Theo/7

1

Theo

Theo woke up with a start. Finding himself in a classroom wasn't the strange bit. The strange bit was the fact he'd been sleeping on a desk with his worksheet glued to his face. Feeling very stupid, he peeled the paper off his face and looked in the direction of the voice. 'Theo? Theseus Halloway?' Mr Hall, the subject teacher was saying. 'Theseus, why are you sleeping in my class?' Theo felt his face grow hot as he looked around at the faces of his classmates, around ninety-nine percent of whom were looking right back at him with smirks written in their expressions or laughing already.

Theseus. His real name, named after the great Greek hero. He hated it. People were always asking him to act out his name sake's defeat of the Minotaur 'Well, Theseus?' Mr Hall demanded. 'I'm waiting. What's your reason? Not enough sleep last night? Or is my subject too boring for you?' Theo stared blankly at the teacher. Who was he? This wasn't Theo's school, so why was he here? Theo said nothing, and stared gormlessly at the teacher. 'Boy?' Mr Hall tried to prompt.

'I don't know, sir,' Theo admitted. 'I'm sorry. What am I doing here? This isn't my school.' Mr Hall snorted in laughter, but then really looked at Theo. The boy looked confused, and blank. Did he really not know? No, he was pulling Mr Hall's leg, and trying to pull one over on him.

'Don't talk stupid, boy. You've been in this school for the last four months. You're not that thick, surely?'

Theo continued to look blank, but also offended. 'I'm not thick, or talking stupid, but I don't know you. Please, just tell me, what am I doing here?' Mr Hall shook his head in disbelief. Kids these days. Trying to act dumb, and pulling the simplest things on you.

'Theo, go outside and come back in when you've either gained some sense or that so-called sieve of a memory of yours kicks back in and you start to quit playing your childish pranks.' Theo's face burned red and he was tempted to stay put and see how long this guy would hold out, but something told him to just do as he was told, even though he really didn't know this guy. He said nothing in response; something said the guy would think his punishment was working, grabbed his rucksack, which, as if by magic, had appeared by his feet, and stormed out the room, trying to keep hold of his dignity as he left.

Theo just ran down the corridor and was tempted to just get right out of the school when he heard shoes on the polished floor behind him, following him. Theo spun round, and saw a good-looking, quite attractive girl running hard towards him. She stopped when she got close up, and threw her hands on her knees, panting. Cautiously putting a hand on her shoulder, he said, 'Are you, um, okay?' She looked up at him and smiled anxiously.

Theo was speechless for a moment as he looked at the girl. Her hair was quickly brushed, yet freshly washed and smooth, and silky. This last description was only a guess. Her eyes were a deep chocolate, and Theo couldn't stop staring into them. 'Uh, hi,' he tried to say. He held out a hand and helped the girl up. She smiled again and he smiled back.

'Hi,' she said after a second. 'I'm, uh, Izzy,' she said. 'I think Mr Hall was being really unfair in there.'

Theo realised she must believe him; otherwise she wouldn't have introduced herself to him. 'Uh, thanks. I really don't know what I'm doing here. I don't know you or anyone else in there.'

Izzy nodded. 'I get you. I understand.'

'Why'd you follow me out?' Theo found himself asking.

'I wanted to see if you were OK after that totally unfair scene,' Izzy said. 'So, you OK?' Theo regarded her for a minute.

'Yeah, yeah, thanks for asking.' Theo stared down at his trainers, and chewed his lip. What to say now? 'Hadn't you, uh, better be, uh, getting back to class?' Izzy smiled.

'Yeah, I probably should. Tell me, though, are you always this articulate?'

It took Theo a few seconds to register what she meant. 'No, no.'

'That's what I thought.' Izzy paused, and turned to leave, and head back to the classroom. 'Tell you what: why don't you get outta here now, y'know, go down the park or something, and I'll meet you there after school?'

Theo's thoughts were racing over each other in their desperation to be considered. This cute girl was offering to meet him in the park after school? She was telling him to skive off? OK, he might not know or remember her, but he sure as hell wished he did.

'Yeah, alright.' Theo turned away. God, he wished he remembered her, but then he knew he would remember remembering her.

'Theo?' Izzy called out, and he spun round.

'Yeah?'

'Don't you want my number, or something?' she said with a cute grin on her face. Theo so wanted to say yes, but he didn't have a phone on him, and he didn't feel like he'd ever had one.

