I sighed as I felt the sharp grip on my arm-it actually hurt. She dragged me back towards the orphanage. So far from running away.
She shoved me—a bit painfully-onto a cot. I grunted.
A head popped from the bunk above, "You okay?" A boy asked. I've seen him around before.
I nodded and scratched my head where I hit the wall. "Yeah, I'm good.
You're..." I racked my brain around for his name, but I couldn't remember.
"Leo," he helped me out. "And you're Olivia?"
I nodded, "Yep."
Leo jumped down from his bunk and I noticed that he was kinda cute.
He leaned towards me,
"You tried running away?" He whispered.
I leaned backwards against the wall and whispered back, "Maybe,"
He grinned. "You ever had help before?"
Was he. suggesting what I thought he was?
He sat in my bed and nudged my arm, "So?"
I held out a hand for a handshake, "Sure."
He shook it and then laid back on my bed. "Wow, how come the girls get such soft beds?"
"Oh shut up. When will we... you know?" I asked. I wasn't usually up for plans, but I couldn't just put Leo in danger like that. I knew well how dangerous the streets could be.
He just shrugged. I pulled him up, "Get up." I paused, " Fine. I'll wake you up. You better not be loud," I warned.
Leo stood up and gave me a grin while staying silent and pressed a finger to his lips. He had a mischievous flare in his eyes. I wondered why he wanted to escape the orphanage.
He climbed back on his bed-above me—and I just went to sleep early. I wanted to get enough sleep for tomorrow-even though I didn't have to.
I was no stranger to sleepless nights.
***
//THE FOLLOWING DAY (around 1 AM):
I opened my eyes. Was I too late? I groggily sat up and looked around.
Everything was pitch black. Nope, it seemed I didn't oversleep. I took a moment to adjust to the darkness before I stood up and reached onto the bunk on top of me and roughly punched Leo.
He drew in a sharp breath.
I swear, if you are going to scream, I will literally murder you, I thought.
He jumped down from his bed loudly.
I realized he landed right next to me. Like, shoulder-to-shoulder and feel-your-breath-on-mine close. I stepped back.
"I told you to stay quiet!" My voice was barely audible, but that didn't stop me from hissing at him.
He stayed silent, as promised. I couldn't see his face in the darkness, but I was pretty sure he would be smiling right now. I don't know why, but I He just shrugged. I pulled him up, "Get up." I paused, " Fine. I'll wake you up. You better not be loud," I warned.
Leo stood up and gave me a grin while staying silent and pressed a finger to his lips. He had a mischievous flare in his eyes. I wondered why he wanted to escape the orphanage.
He climbed back on his bed-above me—and I just went to sleep early. I wanted to get enough sleep for tomorrow-even though I didn't have to.
I was no stranger to sleepless nights.
***
//THE FOLLOWING DAY (around 1 AM):
I opened my eyes. Was I too late? I groggily sat up and looked around.
Everything was pitch black. Nope, it seemed I didn't oversleep. I took a moment to adjust to the darkness before I stood up and reached onto the bunk on top of me and roughly punched Leo.
He drew in a sharp breath.
I swear, if you are going to scream, I will literally murder you, I thought.
He jumped down from his bed loudly.
I realized he landed right next to me. Like, shoulder-to-shoulder and feel-your-breath-on-mine close. I stepped back.
"I told you to stay quiet!" My voice was barely audible, but that didn't stop me from hissing at him.
He stayed silent, as promised. I couldn't see his face in the darkness, but I was pretty sure he would be smiling right now. I don't know why, but I had a feeling that I would regret this day.
I grabbed his hand and crept quietly down the hall. I stopped in our orphanage's giant hall. There were giant windows everywhere.
"Do you trust me?" I asked Leo. I suddenly had an absolutely insane idea.
"Hm... let's see, you almost escaped the orphanage, are extremely cute, and I'm currently following you blindly. I think that's a yes," I could practically hear him grinning at me and leaning in.
It took me a second to process the other part of his sentence: extremely cute. He was bluffing. I had stupid extremely curly blond hair and green/gray eyes. I wasn't cute. He was lying.
