Chapter 1
Aha! Caught you! I thought as I whirled around to face Grover the new kid, who had sat behind me today in English and then proceeded to stare at the back of my head the entire time. It was tough to be the new kid here at Finchwalk School for the Academically Gifted, I would know, I was one. Kids at Finchwalk were generally rich snobs and if your family wasn't as rich as the rest, well, you were pretty much screwed. The other kids weren't inclined to accept me, even if I had a rich family, which I don't, due to my ADHD and dyslexia, so I wasn't exactly popular. Neither was this Grover kid, who, although being caught staring at me, didn't look even slightly abashed. "Why are you staring at me?" I asked him, glaring all the while. "Your the new kid aren't you?" Grover gulped and nodded. "I, I'm sorry" he stuttered, "Your Jasper, right?"
I wasn't at all shocked he knew my name, despite my almost social obscurity, I wasn't exactly a wall flower. I often got into fights and still managed to top every class I was in. "Yes that's my name, but it's not who I am, if you wanted to know who I was, you wouldn't ask such stupid questions." "Wow, harsh much" that Grover kid responded, "I was just trying to be nice, it's you know, what people do when they want to be friends." "Oh," I replied, my voice reflecting my shock. "Um..." Thankfully at that point my English teacher, walked in and called for quiet, giving me an excuse to turn around and ignore Grover's constant attempts to talk to me.
When the bell went to signal the end of class and the beginning of lunch, I sighed in relief. That was a particularly painful session, due to my total inability to read things off of the board because of my dyslexia, and my teachers insistence that it wasn't that hard, and that I should be able to do it. Well, I thought vehemently, lets see how easy it is for him to read things off the board if his brain didn't format the language properly. I threw my books into my bag, with more force that was warranted by the simple task, scowling at the memory of my teachers cruel taunts. When I was finally ready to leave, I was shocked to see Grover waiting for me by the door. "Grover..." I groaned. "Now is really not a good time" "C'mon" he replied, "I'm not that bad, am I?" I chuckled slightly at this. Grover, seeming to take this as a good sign grabbed my arm and begun steering me to a free table.
Grover was having trouble reaching the table however, due to his more than noticeable limp, you could tell the other kids had noticed, the snide remarks made about it on our way to the table were more then enough proof of that. I sat with Grover, trying to plan a tactical escape from his company, I don't need friends, I need allies and Grover was not a powerful ally, he was a liability. "Look, I know your trying to escape my company without hurting me, but really you don't need to. I just want to make some friends and you seemed like a likely candidate." Grover said this simply, with almost no emotion in his voice. That hurt a little, knowing that he thought that I was desperate enough to be friends with him.
"Grover, I don't want to hurt you, it's just..." My voice trailed off having no good excuse to rebut his offer of friendship. Grover slouched a bit at these words. "Look, Jasper, I don't really know you, but I know your type. Tragically intelligent, but abandoned, by parents whose work was more important than you. This probably happened when you were young. You've been living with relatives since then, none of which you felt you could relate to. People our age don't understand you, they think your strange and they reject you before they even know you. Your so used to this that you push anyone and everyone who ever tries to get close to you away. Because of this your tough and you have a sharp tongue, but you are never hotheaded, your always logical and think things through, though sometimes not enough..." Grover finished his analysis there, probably after seeing the stunned look on my face. "How...? What did you just do? How do you know that?"
I blushed realising that I'd given to much away. But the truth was, he was right. Right about everything, my situation, my personality, everything. My mum had left my dad and I when I was little, supposedly pursuing some lead in a ground breaking evidence concerning ancient mythology, and my dad had decided when I was nine that studying the epic poetry of Ancient Greek poets and raising a child at the same time was to much for him. Leading him to dump me at my aunts house, in New York, 12 hours away from my hometown of Chicago. I've lived in New York with my aunt ever since, though she was not a cruel women, she didn't really understand me. I gaped at Grover as these thoughts crossed my mind and he shrugged. "I know your type Jasper Chiarotti. I told you I did. I have known lots of people like you, one in particular." I smiled slowly, beginning to think I misjudged Grover Underwood, he was not some weird newbie who sat behind me in English, he was a powerful ally.
"Alright Grover, I have decided I'll tolerate your creepiness and sit with you at lunch, ok?" A smile formed on Grovers face as I said this. "That's all I wanted." He replied, chuckling a little. Who would've known that repeating your history back at you would make you decide to trust me." "Oh, I didn't say I trusted you yet." I joked. It was nice to have a friend, although Grover and I weren't yet fully comfortable with each other, I feel as if the ice has truly been broken. Grover and I finished our lunches laughing quietly at jokes the other had made, and acting appropriately sympathetic when complaints about homework were made. Just as I opened my mouth to make a cruel remark about Mr Allen (our English teacher) the bell rang. "Bye Jasper" Grover said as he moved to go to his next class. "Seeya Grover"
I spent the last class of the day in a sort of stupor, I had just made my first friend in 5 years. Wow. I didn't even remember how good it was to have a friend. Whatever I did, my thoughts weren't fully formatting which greatly irritated my math teacher. "Jasper" he said quietly as he moved past my desk. "Are you ok?""Sorry, sir, I'm just finding it difficult to focus today." "Jasper I would like you to stay after class, ok?" "Uh, sir. I might not be able to, see it's my aunts birthday..." I lied, though without great conviction. "I'm sorry, Jasper it can't wait." I nodded as if I understood, but I really didn't, why would my kindly old math teacher want me to stay after class? I opened my mouth to question him as to why it was crucial for me to stay after class, but he had already moved on to the next student.
