Fire and Wisdom [Leo Valdez]

VI - Leo

Once Piper finished teaching Leo on how to make a move on Caroline, he was ready to ask her to be his girlfriend—even though he knew they just met. So he walked to the Pegasus stables, and saw Caroline sitting against one of the stables, reading a book in Ancient Greek. As he walked closer, he noticed that she was wearing an orange Camp Half Blood T-shirt, like everyone else—minus himself. Caroline looks beautiful in that, he thought, but shook his head and made his way over to her, "Caroline?" She looked up from her book and smiled, putting it on the ground next to her and standing up "What took you so long, Leo?" She joked, hugging him in a friendly manner, causing the two of them to blush lightly without one another realizing it. Pulling away, Leo looked at her and sighed, "Caroline, will you be—" before he could get the word out, he was licked by a Pegasus, "Ew!" Leo said, wiping the Pegasus spit off his face as Caroline laughed at him. "Oh man!" She regained herself "What were you going to say?" Leo looked at her and smiled, "I was going to say, will you be my—" Leo was cut off again, this time it was by a black Pegasus running past them and a boy chasing them shouting, "Blackjack, wait! No, not there!" It was Percy Jackson. "Percy, you ruined the moment, dude!" Leo yelled, and watched his friend grab the Pegasus stallion by the leash that was attached to his halter that was around his muzzle and lead Blackjack back into his stable, "Sorry, man. Blackjack got away from me again." Percy apologized after locking the stable door. He finally noticed Caroline and gave her a friendly smile, "Who's this?" Percy asked, walking up to them "This is Caroline Thompson. She's one of Athena's daughters." Percy held out his hand, "Cool. I'm Percy Jackson—son of Poseidon." Caroline shook his hand, "Nice to meet you. So you're the 'Percy' Annabeth's been telling me about." Percy smirked. "So you've met Annabeth already? Did she ramble your ear off about architecture?" He wondered and Caroline smiled, "No. She showed me around the camp. But does she do that a lot?" "You have no idea," Leo began to grow bored, "Yeah, yeah. Caroline and I gotta get back to what we were doing. See ya later, Aqua Man." Percy rolled his eyes and lightly shoved Leo's arm and smiled as he walked out of the stables, leaving Leo and Caroline with the Pegasi. "Anyway, as I was saying—and I know that we literally just met an hour ago—but, will you be my girlfriend?" Leo asked, Please say yes. Please say yes! His thoughts yelled, "Yes, Leo. I will," Caroline smiled and pecked his cheek, causing him to blush. Then Caroline ran back to her cabin after waving goodbye to her new boyfriend, while Leo just stood there blushing like an idiot. "Hey, loser!" A voice yelled, and Leo came back to normal and he saw Clarisse La Rue, the daughter of Ares. "It's campfire time. So get your fiery butt over there before I make it literal!" She ordered, making Leo run to the campfire as he heard Clarisse laugh at him.

At the campfire, everyone sat in the stadium that had a flag for their cabins. The only person who wasn't in a crowd was a girl named Rachel Elizabeth Dare—the new Oracle, who was sitting on an empty seat that wasn't full. Leo sat with his half-siblings as Chiron trotted next to the campfire and blew his horn to get everyone's attention, "Heroes!" He announced, and everyone looked at him. "Tomorrow we will be holding a game of Capture the Flag like we always do. And I would like to welcome a new camper: Caroline Thompson, daughter of Athena—goddess of wisdom and battle strategy!" Everybody cheered—minus the Ares kids, who only cheered unhappily. Leo saw Percy Jackson sitting in one of the empty seats with a blue flag with a trident on it flowing behind him while a large boy sat next to him. Leo recognized it was Tyson, Percy's Cyclops half-brother. He liked Tyson a lot, but his hugs were the only things Leo didn't like. He still remembered when Tyson almost turned him into Leo-ashes just by giving him a bear hug. Suddenly, a huge lightning bolt came towards him, and the boy dove out of the way as he saw that his seat was burnt—but there was something there: a Greek shield with Medusa's head embedded in it. Leo cringed as he picked it up and stood up, "Chiron?" Leo called, and the centaur looked at him, "Yes, Leo?" Leo walked up to him and handed him the shield, and Chiron gasped. "It seems like a child of Zeus has gone missing. We must search for her immediately." He announced, and Leo heard a girl scream, "No!" and assumed it was Annabeth Chase. "I volunteer!" Leo exclaimed. Great, He thought, you sound like that chick from the Hunger Games, nice going, Valdez. Everyone gasped, and Caroline stood up, "So do I!" Leo smiled at her warmly, and she smiled back, though he knew she probably didn't know what she had just gotten herself into.