𝓢𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓴𝓼 || Leo Valdez X OC

21) how to destroy a bridge: a leo tutorial

Ada didn't want to go with the hunters. She didn't want to leave her friends split up, split in half and suddenly they disappear. Still she walked. She walked with a chain burning a hole into her palm.

Losing her necklace hurt her more that she thought it would. Having it for so long, replacing the chain with whatever she could find for seven years should've led her to preferring a different pendant or a new necklace. Still, she never wanted to take her brothers gift off.

She had picked up as many pieces of the stone as possible, but it was ruined beyond repair.

Gods. Now she really was different.

^^^

"Hey, hey. Look at me, it's okay."

Ada sobbed, trying to look at her brother. It was so hard to see brown eyes look back, knowing those weren't what she had.

"They're stupid, they don't know what they're talking about!" James reassured her, grasping her shoulder firmly, but gentle enough that it didn't injure the small girl.

"Why do they not like me? I didn't mean to take Leah's attention." Ada sniffled, biting her nails against her mouth, which was missing a few teeth. Leah was the third grade girl who's birthday was today.

"Damn. What is wrong with them?" James muttered, looking back at the laughs from the party around the corner.

"Why do they not like me?" Ada asked again as her tears began to dry.

James looked like he wanted to say something, then directs his gaze down, letting out what sounds like a sigh of confusion. He lets go of her, ruffling his hands into his pant pocket.

"I don't know much yet," James said honestly. Ada shuffled her feet and looked at her brother. Someone who actually liked her for her - and despite her circumstances, she smiled. "I'm trying to get it down in my head for you, but it's a bit far fetched." Ada looked with wide eyes at the chains that he gripped in his palms. James rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He had acne on his face, and messy hair. Ada thought messy hair was a bad thing, but James made her love it.

"I'm so- sorry."

"Are you kidding?" Hee teenage brother grinned. "You won almost every family game today! It's not your fault that girl - fucking sasha? Was torturing you all day. Now turn around. The others were just super jealous. You're a killer at limbo."

Ada obliged, feeling a pendant rest onto her neck. She fiddled with it and didn't stop moving around, getting a light smack from her brother and a 'Will you quit that? Damn.'

Ada hit him back, but her little hands probably didn't do much damage. Her brother twirled her around and then she saw her necklace. A gorgeous silver chain with a gemstone in the middle. Ada gasped and laughed. "It's a pretty rock!"

"Look, we both have one." He pointed at his and then at hers. "That's something that will always stay the same. We have this. Don't lose it."

"Oh, okay. Why me though?" She was still messing with the stone.

"For real? Well, I mean the name Ada does mean nobility. Plus, you deserve something nice." He huffed our air and patted his jeans awkwardly.

Ada didn't have a clue what that meant. "I don't get it. "She fiddled with the chain and managed to already scuff it up. James wondered how that was even possible.

"It's like...it means you have a unique character." He stopped himself and James thought he sounded poetic, but he had no clue what that even meant. He reasoned that it had a nice ring to it, but he just didn't feel like explaining nobility. He wasn't even sure if it made sense.