Disclaimer: Not Rick

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Leo

Leo had a little difficulty finding a seat. Nobody wanted to sit with a kid who had a government official hovering at his shoulder, so that turned out to be a problem, seeing that he was practically the only person with one.

All the compartments were full anyway, he noticed as he peered through the windows on the doors as he dragged the half-empty duffel bag carrying his possibly five possessions behind him.

Finally he reached the back of the train. Other than the last one, which was his last hope, there were no more compartments available to students like him left. He looked back down the hall to find everyone hurrying into his or her carts for the ride. He sighed and walked over to the compartment, knocking politely. When no one answered, he slid the door open a little and peered in.

There was only one person there—a girl maybe his age. Her dark brown hair was braided down just past her shoulders and she was wearing a dark blue bandana to keep loose strands of hair from falling to her face. She was wearing a bright yellow shirt with flowers patterned on it and ripped jeans, which was for some reason the trend of the season for girls. She sat on her bent legs, looking outside the window as if looking for someone.

"Is this compartment full?" Leo said. (It didn't hurt to ask. Maybe her friends were out and were just coming back.) She spun around, caught by surprise, but when she realized it was just him she shook her head. He smiled gratefully and dragged his bag under a seat, sitting down himself. His super-huge government guy left, closing the door behind him.

When the train pulled out of the station the girl finally gave up her search for the someone she was looking for, and sat down properly. She took out some purple and green headphones from her bag and connected them to a Samsung Galaxy touchscreen phone, staring out the window as the city rolled by them. Leo sat across the table from her, reading a thick novel he bought at the train station along with a mechanical bird that he hoped would keep him busy for a few months. Finally the girl spoke, slipping her headphones around her neck.

"What's you're name?" she asked, more out of habit than politeness. He looked up.

"Leo," he announced.

"I'm Piper," she said. "Why are you here?"

"To go to school," said Leo. "Unless this is an academy where they send kids to be executed in secret and nobody told me. Between you and me, what do you think would be more painful: being starved or burned to the stake?" He paused. "If we're given choices, I'd probably choose burning. A lot faster, and how much could it really hurt?"

The girl, Piper, didn't show signs of amusement, but her voice lightened up slightly, if just by a bit. "I didn't see any parents with you," she explained simply. "Just some government guy in a suit. Why are you going to the Wilderness School? Did you do something bad? Like, break the law?"

"Hmm... did I do something?" Leo repeated contemplatively. "You could say that." He sat up straighter, a thought just having hit him. "Did you do something bad?"

"What?" asked Piper, taken by surprise and going for the natural defense. "No! I mean, I guess…"

"It's okay, young and meagre child," said Leo. "You can tell me how many laws you broke; I promise I'll only tell every single person I know."

"Well, um, I... wait a minute. What does 'meagre' even mean?"

"No clue. But the lawyer against me in court said it, so I'm guessing it's very impolite."

"Lawyer against you?" Piper repeated, catching on.

"If you want to know, you've gotta spill the beans first," explained Leo. "What did you do to end up here?"

"Why do you care?" Piper asked. Leo could hear the song Viva la Vida by Coldplay coming out through the speakers around her neck.

"Because you did for me," said Leo. "Look, I'll say what I did if you tell me what you did." When Piper didn't say anything and looked as if she were ready to grab her things and change compartments, he added, "See, I'll even go first, even though I said I wouldn't: I ran away six times," he stated calmly, as if saying, I work at a burger place and secretly make out with my girlfriend when my parents aren't home.

"Like... from your parents?" Piper asked. "Were they that bad?"

"My Mum died in a fire when I was eight," Leo explained. "Never knew my dad. I ran away from foster homes, mostly."

"Oh." There was a pause as Piper decided what to say. "I never knew my mom," she admitted. "She appeared one day, my dad fell in love with her, and she left."

Leo frowned, failing to see the logic. "But then how—?"

"I don't know," said Piper sharply, suddenly irritated. "But Dad said that he found me on the porch of our house one winter day nestled in soft blankets inside a wooden basket painted pink. The only other thing there was a handwritten note with one word on it. My name."

