Chris James and the Greek Gods

Chapter 1: My History Teacher Takes Me to School

There was a man in Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. "Return it," the man said, "return the trident now or this will happen." He showed a montage of photos of mythological characters destroying the city which I love, Manhattan. I recognized the Nemean Lion, the Minotaur, and the Hydra among others. "Think hard son of Athena," the Hawaiian dude said, "Think hard." Then he vanished.

I woke with a start. I looked at my alarm clock, 6:04. It was just a few minutes until it would go off anyway. I decided to go ahead and get ready anyway. I took a shower, ate breakfast, and brushed my teeth. My stepmom called "Chris, are you ready?"

"Ya," I said, and went out to the bus stop. There, I met my friend Grover.

"What's up Chris?" Grover said.

"Not much, are you ready for the last day of school?" I questioned.

"Ya," he said and readjusted his baseball cap.

We stood there for a few minutes until the bus came. Grover and I got on the bus. "Hey James, you need a strategy to get to the back seat," the school bully, David Adams, said, followed by giggles from his "boys".

Grover and I quickly made our way to the back seat of the bus. The bus started to go towards the school.

We got there and went to homeroom. Our homeroom teacher is Mrs. Johns, the 10th grade math teacher. I chatted with Grover for a while until I noticed a cute, new girl. She had brunette hair that fell half way down her back. Her blue eyes made her look like someone you would not want to get in a fight with. I thought Who comes to a new school on the last day of school. "Hey, who's that?" I asked Grover.

"Umm, I don't know," Grover obviously lied. I was going to question him further, but the bell rang signaling the beginning of 1st period, which for me is PE.

I went straight to class, hoping the new girl would be there. We went to the locker rooms to change into our gym clothes. I was one of the first ones into the gym, as always. Most of the "popular people" (meaning "knows how to make fun of someone and laugh like an idiot") stay in there and beat up on the smaller kids. I really don't have much to worry about since I'm 5'10 and 188 lbs, but it's still helpful to get out of there as soon as possible.

Once (finally) everybody got out onto the court, we all did our "exercises." We did 20 jumping jacks, 50 push-ups, and 75 sit-ups. All the girls just pretended to do everything, while talking to each other.

After we finished exercises, Coach Wilson rolled out the dodge balls. I like dodge ball because it involves a lot of strategy. That's why I'm so good at it. We started by playing boys vs. girls. That was over within about 10 seconds because most of the girls just huddle up, gossip, and scream if a ball comes within 5 miles of them. Then the coach split us up into teams. We won almost every time. One time, I was the last one in and got like six people out.

After PE, we went to history with Mr. Brunner. I sat at my table. Then Grover came and sat across from me. Then the new girl came in and sat right beside me. She had blonde hair and green eyes. I was trying not to stare at her when the bell rang. Mr. Brunner called the new girl up to the front. "Students, this is Jessica King," Mr. Brunner announced. Then Jessica sat down and Mr. Brunner started the lesson. Everyone just pretended to pay attention while they texted or talked or something. The lesson was on the 12 tasks of Hercules. I liked mythology so this was fun. We had just started talking in depth about him cleaning the Augean stables in one day when the bell rang. "Chris, Jessica, Grover, can I talk to you guys?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Yes Sir," we all said.

"Chris, we have contacted your mother, you need to come with us."

"Ummm, okay," I said

We walked outside and got into Mr. Brunner's 1977 Ford. "I like it old school," he would say whenever we asked why he would spend money on a piece of junk like that.

"Where are we going," I asked.

"Camp Half-Blood," Jessica answered.

"Sounds like a place I wouldn't want to go," I responded

"Ya, you could say that," Grover returned. And with that, Mr. Brunner put the key into the ignition and we drove towards Camp Half-Blood.