PJO Family (AU)

Leo Valdez

My name is Leo Valdez Argo, and I may or may not be royally screwed. I was minding my own business at the end of the day when the clock I was watching just came apart in my brain, I saw all the pieces, and then I had to see them for real. I was already done with my assignment so I scurried over to the clock, climbed on the table beneath it, and quietly took it off the wall. I was already in my seat running my hand lightly over the gears when my friend looked over at me, and immediately started laughing. "What did you do now Argo?" He whispered. "What's so funny?" my horrendous looking teacher said, walking over and staring down her bulbous nose, looking me dead in the eyes. That woman should really get a nose job. She walked over and almost fainted when she saw what I was doing.

The gears were scattered over my desk by this point, and when the class looked to see what the class clown was doing they were shocked. At least half of them were. The other half erupted into laughter. The teacher turned a horrendous shade of orange. I don't know why her face did that when she got mad. It really didn't help her nose. I put the clock back together as fast as I could, even though she was still yelling at me. Some very not elementary school appropriate things. After a while she shouted "Your parents must be so ashamed!" and that was the breaking point. I screwed back on the back of the clock and looked at her with a calm face and in a professional tone said "I'm sorry ma'am, but I have to correct your grammar. It's actually past tense, your parents would be so ashamed" Her face lost the orange color. All color, actually. I walked over and hung the clock back up. The bell rang dismissing us, and I got out of there as fast as possible and, due to some miracle, she was too shocked to say her favorite line, "The bell doesn't dismiss you, I do!" That witch shouldn't be teaching.

I made it outside where Piper was waiting and she gave me a look. "Where's Percy and Hazel?" I replied "Sorry, I was just antsy to leave the classroom today". She looks me up and down, but doesn't see any signs that I got in trouble. She sighs and Percy and Hazel walk out of the school, holding hands, panic written all over their faces. As soon as they see Piper and me they run toward us. "Where were you?" Hazel says looking up at me, eyes slightly red. "My teacher was being a meanie so I had to run away." I reply. She looks at me with distrust, holds my gaze for a few seconds, then gives me a hug and turns to Piper. Percy gives me a hug, then proceeds to tell me about whatever 'horrible' things Annabeth did today, and I'm only half listening. Instead I'm worrying. What if they call Reyna? Will they be mad? What if they charge her for the clock? It isn't broken, I'm certain I put it back together right. Right? I hear Percy yelling "Leo! Come oooooon!" That certainly snaps me back to the real world.

But when we start walking my brain goes back to the clock. Its inner workings were fascinating. If I had a choice, I would puzzle over the clock all day, make new things out of it, make it go a little faster and let us out earlier, anything and everything I could do with that clock. I'm still fantasizing what I could do with the clock when Piper says "Picture!" I lean in and give Hazel bunny ears, and she giggles. Piper reads Reyna's response aloud. "You guys look so happy! I hope you guys had a great day at school!" I have the best older sister, Reyna. She and my other older sister Piper have practically become our parents. Nico, my older brother, does all the cooking and shopping. He's practically a 50's housewife. If Reyna finds out about what happened I would be grounded for a while, yes, but worse, she might say "I'm sorry I'm not doing as good a job as mom and dad"

Welp. I tried.