"Oh," said Leo. "That's not stalker-like at all…?" He cleared his voice just to find an excuse not to say more.

"All right, enough talk," he finally said after a quiet moment of awkward silence. "You still haven't explained how you got here."

"I stole a BMW," said Piper, looking down at the table. Leo was so taken aback he thought she was kidding.

"You what!?" he demanded when he realized she wasn't. "Don't you realize how epic that is!?"

"I didn't steal it exactly," explained Piper. "It just… I just… I dunno, I guess I just spoke with the dealer and he just, like—"

"Gave it to you?" finished Leo.

"Yes!" cried Piper as if someone finally understood her.

"So what you're saying is," started Leo because he was having trouble processing the information, "that you talked a guy into giving you a car?"

"Exactly like that!" said Piper. Leo shook his head sadly.

"If I actually believed you with that influence-over-people talk, I'd be scared if you offered me candy," he said.

"I've got gum," Piper offered, handing him a piece.

They continued talking like this, no one mentioning his or her parents again. They soon arrived at the Wilderness School, and as the kids in the last compartment they had the privilege of being one of the last people off the train.

Four teachers stood outside on the platform. Each of them held a sign—Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4. Leo and Piper headed for the Year 2 sign.

On their way, some guy intentionally bumped into Piper. "Sorry," she muttered even though it wasn't her fault, and moved on. The guy just grinned and shot her a flirtatious smile. Unfortunately for him, Piper had already turned around.

Sorry, dude, Leo mouthed at him and followed her.

The Year 2 teacher looked the meanest of the four. Yes, he was short. Like, really, really short. He had a giant mop of curly brown hair like Leo's but thicker and a lot curlier, all tucked under a baseball cap. He wore these long sweatpants that reached down to these giant shoes that Leo figured were five times larger than his actual size, and he held a baseball bat in one hand, the Year 2 sign in his other, and a clipboard under his left arm. A big red megaphone sat horn-down on the pavement beside him. When Piper and Leo approached, he grunted and put the baseball bat down so he could check his clipboard.

"Names?" he asked.

Piper replied for both of them. "Leo and Piper," she told him.

The teacher rifled through the clipboard in search of their names.

"Leo Valdez and Piper McLean?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah," said Piper quickly. Leo noticed stars beside their names on the clipboard. When the teacher didn't reply, Piper added, "Is there something wrong?"

The teacher sniffed the air but stopped, deciding that whatever it was it wasn't worth his time. "Sir!" corrected the teacher, over his shock. "Is there something wrong, sir!?"

"Um, is something wrong... sir?" echoed Piper a little unsurely.

"No," he huffed. "Now get in line with the rest of the cupcakes!" He pointed behind his shoulder where a large assemblage of Year 2 students was grouped.

"Did he just call me a cupcake?" Piper demanded when they were out of the coach's hearing range. She seemed to have taken serious offence to this.

"He called us all cupcakes," said Leo. He turned toward her. "Cupcake," he added teasingly.

"Alright, listen up," said the teacher to the group once the very last strays had gotten off the train. "I am Coach Hedge. Got that? 'Cause I'm not repeating anything I'm about to say."

Everyone muttered a yes, and the kids who had been to the Wilderness School before added a sir at the end plus Piper and Leo. Coach Hedge seemed pleased by this.

"Good," he said. "I'm gonna be showing the newbies of this grade the school. And now we're going to go there. Don't get lost." He marched toward the train station parking lot, and the immensely large group followed him. Leo caught sight of that kid who had bumped into Piper before flash her another smile, but he got his timing off and she didn't notice.

They kept walking past the parking lot, much to Leo's wonder. They left the train station completely, and soon the only thing left for them to cross was a large valley of rolling hills.

"Where's the school?" a new kid asked.

"Ten miles going that way." Coach Hedge pointed in the direction of the hills. "Come on! Don't be slow, cupcakes!" He continued to walk.

Leo was suddenly glad that he only had a small bag.

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