Maths flew by and before long I found myself alone, with my maths teacher, and to my surprise, Mr Allens (the hated English teacher). "What is he doing here?" I snarled, less then politely at my math teacher. "He is here to assist me." My math teacher replied, apparently not noticing my earlier hostility. "Assist you in what?" "In this." It was then that things begin to get strange. Mr Allens eyes had glazed over, and he had begun to chant. "What... What are you doing?" "My math teacher began to convulse, his eyes rolling back in his head. Don't judge me, I am normally a rational person, but this was more then I could handle. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" I scream at Mr Allens, who had appeared to have gone into a trance, though still chanting and did not respond. "STOP! LEAVE HIM ALONE"
I flew at Mr Allens, whacking him with my book bag, screaming, trying to get him to stop. After this had no effect, I ran to the door, shaking the handle, only to discover it was locked, my math teacher must have locked it when I was packing up my things, just after Mr Allens had entered. Meaning he still had the keys. I lunged at my math teacher's desk, frantically searching for the keys. Mr Allens chanting had suddenly cut off, upon realising this I also realised I could no longer see my math teacher convulsing on the ground, shocked I turned around, only to find myself face to face with my math teacher, who was no longer my math teacher.
His face was the same, except for the thick mane ringing his face, gulping I looked down, only to discover a monster. He had the body of a lion and the tail of a great serpent, with huge spikes poking out f the end. "Wha, what are you?" I stammered, only half wanting to know the answer. I wasn't even sure if it could speak, I mean, it still had a vaguely humanoid face, but the rest of it resembled something out of a horror movie. "I am a manticore, little demigod." It hissed, in a serpentine voice. "And I am here to kill you." Great, I think I am truly crazy now. This just isn't possible, manticores aren't real, there just mythical creatures that the ancient Greeks used to scare children. "But, maticores are I myth" I said, staring at my former teacher. "Do I look like a myth to you, little demigod?" "N,no" I stuttered. "Why do you keep calling me that, little demigod or whatever?" I said, relieved to find my voice had regained some of it's usual strength. "Don't play stupid with me, girl, lunch is not supposed to talk back." The manticore hissed. "I advise that you don't try to fight, it will just make things harder for you." "Like hell I won't" I replied, throwing my book bag in his face and leaping over the desk.
It met it's target with a satisfying crunch, not that I turned around to see it. I was jumping over desks in my attempt to reach the store closet at the back of the room. The manticore laughed manically, that won't stop me girl, it's futile, you will never beat me. Turn around and meet your death like a hero." I didn't respond due to me finale reaching the store cupboard. I fumbled with the handle as the manticore slowly approached. "Turn around young demigod, just turn around." I snuck a quick glance, surveying the room I was in. If my plan was to work, I would need to somehow reach the hooks on the ceiling designed for hanging posters and hope they supported a lot more weight then they were designed for. Whilst I was doing my caculations my hands, seemingly of there own accord had opened the cupboard and were know holding the measuring tapes we were using in maths today. Thank god the school over did stuff like this and had somehow managed to get hold of 10m measuring tapes. I begin weaving the tapes, making something that resembled a net.
The manticore was still approaching as I did this, growling menacingly prowled it's way across the classroom. Thank god the monster wasn't truly hungry and had decided to play with my first. Mr Allens, who I had forgotten about until now, was stirring weakly in the corner, hearing this the manticore whirled around to face him, seemingly unintentionally flinging spikes from his tail my way, I managed to duck below most of these, except one, which lightly grazed my cheek as it spun past, embedding itself in the wall. I took the manticores distraction with Mr Allens as an opportunity and jumped up onto one of the tables, hooking the net onto the ceiling hooks at the same time, I then proceeded to do this with the other two corners, leaving the rest of my octagonal net to hang down. The manticore was conversing quietly with Mr Allens, something I didn't quite understand, Do monsters have friends? Maybe Mr Allens was the manticores slave or something? It didn't matter now, my plan was ready. "HEY UGLY!" I yelled at the manticore. "Have you lost your appetite or something?" The manticore whirled around. "You dare challenge me?" It hissed. "I will crush you!"
I vaulted off the desk I was still standing on and put my hands on my hips in defiance. "I would like to see you try" I teased. The manticore growled, and stepped forward, sending another volley of spikes my way. This time I ducked beneath a desk and none of them hit me. I leapt back up, and, before the manticore had time to launch another attack, I yanked on one of the corners of my net, as hard as I could, bringing the net down from the ceiling, entangling the manticore and trapping him in place. The manticore snarled at me. "This cannot hold me for long, little demigod." "I know," I replied, turning to tug one of the manticores spikes out of the wall behind me. I heard the door creak open as I did this but I gave it no thought. "But death should hold you for a good, long time." I said, with no emotion as I turned and shoved his own spike down his throat. The manticore gagged, then exploded into dust. I stood up, looking around the room, and saw that Mr Allens had disappeared. The jerk must've escaped while I was dealing with the manticore. I immediately feeling woozy and shook a little. "Jasper..." I heard someone say from the doorway. "What just happened?" "Grover?" I said looking through the haze of dust, feeling incredibly dizzy. He rushed over to me as I began to fall, the dizziness becoming to much. "Jasper. This is very important," Grover said as he caught me before I hit the floor. "Did any of the spikes hit you?" "Yes." Was all I managed to say before I closed my eyes and the dark overcame me.