I
PERCY

EVEN BEFORE HE GOT ELECTROCUTED, Percy was having a rotten day.
He woke in the backseat of a school bus, not sure of where he was, holding hands with a girl he didn't know. That wasn't necessarily the rotten part. The girl was cute, but he couldn't figure out who she was, or what he was doing there. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to clear the fog that surrounded his mind.

A few dozen kids sprawled in the seats in front of him, listening to iPods, talking, or sleeping. Percy was pretty sure he didn't live in the desert. He tried to think back to the last thing he remembered. A memory flashed through his eyes; a girl with piercing black eyes, and glossy black hair, worn in a single braid.

"Percy, you okay?" asked the girl next to him, squeezing his hand. As quick as the memory came, it faded away. He sat up, feeling sick and dizzy, and surveyed the girl closely. She wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket. Her chocolate brown hair was cut choppy and uneven, with thin strands braided down the sides. She wore no makeup, like she was trying not to draw attention to herself, but it didn't work. She was honestly pretty. Her eyes seemed to change color, like a kaleidoscope—brown, blue, and green.

Percy let go of her hand, glaring harshly. "Who are—"

In front of the bus, a man shouted: "Alright, cupcakes. Listen up!"

The guy was obviously a coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could see nothing but his beady eyes. He had a wispy goatee, and a sour face, like he'd eaten something moldy. His buff arms and chest pushed against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon workout pants and Nikes were spotless white. A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. He would've looked pretty scary, if he hadn't been five feet zero. When he stood up in the aisle, a student shouted, "Stand up, Hedge!"

"I heard that!" The coach scanned the bus for the offender. Then his eyes fixated on Percy, and his scowl deepened.

A shiver went down Percy's spine. He was convinced that the Coach knew he didn't belong there. He was going to call Percy out, and demand to know what he was doing here—and Percy wouldn't have a sliver of an idea as to what to reply with.

But Coach Hedge looked away and cleared his throat. "We'll arrive in five minutes. Stay with your partner. Don't lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way."

Percy blinked as the coach grabbed a baseball bat and slapped the palm of his hand with it. "He can't talk to me that way."

The girl next to him shrugged. "He always does. It's the Wilderness School, remember? Where the kids are the animals," she said, her eyes twinkling with amusement. She said it as if it was a joke they shared before.

Percy studied the girl closely, putting every detail into consideration. He scanned his brain for a name that matched the face of the girl, but he had no clue. "This is a mistake."

The boy in front of him threw his head back and laughed. "Yeah, right, Percy. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times, and Piper here didn't steal a BMW."

Piper blushed. "I didn't steal that car, Leo!"

Leo grinned. "Right, I forgot. What was your story? You 'talked' the dealer into lending it to you?" He shook his head and turned to Percy like, Can you believe her?

Leo looked like a Latino Santa's elf, with curly black hair, pointy ears, a cheerful, babyish face, and a mischievous smile that told you right away this guy should not be trusted around matches or sharp objects.
His long, nimble fingers wouldn't stop moving—drumming on the seat, sweeping his hair behind his ears, fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket. Either the kid was naturally hyper, or he was hopped on enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo.

"Anyway," Leo said, "I hope you've got your worksheet, 'cause I used mine for spit wads days ago. Why are you looking at me like that? Did somebody draw on my face again?"

Percy looked at Leo skeptically and spoke, "I don't know you."

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 Percy. "Watch this." He turned to the front. "Sorry, Coach. I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?"

The coach grunted like he was pleased to have an excuse to yell. 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 down the megaphone. "Valdez!"

Piper stifled a laugh. "My god, Leo. How did you do that?"

Leo slipped a tiny Philips head screwdriver from his sleeve. "I'm a special boy."

"Guys, I'm serious," Percy said, desperation leaking into his voice. "What am I doing here? Where are we going?"

Piper knit her eyebrows. "Percy, 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 on the Jell-O thing, aren't you?"

Percy stared at him blankly.

"No, I think he's serious," Piper tried to take his hand again, but he pulled it away.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "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.

"That's a shocker," Leo mumbled.

But Piper kept her eyes fixed on Percy, as if she couldn't decide whether to be hurt of worried. "Did you hit your head or something? You really don't know who we are?"

"It's worse than that," Percy said, letting out a frustrated growl, "I don't know who I am."

LineBreak

The bus dropped them in front of a big red stucco complex like museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. Maybe that's what it was: the National Museum of Nowhere, Percy thought. A cold wind blew across the desert, Percy hadn't paid much attention to what he was wearing, but it wasn't nearly warm enough: jeans, sneakers, a purple T-shirts, and a thin black windbreaker.

"So, a crash course for the amnesiac," Leo said in a helpful tone that made Percy think he was going to be helpful. "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 the cacti and weaving daisies into hats! And for a special treat, we go on 'educational' field trips with Coach Hedge, who keeps order with a baseball bat. Is it all coming back to you now?"

