Author's Notes: OkGuys, now things start to really heat up (bad pun). Also i'd really like some reviews on this story before I go any further, I do have about 3 more chapters done, but I want to see some response to it before I post them. So far 134 people have read it, and yet I have had no reviews. However I did gain a follow which was nice. Thank you Squirt251!
Warning: This is rated 'M' story, it may not be so harsh to start, but they will get more and more risqué as they go on.
Summary: What happens when Leo let's out a personal secret to his best friends? Who will support him, who won't?
Chapter Three: Flash Fire
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Nobody but Leo knew why he took Photo and Film class, he usually just said that he took it because he needed and elective, but that was a lie. Leo knew how fickle and easily extinguishable life was, he wanted to capture life and the moments of it as they came, and then immortalize them on film. He was born to his mother Esperanza Valdez, and her soon to be husband and father Hephaestus, whom she called Heff.
When Leo was little, there was a fire in his parent's auto shop, something about a broken torch pipe and gas canister. Leo was in their with his parents when the explosion happened, his mom was out getting lunch for them, but his father was the one who watching him. The explosion sealed off all the exits, Leo's father knocked a small hole in the shop, and got Leo through it, Leo had suffered some burns, but got through it alive, but his father, had not.
They had insurance on the shop and life insurance on his father, so Leo, his mother and his Tía all lived quite peacefully. It wasn't until Leo started asking questions about his father he realized it. His Tía later contracted cancer, and regularly getting chemo treatment. She had gotten rid of it three times, but recently she hadn't been looking so good. All the treatment costed money as well, so most of their insurance money went towards it. They had gotten a new shop, but they never spent money on things such as cellphones, vacations, or going out to eat. Even his birthday was hardly celebrated, but this last year, Piper had gotten her well off celebrity father to buy him a very expensive camera, knowing how he loved taking photos, it was his most prized possession, he had taken many memory card's full of pictures of his friends, family, life, celebrations, and holidays.
He had gotten a job in his mothers shop, he got a smaller pay, but he had a passion for machines as well. He helped his mother take build a car from the wheels up and he soon became and expert mechanic. Because it was under the table, he did get a smaller pay, but he still wanted money, he spent his money on developing his pictures. When he got the chance to take a class on it, he couldn't pass it up, he wanted to make the most out of every one of his picture, and he did. He learned the camera parts inside and out, he had taken one apart just to figure it out better.
"Leo Valdez, your assignment for today is to take pictures for the yearbook, I need you to take pictures of our gym, and maybe of a few students." The teacher asked Leo.
"Yes ma'am, anything in particular?" He asked her.
"Yes, get a few action shots of the dodgeball game, maybe a panorama of the whole gym." She asked.
"On it!" Leo said, running out of the room.
~Flashback~
Dodgeball. That word meant a lot to Leo. It was the first time he ever got bullied by someone, and thats also where he met one of his best friends. It was ninth grade, and Leo was very conscious about his body, he was shy. He waited for his gym class to get out of the changing room before he got changed. He went in and got changed, he was late for the dodgeball lineup.
