Chapter 1: Amnesia and Weird Friends

Even before she fell to her death, Maia was having a rotten day.

She woke up near the back of a school bus, not sure where she, leaning against some guy she didn't know. That wasn't necessarily the rotten part, the guy was pretty cute, but she couldn't figure out who he was or what she was doing there. She got up and looked around.

There were about 30 kids sprawled out in the seats in front of her. None of them seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. The two kids behind her were holding hands, the blonde boy was sleeping and the girl was looking out the window. Everyone was all just hanging out; listening to iPods, talking, sleeping... Normal teenage things—or at least Maia assumed they were teenagers, they all looked around her age...fifteen? Sixteen? Okay, that was scary. She didn't even know her own age.

Some kids shrieked as the bus went over a large bump in the road. Maia looked out the dusty window, hoping to get some clues to where she was, but all she saw was a flat, barren desert under a brilliant blue sky. Maia was pretty sure she didn't live in the desert. Then again, she didn't remember anything else about her life. Maybe she did.

Maia looked to her left and say that the boy sitting next to her wasn't paying attention to her; he was tinkering with a little in his hands—something Maia noticed he was doing since she woke up; his hands wouldn't stop moving! He must have either been naturally hyper or he was hopped up on enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a full grown elephant. Looks-wise, the boy reminded Maia of a Latino Santa's elf, with curly black hair, pointed ears and chin, and a mischievous smile that told you right away that this guy couldn't be trusted around matches or sharp objects. His eyebrows were furrowed in concentration and you could tell he was really working hard on his...what was that? He was fiddling with some pipe cleaners and small metal bits, making something that could have resembled a flower—but even that was being generous. In reality, it kind of looked like more like a shapeless blob.

"I can see you staring, you know, Sleeping Beauty," The boy said without raising his head.

"Um...w-well...I don't—" Maia felt her face heating up.

The boy smiled, apparently finding this funny. "Geez, Maia, calm down, I'm used to you staring, I am devastatingly handsome."

"W-who are you?" Maia stammered, backing up against the window, trying to get as far away from the stranger as possible.

The boy frowned, looking up. His dark brown eyes were filled with concern. "Mai, are you okay?" He leaned in to put his arm around her, but Maia hurriedly backed away.

Just then the blonde boy behind woke up with a start. He was handsome, Maia thought, but not really her type: His blonde hair was close cropped, showing off his chiseled jaw line and his icy blue eyes, which held an expression of confusion. Welcome to my world, she thought. Maia also noticed that he had a small scar on his upper lip. He was wearing jeans, sneakers, a purple t-shirt with the letters SPQR on the front and a light black windbreaker.

The girl sitting next to him looked away from the window and squeezed his hand. "Jason, are you okay?" She wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket. Her short chocolate brown hair was cut choppy and uneven, like she had done it herself, 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 really work. She was seriously pretty. Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope—brown, blue and green.

Jason let go of the girls hand and said, "Um, I don't—"

In the front of the bus, a teacher shouted, "All right, cupcakes, listen up!"

The guy was obviously a coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could see just his beady eyes. He had a wispy goatee and a sour face, like he had just chugged a bottle of vinegar. 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. Maia would've probably been scared of him if he wasn't five feet zero. When he stood up in the isle, a student called, "Stand up, Coach Hedge!"

"I heard that!" the coach scanned the bus for the culprit. Then his eyes rested on Maia and Jason and his scowl deepened.

Maia looked away, sure that the coach knew she and Jason didn't belong there. He was going to call them out, demand to know what they were doing on the bus, and Maia wouldn't have any idea what to say.

But to Maia's surprise, Coach Hedge looked away and cleared his throat. "We'll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Make sure you don't lose 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 swung his baseball bat like he was hitting a homer.

Maia looked at the boy next to her. "Is he allowed to talk to us that way?"

The boy shrugged. "Always has, this is the Wilderness School, where the kids are the animals." He said it like it was a joke they had shared before.

What was going on? Thought Maia. This all seemed so unreal, like a movie or a prank or something. She half expected a camera crew to jump out and a tv host to scream "GOTCHA!" But sadly, that didn't happen. This must be a mix up. What am I doing in this bus without my memories.

Jason voiced Maia's thoughts. "Is is some kind of mistake," Jason said, "I don't belong here."

