Life with a twist

Life with a Twist is a short story about Leo Valdez, a main character of the Heroes of Olympus series he is still the son of Hephaestus and Esperanza Valdez, but this is a story that takes place between the Lost Hero and the Son of Neptune stories and could've potentially happened if, Leo didn't mess it up. The story is about the possible Romance between Leo and a water Nymph who he spends his time with. Clover seems to have a crush on Leo, but Leo continues to hide something vitally important from her. Will he mess this up, will Leo end up with a Girlfriend, or will he remain the third wheel, that doesn't belong.

Characters

 * 1) Leo Valdez: Main Character, Son of Hephaestus and the narrator of the story.
 * 2) Clover: A water nymph, that seems to have taken a liking to Leo Valdez.
 * 3) Jason: The son of Jupiter and current boyfriend of Piper Mclain
 * 4) Piper: Daughter of Aphrodite, often known as BeautyQueen and the current girlfriend of Jason Grace.
 * 5) Annabeth: Daughter of Athena, seems to have been acting weird the pass cupple of days.

Life with a Twist
Ok, I have to admit, before I bursted into flames, I was doing great. I was just chillin' by the creek, with a beautiful girl, name Clover. She was a water nymph. She had cold black hair and a pale face that reminded me of the ice princess Khione. Her eyes were hazel, changing colors, but they also seemed to remain blue and gray most of the time.

The longer I stood around her the more, I feel in love with the girl. She was pretty awesome. She laughed at all my awesomeness, kept eye contact all the time, and also seemed to be ok with me being a demigod. Most nymphs wouldn't be caught dead hanging out with demigods, especially a child of Hephaestus or Vulcan. Which ever you perfer. Over the passed three months, Jason has been teaching me which gods were name what in their Roman forms. It was gonna be helpful. At least by the time we got to his camp. We would know everything about the Roman gods.

Clover, nessled closer to the edge of the creek and smiled. Her teeth were like small pearls that seemed to get whiter and whiter the longer I was around. She was kinda amazing. The only problem would only be that I was a waiting disaster to happen. I still hadn't told her I was the special child of Hephaestus. She had heard a few months back, well last december that a child of Hephaestus (Vulcan) had the ability to magically combust when ever he wanted to. She never asked, but I still had a feeling like if she ever caught word, she would hate me forever. I wouldn't blame too, I mean everytime I got close to a girl, it was always something. Either, eww no your ugly, or  why would I go out with the most funniest guy at camp, I mean why not someone like Jason or Percy Jackson. They're strong and brave and ruggidly handsome.

Yeah. Well that was my life. And by the way, that was just the Aphrodite cabin's comments. I can only begin to wonder what other cabin's would say.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

After having an awesome time with Clover, I returned back to bunker 9, The safezone for the Hephaestus cabin, It was now late March, and we were making great progress with the Argo II we had built the complete ship in less than two months and now just focused on the imaginary parts that I had supplied. I thought it would be awesome for us to have inchanted silverware and even seven cabins within the ship. I asked Annabeth about each god and the things that every cabin would have. She told me alot about Percy and his umm likes. But the more I talked with her the more I felt like she was distracted. She had said something about a dream, and a Mark. I never really paid attention when it came to Camp councils, considering my recent chance at romance and the whole building the greek battle ship to sail to greece with.

When we finally finished the schmatics for the cabins, I got most of the Athena campers along with some of my half siblings to help out with graphic dimensions and all this math. The more we did, the more time I had to spend with Clover. I really wanted this to work, but the one thing that made me reluctant to share with the whole sailing to Greece. If I had shared the fact that I was the fire user child of Hephaestus with Clover, it could damage any chance at successfully having a relationship with her. Like always big time Leo was making this situation harder than it seemed.

After finally getting the cabins done I was very proud of my self. The entire ship was a hot spankin war machine. It held a lot of complicated machanics, and Festus's head was planted on the mask. The ship was rather big and seemed to have various wiring issues. Annabeth decided to take care of it, and I gave her detailed insturctions on how to fix it. Coach Hedge decided to kick me off the ship for twenty four hours stating that I needed to get a life.

I couldn't blame him, because he was kinda right, I mean I had spent so much time on this ship that people would say I was becoming a workaholic. Finally making my way towards the basketball court, I saw Jason finishing up a game with some of the Apollo children and the twins from the Hermes cabin, Travis and Conner stoll. They were all pretty good, but looking at the way Jason was breathing it seemed like he won. On the sidelines, Piper say waiting for Jason to finish.

