Found Family (HoO, Mortal AU)

LEO VALDEZ

Leo turned around to face his best friend, Piper McLean.
"Hey, can I borrow a pen?" He whispered, their classics teacher, Mr Brunner, was reading something about Nine Muses to the class.
"Yeah, sure. Is blue okay?" Piper handed him one of her pens. He whispered a thanks before turning back to his desk to take notes.

After a second, he turned around again.
"Could I have a pencil, too?"
Piper handed him one.
"Uhm, do you have a ruler by any chance?"
Piper sighed and gave him her ruler.
"And-" he was cut off by Piper.
"It's the first day of school. You should have all this."

Piper was right. But the problem was the orphanage. After Leo's mother died, he'd been sent to live with his aunt and cousin in Alaska. Of course, his Aunt, Rosa Valdez, blamed him for her sister's death. To be honest, Leo blamed himself too. Rosa kicked him out of her home as soon as possible. For the next five years, Leo lived in alleyways and sewers, before he was caught running and 'being a troublemaker' but the police and got put into foster care. That's when he began middle school and where he met Piper. She was his first friend. Now they were in their senior year and were inseparable to the point that Leo stole a car for Piper.

It was a long, yet funny story. Piper's dad was an A-List movie star. He was barely at home and Piper craved his attention. Her mother left, so Piper was kept with a nanny. Leo remembered Piper always complaining about it as a kid. Piper started to rebel, hoping Tristan McLean would pay attention to her. During the summer before eighth grade, Piper stole a car. It was an extremely dumb idea and of course, the police got involved. She was sent to a school for troubled kids for the whole of eighth grade. Leo couldn't survive eighth grade without her. Making friends was never easy for him, he didn't understand people. All the other kids thought he was weird after finding out he was autistic. He wasn't 'weird' or 'broken', but they treated him as an outcast.

So, to fix Leo's problem of being alone for the whole of eighth grade, he stole a car, meaning he went to Wilderness School with Piper.
He didn't regret it, but it was still awful. He tried not to think about it.

Leo realised he was distracted.
"I know I should, but I was grounded for most of the summer for running away. They offered to buy me school supplies but I wouldn't talk to them." It was partially Leo's fault, but he was too stubborn to talk to the social workers.
"You ran away twice during the summer, Leo. Of course they were going to ground you. You slept on a park bench for a week." Leo regretted telling Piper about that. Sure, he'd been homeless for years before getting sent to the orphanage, but Piper didn't know all the details about that.
After a moment, he grinned, but there was no happiness behind it. "Need to get used to being homeless. I'm turning eighteen during the summer- boom outta foster care." He'd try not to think about the dreadful future that was coming. He wouldn't be able to afford a place to stay and definitely wouldn't be able to afford to pay for college.

Piper sighed. "I've told you a million times you can stay at my house. My dad won't mind. We have plenty of money to pay for you to go to college, too."
Leo knew that. Tristan and Piper were great to him, but after being kicked out of foster homes and his only living relatives' house, he always felt like a burden. Thankfully, Leo didn't have to reply to Piper, because Mr Brunner started talking to them.

"McLean, Valdez, enough talking." He wheeled his wheelchair closer to them, which didn't seem easy in a messy classroom full of seniors. "Leo, do you have any of this written down?" He looked at Leo's sheet on the table, which only had the Title wrote down and a few doodles.
"Uh," Leo looked from the sheet to Mr Brunner. "All written in my brain, sir!"
"Okay. Name one of the Nine Muses."
Leo didn't respond. Mr Brunner thankfully went back to teaching.

The bell eventually rang. Leo packed his few things into his bag.
"What class do we have now? Please say math."
Piper looked down at her timetable. "Worse. So much worse. Gym."
"Are you joking?"
"Nope."
They started walking outside. It was horrible. Being the first day, there were students everywhere. Juniors skipping class to catch up with their friends, exchange students getting tours, lost freshmen. It was far too loud, people pushing their way through Leo and Piper.
Piper must've noticed and stopped in a quiet corner. Leo stopped too, covering his ears.