madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

- Appearing blondes-

Teqi's face was squashed into some scratchy material, and it was making her nose itch. She sneezed, seeming to startle the person she had been leaning on as she slept. Blinking and looking around, she saw the familiar dry dusty landscape out the window, scattered with dying shrubs and those balls of straw from cowboy movies. Shifting in her seat, Teqi groaned. "Ugh, my legs've gone to sleep."

"Well yeah, you were out like a light for about three hours. I didn't wanna wake you though," the boy she had been complaining to replied, tugging on her belt loops to bring her attention away from her tingling limbs.

She glared down at him, "Maybe I would have actually gotten some sleep last night if I hadn't had to stand guard outside glee- coaches room while you snuck in. What where you even doing in there Valdez?"

Leo grinned crookedly, winking at Teqi, then with his fingers still curled around her belt, he leaned backwards to take part in another conversation. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Piper didn't steal a BMW, and Teqi hasn't... what did you do again?"

"Threw a cop through a window."

Piper narrowed her eyes, and streaks of yellow sparked through her dark brown iris's. "Last time you said it was a fire alarm at an art gallery, and I didn't steal that car, Leo."

"Whatever you say, Pipes," Leo muttered, glancing to the blond boy sitting beside Piper with his eyebrows raised. Teqi had never seen him before, which was weird as Leo and Piper seemed to be perfectly comfortable chatting to him. He didn't though. Teqi frowned, looking at the disoriented boy made her head hurt. That wasn't the unusual thing, but this felt different from the usual mind fuckery she dealt with. It was like a raw energy pushing against her thoughts.

The curly haired boy next to her was tapping her knee, bringing her back to the present. He filled her in, used to the way she'd zone out of conversations. "Teqi, Jase reckons he doesn't know us! It's totally cause of the glue in your toothpaste thing."

"Anyways," Leo said, moving on at the speed of light, "I hope you've got your worksheet, 'cause I used mine for spit wads days ago. Why are you looking at me like that? Teqi draw on my face again?" He glanced at said girl and squinted, like he was trying to see if she'd start laughing.

"I don't know you," Jason said hesitantly.

Leo gave him a grin with crooked teeth. "Sure. I'm not your best friend. I'm his evil clone."

Teqi frowned at him, best friend? She had thought they were best friends; she didn't even know this blonde kid. Was he Leo's bunkmate? She was sure that it was the dude who was in for selling homemade 'herbed' brownies. And he had a pet snake he'd smuggled in called Snakespeare. That was partly the reason that Leo spent so much time in the girl's cabin.

"Leo Valdez!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front. "Problem back there?"

"Watch this." Leo winked at Teqi and turned to the front. "Sorry, Coach! I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?"

Coach Hedge grunted like he was pleased to have an excuse. Teqi noticed he eyeballed Leos new best friend a bit though. He unclipped the megaphone from his belt and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader's. The coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: "The cow says moo!" He slammed down the megaphone. "Valdez!"

Piper stifled a laugh. "My god, Leo. How did you do that?"

Leo slipped a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve and waved it around. "I'm a special boy."