The boy next to Maia turned and laughed. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times and Piper didn't steal that BMW."

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

"Oh, I forgot Piper, what was your story? You talked that dealer into giving it to you?" He rolled his eyes at Maia and Jason like, can you believe her?

"Anyway," Leo said, "I hope you guys have your worksheets because I used mine for spit wads days ago. Why are you looking at me like that? Did someone draw on my face again?"

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

Leo shot them a mischievous grin. "Sure. I'm not your best friend and Maia's striking crush. I'm his evil twin!"

"Leo Valdez!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front, "Problem back there?"

Leo winked at Maia. "Watch this," he turned to the front. "Sorry, coach, I can't hear you, could you use your megaphone please?"

The coach puffed out his chest and grunted, clearly glad to have an excuse. He unclipped the megaphone from his belt, raised it to his lips and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader's. The kids who weren't already listening looked up and started cracking up. The coach tried again and this time, the megaphone blared out, "THE COW SAYS MOO"

The coach slammed down the megaphone "VALDEZ!"

Piper stifled a laugh. "God, Leo, how'd you do that?"

Leo slipped a Philips screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. "I'm a special boy."

"Guys, can we please focus?" I snapped, my voice rising to a shout. "Me and Jason have absolutely no idea what we're doing here or where we're going! We need answers!"

"Yeah, this is really starting to freak me out." Jason said, sounding much calmer than I did.

Piper knit her eyebrows. "Guys, are you joking?"

"No! We have no idea—"

"Aw, yeah. They're just joking. I bet Mai's just trying to get me back for that honey-shampoo swap thing. And Jason's still mad about that one time where I gave him a marble instead of a gumball and her cracked his tooth."

Leo was answered with blank stares from both Maia and Jason.

"No, Leo, I think they're actually serious." Piper tried to take Jason's hand but he pulled away.

"I'm sorry—I don't...I can't—"

"Alright! That's it!" Coach Hedge shouted from the front, "The back two rows have just volunteered to clean up after lunch." The rest of the kids cheered.

"That's surprising." Leo said sarcastically.

But Piper kept staring at Maia and Jason—well, mostly Jason—like she was trying to decide whether to be worried or hurt. "Did either of you hit your head or something? You really can't remember us?"

Jason looked up. "It's worse than that." Maia knew what he was going to say before it left his lips. "We don't know who we are."

Maia stepped off the bus, happy to get some fresh air. She felt a cold gust of wind blow over the desert. She zipped her army jacket over her orange t-shirt, and shivered. She hadn't really paid much attention to what she was wearing, (which was that army jacket, an orange t-shirt with the name of some camp on it, sneakers and ripped jeans) She was just thankful it was warm; Jason looked like he was freezing.

She heard the loud sound of the school bus pulling away and was surprised to see that it had been blocking what they were really there for. It was a big, red stucco complex that Maia somehow knew was a museum. She had this strange feeling that she'd been there before, but she just couldn't seem to grasp the details of the memory. Maia closed her eyes, trying to concentrate but just she gave up when Leo put his arms around her's and Jason's shoulders, best buddy style.

"So..." He was saying, in a helpful tone that told Maia that this was definitely not going to be helpful "a crash course for the amnesics. We go to the 'Wilderness School'"—Leo made air quotes with his fingers, "which means we're 'bad kids.' Your parents, or the court, or whoever, decided you were too much trouble, so they shipped you off to this lovely prison—sorry, I mean 'boarding school'—in Armpit, Nevada, where you get to learn valuable nature skills like running for ten miles a day through the cacti and weaving daisies into has! 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." Jason said. Maia noticed him looking at the rest of the group and she found herself looking over at them too. She wondered if before she lost her memories, she knew why some of the others deserved a sentence to a school for delinquents. And since nobody else seemed to know, she wished she could at least remember why she was here with them.

Leo rolled his eyes. "You're really gonna keep this going, huh? Okay, so the four of us are totally tight. You do everything I say and give me your dessert..."

Piper glared at Leo and smacked him in the back of the head. He ignored her and kept on saying, "and Piper does my chores while I make out with Maia..."

Uh-oh, Maia felt her cheeks turn red. She tried to hide her face in her jacket, with little success.

