Chatterbox: Inkwell

The life of Leo Valdez from 8 to 15

ALERT: THIS CONTAINS PART OF THE ENDING FROM THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS!  IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THAT YET, SKIP THE LAST PARAGRAPH! 

Leo screamed. The door was locked, separating him from him mom.

The Earth Lady had been there a few seconds ago, but Leo had shot her with flames and she had disappeared.

The flames from his hands had gone straight through her, setting the building ablaze. Leo could hear emergency vehicles outside, busting through the burning doors and walls, but he had to save his mom.

He shouted at the top of his lungs, first in English, then in Spanish, then finally he began to tap on the wall.

"Mom are you ok? ¿Mamá estás bien?" -- --- -- •- •-• • -•-- --- ••-- --- -•-?

There was no reply. The last thing Leo thought before he passed out was that he killed his mom.

When he woke up, Leo was in an ambulance with an oxygen mask over his face. The EMT lady was nice, but tried to avoid Leo's questions. That was easy, since he was so confused he kept asking things in Spanish.

But even at 8, Leo could tell when he accidentally switched languages, so he fixed that.

"Where's my mom?" The EMT lady was silent for a moment.

"Oh honey, she didn't make it out."

That shocked Leo into a kind of terrified trance. He sat there, a skinny 8 year old Latino boy with crazy brown hair, rocking back and forth and quietly crying.

Then he heard the police arguing with Aunt Rosa. She said he was a diablo niño, a devil child, and that he would never stay with her. She said that he must have killed his mother by setting the building on fire, but the police seemed not to even consider that as a possibility.

Leo stopped listening. He laid down on his bed and cried himself to sleep with the EMT lady rubbing his back like his mom had.

After that night, Leo's life was miserable. He was questioned by the police for any information he might have, but Leo never told them about the Earth Lady. Even he knew how crazy that sounded.

The next month he bounced around from distant relative to even more distant relative until he ended up in foster care.

Of his six foster homes, the fourth was the best, with the first a close second. The third was the worst, and he stayed only two months.

The first foster home, the Manchevi's, was in Denver Colorado. They had no children, so they tried to be the best parents they could to an 8 year old boy who never knew his dad and whose mom died within ten feet of him. 

Leo stayed there for about a year, but eventually news leaked out about a boy from Houston named Valdez who supposedly killed his mom. He left a note on his bed saying he thanked them for making him feel loved for the first time since his mom died, and jumped out the window.

He lived on his own, hitchhiking rides back south for about two weeks until Social Services caught up to him. They took him to Home 2.

Home 2 was in Shawnee Oklahoma. The Bristols were a large and busy family, but they never really understood what Leo had been through. He stayed for about six months, then left without a note. This time he made it back to Houston before he was found.

He saw his old home, and the burned out shell of his mom's workshop. He stayed there for about a month, wishing he could make fires to warm himself any other way than the obvious.

Home 3 was terrible. The Potters had a nice house in Albuquerque, but their son was an idiot. He found out about Leo's past within a week, and spread around rumors at school until no one would come near him. Leo was glad to leave. He hopped around the Pheonix area for about six months pretending to be homeless. Then someone found out who he was and sent him back east.

Home 4 was awesome. The Fosters(Leo thought this was pretty good) had 5 foster children already before Leo came along. They were kind and devoted parents, and they had raised 7 other kids in the past. Leo almost broke his record for staying in a foster home, but the tragedy of his past still followed him even though he was now twelve. 

Eventually the tale of his mom's death found its way into his school, so he left a note and went on with his life. He left Maryland and hopped back west for a couple months.

Home 5 was in Utah. The Dalavancos were nice enough, but the school was in a rough part of town Leo could tell that his "parents" were struggling to stay off the streets.

So Leo relived their burden. He lived out on the streets for six months, popping in to see the Dalavancos every once and a while. He was found out though, and taken to his last foster home ever.

Home 6 was in California. It was a nice place, but Leo's guardians(he stopped thinking of them as parents) were movie stars who needed something to boost their popularity. Leo was that something.

Leo left on his 15th birthday and bounced around until he was caught and sent off to The Wilderness School to meet Piper, and have his head messed with.

Leo didn't love it there, but Piper and Jason made it worth it. Also the pranks on Coach Hedge helped him survive. 

Then his life fell apart the day Jason fell asleep on the bus.

Leo though the "amnesia" was funny at first, but soon he would find it was all very real.   Little did he know that in less than a year, he would die for his friends, some new, some old.