He casually walked over to her and gave her a kiss on the lips. It was that old romantic way they did it back at the wilderness school. Oh wait that never actually happened. Either way the mist made it seem so real that I wouldn't even know the difference.

Piper said something to Jason and the both of them laughed, as she hugged him and they both walked towards me. "Hey, BeautyQueen. Sup Jason"

"Leo, I thought I told you not to call me that!" Piper complained.

"Come on, Pipes, I think it's cute, besides he's only giving you a compliment. But hey, Leo hows the ship?"

"Ehh," I gestured. "see Coach Hedge just kicked me out, he said I was becoming a workaholic, but If you don't mind I want you two to meet someone, she's really nice and awesome."

"Sure thing, just don't tell me it's a table again." Jason replied.

"Nah," I waved. "It's an actual person, well she's a water nymph but still."

"A water nymph?" Piper wondered. "Leo, what did you do? Do you need help again?"

I gazed off at the clear blue sky wondering how to explain it. "Well, I do need help but it's nothing dangerous, promise."

"You really promise?" Piper wondered

I crossed my fingers and held up my other hand showing both hands and my crossed fingers. "Wilderness school for troubled children scouts honor." I smiled proudly as I said it.

"Alright," Jason said. "But Imma need half an hour to take a shower and get ready."

Piper smiled. "Ok, I get it, You're stinky but still hurry up."

Jason gave her another kiss on the lips, profoundly this time expressing his deepest concern for her as he bolted down towards the cabins and Baths.

The next thrity minutes were the most awkward moments of my life. Piper, continued pestering me about who the girl was and what she look like and if I truly liked her and everything. I understood she was the daughter of Aphrodite, but to become like this was a little annoying. I finally understood how I made others feel. But on the other hand, I still kinda liked it.

When Jason came back he was dressed like a super solder. The blonde superman, came back in a white t shirt, that made him look more built which made me feel a bit uncomfortable. He had on blue jeans and his hair still wet curled up on the edges.

"Alright," I siad awaiting for the lovely cupple to finish with their spooning and lovey dovey stuff. I never liked it when they did that stuff in front of me, hopefully having that stuff hidden would be a good thing.

__ _ _ __ __ __ _ _ __ __ _ __ __ _ __ _ __

When we got to the forest, I saw the satyr named Grover with a tree nymph. The both of them seemed to be happy  as he played his pipes by a tree and she sat embraced by his arms. I learned a lot about him from Coach Hedge. We crossed the forest and made our way towards the creek, when suddenly look a cold voice came to my mind.

''Take off, child of Hephaestus we don't need people like you around. I shall havve my daughter give birth to waterspirits not human hybrids. ''A sudden case of guilt covered my face. I felt so bad about the possibility of things going wrong.'''

That's when everything changed. When I arrived at Zeus's thumb, which by the way still looked like reduced pebels since last Christmas. Yeah, Last christmas wasn't a plesant one, Jason Piper and I had to stop the Engine of the Argo II from blowing up and thanks to an old friend of mine, we had to run around camp looking for a table. Hence Jason's plesant remark a few minutes ago.

We finally crossed the forest, to find, the Maenas, or if you'd like we could just say Followers of Dionysus. By the way the impressions on his personality that have been told are very very annoying. How could a god not like heroes. Don't gods have heroes as their personal bustboys.

These girls were seeming to have a nice recalling memory of use. As Jason froze upon their sight. The leader had long autumn brown hair and sparkling eyes. She was attractive alright, but the thought about them killing me was the thing that made them unattractive.

In a sudden strike, the leader attacked, Jason. Out of nowhere Piper pulled out her bronze knife along with that beautyqueen magical voice, also known as Charmspeak. The more Piper tried to calm the girls down, the angerier the got.

By the time, Piper was able to influence the leader of the Maenas, the others attacked her. In the mean time, I busted out my double edged happer and smashed the eath beneath us, launching a miniture earthquake that knocked everyone out of range. Blonde Superboy suddenly took flight as he began to charge up electiricity. I knew exactly what he was doing. He was going to make a hurricane or with enough moisture he could make a tornado.

I gazed at the Maenas and swiftly took a deep breath. Concentrating on the tips of my fingers, I suddenly became flamible and launched a vortex of fire towards the enemies. Piper called in anxioty. "Wait! Remember not to hurt them remember Dionysus will make you crazy or worse turn you into a dolphin!"

