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Leo remembers so many things that never really happened.
He remembers Jason’s first day at wilderness school, when he showed up at the first period, reserved and serious and he disliked him so much he could have filled an entire lake with his juice of aversion. Especially when Piper McLean, sweet, cool, alternative Piper, looked at him as if he was the god of sun and vegan cookies himself.
Everyone in class seemed to like him immediately and soon the new boy was surrounded by almost everyone in class except for Leo, sleeping Pete and the gothic chicks who thought blond hair was an evidence for boringness.
The whole day proceeded the same way. Jason Grace was nice, Jason Grace was good at history and Latin, Jason Grace was some kind of Olympian sports champion, Jason Grace was the most fucking amazing guy a mortal could ever lay eyes on.
He really wanted to ignore that guy till he finished serving his time at this prison called school, but of course all his well thought out plans went down the chute when he bummed into Jason after school.
He usually stayed late (his foster parents never really cared about him being at home anyway) and worked at some minor ideas in the handcrafts room, but when he left the building to get some fresh air, he saw that Grace kid sitting in the shadows of the school wall and watching the clouds with an odd look.
“Hey”, he said awkwardly, not knowing how to speak to a guy who probably became this year’s prom king at his first day of school, “Are you waiting for your super dad to take you back to Krypton?”
And of course Blondie didn’t understand. How could he, being usually too busy with pumping his muscles or perfecting his shiny smiles or whatever people like him were doing with their spare time.
Jason knitted his eyebrows and said. “I know you. You’re in almost every one of my classes, right?”
“Well observed, Hawkeye. Did you remember everyone already or is it just my natural awesomeness that struck you?” And the guy surprisingly laughed at that.
“You were the only one in class that didn’t speak to me at all.”
Leo brushed his fingers through his thick black locks. “Why should I? Look, you seem like a nice guy, but honestly, we will never be much involved with each other. You’re clearly the sporty popular kid and I am the crafting prankster. It’s OK. It’s what we are.”
But the guy never responded to that. He just crossed his arms behind his head and asked: “What is that Krypton you spoke of earlier?”
And Leo watched him with incredulous eyes. “Really? Come on, you must’ve heard of Superman or Lex Luthor or even Lois Lane. Not ringing any bells at all?”
Jason shook his head and Leo sighed. He sat down beside him on the cold ground when he began to explain.
He told Jason the whole superman story he remembered. It was a confusing mix of the things he knew from comics, movies ant this Teen TV Show, but Jason got the story, asked him many question about things that seemed illogically (like how superman couldn’t use superpowers on krypton) and Leo tried to answer every question correctly and invented a few facts when his knowledge reached a dead end.
Eventually it became dark and Leo was kind of embarrassed that he ran of his mouth to the new popular guy. But Jason seemed oddly entertained. He got up, dusted of his trousers and said his goodbyes because it was late and he didn’t want to screw up his first homework at the new school.
And as oddly as it could get, ever since the next morning, Jason would sit next to him in most of the classes, sat with him in lunch break, asked him for advice for his dates with Piper and all that stuff you do at your ordinary mortal school life.
He remembers so many bad jokes they share, so many pranks Jason tried to talk him out of. But he is the only one who remembers. Jason never remembered a thing. Never remembered all the awesome things they never did, but they still spook around Leos brain cells, trying so much to be true.
But, hey, the great Leo is an optimist, right? So what if all this milestones of their friendship never happened? They got new ones! Stronger ones! Titan-fighting ones!
And woe betide anyone who fucks with his mind again! He is bad enough with all that social stuff, he can’t try to be friends with Jason again. He will screw it up for sure. It’s a moderate wonder he hasn’t already.
And he really doesn’t want another best friend. New friends are so hard to train, you see… Ok, Ok, he just likes this nice, honest, unsure and sometimes dorky guy with a hero complex as big as Texas.
And when sometimes Jason knows what Kryptonite is or when he told Leo that this bald Iris-Boy Butch could be Lex Luthor in disguise without ever watching anything related to superheroes, Leo can’t help but wonder that maybe, in some strange parallel universe, Jason and him were the school buddies from his memories.
And maybe they still are.