The Best Of The Worst

CHAPTER 9

LEO

After talking with a few of his friends from Hephaestus cabin, making Hazel cry and causing Frank to faint, Leo decided to see his best friend of all time. 

He walked up to Cabin 1, Zeus, and knocked on the door. "Do you wanna build a dragon?" he sang. "C'mon let's go and play. I never see you anymore, come out the door, is it because I went away? We used to be best buddies, but I kinda died... But now I'm alive, so, hey, do you wanna build a dragon? It doesn't have to be a dragon." 

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, LEO?" Jason yelled from the other side of the door. 

"Okay, bye." Leo sang in reply. But the door opened, and his friends face appeared behind it. He was fuming with anger. 

"LEO, YOU CAN'T JUST DO THAT! YOU CAN'T JUST DIE ON US LIKE THAT, THEN POP UP AT CAMP 8 YEARS LATER!" Jason screamed. "I WAS WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU! YOU FUCKING IDIOT, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? I... I-I..." Jason sank to his knees and hugged him. "Don't ever die  on me again, Valdez. It'll be the last time you do it, I swear." he whispered, his voice broken and shaky. He was crying out a flood. 

"I won't." Leo whispered, petting his head. Jason fell to the ground in tears, and Leo would've lay down with him to comfort him if the conch-horn hadn't blown for breakfast. So instead he helped him up to lead him to the Big 3 table at the dining pavilion, where Percy, Nico and Hazel would be waiting. 

When they got there, Percy dropped his fork and stared at Leo. His mouth was agape, his eyes were wide and his eyebrows were raised. There was also a few kids there he didn't recognise; a girl who looked about 16 and shared some features with Nico (so Leo assumed she was a daughter of Hades) and there was two boys who were probably twins that looked almost identical to Percy, except they had lighter hair and tan skin. 

Nico smiled with half his mouth and said "Been a while, Valdez." which was the calmest reaction he'd gotten. 

"Missed you, di Angelo." Leo replied with a nod. 

"That pile of shit..." Percy muttered. 

"Only Calypso can call me a pile of shit." Leo smiled at him. 

Percy's ears seemed to prick up when he said Calypso.

"H-how do you know Calypso?" he asked, confused. That's when Leo remembered that Percy was one of her many love-interests. 

"I'll explain later." he replied, walking to Hephaestus table. As he did, a lot of campers gasped and muttered his name. The new campers looked confused when Drew fainted into her porridge. None of them thought that those stories about Leo Valdez, the brave demigod hero who sacrificed himself so Gaia would fall asleep again, would be about a wimp like him. They probably imagined a big buff guy with a bronze tan who looked like the demigods from Ares cabin, who trained day and night and ate fire. Not some skinny, weak kid with tangled messy hair, grease-stains and no clear battle-scars. He lifted his arm up to his face to check if his nose was on fire, like it happens when he gets nervous. It was. 

He sat down next to Nyssa at his table, which wasn't the best of ideas, considering the fact that she nearly gave him a black eye earlier. When Chiron saw him, he boomed out "LEO! WELCOME BACK!" as if to make sure that the whole camp had noticed. 

That night, the camp celebrated Leo's return at the campfire. Apollo cabin (grudgingly) let him host the sing-alongs, and everyone regretted that. Then he got to choose his own team for Capture the Flag. 

"Alright." he rubbed his hands together with a smile. "Nike, Ares, Athena. Now for my friends to join me. Big three, Aphrodite..."

The girl he noticed at Big 3 table earlier (who he later learnt was called Katie) stepped forward. "Can I please request that Hecate cabin joins us?" She asked, sweating nervously. Her body-language seemed to say 'I don't know this Leo guy, but he seems scary'. 

"Of course!" he replied, then Chiron stepped in. 

"That's our teams, then. Hephaestus, Nike, Ares, Athena, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Aphrodite and Hecate cabins are on the red team, and everyone else is on blue!" he announced, and Leo nodded. 

When they went to their bases, Leo stood up on Zeus's Fist, the golden pile of shit. "Okay," he announced to his team, "I am really shit at making battle strategies. Could someone else do this?" 

Hazel looked up at Leo and said "Don't say that."

Frank, who was next to her, said "You're certainly better than I am." 

The whole team that knew him started giving him examples. He was being attacked with compliments. He started to smile. 

"Okay," he interrupted,  "While you were yelling at me, I came up with a plan."