"I'll find a way to make sure he doesn't besides Tia Calida will take care of him if he does anyway." The moment I said that, I invisioned a chubby guy sporting cargos and a button up shirt, saying something to Piper, Jason and another boy. The other boy, seemed to fit the discription of Percy Jackson. But the worse thing was what I saw after. He was standing in front of his aunt alongside beautiful girl. She had cinimon toast colored hair and brown eyes that had seen pain and hell.

Taking a deep breath, I watched the Maenas retaliate. In a storm of fierce power, the girls ambushed them. It was like Tartarus came to life. In such a crazy fashion. Suddenly Jason carried a storm cloud over and unleashed the rains of Olympus upon them, drenched in water, the girls raced away swearing revenge after one of their rituals.

I gazed at both Piper and Jason and suddenly launched a vortex of heat towards them. In seconds they were completely dried although Piper looked rediculous. Her hair was dried in a crazy like fashion that made you think she wasn't even half charokee. Beautyqueen, Piper McLean, the daughter of Tristan McLean now looked like a crazy fangirl of LadyGAGA.

Jason just had his superman hair style look even better. Only if he had black hair.

"Alright, well guys.I have something to tell you." I admitted. "I don't know how to tell her I like her and we're running out of time."

"That's cool, but we should get over towards the creek fast, because it seems like something is in that direction." Jason implied.

___ _____ ______ ______ ___



Arriving at the creek, my heart sank, I saw Clover passed out on the banks of the creek, as Earth born had swarmed the creek tapping into its water supply. I suddenly ran to her rescue, to see she was already unconscious.

I gazed at the feilds of forest as more monsters swarmed closer by the minute. Piper, looked at the monsters with a glimer of horror behind it, just as I. NO! I thought, HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN! THE FIRST GIRL THAT I HAPPEN TO LIKE AND SHE CARED ABOUT ME TOO. THE FIRST PERSON TO LIKE THE AWESOMENESS THAT, I, LEO HAD TO OFFER. DIE! I COULDN'T ALLOW IT!

I chlenched my teeth with anger. Placing Clover in the care of Piper, I suddenly pulled out a celestial bronze sword from my master tool belt and swelled inraged. I thought about all the awesome times, I made Clover laugh. All the times I spent talking to this girl all the times I got to see her simle at me. All the times I got her to blush. Anger swelled within me, I wanted to kill all of THEM! No matter how long it took, My rage peaked, and then suddenly fire incased me. I was now a being of complete fire. I yelled at all the idiotic earthborn as I raced towards them. Small thorns ans tree roots were launched at me, but I burned right through them as, lightning roared across the skys. Jason pleaged on through the sky, zapping down monsters left and right.

In a sudden one hit strike, I punched an earthborn in the face, as it began to burn away. In the distance a twenty four foot tall monster began to laugh. It looked more like what I thought Gaea would look like, if she was a giant creature of mass destruction. The entire thing was made out of trees and grass, with a stream of watter washing down it's back.

The other monsters, trapped me, as I launched out a barrage of fire balls against my enemies. I was completely intoxicated with rage. I didn't care about the face that I was killing off tries. I didn't care that I could potentially start another great fire. All I cared about was the girl that became my friend. I didn't want her to die just because of me or anyone else. Even if I could never be with her I wanted her to live, she didn't deserve to die.

I surrounded myself in a vortex of fire and whelled out in a deep rage. Suddenly a demonic beast bursted forth from the fire and began to pund the earth as the fire destroyed all the earthborn. In a wake of devestation, all that was left were small patches of fire, destoryed land, and the Twenty Four Foot Tall monster that continued laughing.

I knew that this monster was no ordinary monster, but I wanted to end it's reched life. For doing that to Clover, it was completely unforgiveable. Jason landed next to me, with pride and honor in his eyes.

"What's the plan?" He said all seriously.

"We, burn that monster down until it's destroyed from exisitance. I could go to Tartarus for all I care."

"Leo, I understand your mad, but Clover isn't dead. Don't let your emotions be the lead to your own demise. It's obvious that this was staged up by someone. Either other Water spirits or even Gaea."

I closed my eyes out of sheer anger. "I don't care, I don't want her to be hurt by anyone, I'll kill this one. It's my  fight, so just stay in the background and cover my tracks."

