VALERIE COULD BE DESCRIBED AS A LOT OF THINGS, like for example, she's a great listener, always wanting to know what you have to say. she's also a very good baker (she can make some killer blueberry scones).

but the one thing valerie lacks in the millions of amazing traits she has, is being a morning person.

val will never wake up before eleven if she doesn't have to. she prides herself in getting a tremendous amount of sleep every night, claiming that it keeps her skin clear. so this morning when their whole school had to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to go to the grand canyon for the day, you could say val was a little upset.

so now, since she can't sleep in her comfortable bed anymore, she has replaced her bed with leo's lap, letting her wild curls sprawl over his legs as she snoozed happily, laying across him.

leo had no complaints, of course. having val this close to him, let alone touching him was enough to make his brain go haywire. he had been looping his fingers through her soft curls as she slept, twirling them through the spirals and letting them bounce back into place as he let go.

leo thought that the way that val slept was extremely adorable. he loved the way her lips were pouted slightly and pushed together because of her cheek being pressed against his legs. he loved the way her whole face was relaxed when she slept, not having her usual calculating eyes and smile gracing her face, even though he absolutely adored her smile. leo just loved how peaceful she looked, how stress-free and calm she was. he could stare at her for hours and not even blink, but that would be a little creepy, so he refrains himself from doing so.

after about ten minutes of leo playing with her hair and occasionally giving her heart eyes, val was quickly awoken by the bus jolting over a speed bump, making her body jump slightly in the air.

leo was quick to steady her, grabbing the side of the leg and arm to keep her place so she didn't fall off the seat.

she groaned and turned over to lay on her back and stared up at leo with groggy, glazed eyes.

"morning," she rasped, coughing lightly to get the croak out of her voice.

leo laughed airily, "morning, sunshine. sleep well?"

she nodded, sitting up. "slept amazing. your legs are pretty comfortable."

leo gave her a crooked smile. "well i'm glad you got something good out of them, they turned numb about thirty minutes ago."

val laughed and apologized. "you could've woken me up, silly. there's plenty of other spots i could've slept."

leo shrugged and started to fiddle around with some pipe cleaners he had brought with him. "you were comfy, so i just decided to push through the loss of feeling in my legs for a while."

val gave leo a playful smile and turned around in her seat to talk to piper, who was sitting in the seat behind her and leo with jason, her boyfriend. she was giving jason her usual dreamy eyed stare as he slept next to her, holding her hand.

"pipes, don't you always say it's rude to stare?" valerie asked teasingly.

she quickly looked up to val and leo, seemingly just now realizing they were looking at her.

piper averted her eyes from jason and looked up to us with pointed eyes. "it's not rude, i'm just admiring."

val rolled my eyes and smiled. "you admire him all day, everyday. i don't think anything's different about him."

piper smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "that's why i stare so much, because he's perfect, and i'm glad nothings different about him."

leo and val started making fake gagging noises.

"okay, cringe alert." leo said, making stopping motions with his hands. "please stop before i throw up for real."

piper just rolled her eyes and looked out the window.

val sighed and turned her body to plop back into her seat and started fiddling with the multiple rings on her fingers. she found comfort in twisting and turning her rings, they were her favorite accessory that she wore. val sometimes would take them off and put them on different fingers as well to see if they looked better that way, but she always ended up putting all of them back on their original fingers in the end.

leo and her sat in comfortable silence for a while, before she heard jason muttering something along the lines of, 'i'm not supposed to be here.'

val furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and turned to leo, who was turned around and laughing. "yeah, right, jason. we've all been framed! i didn't run away six times. piper didn't steal a BMW and val didn't blow up a science lab."

piper blushed. "i didn't steal that car, leo!"

"oh, i forgot, piper. what was your story? you 'talked' the dealer into lending it to you?" he raised his eyebrows at jason like, can you believe her?

valerie swatted the back of his head. "stop it. piper might be right, and the dealer is just really gullible to pretty women." piper laughed and gave her an embarrassed look.

leo rolled his eyes and then smirked, "then i bet he'd sell a car to you any day, hermosa." he said, throwing his arm over my shoulder.

val felt heat rise to my cheeks and gave him a pointed look. "shut up, valdez."

leo just gave her a satisfied smile and turned back to jason. "anyway," he said. "i hope you've got your worksheet, 'cause i used mine for spit wads a few days ago. why are you looking at me like that? did val draw on my face again?"

