Book Cult (New and Improved)

Leo XXIII

"Leo XXIII," Leo read out loud, not even bothering to hide his anger. Stupid fortune cookie. Stupid chapter. How long is this anyway?

He paused and flipped through the pages.

Okay. Leo thought, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. Okay. It's not that long. If I can just get through this one chapter, I'll be fine and I'll never have to read this stupid book again.

"Anytime now, Leonidas." Athena said. She sat back in her throne, looking smug with herself.

Leo made a face. He hated his full name. Almost no one could pronounce it right ("Is it Lee-Oh-Nee-dies? Or Leo-Nay-Days?") And it was too long for his own good. Seriously? Leonidas Valdez? How did his mom expect anyone to say that tongue twister perfectly on their first try? The only thing good about his name was that it came with a nickname.

But if I tell her not to call me that, she'll probably make it her mission to use it in every sentence. He rolled his eyes.

With the impatient looks on the others' faces, Leo finally decided he did enough stalling and began to read.

I... er... Leo wished the dragon hadn't landed on the toilets.

Off to a great start. Leo thought.

Aphrodite and Cabin Ten made almost identical looks of disgust.

"You didn't get caught?" Grover asked.

"Nope." he said, tapping his fingers on the book's hard cover.

Thalia relaxed a little. Good. Then Leo can save them.

...A dozen of the blue plastic boxes had been set up in the factory yard, and Festus had flattened them all. Fortunately, they hadn't been used in a long time, and the fireball from the crash incinerated most of the contents; but still, there were some pretty gross chemicals leaking out of the wreckage.  

Aphrodite and the others gagged and Leo couldn't blame them.

Why is this so detailed?  he couldn't help but wonder.

...After a few minutes climbing over Festus' inanimate body, I... Leo sighed in annoyance. Leo started to get irritated. The dragon looked perfectly fine.

"If that dragon's fine, why'd it crash?" Nico frowned.

"Could've malfunctioned." Nyssa offered. "He did have a problem with his 'brain'."

...Then he opened the control panel on the dragon's head, and Leo's heart sank. "Oh, Festus, what the heck?"

...The wiring had froze over. Leo read with a scowl. 

Hephaestus' eyes narrowed.

"His wires must've froze while they were waiting for Piper and Jason." Jake said.

"But the wires would've been too hot for ice to form on it." Nyssa told her brother.

"Then how did it get ice on it?"

"It must've been Khione." Nico said.

Leo knew it had been okay yesterday. He'd worked so hard to repair the corroded lines, where it should've been too hot for ice to form. 

"That took a while to fix too." he grumbled.

The ice had caused the wiring to overload and char the control disk.