ValGrace - Hoodie || High School AU

Chapter 3 - The Hoodie Incident

Leo's POV

He was tired. Three words, simple and true. Leo's alarm clock had woken the boy up, and he had been so tempted to just press the snooze button and go back to sleep, like he did yesterday, but the latino knew he couldn't do that so he made the responsible choice and gotten out of bed. God, he hated being responsible. Leo, in his half asleep state, had put on a familiar purple hoodie that laid on his chair. A decision which he was really gonna regret later. What's worse is that his family didn't tell him.

When he arrived at school, Leo got plenty of weird stares. Some smirked snd giggled. A few pulled out their phones and took pictures. The latino raised an eyebrow but just shrugged it off. That was until his best friend, Piper McLean, snorted and said "Nice hoodie." The boy looked down and tured beet red. "Oh shit." "Oh shit, indeed!" The brunette girl repeated with a smile. "It's not what you think!" Leo turned red, trying to convince his friend. "Mhm sure." She raised an unconvinced eyebrow. "Really!" The latino began to explain what happened, he got to around the middle when the bell rung. "Well, see ya later, Mr. Aphrodisiac."

Luckily for Leo, it was wednesday meaning he didn't have a single class with his blondie crush. Usually, this was a bad thing but today it was great because now, the only thing Leo hd to do was making sure to void the blonde at lunch, recess and possibly after school and he'd be safe. I mean sure, there were definitely people who were gonna post it on social media and/or tell him directly but that didn't matter as long Leo didn't have to personally confront Jason about it. Although Tuesday math class was going to get pretty awkward after this.

Leo's day was going horrible. Everywhere he went, people would give odd looks, whispering to eachother. Hell, even some teachers raised an eyebrow. Now, the latino would've been fine if this was just something about him. It would be embarrasing, sure, but not the end of the world. But this wasn't just about Leo, this drama involved Jason too, which made the other feel really bad because this meant that the cute blonde was going to have rumors about him 'cause of something Leo did. And he didn't want to 'taint' his (Jason's) reputation with gayness and make people believe that he was dating some small, unimportant, latino boy.

It was lunch. Leo was getting food from the cafeteria with Piper and Nico DiAngelo, his other best friend, when he started approaching. Oh, fuck no. The latino thought as he began hurrying up to his table. "Someting wrong?" His ravenette friend noticed his change in behaviour. Leo was about to answer 'No', but got interrupted by a voice coming from behind him. "Hey." It was Jason. Piper and Nico looked at the two boys, then to eachother, then back at the boys and smirked. "Sorry, we'll leave you alone, bye!" The female friend winked and walked towards the table, snickering to themselves. Leo only glared.

"So.. um.." The blonde awkwardly cleared his throath. "Uh.. yeah.." The latino boy turned around, also awkwardly. There were a few seconds of awkward silence. The latino tugged awkwardly at his (Jason's???) sleeves. Yeah, everything was awkward, basically. Not to mention that people were staring at them curiously. Finally Leo spoke up, "Listen if this is about the hoodie thing, I'm sorry. I can change out of it, just need another shirt-" "It's not about the hoodie. Well, I mean, it kinda is, but not in that way." Jason cut him off. The other must've had a confused look on his face cause blondie spoke again. "I'm just saying you can keep it. That's all." "Really?" "Yep." "But it's yours. I'd feel bad for just taking it like that." The latino frowned. "You're not taking it, I'm giving it to you. I've got plenty of hoodies at home anyways. Plus, you look cute in it." He mumbled that last part but Leo definitely heard it. Jason, realizing what he just said, blushed and a shy smile formed on his lips. "Well, I'll see you." He chuckled and walked to wards his own table were his friends were sitting. The other boy just stood there, frozen in disbelief, his face heating up and turning red. Whispering around him could be heard. They were most likely theorizing about what the blonde had said to get such a reaction out of the latino.

"What did he say to you?" Piper had a wicked smile on her face. "Nothing. It's nothing." Right? There's no way Jason-fucking-Grace just called me cute. It must've been my mind distorting what he said to fit my liking. Yeah, that's it! Mhm, deffinetly, yup, no doubts here! Leo tried to convince himself. "So Jason said you were cute, ay?" W-What?! Did I say that out loud? "Yes, Leo. Yes, you did." Shit. "Pffftt-" The brunette girl snorted, holding in a laugh. "Ha ha, very funny, McLean." The boy rolled his eyes at his friend. "It is!" "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's not ignore the huge elephant in the room." Nico started. He put his hands on Leo's shoulders. Then he calmly inhaled some air. And shouted at the top of his lungs. "Grace just called you cute!"