I stepped back once more. "Let's see if that will change after this," | didn't give him time to reply as I-still holding his hand-suddenly ran towards one of the overly-large windows and... jumped.
Glass shards flew and scraped my skin as I went flying through the air, luckily there were trees to soften our fall, but that didn't stop me from bleeding and a few sharps getting stuck in my skin. I went tumbling down as I lost all of the shards and instead got my scratches upgraded from glass, to random-tiny-branches-and-glass. Awesome.
Then I remembered Leo. I rapidly stood up, and luckily found that I was still holding his hand.
"Hey, how are you?" I asked softly.
"G-great," he muttered. I could see some red.
Oh no. I had to get him a first-aid kit soon.
"C'mon, just a little more," I didn't care that I was lying as I pulled him up and let me lean on him as we-l-walked-and he hobbled.
Once we got to the nearby city, I told him to wait here.
I ran as fast as I could-and that was pretty fast-to a local pharmacy. I swiped some bandages and other first-aid items and ran away.
I was used to stealing.
I quickly bandaged Leo up and let him lay on a patch of grass.
"You
feeling better?" I asked.
"Great," he repeated.
I sat with him there, waiting for a few hours till the sun was up.
"Wait here again," I told him once I knew the market was open, and rushed off.
"I can definitely go somewhere!" He called after me.
I went to the local market, casually swiping items. Apples. Clothes.
Anything really. Then I rushed back to him and put some clothes under him as a mini-bed, and fed him some food.
"Thanks," he said.
I nodded.
"You should get some rest too," he suddenly said. "You've been taking care of me all night, I can keep watch." He said.
We had nowhere to go anyway. I only realized that now. But I nodded and immediately dozed off.
I woke up to someone yelling my name.
"Olivia! Olivia! Wake up!" I recognized Leo's voice.
I saw him getting taken away by a... prison guard? "Leo!" | called after him.
The guard muffled Leo and roughly shoved him forward. I noticed his hands were handcuffed. That was the last I saw of him here.
Then I felt the cold metal against my own wrists. I was handcuffed too.
But why?
"Move along," a guard shoved me forward too.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Juvie. You both stole, so now, welcome to your new home for the next few months-unless someone bails you out, and I doubt that." The guard explained.
I did steal a lot of things, but I was used to getting away with it. What went wrong now?
I didn't have time to think further as the guard shoved me into a prison cell with two other girls. "Have fun," he said and went away.
I tried opening the door, but to now avail-it was locked.
"No use. Already tried that," a bored voice said. It was a girl with long black hair, it was wavy and looked very heavy.
"Mhm." My second roomie replied.
"This is Piper. I'm Pyro." The first girl said.
"Hey," Piper nodded.
I nodded too. I sat on one of the bunk beds. The only difference from the orphanage here was the fact that these beds were a bit colder. I could live with that. The foo ducked anyway, so how bad could this be?
Apparently really bad.
"That's my bed," Pyro scowled.
I silently got up and sat on another. I hoped this wasn't Piper's bed.
Piper stayed silent.
I sighed in relief and collapsed on the bed. I had no idea what time it was, but I felt like sleeping. So I did.
I woke up to Pyro shaking me. "Get up, idiot. Breakfast time."
I saw a guard unlock our door and slip us breakfast. Then lock it again. I wondered if I could pick that lock... I was so tired yesterday, all I could think of was... Leo. Cheesy. But surprisingly, I was genuinely and really worried about him.
I looked at the three plates of weird food-like goo. I grabbed my plate and started eating. Apparently it didn't taste much better than it looked, because when I tried it, it tasted like sawdust.
"Yum." I muttered.
"Get used to it. That's our usual breakfast and dinner." Pyro muttered.
Piper nodded. She seemed to be waiting for something-or someone.
"So... why are you here?" | started an awkward conversation.
"Stole a car," Piper's answer was short and blunt. She seemed to just want to get out of here. Reasonable motivations.
"Underaged drinking and gambling," whispered Pyro.
Dang, I almost said with a curse. But I had to be nicer to these girls since they were my new roommates for god knows how long.
Nothing eventful happened later. We got taken out for a ten minute walk and spent the rest of our time in our rooms. I was ADHD so I kept pacing around or fiddling with anything I could find. I needed to get out of here.
