Leo had been having a pretty ordinary day. Being pushed into lockers and having books slammed out of your hands was typical for a short guy in a high school full of troublemakers who were looking at jail time if said school didn't work out. Of course, he could always get back at them later; he had some great new inventions in the works that would totally freak them out and leave him in the clear, although he was still debating whether revenge was worthy of his mechanical brilliance. Totally lost in thought, he was heading for his math class when Dylan, a total idiot who relied on his good looks to get by, stormed passed him and nearly knocked him to the ground.

"Watch where you're going Valdez! You could've messed up my hair!" Dylan shouted over his shoulder, as the crowd began to part before him to let him pass.

"Well that was unnecessary," Leo muttered to himself as he regained his breath, Dylan may be a moron, but he was certainly stronger than the average teenager. Shaking his head, he began moving in the direction of his class again when he heard a weird sound coming from one of the empty classrooms on that side of the hall. Always a fan of checking out the unnatural, he decided to ditch his math class and investigate (after all, why does a math prodigy need to take a basic algebra course?).

The hallway had already emptied out, but he still looked both ways to check for any teachers who would have no qualms about putting him in detention (cough Coach Hedge cough) before quietly turning the doorknob and slipping into the classroom.

He instantly knew he had made a mistake, dealing with girls was not high on the list of Leo Valdez's strengths. However, his feet felt glued to the ground, forcing him to hover awkwardly over the girl while doing his best not to make eye contact. He was just considering how boring the beige color of the walls was and how someone should really change it if they didn't want the students falling asleep during lectures when he realized that she was looking at him and probably had been for nearly a minute. He glanced at the girl's face, noticing how pretty she looked despite her position on the dirty floor and the fact that she wasn't wearing makeup. He subconsciously realized at some point during the wait he had pulled his latest pipe-cleaner project from the pockets of his jacket, and his hands were furiously working on it, trying to dispel some of his nervous energy. He lost track of his thoughts again, trying to think of something that would make him seem even the slightest bit normal instead of a weird stalker, when she gave a slight cough and finally spoke.

"I'm Piper McLean, what's your name?"

Startled, he glanced back over to her, only barely registering that she had to be talking to him due to the overwhelming lack of anyone else in the room, then glanced back down to his hands as he tried to make sense of her question. Figuring it out a few moments too late, he looked back at her.

"Uh Leo. Leo Valdez."

The room fell back into silence as they just stared at each other, both trying to think of something to restart the conversation.

"Sooo, why are you sitting on the floor? I know those seats will give you back pain for the rest of your life but they probably still beat out sitting on the floor. I know for a fact that this room hasn't been vacuumed or swept for at least the last few months, that's when I got here. In fact, I don't even think this school has janitors. I would lodge a formal complaint to the school board but I really don't think they'd care considering how this is a school for troubled teens and it's in the freaking middle of nowhere; I'm surprised it even has teachers considering how no self-respecting teacher would possibly want to come here willingly. Unless of course the teachers were criminals too, that would explain why half of them don't seem to understand their own subjects. Did you know that -"

"Oh my god, how much caffeine did you have this morning?" she interjected, rubbing her temple while trying to process his incredibly fast-paced rant.

"None actually, apparently the teachers here think it makes me a "danger to society"; they cut me off on my second week. It was really disappointing too, I was so close to figuring out how to make all the lockers open and close simultaneously as people walked down the hallway."

Piper gave him a really hard stare as if to determine if he was being serious, than apparently decided he looked crazy enough to be telling the truth.

"I was trying to get away from this creepy guy who was hitting on me by the lockers so I came in here, then I just felt overwhelmed and sat on the floor." she explained.

"Creepy guy hitting on you huh? Was he also wearing a football jersey and trying to blind you with the whitest teeth known to man?"

"Yep, that sounds pretty accurate. I got a really bad vibe from him though, thankfully the bell rang when it did."