"i don't know you," jason said.

leo gave him a crocodile grin. "sure. i'm not your best friend. i'm his evil clone."

"leo valdez!" coach hedge yelled from the front. "problem back there?"

leo winked at jason. "watch this."

val turned her attention to coach hedge with a smile on her face, ready to see what leo did to him this time.

leo turned to the front. "sorry, coach! i was having trouble hearing you. could you use your megaphone, please?"

coach hedge grunted like he was pleased to have an excuse. he unclipped the megaphone from his belt and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like darth vader's. the kids cracked up. the coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: "the cow says moo!"

the kids howled, and the coach slammed the megaphone down. "valdez!"

val started giggling and went in to give leo a high five, which he returned with an amused grin on his face.

piper stifled a laugh. "my god, leo. how did you do that?"

leo slipped a tiny phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. "i'm a special boy."

"guys, seriously," jason pleaded. "what am i doing here? where are we going?"

a frown overtook val's face in worry for the boy. why was he acting like this?

piper knit her eyebrows. "jason, are you joking?"

"no! i have no idea—"

"aw, yeah he's joking," leo said. "he's trying to get me back for that shaving cream and jell-o thing, aren't you?"

jason stared at him blankly.

"i don't know, leo." valerie muttered nervously to the boy next to her.

"yeah, i think he's serious." piper said in agreement. she tried to take his hand again, but he pulled it away.

"i'm sorry," he said. "i don't—i can't—"

"that's it!" coach hedge yelled from the front. "the back row has just volunteered to clean up after lunch!"

the rest of the kids cheered.

"there's a shocker," leo muttered. val groaned and leaned her head on the top of the seat.

but piper kept her eyes on jason, like she couldn't decide whether to be hurt or worried. "did you hit your head or something? you really don't know who we are?"

jason shrugged helplessly. "it's worse than that. i don't know who i am."

the bus dropped them in front of a big red stucco complex like a museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. if val didn't know where they we're going, she would've guessed it was named: the national museum of nowhere. a cold wind blew across the desert, and val shivered through her pink zip-up jacket, which wasn't helping to protect her from the cold. val had on a simple outfit: denim mom jeans, a crocheted white tank top that was slightly cropped, with her pink zip-up over it, along with her old converse, which she had painted small dinosaurs on. now that she was thinking about it, wearing a tank top probably wasn't the best idea.

she shuffled her way towards leo, leaning into his side. "give me warmth," she muttered, dropping her head onto his shoulder.

leo chuckled and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, instantly making her feel warmer. for some reason, leo radiated so much body heat, he was basically like a walking furnace. if val had looked up sooner from his shoulder, she would've seen the small blush that graced leo's face, but by the time she finally lifted her head, leo was already talking to jason, his blush faded.

"so, a crash course for the amnesiac," leo said, in a non-helpful tone. "we go to the 'wilderness school'—leo made air quotes with his fingers. "which means we're 'bad kids.' your family, or the court, or whoever, decided you were too much trouble, so they shipped you off to this lovely prison—sorry 'boarding school'—in armpit, nevada, where you learn valuable nature skills like running ten miles a day through cacti and weaving daisies into hats! and for a special treat we go on 'educational' field trips with coach hedge, who keeps us in order with a baseball bat. is it all coming back to you now?"

"no." jason said gloomily.

leo rolled his eyes. "you're really gonna play this out, huh? okay, so the four of us started here together this semester. we're totally tight. you do everything i day and give me your dessert and do my chores.

"leo!" val snapped, whacking the back of his head.

he yelped in pain, rubbing the spot she hit. "fine. ignore that last part. but we are friends. well, piper's a little more than your friend, the last couple of weeks—"

"leo, stop it!" piper's face turned red.

"—and valerie is nothing more than your friend, okay? like, besties for the resties but nothing more than that." leo continued, glancing between valerie and jason assertively. val just rolled her eyes and gave leo a reassuring look.

"he's got amnesia or something," piper said. "we've got to tell somebody."

leo scoffed. "who, coach hedge? he'd try to fix jason by whacking him upside the head."

the coach was at the front of the group, barking orders and blowing his whistle to keep the kids in line; but every so often he'd glance back at jason and scowl.

