I WAS GETTING TIRED OF THE JOKES. I'd spent enough time with Leo to know every joke in the books, and the amnesia one wasn't really funny anymore.

Jason woke up with a start. I'd just talked Leo out of drawing a mustache on his face. He looked around, and rubbed his eyes. He kind of looked scared.

"Jason, you all right?" Piper asked.

He dropped her hand. "Um..I dont-"

At the front of the bus, Couch Hedge stood up. "All right, cupcakes, listen up!"

Couch defined Hedge well. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, to where you could just see his eyes. He had a wispy goatee and a grimace, like he'd just ate something sour. His buff upper body pushed against his orange polo shirt. His nylon workout pants and Nikes were a spotless white. His whistle hung from his neck, and his megaphone from his waist. Most people would've been scared of him, if he wasn't five foot nothing. When he stood up in the isle, I could hear Kayden yell, "Stand up Couch Hedge!"

"I heard that!" He called back, scanning the bus for the offender. His eyes fixed on Jason, and his scowl deepened. Which made no sense; Jason was about the least likely kid here to do something wrong.

Jason looked terrified. I smirked. I would be too, if I was in Jason's shoes. After a few seconds he looked away and cleared his throat.

"We'll arrive in five minutes!" He yelled. "Stay with your partner. Don't loose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes causes any trouble, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way!"

He picked up his bat and swung it like he was hitting a homer. I smirked. Jason's face whitened.

"Is he allowed to do that?" He asked Piper.

She shrugged. "Always does. This is the Wilderness School, 'where kids are the animals.'"

She winked at him, but he still looked confused.

"Just is some kind of mistake. I'm not supposed to be here." He said.

I laughed. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't break into that house. Leo didn't run away...Seven times wasn't it? And Piper surely didn't steal that BMW."

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

"Oh, yeah, Piper." Leo said. "What was your story? You 'talked' the dealer into lending it to you?" He raised his eyebrows at Jason like, can you believe her?

Leo looked like a Latino Santa elf, with his curly black hair, impish ears, babyish face, and mischievous smile that told you right away he couldn't be trusted with matches or sharp objects. His skinny fingers never stopped moving, working on one project or another. ADHD could do that to a kid, and this was Leo.

"Anyway, I hope you've got you're worksheet, 'cause I used mine for spit balls days ago." Leo looked up at Jason. "Why are you starting at me? Did Alanah put marker on my face again?"

"I don't know you." Jason said. "Any of you."

Leo grinned like a crocodile. "Sure, I'm not your best friend. I'm his evil clone."

"I'd like to meet the real Leo then." I muttered.

"Alanah Grey!" Couch Hedge yelled from the front. "Problem back there?"

Leo smirked at me, and I winked at Jason. "Watch this." I said. "Sorry, Couch! We're just having trouble hearing you from back here! Could you use your megaphone, please?"

Hedge grumbled as he unclipped the megaphone, happy to have an excuse to use it. He continued to give directions, but his voice came out sounding like Darth Vader. "Grey!"

Kids cracked up. I high-fived Leo.

"Genius!" I said.

"That's me." He said proudly. I laughed, punching his shoulder.

"My god, Leo. How did you do that?" Piper asked, trying not to grin.

He shrugged. "I'm a Special Boy."

"Seriously guys," Jason said. "What am I doing here? Where are we going?"

I knit my eyebrows. "Are you joking? Because I swear-"

"Yeah, he's joking." Leo said.

"No! I have no idea-"

"He's trying to get me back for that shaving-cream-on-jello trick. Which I'd have to say was pretty awesome, since you actually felt for it."

Jason stared at him blankly.

"No, I think he's serious." Piper said. She went to grab his hand, but he pulled away.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I cant- I dont-"

"That's it!" Couch yelled from the front. "The back row has just volunteered to clean up after lunch!"

The rest of the kids cheered. "Yeah, right." I mumbled. "Like I'll do that."

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

Jason shrugged. It's worse than that. I can't remember who I am."


