The Boy on Fire

Chapter 1

I do not own most of the characters in here (i.e. Leo Valdez, Jason Grace, etc.). They belong to Rick Riordan. Any other characters in this book are ones that I made up (i.e. Julianna Masters, Becky, etc.)
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Chapter 1

I remember the day he showed up perfectly. Clear as crystal. He walked into the cafeteria like he had done it a thousand times, even though it was the beginning of the second semester and he definitely wasn't there before that day. No one seemed to notice that he was a new kid. No one introduced themselves or even acknowledged that he was there. He looked around the room for somewhere to sit. Being the friendly person I am, I waved him over to my table.
When He looked at me, I could see him better. He looked Latino, with light cocoa colored skin. He had deep brown eyes and slightly pointed ears. He wore an orange T-shirt stained with motor oil and jeans. He also wore a tool belt around his waist. He seemed to have some deep sort of sadness in him. When he saw me, his face lit up. He looked a lot better when he smiled. He walked towards me and smiled at me. His smile warmed me like a nice campfire.
"Hi. My name's Leo. What's yours?
"Um...I'm Julianna. Nice to meet you,"I stuck out my hand to him. He accepted and gave me a firm handshake.
"Sit down." I said. He sat next to me. A little close, but I didn't mind.
"So...are you new here?" I asked.
"Yeah...but I have a feeling that I won't stay for long."he replied sadly. I wondered why he seemed so down. I also wondered why he didn't think he would stay for long, but I didn't say anything about it.
"Do you need anyone to show you around?" I asked him. "I have a free period right after lunch."
" I'd love that," he replied with a smile.
It turns out we had every single class together. Leo had a great sense of humor and loved to joke around, just like me. Leo was very hyper. He always had his hands moving. Always working on creating little projects out of metal scraps from his tool belt pockets. I told him about my life, how this had been my eighth school in eight years and how I had been labeled as a troublemaker. My dad had said that I was "lucky to be in a school that hadn't heard of me yet". But I really knew that he meant he was "lucky to have me live across the country so he doesn't have to deal with me". Once or twice Leo asked me about the braces I use to walk around, but I always changed the subject. In a nutshell, we were pretty happy together.
We ended up getting through the year without getting expelled. Well, almost. The last day of school was when things started to go wrong.
The biggest snob in the school, Becky, was being extra annoying that day. She kept following me around and making rude comments to me. As usual, I just ignored her. But she kept digging deeper and deeper. Finally, she said one comment that just made me snap.
Leo and I were walking in the hallway together on the way to our lockers before lunch. We were talking about this new book we had recently discovered and were playfully making fun of each other's favorite characters. Everything was going perfectly until Becky pushed past me and my brace snagged on her designer high heel. I fell to the floor, dropping my books and my braces. Leo helped me up and scowled at Becky.
"Oops. Maybe if you weren't totally messed up, we wouldn't have this problem." She smirked.
I turned into the room with my locker and Becky and Leo followed me. I was using all of my will power to not punch her in the face. As soon as I opened my locker, Becky slammed it shut.
"Hey, that's not cool. Why don't you just leave her alone?" Leo said bravely.
"Ugh, shut up. Why don't you go back to the workshop where you came from?" Now she'd really done it. I balanced my weight on one brace and slammed my forearm against her chest and pushed her up against lockers with a loud thud.
"Lay off my friend, Beauty Queen or I'll toss you out that window," I nodded my head as a gesture to the window across the room. I knew that starting a fight was the exact opposite of wise, but this one had really pushed my buttons. First my disability and now the only one who had been nice to me all year? What was her problem? A teacher across the hall heard the thud of the big-mouthed girl against the metal lockers and came to investigate.
"What's all the commotion in here?" He asked as he walked in. He studied me with a murderous look on my face with my arm squishing a girl with an innocent, yet scared look against the lockers. He pointed to me, beckoning me to follow him. I reluctantly grabbed my other brace and followed him out of the room. I looked back just in time to see Becky waving her fingers like she was saying, "Toodle-oo." I followed the teacher whom I hadn't recognized across the hall and into a classroom.
"Julianna Masters, you thought you could fool me, but you have failed. Now it is time for you to be destroyed," he growled.
"Um...I suppose just a detention would be inconvenient for you?" I asked. He roared and morphed into a swirling storm cloud shaped like a person.
"Uh...I guess that's a no," I headed for the door, but a gust of wind slammed it shut.
"LEO!" I screamed. I saw him run out of the room with the lockers and look around the hallway. I couldn't see much after that because the former teacher picked me up and wouldn't let go. I struggled to break free of its intense grasp and he pulled me back as if he was going to throw me across the room. I heard a crash behind me and both the monster and I looked back to see Leo wielding a hammer with broken glass all around him from the window on the door.
