The Wilderness Shooting

The shooting

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO, HoO or anything you may recognize. This disclaimer goes on for the rest of the story. 

ToA never happened in this story. 

Please don't read if it triggers you. 

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Piper's POV

"Good morning, Wilderness school!" Yelled the principle. 

The school cheered at their assembly for the new year. Piper for one, couldn't wait to have some sort of normality in her life. It was after the war with Gaea, and Chiron felt that the Demigods should find a way to make their lives feel well. Mortal. 

So this was her solution. 

She, Leo and Coach Hedge had decided to go back to the Wilderness school. They missed their peers. They missed the familiarity with the place. But still...something felt, off. This particular morning they had seen about two new teachers in the building. Coach Hedge said he hadn't recognized them and that gave Piper an uneasy feeling. But Piper still cheered with the rest of the school. Other than the new kids who had just been sent there. But they would get used to it. Eventually. 

Piper couldn't say she was alone in the feeling. Before they had left Percy had pulled her aside to tell her that he didn't feel good about sending them. And when two Demigods have the same instinct. Well, something was definitely wrong. 

If she was being honest, only Leo had no worries about going back. He kept talking about seeing his classmates, getting his old dorm back. Had you asked Leo before their first quest if he liked Wilderness school he would've called you a nut-job. But now if you asked him he'd say it was the best thing in the world. 

They sat in different areas for the school assembly. Leo sat at the front of the gym with his friend Daniel. They had been advised to sit their because of their height. Whereas Piper sat on the other side of the gym, at the back. Near the only closet in the entire gym. 

The principle was rambling on about what they would be doing during the year when Piper was watching the two new teachers against the door. They had closed the door and Piper could see them faintly grabbing something near their belt. 

It looked like: A gun?

It was a gun. 

Oh no. 

"Everybody duck!" She yelled. Just as the teachers started to shoot people. 

Piper and Leo made eye contact and she pointed to the closet behind her. He nodded and ran from the teachers. 

Piper ducked under the chairs and ran into the closet. 

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Leo's POV

Once he had made eye contact with Piper, he knew she wanted him to go to the closet behind her. 

The only problem is he didn't know how. 

Once the shooting had begun he pulled his friend Daniel under the chair he was sitting on. But one of the shooters found them first. 

Leo and Daniel were crawling under the chairs to get to the closet when a pair of adult feet stepped in front of them. He was one of the new 'teachers'.  His scowl seemed like enough to scare the living daylight out of any reasonable person. 

He pointed his gun at Leo's head, and Leo tried to push Daniel behind him, but no such luck. Instead Daniel got up and stepped in front of him. 

At the same moment, before any one could process what just happen. The Perp pressed the trigger and shot Daniel in the chest. 

Daniel fell and Leo screamed. His scream was go guttural and heartbroken it attracted many eyes. Two of which were a teacher's. 

The Perp ran off at the same moment that the teacher came. She knelt at Daniel's side and pressed two fingers against his pulse. She shook her head and tears spilled out of Leo's eyes faster than he could count, or allow. 

Sobs racked him as he clung onto Daniel's lifeless body. Everything went numb and Leo's hearing left his body. The screams of the other students didn't compute in Leo's ears. He'd seen people die before. He had died himself. But this was different. Daniel died because of some cruel Mortal. Not a monster. Not a god. A mortal. 

But Leo knew that he had to get to the closet at the back of the gym. So he waited until the shooters were far away from him and he sprinted. He pushed chairs out of the way and he ran like he had never run before. He got to the closet and banged on the door. 

"Piper! PIPER!! It's me, Leo, let me in, LET ME IN!!!" He screamed. 

The closet opened the tiniest amount and Leo squeezed in. Piper immediately shut the door and hugged him tightly. He hugged her back and the two stayed like that for a while. Soon Leo felt his shirt getting wet from Piper's tears, he could feel his own tears leaking onto Piper's shirt. 

"D-D-Daniel. H-h-he's gone and I-I.." 

"Shhhh." Piper cut him off. She rubbed his back in circles and they both sat down on the floor. 

They could still hear the screaming of their peers outside. They knew that the closet for sports equipment and stable supplied could hold a whole class. But the shooters would most likely catch on, and they weren't prepared to sell out their only hiding place. 

Piper pulled away from the hug and pulled out her phone. The Hephaestus and Vulcan kids had made Monster proof phones for everyone in both Camps. 

Piper started texting furiously. Leo got a notification on his phone. It was to the group chate they had made with the seven, Nico, Will and Reyna. 

There is a school shooting at the moment. Leo and I are safe. Don't call us just text or you'll give away our hiding place. Call the cops and ambulance and please come as soon as you can. 

Just as Leo finished reading the text message there was a bang on the closet door. 

"Check in here, see if anyone is hiding in here." A gruff man said. 

Piper and Leo immediately ran to the stack of hay in the corner that were used for feeding the horses for the equestrian team. They covered themselves with hay and clung tightly to each other. Piper clasped a hand around Leo's mouth so he couldn't whimper. 

The closet door opened and light flooded into the room. 

They could only hope for the best.