The bus dropped us off at a fed stucco building. This was supposed to be the museum for the Grand Canyon, but it very well could have been the National Museum of Nowhere. Because that's what it looked like, all right. I felt a cold wind whip through the desert, feeling happy that I'd worn my Wilderness School sweatshirt and leggings. It was weird for it to be this cold in Nevada, but whatever.

"So, a crash course for the amnesiac," Leo said in a helpful tone that I could tell wasn't really helpful. "We go to the 'Wilderness School,'" he made air quotes for emphasis, " which makes us 'bad kids.' Your family, or the court, or whoever, decided you were too much trouble, so they shipped you off to this wonderful prison- sorry, bourding school, in Armpit, Nevada, where you learn valuable nature skills like running ten miles a day through the desert and weaving daisies into hats! And for a special treat we go on 'educational' feild trips with Couch Hedge, who keeps us in line with a baseball bat."

"It all coming back to you now?" I asked.

Jason stared blankly at us. "No." He took a quick glance at the other kids, analyzing each one like trying to find out why they were here. We all had our stories.

I rolled my eyes. "You're really gonna play this out, huh? Well, the four of us started school this semester. We're pretty tight. You do everything I say and give me your dessert while Piper does our chores and Leo and I make a plan to crack this nutshell-"

"Ala!" Piper yelled. She stomped on my foot.

"Okay, ignore that last part," Leo said, smiling at me, "ignore that last part. But Alanah's right, we're pretty good friends."

"Piper and you are probably a little bit more than friends-"

"Alanah, stop it!" Piper said. Her face was red as a tomato, and so was Jason's. I winked at him.

"He's got amnesia or something. We have to tell someone." Piper said.

"Who Couch Hedge? He'll try to fix Jason by waking him into tomorrow." Leo scoffed.

"Leo, Jason needs help." Piper insisted. "He's got a concussion, or-"

"Yo, Ala" two of the guys dropped back to join them as the group was heading into the museum. Uh. Dylan and Tanner, my least two favorite boys in this school. Tanner attempted to put his arm around me, and I ducked, getting closer to Leo. "Don't hang out with these bottom feeders. You're my partner, remember?"

"Get away from me, Tanner." I said. "I never wanted to be your partner. And don't call me Ala."

"Oh, don't be like that, Ala." Tanner smiled. I wanted to while it off his face. "This is your lucky day!" He grabbed my arm and dragged me away. I looked back at Leo like, 911.

I could see Piper getting the same ho-down with Dylan. Leo gave Tanner the Stink Eye, and that made me feel even better. Leo and his jealousy, no matter how much he tried to hide it.

I attempted to get Tanner to sit as close to Leo and Jason as possible, but I couldn't even hear that much of what they were talking about. Jason was looking at him like he'd just told him he killed a man. Leo gets that a lot though, so I wasn't too worried.

I'd still a camera and a bag of chips from the gift shop on the way through the museum. The skywalk, though, was amazing. Glass floors and silver railings overhanging into the Canyon made it easy to see every part.

I didn't try that hard on the worksheet. I let Tanner do most of it, playing the 'dumb blonde' card. I easily slipped away, catching up to Leo as Jason walked off.

"What's his problem?" I asked.

He shrugged, looking up at the storm clouds that had appeared in the sky. "You know the answer to number two?"

I smirked, doing my best to look stupid. "Isn't Stratus a Looney Toon?" I asked.

Leo laughed. "You're getting pretty good at that. It almost fooled me." He folded the paper in his hands into an airplane and flew it over the skywalk. It would've been a perfect aerodynamic toy, but a sudden gust of wind blew in back at him hitting him square in the face.

A storm was brewing, and it was brewing fast.


I've always wanted to do this. Don't know why,I think of Leo as an annoying little brother not a potential boyfriend, but it just seems so fun. Yeah, I don't know how I'm going to make time for this, but I will. These are always so fun! Eek! Yup now I'm definitely crazy XD