"leo, jason needs help," piper insisted. "he's got a concussion or—"

"yo, piper." dylan stopped back to join them as the group was heading into the museum. dylan wedged himself between jason and piper and knocked leo down. "don't talk to these bottom feeders, well, maybe valerie." he shot val a wink, who coiled back in disgust, leaning down to help leo up. "you're my partner, remember?"

dylan had dark hair cut superman style, a deep tan, and teeth so white they should've come with a warning label: do not stare directly at teeth. permanent blindness may occur. he wore a dallas cowboys jersey, western jeans and boots, and he smiled like he was god's gift to juvenile delinquent girls everywhere.

"go away, dylan," piper grumbled. "i didn't ask to work with you."

"ah, that's no way to be. this is your lucky day!" dylan hooked his arm through hers and dragged her through the museum entrance. piper shot one last look over her shoulder like, 911. val shot her a sympathetic look as she grabbed leo's hand, helping him onto his feet.

once leo grabbed val's hand, getting him off the ground he brushed himself off. "i hate that guy." he offered val and jason his arm, like they should go skipping inside together. val giggled and hooked her arm through his. "i'm dylan. i'm so cool, i want to date myself, but i can't figure out how! you want to date me instead? you're so lucky!"

"leo," jason said, "you're weird." val snorted into her palm, and leo shot her a fake-offended look.

"yeah, you tell me that a lot." leo grinned. "but if you don't remember me, that means i can reuse all my old jokes. come on!"

oh, please don't." val mumbled as she followed leo into the museum.

they walked through the building, stopping here and there for coach hedge to lecture them with his megaphone, which alternately made him sound like a sith lord or blared out random comments like "the pig says oink!"

leo kept pulling out nuts, bolts, and pipe cleaners from the pockets of his army jacket and putting them together, which valerie found strangely mesmerizing. the way his hands moved so quickly and diligently, building and taking apart small creations he formed amazed val.

some girls kept looking over at piper and dylan and snickering. they were what they call the 'popular clique.' they wore matching jeans and pink tops and enough makeup for a halloween party.

"i'm so glad you're not a part of that." leo whispered to val as they walked past them.

val scrunched her nose at the thought and shook her head. "i would never want to be one of them. they look like sad clowns." leo chuckled and pulled her closer to him, giving her more warmth.

one of them said, "hey piper, does your tribe run this place? do you get in free if you do a rain dance?"

the other girls laughed. even pipers so-called partner dylan suppressed a smile. piper's snowboarding jacket sleeves hid her hands, but val got the feeling she was clenching her fists.

"my dad's cherokee," she said. "not hualapai. 'course, you'd need a few brain cells to know the difference, isabel."

isabel widened her eyes in mock surprise, so that she looked like an owl with a makeup addiction. "oh, sorry! was your mom in this tribe? oh, that's right. you never knew your mom."

val's jaw clenched and piper charged her, but before a fight could start, coach hedge barked, "enough back there! set a good example or i'll break out my baseball bat!"

the group shuffled on to the next exhibit, but the girls kept calling out little comments to piper.

"good to be back on the rez?" one asked in a sweet voice.

"dad'a probably to drunk to work," said another with fake sympathy. "that's why she turned klepto."

piper ignored them, and val had to force herself not to tell them off.

leo caught jason's arm, knowing he wanted to punch them. "be cool. piper doesn't like us fighting her battles. besides, if those girls found out the truth about her dad, they'd be all bowing down to her and screaming, 'we're not worthy!'"

"why? what about her dad?"

leo laughed in disbelief. "you're not kidding? you really don't remember that your girlfriend's dad—"

"look, i wish i did, but i don't even remember her, much less her dad."

leo whistled. "whatever. we have to talk when we get get to the dorm."

they reached the far end of the exhibit hall, where some big glass doors led out to a terrace.

"all right, cupcakes," coach hedge announced. "you are about the see the grand canyon. try not to break it. the skywalk can hold the weight of seventy jumbo jets, so you featherweights should be safe out there. if possible, try to avoid pushing each other over the edge, as that would cause me extra paperwork."

the coach opened the doors, and they all stepped outside. the grand canyon spread before them, live and in person. extending over the edge was a horseshoe-shaped walkway made of glass, so you could see right through it.

"woah," val muttered, looking around her with starry eyes.

