anything to say about it. Her smile lit up the room.
"There's a picture of her on Leo's wall," Piper whispered. "I never asked him who it was."
"Neither did I," Annabeth agreed. "It's in Bunker Nine, too."
The screen zoomed out to reveal a toddler sitting in front of her. He was scrawny and lacked the baby fat that a usual toddler had for some reason; his hair and eyes were the same color as the woman's. In his jean shorts and blue T-shirt, he looked like any other kid, but he wasn't.
He was Leo Valdez... a bite sized version, but still Leo.
"Aw, he was so cute!" Piper squealed. Jason subtly scooted away.
"Jason..."
"Sorry, dear."
Percy stiffled a laugh while Annabeth watched in amusement. Frank smiled at their antics, and Hazel openly giggled.
Turning back to the scream, the woman held up a toy boat.
"El barco," she said. "Boat."
Leo stared at her.
"Come on, Leo. Here, easy one. Muy facíl." (Very easy)
She smiled and pointed to herself. "Máma."
Leo said nothing.
"Por favor, Leo. Dice Mamá," she begged. (Please, Leo. Say Mom/Mommy/Mama [Mamá means all three])
Leo didn't speak.
Subtitles appeared at the bottom of the scream.
Leo was very slow to talk. He was smart and clever, but speaking was not his forte, nor was physical activity. Leo did not say his first word until he was four, one week before he entered preschool.
Piper frowned. "I never knew that. With how much Leo talks, I thought he was born talking."
"Agreed," Jason told her.
He was often teased for it, the screen read, which leads into the next memory.
The image changed to an image of a still scrawny Leo sitting on a bench at a school playground. He was a little older, maybe four, and his hair had grown longer and more unruly. The small boy wore a baggy gray T-shirt and jeans; his eyes still sparkled with humor, but now, they shown with something else... loneliness.
The expression didn't suit the fun loving joker.
"Well, if it isn't the boy that can't talk."
The screen spanned out to display three boys standing in front of Leo in classic bully stance. The boy in the middle was the tallest and by the look in his eye, the meanest. He wore a nice blue hoodie with a red and white striped shirt and crisp blue jeans. The boy to his left was quiet and kind of nervous looking, but it was well hidden; he wore a red shirt with simple black pants. The boy to the right was built like a tank and had eyes of steel, emotionless, like he had no heart.
Leo looked up from his lap and stared at the boys.
"What are you, dumb?" The boy in the middle sneered. "Mommy too stupid to teach you?"
Leo leapt to his feet so suddenly, the seven jumped. The boys actually took a step back.
Leo didn't speak, but he jabbed a finger into the middle boy's chest, making his meaning clear: don't talk about my mom that way.
"Ooh, a bit defensive," the boy to the right sneered. "Why are you so defensive of a woman that can't work hard enough to keep a man or clothe and feed her son?"
"How can someone so little be so mean?" Frank whispered.
"Oh, trust me," Hazel said, flatly. "Little people are the cruelest people of all, in my experience."
No one said anything, but Frank wrapped an arm around her, and they all turned to face the screen.
Leo glared at the boy and went to take a step forward (probably to hit him), but the boy on the right shoved him, sending him sprawling to the ground.
The middle and right boy walked off, but the nervous one on the left stayed behind.
He knelt down and helped Leo to his feet, assisting in the task of brushing the mulch off Leo's clothes.
"Mikey, come on!" The middle boy yelled from somewhere else on the playground.
Mikey smiled and disappeared into the crowd of students.
Mikey was the only one at that school that ever showed the slightest bit of kindness to Leo. Remember him; this isn't the last time you'll be seeing Michael Wilkerson.
The image changed to that of a small apartment, a kitchen, more precisely. Leo was seated on the counter with his mom next to him, rifling through the cabinets.
Leo certainly looked different than he did now. He was even scrawnier, and you could clearly count his ribs through his shirt, which was covered in oil stains and dirt. His skin was pale and dirty, like he hadn't had a bath in a while. He was maybe two years old.
More subtitles appeared.
Leo's mother was a great mechanic, but no one would hire her because she was a woman. Therefore, working at a small warehouse trying to prove herself, earned her minimum wage. Feeding and clothing both herself and Leo was difficult.
Esperanza pulled back from the fridge. "I'm sorry, mijo. We don't have anything to eat."
He smiled, as if to say 'it's okay, Mamá.'
Esperanza understood him perfectly. "No, it's not okay, Leo. You should be growing strong and healthy, but... you're not."
Leo reached up and wrapped his arms around her neck. I love you, Mamá, his eyes read.
"I love you, too, mijo."
Annabeth sighed. "He's so much wiser than we thought he was."
The next image popped up, displaying Leo Valdez, only two years old, cradled in the arms of a woman.
She reminded them scarily of Gaea. Her hands were pale, but the rest of her body was shrouded in black clothes, almost like a stereotypical horror movie bad guy. Whispering to Leo, she seemed to be speaking Greek... or maybe Latin; it was hard to tell.
