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Leo VIII

"Leo VIII," Will began.

Leo psyched himself up for an extreme makeover. Will blinked.

"We're only a sentence in, and I already have so many questions..." the son of Apollo muttered.

"A makeover?!" Aphrodite perked up. Her children looked equally interested. "Tell me more!"

"Of course you'd be interested." Artemis said, rolling her eyes.

He summoned some breath mints 

"Good idea." the goddess of love nodded her head. "You can never go wrong with those."

and a pair of welding goggles from his tool belt. 

She frowned a bit. 

"The tool belt doesn't have sunglasses." Leo explained. To prove his point, he pulled out a pair of goggles. "It's the best I could do."

"I see... It's not trendy, but it'll make a fine replacement." Aphrodite said. What type of look is he trying to create?

Leo strapped the goggles on his head.

...He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. He used some machine oil to grease back his hair.

"No hair gel either." he told the others.

Aphrodite gagged.

He stuck a wrench in his back pocket...

"Why?" Will couldn't help but ask.

Leo shrugged. "It felt right."

This is going to get weirder, I just know it. the son of Apollo thought to himself.

and he had Hazel draw a tattoo on his biceps with a marker: HOT STUFF, with a skull and crossbones.

Aphrodite blinked.

"Wait..." she slowly started to smile. "Are- Are you going for a bad boy look?" 

The goddess bit her lip to stifle her giggles.

"Sure am!" Leo said proudly. He didn't notice the way the others exchanged smiles as he continued. "I figured if I'm going to be a distraction, why not let these ladies see the real Leo Valdez!"

Unable to hold it back anymore, the readers burst out laughing. Even Hephaestus was booming with laughter.

Leo stopped and looked around in confusion.

"What's so funny?" he frowned.

"You-" Aphrodite breathed. "You think you're a bad boy!"

"Of course I'm a bad boy!" Leo said, crossing his arms. 

The laughter grew louder.

"Man, you're a lot of things: a workaholic, a mechanic, funny..." Travis listed off. "But you're not a bad boy."

"The only thing bad about you is how you work past curfews." Will added.

Leo scowled at them. 

"I am too a bad boy! I might seem soft now, but you should've seen me back when I was in school. I didn't do homework, I'd disrupt classes, I'd take bathroom breaks so I could miss Popcorn reading, I'd pull pranks..." Leo smirked, expecting them to be impressed, but the others just gave him amused looks.

"I bet you didn't even skip classes." Hermes chuckled, earning another round of laughing.

"I did other things!" he defended.