"No," Percy said, glancing apprehensively at the other kids: maybe twenty guys, half that many girls. None of them looked like hardened criminals, but he wondered what they had all done to get sentenced to a school for delinquents, and he wondered why he belonged with them.

Leo rolled his eyes. "You're really going to play this out, huh? Okay, so the three of us started here together this semester. We're totally tight. You do everything I say, and give me your dessert, and do my chores—"

"Leo!" Piper snapped.

"Fine. Ignore that last part, but we are friends. Well, Piper's a little more than your friend, these last few weeks—"

"Leo, stop it!" Piper's face burned red. Percy chuckled huskily, but he could feel his own cheeks heating up a bit as well. He thought he'd remember if he'd been going out with a girl like Piper.

"He's got amnesia or something," Piper said. "We've got to tell somebody."

Leo scoffed. "Who, Coach Hedge? He'd try to fix him 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 Percy and scowl.

"Leo, Percy needs help," Piper insisted. "He's got a concussion or—"

"Yo, Piper." One of the other guys dropped back to join them as the group was heading into hte museum. The new guy wedged himself between Percy and Piper, knocking Leo down. "Don't talk to these bottom-feeders. You're my partner, remember?"

The new guy 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. Percy hated him instantly.

"Go away, Dylan. I didn't ask to work with you," Piper grumbled.

"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.

Leo got up and brushed himself off. "I hate that guy." He offered Percy his arm, like they should go skipping inside together. "'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," Percy said, "you're weird."

"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!"

Percy figured that if this was his best friend, his life must have been pretty messed up; but he followed Leo into the museum.

LineBreak

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 big says oink."

Leo kept pulling out nuts, bolts, and pipe cleaners from the pockets of his army jacket and putting them together, like he had to keep his hands busy at all times.

Percy was too distracted to pay much attention to the exhibits, but they were about the Grand Canyon and the Hualapai tribe, which owned the museum.

Some girls kept looking over at Piper and Dylan and snickering. Percy figured these girls were the popular clique. They wore matching jeans and pink tops and enough makeup for a Halloween party.

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 Piper's so-called partner Dylan suppressed a smile. Piper's snowboarding jacket sleeves hid her hands, but Percy got the feeling that 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."

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's probably too drunk to work," another said with fake sympathy. "That's why she turned klepto."

Piper ignored them, but Percy was about ready to punch them himself. He might not remember Piper, or even who he was, but he knew he hated mean kids.

Leo caught his arm. "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 father."

Leo whistled. "Whatever. We have to talk when we get back to the dorm."

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

"Alright, cupcakes," Coach Hedge announced. "You are about to 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 cost me extra paperwork."

The coach opened the doors, and they all stepped inside. 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.

"Man," Leo said. "That's pretty wicked."

Percy begged to disagree. Just being that far up in the air was enough to nauseate him. He couldn't remember much, but he could make out that he was deathly afraid of heights, though a voice in his head told him it was more than that. Air and water, complete opposites; never to interact. Thunder rumbled overhead as Percy stepped onto the platform, his body shaking.

The canyon was bigger and wider than you could appreciate from a picture. They we're up so high that birds circled below their feet. Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor. Seeing the water there put Percy at ease, for a reason he couldn't seem to understand. He lifted his hand up to scratch his face when he felt a sharp tug in his gut, and saw the river sway angrily below him. Whoa.

Banks of storm clouds had moved above them while they'd been inside, casting shadows like angry faces across the cliffs. As far as Percy could see in any direction, red and gray ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it.

Percy felt a piercing pain behind his eyes. Crazy gods... Where had he come up with that idea? He felt like he'd gotten close to something—something he should know about. He also got the unmistakable feeling that he was in danger.

"You alright?" Leo asked. "You're not going to throw up over the side, are you? 'Cause I should've brought my camera."

Percy grabbed the railing. He was shivering and sweaty, and somehow he knew it was because of more than heights. He blinked and the pain in his eyes subsided.

"I'm fine," he managed. "Just a headache."

Thunder rumbled again. A cold wind almost knocked him sideways down the cliff.

"This can't be safe," Leo squinted at the clouds. "Storm's right over us, but it's clear all the way around. Strange, huh?"

Percy looked up and saw Leo was right. A dark circle of clouds had parked itself over the sidewalk, but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear. Percy had a bad feeling about that.

"Alright, 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, and Percy's head began to hurt again. Not knowing why he did it, he reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a pen—a blue, ballpoint pen that had strange writings engraved on both sides of it: Anaklysmos. The word found its meaning inside Percy's head, somehow translating itself into English. Riptide.

Leo turned back to Percy with a quizzical expression as he saw the pen. "Where'd you get that?"

Percy put the coin away, wondering how he'd come to have it himself, and why he had the feeling he would need it soon.