"Leo!" Piper snapped.

"Fine, ignore that last part,"—He winked at Maia—"or at least part of it" Piper shot him a glare. "Okay, geez, Pipes, I was only joking. In all seriousness though, we actually are friends." Leo looked at Jason. "Well, Piper's a little more than your friend, the last few weeks—"

"Leo, stop it!" Now Piper and Jason were blushing as well. At least Maia wasn't alone.T

"They've got amnesia or something," Piper said. "We've got to tell someone."

Leo scoffed. "Who, Coach Hedge? He'd try to fix them by whacking them upside the head with his bat."

The coach was at the front to the group, blowing his whistle and yelling orders like, "keep in line" and, "move it, cupcake, we ain't got all day!" but every once in awhile, he'd glance back at Maia and Jason with a scowl. The coach knew something was wrong.

"Leo, Jason and Maia Need help," Piper insisted. "They've got concussions or—"

"Yo, Piper." One of the other guys dropped back to join them as the group was heading into the museum. The new guy wedged himself between Jason and Piper, knocking both Maia and Leo to the ground. "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. MAY CAUSE PERMANENT BLINDNESS. He wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey, western jeans and boots, and he smiled like he was God's gift to juvenile delinquent girls everywhere. Maia already knew she hated him.

Piper turned towards him and sighed, "Dylan, I never asked to be your partner."

"Well then," Dylan beamed, "It's your lucky day, isn't it?" Dylan hooked his arm through hers and dragged her through the museum entrance. Piper looked at them over her shoulder and rolled her eyes, silently apologising.

Leo got up and brushed himself off, then he offered his hand to Maia. She took it and was pulled up with surprising strength. "I hate that guy," Leo said, looping his arm in Jason's, like he was going to go skipping off. "He's like: I'm Dylan. I'm so cool, I want to date myself, but I can't figure out how. Oh, do you want to date me? You're so lucky."

"Leo," Jason said, "you're weird."

Maia thought this was kind of rude, since she was actually trying hard to laugh, but Leo just shrugged and grinned. "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!"

Maia smiled to and found herself wishing she could remember him. He seemed like a good guy, and she wondered what he ran away from to get put here. She turned around to ask him before realizing that the group was already inside the museum. Maia sighed and started walking towards the entrance.

When she stepped in the doors, Maia was greeted with the welcome feeling of warm air on her skin. She looked around and saw that there were a little more than a dozen exhibits placed around the room. Most if not all of them were either about either the Grand Canyon or the Hualapai tribe, which owned the place. She saw that the group was huddled around an exhibit, with Coach Hedge lecturing them about rocks or something through his megaphone, which alternately made him sound like a Sith Lord or blared out random comments like "The cat says meow."

Maia looked to her right side and noticed that Leo wasn't paying attention to the lecture either. He was slumped over on a stone bench, messing with that thing he was playing with on the bus. Now, it was obvious what it was: a little toy wind up soldier. He kept repeatedly taking it apart and assembling it—like he had to keep his hands busy at all times. On her left side, Jason was just standing there, staring off into space. He was clearly deep in thought.

Some girls kept looking over at Piper and Dylan together and snickering. They all wore matching pink tops, fake jewel embezzled jeans, and enough makeup to give a clown a nightmare. Maia figured they were part of the popular clique. She couldn't remember the details, but she knew she had had some bad experience with girls like this.

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.

"My dad's Cherokee," she said. "Not Hualapai. Of course, you'd need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel."

Isabel widened her eyes in mock surprise, "Oh, sorry! Was 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 cupcakes!"

The coach led them to another exhibit, but the girls kept shooting mean comments at Piper.

"Good to be back on the rez?" One asked in a sweet voice.

"Dad's probably too drunk to work." Another said in mock sympathy.

Maia was really starting to get mad. She may not remember anything, but she knew she hated mean girls. She was about ready to go over there and stick up for Piper and judging by the look on Jason's face, he was thinking the same thing, but Leo held them back. "Chill you guys, Piper doesn't like us fighting her own battles.

"But—" Maia protested.

"I know." Leo nodded, "but she can take care of herself. Besides, if they knew who her dad was, they'd be bowing down and kissing her feet."

"Why? Who's her dad?"

