𝓢𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓴𝓼 || Leo Valdez X OC

30) a muddy start

hey :)
full author note at the end
^^^

Look, Ada didn't want any of this to happen.
Honestly, she didn't plan for her school day to go the way it did. It was a bit of relief though.

Let's go back.

"You have a statistics test today? Good thing i'm a freshman. Being a sophomore sounds boring. I bet your freshman year was cooler." Aaron, the boy who looked too young to even be in highschool spoke with a heave of food in his mouth. Ada picked at hers mindlessly. The cafeteria bustled with edgy teenagers and boys who didn't have a singular idea what the word mature meant.

"Huh?" She perked up. "Last year? Uh, it was interesting."

"What's that mean?"

Ada was hoping he didn't make her elaborate. Dropping her fork, she tried to contemplate a way of disguising killing monsters, saving a goddess and building an ancient ship without details.

"Lots of things." She prayed that he wouldn't be curious. When she thought about it, none of her friends here knew anything about her. "Gods!" She grumbled at her plate. "I've eaten some nasty stuff but this is awful. Who makes this?" The brown eyed contacts she wore furrowed down at the heap of food beneath her. Chiron had warned her that demigod features was a danger that attracted monsters and nosy people.

"I splunno." Aaron lisped. He furrowed his eyebrows. "Wait, gods?"

Ada ignored him. This school took the award of the nastiest school she'd attended.
Unfortunately, complaining didn't go too far. She'd seen enough roaches to make her concerned and the bathrooms were no man's land. Despite this, she did blend in perfectly.

Miss Cormace, please allow me to change schools even though i've been kicked out of every other one. I promise I won't explode something!

Pretty unlikely. Watching her small table of friends eat the slop from their plates made her want to drop hers in the trash can.

Seeing kids mess around in the lunch room made Ada wonder what Leo was up to. Probably blowing something up, and then blaming the nearest cabinmate. Last time she saw him (last weekend), he's been so focused on the Argo II that he didn't even talk to her. She didn't mind—he's busy.

She reminisced the months before, and despite almost dying a few times, it seemed better than school did.

Blanking out, Ada's friend Ellie shook her shoulder. "Huh? Yeah?" Ellie was beautiful, in a sort of unnatural way. Every guy at the school was all over her and Ashley, her friend who stuck to her like glue.

Ellie looked rather bleak. "I just asked if we can all hang out this weekend for band practice at Aarons garage. Everyone else is good to go."

The peer pressure is strong with this one. Ada shook her head.

"Sorry, I'm busy." She spent her weekends at camp, maintaining the cabins and playing basketball and volleyball with her real friends. Piper visited her dad when she got the chance, which happened to be last weekend, so now she's back maintaining Aphrodite cabin. Jason stayed, keeping Cabin One in check. Leo was always at Bunker Nine, working on the Argo II. Everyone would be back together—she couldn't miss it.

Aaron, Ellie, and the other group member Ashley groaned in unison. "You're always busy on weekends! Can't you take a break from camp?" Aaron mumbled. 

"We need our guitarist." Ashley reasoned in a creepy tone.

Aaron played the drums on this little set his mother had bought him, and Ada wasn't sure if it was even an actual drum set. Ashley played the violin perfectly, while Ellie was the most skilled piano player she'd witnessed.