My chance came soon enough, because just the following day, an old man in a wheelchair and a rich-looking man came up to us.
I heard their conversation even before they stood in front of us.
"So Mr. Bruner, you say you are Piper's teacher?" A voice said.
"Yes, Mr. McLean, and I can give her an accelerated course if study at a boarding school if you like, it is a very prestigious opportunity," a second voice said. I heard a screech and a man in a wheelchair came before us.
"Hello," he said politely.
The second man came to us two. He sort of resembled Piper. Was he her father? They had the same brown hair and nose.
None of us replied to the greeting.
A guard came and unlocked our prison door.
I stood there, dumb founded for a second before stepping out.
"What..?" Was all I could manage.
"I have an otter for a boarding school for all of you three. You will stay there and study, food, classes, etc. are all covered by me. No need for extra payment." Mr. Bruner-the man in the wheelchair-said.
Piper's father nodded. "Good luck, Piper." He hugged her and walked away.
The prison guard watched silently. Then I nodded and Pyro rolled her eyes but also nodded. The prison guard led us out to a... helicopter?
A red-haired girl sat in the back seat and there was a pilot. We all settled into the helicopter.
"Hey, I'm Rachel." She introduced herself. She seemed to be my age, maybe a bit older. Sixteen to seventeen.
Then she started explaining everything. Apparently, we were demigods.
Daughters of gods. I sat there, dazed
Pyro was about to stand up but Piper pulled her back down.
Rachel sighed. "We're taking you to Camp Half-Blood right now," she paused. "It's a demigod camp, where you will train, live, maybe go on quests, etc."
"Quests?" I asked suspiciously.
"Live?" Asked Piper.
Pyro snorted. "Train?"
Rachel nodded. "Yes, yes, and yes,"
I suddenly remembered Leo. "Uhm... there was this guy with me, his name's Leo," I said awkwardly. "He got sent to the juvie because of me. He didn't do anything,” I paused. "Can you... bail him out?"
Rachel stayed silent for a moment before raising an eyebrow. "Leo? Leo as in Leo Valdez?"
I shrugged. "I don't know."
"Well, is he a short idiot who hates to admit he's short and has ADHD, loves to tinker with machines, brown eyes, impish face? Ring a bell?"
Rachel asked.
I thought for a second. I didn't know Leo for long, but the times I did see him in the orphanage he seemed to always move... so yes to ADHD. He was kinda short. And how many Leo's are there? "Erm... probably?" | shrugged again.
Rachel let out a small laugh, then composed herself. "Sorry, it's just Leo was on a mission to collect more demigods. Guess he couldn't stay out of trouble for too long," she smiled. "But don't worry about him. He's probably in the Camp already,"
I suddenly felt very very stupid and uninformed. I blushed. "How?" I asked.
Rachel shrugged. "On Festus, perhaps,"
"Humos?" | asked innocently.
"No, not the—not the food, Festus the dragon," Rachel explained.
"D-dragon?" I asked, stuttering.
"Don't worry, he's nice. You'll get to see him soon—probably."
I wasn't sure if I wanted to see Festus.
"Oh and I forgot, monsters exist," she dropped that bombshell and fell silent for a moment, letting all three of us process that. "Demigods smell tasty to them so... if you're a powerful demigod, you probably were attacked once or twice."
Pyro nodded grimly.
"And phones send like a flaring signal to monsters, so if you have one, I suggest you get rid of it," Rachel continued.
Piper sighed, slipping her hand in her pocket.
Pyro took out an iPhone and threw it out of the side of the helicopter.
I cringed. "That's your phone! It costs money!"
Rachel laughed again. "Don't worry, that was a good decision." We fell silent once more. "Oh, we're here," Rachel announced as we landed in front of a... farm? Strawberry fields stretched all around us and there was a small farm house in front of us.
I got out of the helicopter. I felt slightly nostalgic from the farm. My mother used to own a farm.
Piper and Pyro stepped next to me and we followed Rachel inside the farm.
by FunBrightStage, Apr 28, 2025, 1:16 PM 
May 2025
April 2025