Leo let out a low whistle and ran a hand through his hair. "You aren't joking? You really don't remember Piper's dad?"

"Look, I don't remember who she is, much less her dad."

Leo laughed in disbelief. "Whatever. We've got to talk when we get back to the dorm—" He looked at Maia, who shook her head. "All of us."

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

"Alright, cupcakes, you are about to see the Grand Canyon. Try not to break it. This skywalk can hold up to 70 jumbo jets so you featherweights should be safe out there. Also, if possible, try not to push each other over the edge, as that would give me extra paperwork." Somehow, I didn't think he was joking.

The coach opened the doors, and they all stepped outside. Maia let out a low whistle. "Wow. That's...wow." Maia was speechless. They were standing on a huge horseshoe shaped walkway. It was made of glass so when she looked down, Maia could see the whole canyon. It was much bigger and wider than you could appreciate from a picture. They were so high, birds circled below their feet. Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor. Banks of storm clouds had moved overhead while they'd been inside, casting shadows like angry faces across the cliffs. As far as Maia could see in any direction, red and gray ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it.

Maia got a piercing pain behind her eyes. Crazy gods...Where had she come up with that idea? She felt like she'd gotten close to something important—the same feeling she got when she was looking at the museum for the first time—she knew that she had memories connected to this place, but she didn't remember them. Maia leaned over and clutched her stomach. She was shivering and sweaty, she felt her forehead and it was clammy.

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

"Yeah...I'm fine—just a headache."

They heard the loud boom of thunder rumbling overhead. A cold wind almost blew her sideways.

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

Maia looked up and saw that Leo was right. A dark circle of clouds hung over the skywalk, but the area around it was perfectly clear and blue. Maia didn't like that.

"Okay, cupcakes!" Coach Hedge yelled. The storm was apparently bothering him too, seeing as he was glaring at it like it personally insulted him. "We may have to cut this short, so get to work! Remember, complete sentences!"

"Alright, guys let's do this." Leo said, pulling out a worksheet. "Oh, crap. I don't have a pen." Leo groaned. "Jason?"

Jason checked his pockets and pulled out a gold coin. "Well, it's not a pen..." he trailed off.

Leo sighed and turned to Maia. "How 'bout you, Mai?"

She emptied her pockets and was surprised to see that she actually did have a plain black ballpoint pen. Maia felt a strange tug in her gut, like this pen was important. She didn't know why, but she felt like she shouldn't uncap it.

Leo smiled. "Sweet, give it here," he reached for it.

"No!" Maia exclaimed. "...I mean...It doesn't have any ink!"

"Bu—" Leo began.

"It's fine," Jason cut in, "we can just get one from the gift shop or something."

Maia waited for Leo to walk off, "Thanks," she said, looking down.

"No problem...Do you mind me asking why you didn't want to use that pen?"

"Oh—um...well, it's just a feeling. Know what I mean?"

Jason nodded and slumped back against the wall. "Yup, I know exactly what you mean."

They didn't try very hard on the worksheet. For one thing, Maia was too distracted by the storm, it was getting stronger every time he looked at it. The winds were whipping across the desert, causing Maia's long black hair to keep blowing in her face, making it hard to work. For another thing, she didn't have any idea how to "name three sedimentary strata you observe" or "describe two examples of erosion."

Leo was no help either, ever since he got back, all he could do was crack jokes about Piper and Jason's relationship—something Jason did not seem eager to talk about—or play with his pipe cleaners and springs and such.

Right now, he was building a little helicopter. "Check it out." He launched the copter. Maia was surprised to see the little pipe cleaner blades actually spinning, since she thought it would just plummet. She looked at Jason's face and saw his expression turn from surprised to impressed in a matter of seconds.

"How'd you do that?" Jason asked.

Leo shrugged. "It would have been cooler if I had rubber bands."

"Seriously," Maia said, "are we friends?"

"Last I checked."

"You sure?" Maia pressed on, "what was the first day we met? What did we talk about?"

"It was..." Leo frowned. "I don't recall exactly. You can't expect me to remember details, Mai, I'm ADHD."

That explains a lot, Maia thought to herself.

"But we don't remember you at all." Jason said, "We don't remember anyone here. What if—"

"You guys are right and everyone else is wrong?" Leo asked. "You think you just appeared here this morning and we all got fake memories of you?"

