Note: This is my attempt at a darker story. I am still working on The Sons of Darkness, but this is a side-project that I'm working on. IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE BOTTOM.

Running on Water

I sat there, tears welling up in my eyes. I was light-headed. Stoned from all of that smoking, staring right into the eyes of the biggest mistake of my life.

Look, I never asked to be special. I'm not the little gifted kid who saves the day and becomes a hero. I'm a mistake. It's that simple. My life got screwed the day I got claimed.

It was any other day at school. I was scrounging through my slice of pizza, playing with the greasy little pepperonis at lunch. The principal and school parole-officer was watching me. I was on probation, again.

Yeah, I know that sounds really bad, but I could always be in worse trouble. Little did I know, today would end up with a twist.

I didn't really have a home. I was a single-child, living with a single-mother. The highest grade I EVER got in my life was a B in PE, but only because I'm fast. I showed my mom, and sh still thought I could do better. It just really pissed me off. She smokes even more than I do, and drinks a lot just to make it harder on me. Half the time she didn't even think she had a son.

I would do my best to make her happy when I was around, so I could achieve my goal. To go a whole day without being smacked right in the face by her. Still hasn't happened, never will.

Another ting about my mother: She didn't care where I was, or what I did. A lot of the time I would stay the night at Jay's, or curl up in a nice tree.

Of course, having home-issues like this automatically made you a top-prospect for gangs and cliques of bullies to recruit. They could smell your guts from anywhere in the school.

I never joined though. Friends were over-rated. Jay was more like a brother than a friend, though. He was a big dude. He had jet black hair, and intense brown eyes. You couldn't find him in the corner of the class reading a book without a group of girls hanging off of his shoulders. I was really the only one who knew that he was a Mormon-kid, too. He trusted me with his secrets, and tried to give me credit. All of my virtues to be my best friend, really.

School was a hassle. I could have dropped out, ran off to some desolate country in Kansas. Shave, get a new name, and meet a hobo. My mother wouldn't care, why not?

I had a sort of special power, though. Sure, I fell into smoking, but that was all MY thought. Not a bunch idiots getting under my skin, and getting me hooked. I started three years ago when I was thirteen. I didn't think it would do any harm.

Anyways, I had the ability NOT to get manipulated into doing something I knew I would regret. My report card didn't show for it, but there was a lot of thought going on up there.

Little did I know, one day I was going to end up running away. And that was my down-fall to society. Running.

I was picking around the tasteless cheese, acting innocent. Some punk named Damon busted the school's vending machine, and framed me. I always took the blame for stuff like that. That's what happens when you get on your entire school's bad-side, I suppose.

They watched me slightly, and chatted about sports. I'd never done anything bad on probation, the figured I wasn't going to do much.

My plate was still stacked with food, ready to be gorged upon, but I had no appetite. I was about to get up, and throw the food away, and go enjoy the cold weather, when the worst person you could possibly think of took a seat right in front of me.

So," Damon barked, "What'cha up to?" I glared at him. Imagine the biggest loser at your school. Now make him ten times uglier, with a drawl in his voice that made you think of hungry hyenas. That's where you'll find someone half as ugly as Damon.

I was about to spit out a rude remark at him, but the officer was looking at me. I could feel him.

The anger-management counselors told me a thousand times. "Smile, and ask how his day was."

I tweaked the edges of my lips a little, and quoted "So, what poor little 7th grader have you chewed up this time?" Oops. He shot a nasty glare at me. It didn't scare me though. He was all bark and no bite.

Both of the probation officers stopped talking, and watched me. Ready to tackle me, and inject me with some tranquilizing dart of a sort. I remained calm.

I let out a gasp of relief, and slyly made my way to the garbage. I was good at sly. But this time, Damon happened to catch me sliding away, and stopped me. Rain pattered on the windows as if to make it any more dramatic than it had to be.

"Where do you think you're going? Huh!?" He snarled. Sure, the officers can catch me accidentally bumping into someone in the hall, and call-me up for it, but not Damon getting ready to slam me with a taco.

"Outside for some fresh air…" I trailed. He didn't buy it, he stood guard on my path.

"No. I can tell you're off to go do something stupid. Stay." He commanded, "Take a seat!" He pretty much shoved back to the table. I was pretty much trembling with anger right now.

"You can't enjoy lunch without food…" He chuckled, and smashed a greasy slice of pizza right at my face.

That was it.

I'm not quite sure what happened in the two milliseconds that passed, but when my memory came back to life, the room was silent. Damon stood in front of me, taking in what just happened. Standing butt-naked. I noticed a leather jacket, jeans, and some skull-boxers in my hand.

BOOM! I felt my body slam to the tile-floor. Dizzily, I caught a glimpse of the attacker. I caught a shining badge, and a navy-blue uniform. Great…

My mind worked faster than a lot of peoples, so I had a quick moment to think. I was going to be arrested, and finally sent to Juvy, and I knew it. I had to something… something… panic.

I huffed, and wriggled around. His grip loosened, and I sprang. Pop goes the weasel.

I ran like lightning. I always ran fast, but this was different. I wasn't thinking, I was just running.

Things around me slowly faded to a blur. The only thing I could hear was the rush of the wind roaring in my ears.

I could subconsciously felt the brushing (Or slamming) of things against my body, but I didn't care. I didn't care about my life. I didn't care about the jello-feeling in my legs. I blinked open to see me rushing feet, on top of a blue substance. I gasped, and fell to a halt. SPLASH!

I writhed around, choking for air. Being out of breath while swimming wasn't a good thing.

I could feel myself sinking, and squirming around in panic. I realized what I was doing wrong, and instantly relaxed my body.

I sunk further, my air supply faltering every second. As my last second passed, I busted open, just to gulp a mouthful of fresh water. I sputtered around, and my vision slowly faded to black.

*************

I awoke to a bright light. At first I thought I was in heaven. But that couldn't be right. I hadn't achieved heaven. There should be hot flames licking around me.

A figure that distinctly looked like a horse blocked the ray of light. Around me I could rapid whispering. "That's the kid who was running on water! Did you see him! That was so cool!" They sounded younger than me. Only by a few years though. Suddenly, the urgent whispering ceased. There was a shocked atmosphere around me. The horse-man in front of me boomed, "Behold, a son of Hermes."

I know that was a laggy chapter, but trust me it gets WAY better. IMPORTAANT NOTE!!! Check out my website!!! I made a Percy Jackson fan site, which turned out very well! Get a free account to my site, and enjoy the fun! Interact with others, and play the games!

www dot olympiccrown dot webs dot com