Modern Leico

Chapter Two

Nico's last class was Science. He hated science. So, he decided to ditch. Now I know what your thinking, ditching school on the first day? Well, what peeved. He decided to go outside and sit on the bleachers.

When he sat down, he realized what Coach Hedge had been talking about.

Standing at the baseball diamond in front of him, was about twelve guys wearing purple and orange baseball uniforms. Standing in front of the. Was Coach hedge, and Leo wearing an orange and white baseball uniform. There was a C on his shoulder, and a purple 29 on his back, along with VALDEZ in big purple letters.

Nico's eyes widened slightly as a kid taller than Leo, by about a foot and a few inches, and said, "Captain, you gonna give the knew recruits a demonstration?"

The back of his jersey said NAKAMURA, along with the number 7. He had black glossy hair and dark eyes. Well, eye. His left eye was covered by an eye patch.

"Sure, Ethan. You pitching?"

"Yeah. Let's do this."

Leo nodded, and they both want to their places. Nico moved closer so he could see Leo a little better, and felt his eyes practically pop out if his head when Leo hit the ball, getting what would be a home run in a real game. He dropped his flame patterned bat, and ran like the wind around the bases. Finally, he reached home base and gave Ethan a high five. "Nice pitch."

"Nice bat."

"Well done, Valdez!" Coach called.

"Extra training been paying off I see."

"Well, nothing better to do after school, right, Coach?"

"Well, you could just clean the school."

There was silence, then the whole baseball team cracked up, along with Hedge, and they got to actually practicing.

Nico was a little curious as he . How would Leo not have anything to do? That seemed kind of unlikely. And what would Leo be doing at the school.

He knew that guy that Leo had almost set on fire had been Mr. D, the principal, but what had Coach Hedge said? That Dionysus was doing him a favour?

There was something strange going on, and Nico was determined to figure it out.

Nico had detention for skipping on the first day of school. Unfortunately, he had no clue where that was, so he ended up in front of a big building a little farther away from everything else, that had the words, 'Bunker 9' written across the top in Greek, then Latin, then English. Nico could read all three, but that's not really important. He heard loud music being blasted, and someone singing and banging around inside.

Nico walked forward and knocked loudly. The singing and banging stopped, and Nico had a feeling that the person inside just froze in the middle of whatever they'd been doing. The music was lowered and a familiar voice called out, "Who is it?"

"It's Nico di Angelo."

The door opened, and Leo stepped out, grinning. "What are you doing here, Neeks?" He stepped inside, motioning for Nico to follow him.

"Don't call me that." Nico said, stepping in after him. "Looking for detention. Nice place."

"Well, it's no detention, but, yeah. It's nice and cozy."

It was comfortably warm, and kind of cluttered, with blue prints everywhere, and pieces of metal everywhere. In the middle there was a large circular metal pad, and there was the husk of what looked like a ship.

"What's that?"

"The Argo II. I'm rebuilding it. Adding some stuff, taking out some stuff."

"That's the Argo II? That thing is pretty big."

"Yeah. I was using Festus as a figurehead, but then I found the right parts in my dad's old forges, and was able to rebuild Festus. Now, I'm making a new figurehead. That's what I was doing earlier."

"Oh. But, why are you still at school? Shouldn't you be at home?"

"Funny thing," Leo said, although Nico could see beyond his smile, and Leo looked surprisingly broken. "I don't have a home."