"Let's see if you are my strong warrior," she whispered in English.
The six exchanged glances. That didn't sound good.
Slowly, she walked over to the hearth that burned brightly in the small room; then, she... she...
"That bitch!" Jason screamed, startling everyone. "What kind of person puts an effing baby in a fireplace?"
"Apparently her," Percy muttered, but his eyes were a tsunami- angry, strong, and unstoppable. "Who is she?"
"Hera," Piper whispered. "Leo told us about his babysitter, Tia Callida. Could it be the same person?"
No one responded.
The woman rocked in her rocking chair, singing softly in Greek (it was definitely Greek now), while Leo giggled and caught sparks with his hands.
The position of the sun changed outside, showing the passage of time. Possibly a few hours had gone by, but the scene hadn't changed.
Piper gritted her teeth. "He's only immune to fire, not smoke."
The others shifted, uncomfortably. To tell you the truth, none of them had known that, but Piper had seen Leo collapse once when there was a fire in Bunker Nine. He'd put it out, but the lack of oxygen that was caused by the smoke going into his lungs caused him to go the Infirmary. Jason had known that Leo was in the hospital, but not why.
The door opened and in walked Esperanza, who screamed so loudly, there were several crashes outside the window and one man shouted, "Where's the fire?"
"Uh... that's kind of funny," Frank said.
Despite the situation, the others couldn't stiffle their chuckles.
Esperanza yanked Leo from the flames and yelled at the woman to go away, but she was already gone.
The image changed again.
This time, Leo was seated on the kitchen floor, minding his own business as he played with his Legos, when suddenly, someone kicked his toys away.
Leo looked up, glaring daggers at Hera, disguised as Tia Callida.
"Esperanza let her babysit Leo again!" Hazel shrieked. "After what happened?"
"Well, you can't exactly forbid the queen of the gods from entering your home without getting zapped," Percy pointed out.
Hera knelt on the floor and placed several blades of the floor from a butter knife to a steak knife.
"You must know your blades well, if you are to be my hero," she said.
"Children that age shouldn't be playing with scissors, much less knives!" Annabeth seethed.
The memory vanished, replaced by a new one.
Leo was standing beside Hera, helping her cook. It would've been rather cute if she hadn't squirted jalapeño juice in his eye.
Frank winced. "Ooh... that's worse than lemon juice."
"She did that on purpose!" Percy growled.
"Fight through the pain," Hera commanded.
Leo stopped whimpering, but continued to rub at his eyes and allow tears to fall.
"Fight, my warrior. You will face much more pain than that in your life, I'm afraid."
Leo stopped crying all together, rubbing his eyes one last time, before continuing to help cook, all while staying very far away from the jalapeños.
"Geesh," Jason muttered. "I was expecting a lot more crying; I mean, I've never squirted jalapeño in my eye, but I've squirted lemon juice. If it's even worse with jalapeños, I expected Leo to be bawling by now."
"Maybe he is stronger than we know," Hazel whispered.
The six stared at the teenage boy, who had been through so much, and yet, still smiled everyday. Still joked and made others laugh when he was so broken on the inside.
But maybe he's not broken. Maybe he's just a little bent. And maybe they need to fix him before he does shatter. Because once that happens, there's no getting Leo back.
The image changed to Leo standing in the field behind an apartment complex with Hera, holding a stick. On the ground at their feet, a rattlesnake stared up at them.
"Where is your bravery, hero?" Hera said.
Leo stared at her as if to say where is your sanity before shaking his head.
"Not fair," he said before throwing the stick on the ground.
The rattlesnake stared at Hera, like are you nuts, lady? before it slithered away into the tall grass.
The image transformed, but Hera and Leo were still behind the apartment complex, except now, they were seated at a picnic table.
Leo was drawing with crayons while Hera sang that strange Greek lullaby when suddenly, a strong wind swept Leo's picture away.
"The picture of the Argo II," Piper whispered. "So that's how it wound up with Aeolus."
"Leo's been dreaming about his creation since he was so young," Jason murmured.
"Well, no wonder it means so much to him," Annabeth said. "He's been connected with it since way before it was built."
The young fire user looked ready to cry, but Hera just clucked her tongue.
"How disappointing. It is not your time yet, hero. But don't worry, it will come. Now, why don't you make me a fire? Warm these old bones."
Leo's hands caught fire.
When Esperanza returned, she found her only son surrounded by orange flames, and she yanked him from the fire, probably burning herself in the process. The flames, not very hot to begin with, sputtered and died.
The entire scene changed.
Leo was maybe eight years old with longer brown curls and sparkling brown eyes. He was wearing oil stained jeans and a blue shirt; he looked healthier than he had before, showing that their financial issues had gotten better since Leo was a toddler. He was walking alongside his mother, who patted her pockets, presumedly for her keys, looking confused.
They were standing in a machine shop.
There will be more memories of Leo's childhood later on, but they will probably be connected with future events. I will tell you that beyond that, the memories will be mostly chronological because that makes it easier for me to write and you to understand.