Jason, stayed silent. Now calm and tamed, I turned up the heat once more. I was now armored with a flame red battle suit. In a shuffle forward. I climbed the monsters feet. It took extreme measures to dodge all of the monsters attacks. But after seconds, I began to lose control once more, allowing flames to burn up the shins of both his legs. In a surge of flames, I reached his head to launch a vortex power kick assult. Arching backwards, the monster crashed to the grounds. I regained my anger and moved closer as a barrage of fire bullet were notched towards the monsters face, The monster burned in agony as I landed on the grounds.

I pulled out a vail of acid from my toolbelt and began mixing chemicals before the monster regained its footing. As the monster's burning began to subside, I threw the vail of mixture onto the earth monster. In an instant the monster began to blaze.

Jason watched as the monster continued to burn away. I aimed for it's head as I notched on more blast of fire as the mixture of Greek Fire burned the monster into Ichor.

My rage subsiding, I walked back towards Jason as he smiled. "Greek Fire?"

"Yeah. It took me some reading but I finally learned how to use it, but that was the last of the ingredients that I had for it, I'll need to ask chiron for more, but I doubt we'll need it for Greece."

"Hmm, well atleast you know how to make it. And my camp will have plenty of things for you learn aswell."

"Either, way lets get back to-" Before I could finish, Clover was standing in front of us.

Her white silk dress made her look beautiful. Her black hair and pale skin made her exotic and very beautiful. She gazed at me, with anguish and misery. I wondered what had happened by it seemed like she was too hurt to speak.

"I know, I am awesome aren't I" I said with my signiture grin.

Clover just stared at me with her eyes looking like shattered glass. "I saw everything." She said with a tearful voice. "You're the child. Your the one with the ability to use fire."

I looked down abit ashamed and sad. I knew exactly what was going to happen. She was going to smack me and then hate me for the rest of my life. That what always happens in moments like this. But then she did something completely unexpected.

She leaned in and kissed me. On the lips, a real one. It was way better than watching Piper and Jason do their lovey dovey stuff, because it was AWESOME LEO TIME! She hugged me and then kissed me once more. Her lips were soft and graceful.

I still shocked just gazed at her. "What was that for?"

"For defending me," She said with a smile. "I know it's not gonna be easy, but I know everything. Piper here told me about your quest to greece, and all the stuff that you've gone through. So I know, it's kinda selfish but I think we should just be friends."

I now realizing that the good part was over, and now the crappy part became true, I smiled. "It's ok, but um. Clover I'll never forget what he had."

"Leo, to be honest, Your sweet and I like you a lot, so tell ya what, I'll wait for you to come back from your quest and then we can go out." She gave me one last kiss, this time on the cheek and then dove into the creek, as she swam away, I gazed back knowing that I still made a friend.

The Next Day

I awoke in Bunker nine, recalling the emotional trama that went down last night, Annabeth awaiting outside. She had that signiture glare which I kinda have to admit kinda scared me. She was always thinking about things even when you were having fun.

She took me to the ship's location, and I saw that we were making great advancements. Now we only needed a few test drives and the whole funiture then we would be done with the entire ship. The Test drives would allow us to make movements towards the West and then we would head for Greece, with any luck we would get this thing done by the Summer Solstice. I just hope who ever this Percy Jackson fella is he made friends with the Romans and remembered who he was by the time we got there.

When we finished reconfiguring the electircution again, Annabeth shared some iinformation about our arriveal and everyone's lines. She had made this script for us to use that way we didn't mess anything up. She was so worried that she made a back up and a back up to the back up. By the time, she finished explaining everything to me, I just felt like I had taken Advance Physics seventy billion times. Which was ok with me, I'm great at science, and math and technology, just give me anything with equations and fomulas and Im fine. But have you ever taken some class twice and been like OMG this is so simple. Yeah that's how she made me feel.

Annabeth eventually lightened up and stopped talking about the meeting with the Romans to have me lighten up the mood. I convinced her to share her feelings, which was weird because out of all the people at camp, she was never that close with me.

"What's wrong?" I asked her with care and compassion.

"I'm worried that..." She stopped herself and wondered if I was actually trying to do something. "Nothing nevermind."

"Don't worry about Percy, if he is who you say he is, he wouldn't do anything to hurt you, or forget the fact that you care about him a lot."

Annabeth smiled and took her leave. I smiled and headed for the engine room, trying to add in some more horse power before we take off for more test runs. I smiled at the thought that I would be exploring new lands and make plenty more friends along the way. Three new friends awaited us at Camp Jupiter, at it was time to get ready for our meeting.