Leo shrugged. "Come on," he said, "dare you to spit over the edge."

LineBreak

They didn't try very hard on the worksheet. For one thing, Percy was too distracted by the storm and his own mixed-up feelings. For another thing, he didn't have any idea how to "name three sedimentary strata you observe" or "describe to examples of erosion."

Leo was no help. He was too busy building a helicopter out of pipe cleaners.

"Check it out." He launched the copter. Percy figured it would plummet, but the pipe-cleaner actually spun. The little copter made it halfway across the canyon before it lost momentum and spiralled into the void.

"How do you do that?" Percy asked.

Leo shrugged again. "Would've been cooler if I had some rubber bands."

"Seriously," Percy said, "are we friends."

"Last I checked."

"You sure? What was the day we met? What did we talk about?"

"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 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?"

A little voice in his head said, That's exactly what I think.

But it sounded crazy. Everybody here took him for granted. Everyone acted like he was a normal part of the class—except Coach Hedge.

"Take the worksheet." Percy handed Leo the worksheet. "I'll be right back."

Before Leo could protest, Percy slowly, but surely headed across the skywalk.

Their school group had the place to themselves. Maybe it was too early in the day for tourists, or maybe the weird weather had scared them off. The Wilderness School kids had spread out in pairs across the skywalk. Most were joking around or talking. Some of the guys we're dropping pennies over the side. About fifty feet away, Piper was trying to fill out her worksheet, but her stupid partner Dylan was hitting on her, putting his hand on her shoulder and giving her that blinding smile. She kept pushing him away, and when she saw Percy she gave him a look like, Throttle this guy for me.

Percy motioned for her to hang on. He walked up to Coach Hedge, who was leaning on his baseball bat, studying the storm clouds.

"Did you do this?"

Percy blinked, trying to comprehend fully whether or not the coach had really asked him if he started a storm. "I'm sorry, what?"

Coach Hedge glared at him, his beady eyes glinting under the brim of his cap. "Did you start the storm? And don't play games with me, kid. What are you doing here, and why are you messing up my job?"

"You mean... you don't know me?" Percy said. "I'm not one of your students?"

Hedge snorted. "Never seen you before today in my life."

Percy was so relieved, he almost wanted to cry. At least he wasn't going insane. He was in the wrong place. "Look, sir, I don't know how I got here. I just woke up on the school bus. All I know is that I'm not supposed to be here."

"Got that right." Hedge's gruff voice dropped to a murmur, like he was sharing a secret. "You got a powerful way with the Mist, kid, if you can make all these people think they know you; but you can't fool me. I've been smelling monster for days now. I knew we had an infiltrator, but you don't smell like a monster. You smell like a half-blood. So—who are you, and where did you come from?"

Most of what the coach said didn't make sense, but Percy decided to answer truthfully. "I don't know who I am. I don't have any memories. You've got to help me."

Coach Hedge studied his face like he was trying to read Percy's thoughts.

"Great," he muttered. "You're being truthful."

"Of course I am! And what was all that about monsters and half-bloods? Are those code words or something?"

Hedge narrowed his eyes, and part of Percy wondered if the guy was crazy. But the other part knew better.

"Look, kid," Hedge said, "I don't know who you are. I just know what you are, and it means trouble. Now I got to protect three of you, rather than two. Are you the special package? Is that it?"
"What are you talking about?"

Hedge looked at the storm. The clouds we're getting thicker, and darker, hovering over the skywalk.

"This morning," Hedge said, "I got a message from camp. They said an extraction team is on the way. They're coming to pick up a special package, but they wouldn't give me details. I thought to myself, Fine. The two I'm watching are pretty powerful, older than most. I know they're being stalked. I can smell a monster in the group. I figure that's why the camp is suddenly frantic to pick them up. But then you pop up out of nowhere. So, are you the special package?

The pain behind Percy's eyes returned. Half-bloods. Monsters. Camp. He still didn't know what Hedge was talking about, but the words gave him a massive brain freeze—like his mind was trying to access information that should've been there, but wasn't.

He stumbled, and Coach Hedge caught him. For a short guy, the coach had hands like steel. "Whoa there, cupcake. You say you got no memories, huh? Fine. I'll just have to protect you, too, until the team gets here. We'll let the director figure things out."

"What director?" Percy said. "What camp?"

"Just sit tight. Reinforcements should be here soon. Hopefully, nothing happens before—"

Lightning cracked overhead. The wind picked up with a vengeance. Worksheets flew into the Grand Canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. Kids screamed, stumbling and grabbing the rails.

"I had to say something," Hedge grumbled. He picked up his megaphone and bellowed into it: "Everyone inside! The cow says moo! Off the skywalk"

"I thought you said this thing was stable!" Percy shouted, his hands shaking as he stumbled into the railing.

"Under normal circumstances," Hedge agreed, "which these aren't. Come on!"