A little voice in Maia's head said, that's exactly what I think.

But if she said that out loud, Maia had the feeling Leo would think she was crazy. Heck, even she thought it sounded a little crazy. Everyone here seemed to take her and Jason for granted. Everyone acted like they were just a normal part of the class—except for Coach Hedge.

Maia suddenly had an idea. She grabbed Jason's arm and gestured over to where the coach. Jason's eyes widened for a second and then he nodded and said, "Here, Leo, take the worksheet." Jason handed him the paper and he and Maia were off before Leo could protest.

The Wilderness School kids had the place to themselves, which was surprising. Maybe it was just too early in the day for tourists? But more likely, the weird weather had scared them off. The group had spread out in pairs across the sidewalk. Most of them were joking around or talking, despite the terrifying threat of Coach Hedge and his baseball bat hanging over their shoulder. Piper sat in the corner, about 50 feet away. She was actually trying to do her worksheet, but her dumb partner, Dylan, kept hitting on her, putting his hands on her shoulders and smiling, flashing her with those blinding teeth. She kept pushing him away, or just ignoring him completely, but he wouldn't leave her alone. Piper caught Maia's eye, giving her a look like, throttle this guy for me.

Maia made a gesture, like one second and turned to back to Jason. He had just found the coach and was pulling on her sleeve to get her to follow him. They walked up to Coach Hedge, who was leaning on his baseball bat, studying the clouds.

"Did you do this?" The coach asked them.

Maia blinked. "Do what?" Did the coach actually just ask them if they had caused the thunderstorm?

Coach Hedge glared at them, his beady little eyes glinting under the brim of his cap. "Don't play games with me, kids. What are you doing here, and why are you messing with my job?"

Jason looked astonished. "You mean...you don't know us? We're not your students? Neither of us?"

Hedge snorted. "Never seen you before today."

Maia was so relieved she almost fainted. Jason looked on the verge of tears. At least they weren't going mad. They were in the wrong place. "Look, sir, we don't know how we got here. We just woke up on the school bus. All we know is we're not supposed to be here."

"Got that right." Hedge's rough voice dropped to almost a whisper, like he was sharing a secret. "You guys have got a powerful way with the Mist, 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 monsters. You smell like half-bloods. So—who are you and where'd you come from?"

Most of what the coach was saying didn't make sense, but Maia decided to answer honestly for now. "We don't know who we are. We don't have any memories. Please, sir, you've got to help us."

Hedge studied her's and Jason's faces, as if he was reading their thoughts.

"Great," he spat, "you're being truthful."

"Of course we are! And what was all that about monsters and half-bloods, are those code words or something?"

"Look, kid," Hedge said, "I don't know who you are. I just know what you are. And it means trouble. Now I've gotta protect four of you instead of two. Are you two the special package? Is that it?"

"What are you talking about?"

The coach glanced nervously at the storm. The clouds were getting thicker and darker, hovering over the skywalk so they shut out all of the light from the sun.

"This morning," Hedge said, "I got a message from camp. They said and 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?"

She felt a slight pain behind her eyes, a little worse than last time, but still not that bad. Jason's must have hurt like hell, because he clutched his forehead and stumbled. Coach hedge caught him.

Whoa, there, cupcake. You two say you have no memories, huh? Fine. I'll just have to watch you, too, until the team gets here. We'll let the director figure things out."

"What director?" Jason said. "What camp?"

Maia unzipped her jacket and held out her orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt. "This camp." She said.

The coach's eyes widened in surprise. "You? You're one of the ones who's missing? Okay, just sit tight, reinforcements should be here soon. Hopefully nothing happens before—"

Lightning crackled overhead. The winds picked up with a vengeance. Worksheets flew into the Grand Canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. Kid's screamed, stumbling and grabbing the rails.

"I had to say something," Hedge grumbled. He bellowed into his megaphone: "Everyone inside! The pig says oink! Off the skywalk!"

"I thought you said this thing was stable!" Jason shouted over the wind.

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

A/N:

I'd like to just say that the first 21 chapters were not written by me. They were written by Esther on Quotev: estherelizabeth101

However, since she could not continue the story, I have taken over. And with her permission I have posted it here and on Ao3.

My writing starts at chapter 22 onwards.