Suddenly, the whole cafeteria went silent. Everybody looked over at the Leo-Piper-Nico table. A few seconds passed. Then a femenine voice was heard. "Really, Jay? That's the best you could do? After everything I taught you, your flirting's still as bad as a kindergartener trying to take a college exam. Then again, this is Leo Valdez we're talking about. You always get super shy and blushy whenever you're around him. Hell, you get fiddly and nervous just by talking about him. I'm honestly surprised you managed to have a somewhat decent conversation with him, even if it was an incredibly short one. Good job. Maybe one day you'll get the guts to ask him out!" It was Reyna. Her face had her as she talked was her usual, serious expression as if she had just answered a question in class, and not just basically exposed Jason in front of the whole school.

Speaking of Jason, his face was completely red. "Reyna!" The blonde glared at the girl beside him. "Sorry, Jason. What's said's said." She just shrugged. He rolled his eyes at her, then made the mistake of looking towards Leo, causing them to make eye contact. Both of them blushed furiously and averted their eyes.

It was after school and the latino was sitting by the soccerfield, doing homework and waiting for Jake to pick him up. And 'doing homework' obviously means 'not-so-subtly staring at a certain blonde-haired-blue-eyed teenage boy while pretending to do homework'.

"Woof!" A loud bark came from behind, making Leo jump and let out a high pitched scream. (Although he would deffinetly deny it if you asked him.) "Geez, Leo. Festus is a dog, not some fire-breathing dragon." Jake chuckled. "Shut up. Why is he even here? Aren't you driving?" "Well, I was, but dad needed the car for something and he told me to walk Festus instead." The younger brother just gave the older a blank stare. "You do realize that the only reason I waited this long for you is that I could get a ride home instead of having to walk?" "Heh, oh well." He shrugged. "Walking is good for you." The other pouted while gathering his belongings.

Leo looked back towards the soccerfield and frowned a bit. He really wanted to talk to Jason about what happened in the cafeteria. They were taking a break so now was the perfect time. The blonde was laughing with two other guys, Percy Jackson and Frank Zhang or something like that, about something on Jackson's phone. "You can go say goodbye to you boyfriend if you want to. I'll just take Festus on a walk around the school." Jake smirked as his brother blushed and rolled his eyes. But Leo did walk towards them and poked Jason's shoulder lightly. "Uh... can I talk to you? In private?" The taller looked towards his friends. "Sure, just go, man. I'll tell Coach Mercury that you just went to the bathroom." Jackson waved his hand dismissively with a devilish smirk on his face while Zhang just sighed.

The two boys stood awkwardly by the P.E. lockers. Everything seemed to be awkward today. "Listen. If this is about what Reyna said in the cafeteria, you can just forget about that. It's not important." "Is it true?" The latino asked shyly. "What she said?" "Umm..." The blonde's face and ears went pink (adorably, may I add). Then he slowly nodded. Then Leo did something he never thought he'd have the courage to do.

He teased him. "Awwe! Does Mr. Perfect have a crush on little ol' me? That's cute." He smirked. "I-I... uhh..." "Y'know we barely know eachother, right?" The other didn't even try to respond to that. "Okay then, let's start with the basics. Aside from being smokin' hot, what do you do for a living?" The latino winked then cringed on the inside. What the fuck kinda pick-up line is that. It's so cringy. Well, Jason apperantly liked it, because he burst out laughing. So Leo decided to hit on him more. "With that smile on your face, you look a lot like my next boyfriend." The blonde snorted and tried to hold back another laugh, which obviously didn't work.

After a few more cheesy pick-up lines and a lot of laughing, a cough was heard. Both of the boys jumped in surprise and looked towards the noise. "Sorry, didn't mean to interupt you guys'... uh... moment, but practise is starting. And your brother is back." Zhang stood there, looking awkward and uncomfortable. "Oh, right. I almost forgot about that." Jason said sheepishly and walked out of the room with Leo following behind him.