Stay Right Here

vi

beauty's in the eye of the attacker

🌊 🌊 🌊

Hadley didn't like Leo's plan. Maybe she could blame it on her bad mood. Or it's reliance on acting rather than punching. Gods, she wished she could punch something.

He had summoned some breath mints and a pair of welding goggles from his tool belt. The goggles weren't exactly sunglasses but they'd have to do. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. He used some machine oil to grease back his hair. He stuck a wrench in his pocket- Hadley had no idea what that was for- and he had Hazel draw a tattoo on his biceps with marker: Hot Stuff, with a skull and crossbones.

"What in the world are you thinking?" She sounded pretty flustered and quickly moved to draw a heart on one of Hadley's cheeks and a fire on the other to help her blend in with the fangirls.

"I try not to think," Leo admitted. "It interferes with being nuts. Just concentrate on moving that Celestial bronze. Echo, Hadley, ready?"

"Ready," Echo said.

Hadley cracked her neck. "Let's get this over with." 

"Love the enthusiasm." Leo took a deep breath. He strutted back toward the pond, and shouted, "Leo is the coolest!"

"Leo is the coolest!" Echo shouted back.

"Yeah, baby, check me out!"

"Check me out!" Echo said.

"Oh, my gods!" Hadley's voice sounded excited but her face was bored as she fanned it half-heartedly. "I can't believe he's here!"

"He's here," Echo swooned.

"Make way for the king!" Leo shouted.

"The king!"

"Narcissus is weak!"

"Weak!" The girls chorused.

The crowd of nymphs scattered in surprise. Leo shooed them away as if they were bothering him. "No autographs, girls. I know you want some Leo time, but I'm way too cool. You better just hang around that ugly dweeb Narcissus. He's lame!"

"Lame!" Echo said with enthusiasm.

Hadley shrugged. "I'd forgotten he existed."

The nymphs muttered angrily.

"What are you talking about?" one demanded.

"You're lame," said another.

Leo adjusted his goggles and smiled. He flexed his biceps even though he didn't have much to flex, and showed off his Hot Stuff tattoo. He had the nymphs' attention, if only because they were stunned; but Narcissus was still fixed on his own reflection.

"You know how ugly Narcissus is?" Leo asked the crowd. "He's so ugly, when he was born his mama thought he was a backward centaur- with a horse butt for a face."

That managed to get a real laugh out of Hadley. Some of the nymphs gasped. Narcissus frowned, as though he was vaguely aware of a buzzing around his head.

"You know why his bow has cobwebs?" Leo continued. "He uses it to hut for dates, but he can't find one!"

One of the nymphs laughed. The others quickly elbowed her into silence.

Narcissus turned and scowled at Leo. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Super-sized McShizzle, man!" Leo said. Hadley was tempted to drop the act and smack him upside the head. "I'm Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme. And the ladies love a bad boy."