Heroic Spirits Of Olympus: The Lost Hero

"Call Me The Mechanic"

Everything was going great for Leo till he heard about the Monster Girl and the Dragon.. then again maybe that was a little inaccurate given the other crap he had to deal with.

But that aside, before that everything was great. Even the Monster Truck derby. Oh what the heck, ESPECIALLY the Monster Truck derby, whoever this Arturia person was, she was officially the best sister ever to get this Mordred gal this thing. 

Though to be honest, he felt a little left out.. as usual. 

It had always been sort of that way with him and Piper. While they had met and actually got along... when Nero came into the picture, the two girls of the group were always disappearing to one place or another to grab a bite to eat or go shopping. 

Nero was perhaps the oddest shocking beautiful girl Leo had ever met. However, in spite of the fact that she should've been somebody way out of Leo's league, she had been so nice to him.. in fact.. she seemed to feel Leo's jokes were to die for. 

"An entertainer should NEVER be ashamed of looking for the next jolt to rile up his audience!" Nero would say whenever one of Leo's new jokes fell flat with Piper. "Continue your performance! Let the muses of comedy bathe in your treasure trove of imagination!"

Yeah, Nero really had a way of talking extravagant like that, it almost made her seem not real.. and yet somehow you could tell.. she was so purely honest, that no word she told could possibly be a lie. When she said she thought your performance was beautiful.. she meant it. 

It wasn't an exaggeration to say that Leo immediately fell head over heels for her. But he always assumed they would just be friends..  that is.. till the day before the field trip to the Grand Canyon.. 

Leo had been sitting on the deck of their dorm room when Nero had come out with a plate of refreshments. 

"Umu?" said Nero "Whatever are you doing here my dear? Should you not be thrilling yourself in the works of the device known as XBox?" 

"Yeah, not into it at the moment." said Leo. "I was just thinking how I'll like.. NEVER find a girl.. I mean.. not like somebody like Piper would ever have that kind of interest in somebody scrawny and weird like me right?"

Nero suddenly pouted. "LEO VALDEZ! UMU! I will NOT have you besmirching your own beauty with such unneeded humility!! LEO!! YOUR FORM IS TO BE ADMIRED! As is MINE!"

"UH CRAP DON'T GET NAKED!" Leo stammered suddenly. 

Nero had absolutely NO shame whatsoever, it wouldn't be the first time that Nero walked through the halls of the school naked, humming "umu umu umu" as the rest of the residents stared at her with open jaws. 

"Leo.. you shine with your OWN radiance.. a radiance filled with decency, kindness, and an inventiveness with machines  that fills with me with jealous applause!" Nero exclaimed, holding her hand to the air like a poet preaching to the masses. "Leo.. do you know what I think of your Radiance?"

Nero bent down and kissed Leo on the lips, stunning him. It felt warm and close, like nothing Leo had ever experienced before..

So this..

This is what it was like to kiss a girl..

It was... Wonderful. 

Leo felt now it had finally happened. Finally he had found somebody he'd want to be with for the rest of his life. 

But then a few hours after they got on the bus and Leo agreed to sit together with his new girl friend,  Nero suddenly got amnesia.

Leo tried to act jokingly about it as he did with  most of the problems in his life, but the truth was, he had been crushed. And to top it off, he found out that all that awesome stuff between him and Nero might have never actually happened..