90. Childhood
Leo's childhood ha started out lonely.
He'd had two best friends, Piper and Jason. They'd met when they'd been about 6 and it had been obvious from the start to Leo that he was the third wheel of their epic romance story.
But they were friends and he'd needed friends. Plus he liked them. More than anybody else he knew at that age. When he got over the fact that sometimes Jason did things that hurt his feelings to make Piper smile or laugh, they worked.
Then they went to school and Leo met the rest of their grade.
Clarisse, the bully who nobody could talk to but Silena, who was head over heels in love with Beckendorf who returned the feelings but didn't know it was mutual. Will and Nico who was younger but brilliant enough to be put head. They started out having no reason to talk but eventually coming out as a couple in the tenth grade. Hazel and Frank, friends since they were babies but who obviously had a thing from the minute they both hit puberty in 6th. The Stoll brothers who both had a crush on Katie, but everyone knew she liked Travis. Percy and Annabeth, the King and Queen of the grade and possibly the entire school. Love struck idiots who were friends with everybody but also freakishly intimidating.
Then there was Jason and Piper, also couple goals. His best friends who had become best friends with other people, bringing him along, including him, opening up his social life. He got in through them but he stayed because of himself.
So now he was friends with people he never thought he'd been friends with. He joined in on the 'Jercy' bromance, hung out with the girl group of Annabeth, Hazel and Piper when the others weren't able to and talked and joked with the others.
Then, outside of it all, there was Reyna.
Unsocial, surprisingly funny, Reyna. Reyna who would intimidate people to back off with just a look and a raised eyebrow. Reyna who jumped when people came close, who was absolutely brilliant and beautiful, who was a complete mystery.
He tried to talk to her, but she always seemed bored or like she thought he was stupid.
But a small class has its perk, one of them being the fact that you know everybody in it. These are people Leo's grown up with, and now that they're in their 11th year, he feel pretty comfortable around each and every one of them and knows them all.
Except Reyna.
He plans on fixing that.
It starts with him always saying hi when he sees her.
She always acts surprised. Granted he's never really gone out of his way to talk to her before, but he thought after the tenth time she'd stop acting like he'd stripped through the school instead of just saying a simple hello.
Eventually he finds chances to talk to her. In break, lunch, in class. He comments on her comments and asks about her day and somehow they fall into a pattern until they're studying together and he spends lunch with her and then invites her to sit with the rest of them and-
And then he's in love with her, as easy as that.
Eventually she notices.
She doesn't say anything, just takes his hand and twines their finger together.
From that day on they're Leo and Reyna and he's not so lonely anymore.