Home|| Leo Valdez

2

—Leo gave him a crocodile grin. "Sure. I'm not your best friend. I'm his evil clone."

"No-" Alex bumped his shoulder, and turned back to Jason "I'm your best friend, don't listen to Leo"

"Alex Jackson!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front. "Problem back there?"

Leo winked at Jason. "Watch this." He turned to the Alex and nodded. It was time to put their work into action. 

"Sorry, Coach!" Alex called out, "I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?"

Coach Hedge grunted like he was pleased to have an excuse. He unclipped the megaphone from his belt and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader's. The kids cracked up. The coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: "The cow says moo!"

The kids howled, and the coach slammed down the megaphone. "Jackson! Valdez!"

Even without mentioning Leo, everyone knew wherever Alex went or did anything, Leo was probably involved as well.

Piper stifled a laugh. "My god, Leo, Alex. How did you guys do that?"

Leo slipped a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. "I'm a special boy"

"And I kept guard" Alex added.

"Guys, seriously," Jason pleaded. "What am I doing here? Where are we going?"

Piper knit her eyebrows. "Jason, are you joking?"

"No! I have no idea—"

"Aw, yeah, he's joking," Leo said. "He's trying to get me back for that shaving cream on the Jell-O thing, aren't you?"

Jason stared at him blankly. Okay, so if he didn't remember that prank, something was seriously wrong. Alex couldn't help frown in concern. 

"No, I think he's serious." Piper tried to take his hand again, but he pulled it away. A flash of hurt crossed her face and Alex felt bad for her friend.

"I'm sorry," Jason said. "I don't—I can't—"

"That's it!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front. "The back row has just volunteered to clean up after lunch!"

The rest of the kids cheered.

"There's a shocker," Leo muttered.

But Piper kept her eyes on Jason, like she couldn't decide whether to be hurt or worried. "Did you hit your head or something? You really don't know who we are?"

Jason shrugged helplessly. "It's worse than that. I don't know who I am."

—The bus dropped them in front of a big red stucco complex like a museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere.  A cold wind blew across the desert and Alex hugged herself even though she was wearing the school issued grey hoodie. Well, it wasn't her hoodie since it said 'Leo Valdez'  on the tag but hers had gravy spilt all over it. 

"So, a crash course for the amnesiac," Leo said, gaining her attention in a helpful tone. "We go to the 'Wilderness School'"—Leo made air quotes with his fingers.

"Which means we're 'bad kids.' " Alex put in, Jason looked at her a little weirdly, like he was comparing Leo and her or maybe he was shocked by how similar they were. Either way, none of this made sense. Not even five hours ago, they had been laughing on the roof and now Jason had amnesia? Alex was confused, but she decided to play along, "Your family, or the court, or whoever, decided you were too much trouble, so they shipped you off to this lovely prison—sorry, 'boarding school'—in Armpit, Nevada, where you learn valuable nature skills like running ten miles a day through the cacti and weaving daisies into hats! And for a special treat we go on 'educational' field trips with Coach Hedge, who keeps order with a baseball bat. Is it all coming back to you now?"

"No." Jason glanced apprehensively at the other kids: maybe twenty guys, half that many girls. 

Leo rolled his eyes. "You're really gonna play this out, huh? Okay, so the four of us started here together this semester. We're totally tight. You do everything I say and give me your dessert and do my chores—"

"Leo!" Piper snapped.

"No, let the man continue" Alex folded her arms, but Piper glared at her so she raised her arms and accepted defeat.

"Fine. Ignore that last part. But we are friends. Well, Piper's a little more than your friend, the last few weeks—"

"Alex, stop it!" Piper's face turned red..

"He's got amnesia or something," Piper said. "We've got to tell somebody."

Leo scoffed. "Who, Coach Hedge? He'd try to fix Jason by whacking him upside the head."

The coach was at the front of the group, barking orders and blowing his whistle to keep the kids in line; but every so often he'd glance back at Jason and scowl.

"Leo, Jason needs help," Piper insisted. "He's got a concussion or—"

"Yo, Piper." One of the other guys dropped back to join them as the group was heading into the museum. Ugh. Alex almost puked at his sight. It was Dylan, resident bully and sexist piece of shit who only talked to hot girls. He had tried to flirt with Alex but she had been so insulted that she actually laughed in his face and ever since then, they had hated each other's guts.

Dylan wedged himself between Jason and Piper and knocked Leo down. "Don't talk to these bottom-feeders. You're my partner, remember?"

Dylan was kinda okay looking, Alex thought, with a dark hair cut Superman style, a deep tan, and teeth so white they should've come with a warning label: do not stare directly at teeth. permanent blindness may occur. He wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey, Western jeans and boots, and he smiled like he was God's gift to juvenile delinquent girls everywhere. If it wasn't for his trash personality, Alex figured girls would actually like him.

"Go away, Dylan," Piper grumbled. "I didn't ask to work with you."

"Ah, that's no way to be. This is your lucky day!" Dylan hooked his arm through hers and dragged her through the museum entrance. Piper shot one last look over her shoulder like— 911. Alex tried to follow but Leo almost pulled her down while he tried to use her to help get up.

He brushed himself off. "I hate that guy." He offered Jason his arm, like they should go skipping inside together. "'I'm Dylan. I'm so cool, I want to date myself, but I can't figure out how! You want to date me instead? You're so lucky!'"

"Leo," Jason said, "you're weird."

"Yeah, you tell us that a lot." Alex half smiled. 

Leo suddenly perked up, "But if you don't remember me, that means I can reuse all my old jokes. Come on!"

—They walked through the building, stopping here and there for Coach Hedge to lecture them with his megaphone, which alternately made him sound like a Sith Lord or blared out random comments like "The pig says oink."

Leo kept pulling out nuts, bolts, and pipe cleaners from the pockets of his army jacket and putting them together, like he had to keep his hands busy at all times. Alex was too distracted to pay attention to the exhibits. It felt wrong to be here, so far away from water. 

Some girls kept looking over at Piper and Dylan and snickering. Alex knew about them, they were three in total, Isabella, Mia M and Harper. They thought they were the prettiest girls in the grade, but in Alex's superior opinion, they were wrong. Harper and Mia M were homophobes on top of that and had hated Alex ever since they accidentally found out about her. 

Isabella said, "Hey, Piper, does your tribe run this place? Do you get in free if you do a rain dance?"

The other girls laughed. Even Dylan suppressed a smile. Piper's snowboarding jacket sleeves hid her hands, but Alex got the feeling she was clenching her fists.

"My dad's Cherokee," she said. "Not Hualapai. 'Course, you'd need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel."

Isabel widened her eyes in mock surprise, so that she looked like an owl with a makeup addiction. "Oh, sorry! Was your mom in this tribe? Oh, that's right. You never knew your mom."

Before Piper could do something she'd regret, Alex flipped a coin which landed near Harper's feet. "Buy some better insults" Alex yelled, snickering to herself. 

Grumbling about something, Alex, Leo and Jason ignored the girls but Piper shot her a smile and a thumbs up.