"Yeah that would be Dylan, everyone around here absolutely worships him just because he looks like he stepped out of a sports catalogue or something. Personally, I think models are overrated, it's time for smart people to get their due. Ooh, now that you hate Dylan too, we could start the "Dylan Hate Club" (DHC for short) and try to blackmail him or something."

"The Dylan Hate Club? Isn't that a little bit extreme?"

"Nah, the guy has it coming to him. No one that perfect looking can actually be perfect, he's here with the rest of us losers isn't he? Plus it will make the rest of his posse mad, and if there is one thing I enjoy it's messing with other people. Besides, I can think of plenty of non-lethal pranks that we could totally pull off. Actually some of those might be a tiny bit lethal, but with a few adjustments I think the worst that would happen would be slight maiming."

"Are you always this talkative?" Piper asked. "My brain is hurting just trying to keep up with your train of thought."

"Yeah sorry, that would be my good ole ADHD kicking in, today is actually a pretty good day all things considered. Anyway, now that we've established a life-long friendship over the 'Dylan Hate Club', any chance we can go somewhere that isn't this room? I can only imagine the mysterious diseases you've contracted just by sitting on that floor, have I mentioned that I don't think anyone has ever cleaned it?" He held his hand out to her and pulled her up, panting slightly with the effort.

"Any chance you know where the office is?" she asked. "I still need to get my schedule and map and stuff, plus find out where my room is."

"Of course I know where the office is, I had the blueprints to this place memorized by my second month. You would think a place as run down as this would just be a coverup for some classified project run by the CIA, but I'm pretty sure it's just a boring school for delinquents. The government really has no creativity these days, does it?" He rambled while leading them out of the room and starting through the maze of hallways. He managed to keep his rant going for the whole walk to the office, hardly ever pausing for a breath. "Well here we are beauty queen, if you want, I can wait out here- Ow! What was that for?" he complained, rubbing his arm where she had just punched him.

"Don't call me beauty queen Valdez, friends or not I can still beat you up."

"I'll keep that in mind beauty queen, see you later!" He said, waving and slowly backing away from the death glare she was sending his way.

She just shook her head and stepped into the office with a small grin on her face, like she had finally found something worth caring about.

Pipers POV

Looking back, Piper couldn't believe what a jerk she'd been to Leo over the past year. He had been the first person to ever accept all of her faults without judging her or her background, the first friend she had ever been truly happy around without having to bribe or manipulate them, and really the only person who had ever been able to always make her smile despite the circumstances. Ever since that fateful Grand Canyon trip so many months ago, she had been almost entirely focused on her relationship with Jason and working to keep her cabin running. She knew Leo was working himself to exhaustion, but always assumed someone from his own cabin would be able to get him to take care of himself instead of being the supportive friend she should've been. She had forgotten how much Leo had impacted her life ever since that first fateful meeting at the Wilderness School, the way he had made her forget about Jane's awfulness and her dad not being around enough while showing her how to perform increasingly more devious pranks on Dylan. She was finally starting to understand Hera's reasoning behind the whole memories thing. It wasn't just bad memories in the past that had caused the demigod to overwork himself, it was also the whole "seventh wheel" nonsense that he had seen as true due to everyone always forgetting about him and putting him last. Looking around the room she saw that everyone else was also coming to the same conclusion, and knew that once Leo woke up they would all put in all the time necessary to make Leo know that he was loved and appreciated.

A/N: Hey guys! As the old saying goes: another year, another update. I'm so thankful for everyone who still reads, follows, favorites, and reviews this fanfiction, and I'm honestly surprised every time I get a new notification just because of how long it has been since I've started. Every notification I get makes me more determined to not give up on this story, and I guarantee it will be finished at some point (I'm predicting 1-2 more chapters). Special thanks to ME, for editing this for me despite her incredibly hectic schedule, MG, for literally telling me to update every time I even mention fanfiction, and to SS and SJ just for being amazing friends.

Thanks again guys, see you next year! (jk, hopefully)