'I would, but I don't have a phone, Izzy,' he admitted, then looked down at his feet, afraid she would call him weirdo. Izzy just smiled at him.

'Never mind. Maybe you should get one?'

Theo shrugged. He honestly didn't feel like he had a need for a mobile phone. He felt like it would put him in danger, but he couldn't tell anyone why, because he didn't know. 'Yeah, maybe.' He couldn't tell her outright no, because he wanted to stay in touch with her.

He turned away again, and this time Izzy didn't call him back. He heard her footsteps receding back the way she'd come. God, why didn't he remember anything? He felt so unsure, like he had a sense of déja-vu but didn't know why.

He had no idea where he going, so just kept walking aimlessly. Frustrated, he slammed his fist against a wall with loads of displays on, and freaked when he saw the white plaster paint from round the edge come off on his fingers, because the wall didn't seem that old yet the paint was flaking off onto his hand. Theo took a few steps back and ran from the wall, afraid it was taunting him for not having any memory. He ran to a set of double doors, labelled 'GYM'. Perfect – somewhere he could take out his frustration on things and not destroy them. Theo pushed at the door, which, much to his surprise, was actually unlocked. He'd expected to have to shove it, or pick the lock, but it swung open without the littlest protest of a creak, and Theo went inside.

The gym was huge, built in resemblance to the Olympic Velodrome, with a tall, glass domed roof and huge brick walls with court linings painted on. Theo had to smile. If this really had been his school, he would've been comfortable having a gym that made all the others look like dots. He made his way over to the basketball net, where, for some reason, somebody had left a solitary ball at the foot of the net, as if expecting him to play. He picked up the ball, felt it, and then shot a few hoops. After a while, he got bored and went over to the boxing punch-bag, where he slipped on a spare pair of gloves and began punching.

Theo had been boxing solidly for about an hour when he heard the noise. He stopped punching, and strained his ears as the sound came again. It sounded like claws on the glass roof, and yes, wings flapping as something flew. Theo's body went onto autopilot, as if he'd been in this sort of situation before, and he dived to one side about a millisecond before the noise makers smashed through the roof into the gym, splaying fragments of broken glass everywhere. Theo ended up with glass up his nose, and one tiny piece right in-between his eyes. Cautiously, he removed the glass from himself and leapt to his feet, his body automatically assuming a defensive pose. Standing, Theo got a decent view of the … monsters. They looked like old hags with whips, leather jackets, and oh, leathery wings. Bat wings. OK, Theo thought, these guys clearly are not human. But what are they? The first one smiled, baring fangs and hissing with a forked tongue, like a snake. In the snake family? Theo wondered. No, can't be, they can clearly fly. He had decided he had better ask, as he guessed they were here to kill him. He didn't know why he knew that, he just did. And he knew he had to stall them, did he want to keep his life. 'Hey,' he began awkwardly. The hags hissed and flicked their tongues, seemingly amused at the boy's attempt to stall them. But, they didn't attack yet. Maybe they wanted to be amused more before they dissolved his hope. 'So, uh,' Theo tried, shuffling from one foot to the other. Sweat was trickling down his neck, and he knew the hags could tell. 'What are you, exactly?'

The first one hissed and flapped a little to get forward. 'Ah, boy, we thought you'd never ask.' She grinned, showing him those fanged teeth again. 'We are the Furies, loyal servants of Hades, Lord of the Underworld.' Theo gulped as he tried to digest this.

'So, you're servants to the Ancient Greek god Hades?' Theo didn't understand. How could the Greek gods be still alive?

The Furies hissed in agreement. 'Yes, boy,' the first one, the leader said.

'And he lives where, exactly?'

'Under London's Parliament, boy,' Leader hissed. 'Normally, we would be forbidden to give away such information, but as you'll be meeting our master so soon anyway, there is no harm.'

'Wait, I'm meeting Hades soon?'

'Yes, boy. We know what you are – don't try to hide it – and so our Lord demanded that you be brought to him. As a dead boy.' Theo didn't understand much, what was he? But he understood they meant to kill him. He said nothing, but his blank look must've registered, as the Furies made little hissing sounds that sounded like they were laughing. 'Maybe you're not as intelligent as we thought? Never mind, it's still been a whole forty years since that scumbag Perseus Jackson sent me to Tartarus.' Without another word, the hags charged, and Theo yelled defiantly.