"yeah," leo agreed, looking directly at her. "woah."

val didn't seem to notice he was staring at her and continued to walk out onto the skywalk.

the canyon was bigger and wider than you could appreciate from a picture. they were up so high birds circled below their feet. five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor. banks of storm clouds had moved overhead while they'd been inside, casting shadows like angry faces across the cliffs. as far as val could see in any direction, red and gray ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it.

"you all right?" val heard leo ask jason from behind her. "you're not going to throw up over the side, are you? 'cause i should've brought my camera."

"leo!" val snapped, slapping his arm. "jase, are you okay?" she ask her friend worriedly.

jason grabbed the railing. he was shivering and sweaty. but then, he blinked and turned to us saying, "i'm fine. just a headache."

thunder rumbled overhead. a cold wind almost knocked val sideways, but leo caught her arms and pulled her back.

"this can't be safe," leo said, still holding her arms, squinting at the clouds. "storm's right over us, but it's clear all the way around. weird, huh?"

val looked up and saw leo was right. a dark circle of clouds had parked itself over the skywalk, but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear.

"all right, cupcakes!" coach hedge yelled. he frowned at the storm like it bothered him too. "we may have to cut this short, so get to work! remember, complete sentences!"

the storm rumbled again, and valerie looked to see jason reaching into his jeans pocket and brought out a coin—a circle of gold the size of a half-dollar, but thicker and more uneven. stamped on one side was a picture of a battle-ax. on the other was some guy's face wreathed in laurels. the inscription said something like IVLIVS. i furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"dang, is that gold?" leo said. "you been holding out on me!"

"yeah," i said. "when'd you get that?"

he put the coin away, ignoring val's question. "it's nothing." he said. "just a coin."

leo shrugged but val still looked at him with an unsure look. "come on," leo said. "dare you to spit over to edge."

it seemed that val was the only one doing the worksheet, considering she's the only one that actually cares about her grades. jason seemed to worried about the storm and leo was busy building a helicopter out of pipe cleaners.

once val had finished the worksheet, she folded it up and put it in her pocket, making her way to where leo was standing, right by the edge holding his helicopter.

"check it out." he launched the copter. val figured it would plummet, but knowing leo he always had a way to make it ten times better. the pipe cleaner blades actually spun. the little copter made it halfway across the canyon before it lost momentum and spiraled into the wind.

val laughed elatedly. "leo, that was awesome!" leo turned and gave her a grin.

"how'd you do that?" jason asked.

leo shrugged. "would've been cooler if i had some rubber bands."

"seriously," jason said. "are we friends?"

"last i checked."

"you sure?" what was the first day we met? what did we talk about?"

val pouted her lips in concentration, trying to think back on the day they met jason. but when her mind drew a blank, she became confused.

"i. . .i don't remember." val said unsurely. she usually has really good memory, why wasn't she remembering this?

"it was. . ." leo frowned. "i don't recall exactly. i'm ADHD, man. you can't expect me to remember details."

"but i don't remember any of you at all. i don't remember anyone here. what if—"

"you're right and everyone else is wrong?" leo asked. "you think you just appeared here this morning, and we've all got fake memories of you?"

jason stared at him for a moment before handing him the worksheet. "i'll be right back." he said.

val looked to leo for explanation, but he just shrugged his shoulders.

after a moment, leo smiled. "come on. let's see how far i can make a paper airplane fly."

when they got to the railing, leo let his newly formed paper airplane (courtesy of jason's worksheet) fly off the side of the rail and into the abyss. it a little more than halfway before nosediving to the river.

"hey, it got farther than your helicopter." val said to leo, who was staring at the now cripple paper airplane shoot down from the sky.

"yeah, surprisingly." leo said sarcastically, leaning against the rail and facing val.

all of a sudden lightning crackled overhead, and the wind picked up with vengeance, which made val jump back. worksheets flew into the grand canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. leo quickly grabbed ahold of val's hand, keeping her near him so she doesn't fall. kids screamed, stumbling and grabbing the rails.

"are you okay, val?" leo screamed over the wind.

val turned to leo, her hair whipping in her face harshly. "i'm fine! we have to get to jason and piper!"

right after she said that hedge bellowed into his megaphone: "everyone inside! the cow says moo! off the skywalk!"

val started dragging leo towards the doors, "come on!" she yelled.

NOTES!

only one chapter in and i already love them augh