"Dylan?" Leo asked. "Is that you?"
"Valdez," the wind replied."I bet you didn't know a storm spirit could change its human form," he smirked. Could these "storm spirits" smirk? If they could, this one just did. "I have escaped from that idiot, Aeolus, who thinks he can control me! And now it would be my pleasure to kill the both of you." Leo took a small metal invention out of his tool belt pocket, pressed a button on its side and set it on the floor. It turned into a robot-looking thing with a sword in its hand. "How long had he been working on this?" I thought to myself. The metal warrior advanced on the storm spirit and it chopped off the arm that was holding me. I jumped to the ground as the monster's arm turned into gold dust and flew away in the intense wind storm. I went over to Leo and hid behind him. So heroic of me, right?
Suddenly, the monster turned into a swirling storm, no longer shaped like a person. The robot advanced and tried to get another swipe at the monster, but of course, we had no such luck. It smashed Leo's beautiful contraption into millions of tiny pieces. Then a bunch of items from all over the classroom started getting caught in the winds. Unluckily, one of those things was Leo. The storm spirit catapulted him through the wall with a satisfying crash and Leo flew into the courtyard outside. Through the new hole in the wall I saw Leo land on the grassy hill, thank goodness, instead of the hard asphalt, but I did hear him scream in pain as his head hit something hard (probably a rock) and his body went limp. I had to think of a plan. I always had a plan.
"Could I try to get to the next room, grab Becky, and ask the storm spirit to take her as a sacrifice? Nah, I doubt it'd want her," I thought to myself. I crept over to the storm spirit, who was occupied with untangling itself from a bunch of computer cords. I then slashed my brace through the storm spirit, and cut him right in half.
Before he could disintegrate completely into the gold dust, he said,"You have not won yet, young half-blood. My mistress has returned after a year in Tartarus and shall destroy Olympus!" Then outside it looked like the sky opened up and swallowed the storm spirit and it got eerily quiet. I looked at Leo, laying helplessly on the hill, but the sprinklers were turned on. Great. I made my way over to him as fast as I could and he was barely conscious. I got onto the ground and turned him over to examine any wounds on the back of his head. I saw a cut, really bad cut, maybe even some skull, mixed with his sweaty, curly brown hair.
There was nothing I could use for a bandage. I probably could have gone into the school to look for a First Aid kit, but there was no way that I was going to leave his side.
"I...IMed...Jason...coming...with...Festus..." he stammered between deep breaths. I noticed that he kept his eyes closed for a little bit longer when he blinked.
"No. No. No. No. No. Leo you can't leave me!" I sobbed. He touched the side of my face with his hand then let his hand drop to the ground. I cringed as he touched my face, but I didn't say anything. How could I deny a helpless, dying boy? Then his eyes closed and stayed closed. I cried into his chest, no longer moving. I heard the whirring of gears turning and looked up with tears in my eyes to see a bronze dragon in the sky, flying towards us. I waved my hands hoping that the people on board would help Leo, and that they were friendly. The dragon landed on the basketball court 20 feet away from us. I saw two kids around 15, maybe 16 years old, wearing orange T-shirts just like Leo's. There was a guy with short, close-cropped blonde hair and a girl with choppy, chocolate brown hair with braids going down the sides, both with worried looks on their faces. They slid off the back of the 60 foot long dragon, saw the boy on the ground, and ran over. I was still kneeling down next to Leo, tears streaming down my face.
When they came closer, the girl gasped. "Oh my gods," she kneeled down on his other side to check his pulse but, of course, found nothing.
"Jason, did you bring the ambrosia squares?" the girl asked. The boy, who I guessed was named Jason, brought out a Ziplock bag with some little chunks of something that looked like little wafer bars, took out a couple squares, and put them in Leo's mouth. I put my head to his chest again and heard a slow, but steady heartbeat.
"He's breathing," I said with a sigh. Jason fed him a couple more squares and his eyes fluttered open.
"Leo!" I hugged him. I was so glad when he hugged me back."How's your head?" I asked. He turned around to show us the rapidly healing wound.
"Well, let's get this party started! Uncle Leo's back!" Leo announced with a smile. Leo stood up and he led the introductions. "This here is Piper," he pointed to the girl who checked his pulse."And this is Jason," he pointed to the boy with the "ambrosia squares". "They're like my personal assistants. They follow me on adventures, help me out with stuff, buy me tropical drinks at my request,"
"Dream on, Repair Boy," the girl cut in.
"And this is my...uh...friend?" He looked down at me, still on the ground, nervously as if he was about to call me his "something else".
"Anyway, her name is Julianna."he finished.
"So this is the one you were sent to retrieve," Jason mused. "Greek, I'm guessing?" Well, I guess we'll see when you get claimed." he said as if I was supposed to understand everything he was saying, but the thing was, I didn't. I guess that must have shown on my face because Leo laughed a little.
"Maybe we should explain," Leo smiled at me."How would you like to go to Camp Half-Blood?"