JASON
Zeus blinked. Did that mean Jason Grace? No, he's a Roman, not a Greek.
Even before he got electrocuted, Jason was having a rotten day.
He woke in the backseat of a school bus, holding hands with a girl he didn't know. That wasn't necessarily the rotten part.
"That depends on whether or not the girl was cute." Travis said.
Connor laughed. "You got that right!"
The girl was cute, but he couldn't figure out who she was or what he was doing there.
"See! He agrees with us!" The Stolls grinned, ecstatic. Katie scowled.
He sat up and rubbed his eyes trying to think.
A few dozen kids sprawled in the seats in front of him, listening to iPods, talking, or sleeping. They all looked around his age… fifteen? Sixteen? Okay, that was scary. He didn't know his own age.
Apollo whistled. "What happened to him?" Piper just winked at him.
The bus rumbled along a bumpy road. Out the windows, desert rolled by under a bright blue sky. Jason was pretty sure he didn't live in the desert. He tried to think back… the last thing he remembered…
The gods exchanged concerned glances.
The girl squeezed his hand. "Jason, you okay?"
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 seriously pretty.
Everyone looked at Piper. She blushed, and Aphrodite squealed. "OMGOMGOMGOMG! Jiper is so cute!"
"Jiper?" Percy asked.
"Jason and Piper!" Lacy and Aphrodite shrieked. Everyone who wasn't in the Aphrodite cabin flinched.
Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope-brown, blue, and green.
Jason let go of her hand. "Um, I don't-"
In the front of the bus, a teacher shouted, "All right, cupcakes, listen up!"
"Cupcakes?" Will asked.
Piper just smiled.
The guy was obviously a coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could just see 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.
"He needs a makeover." Aphrodite commented, and Artemis sighed, exasperated.
A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. He would've been pretty scary if he wasn't five foot zero. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, "Stand up Coach Hedge!"
Hermes, the Stolls, Percy, Will and Apollo laughed.
"I heard that!" The coach scanned the bus for the offender. Then his eyes fixed on Jason, and his scowl deepened.
"He knows." Athena asked, realizing who Coach was. Piper winked at her, and Athena smiled.
A jolt went down Jason's spine. He was sure the coach knew he didn't belong there.
"Told you" Guess who?
He was going to call out Jason, demand to know what he was doing on the bus - and Jason wouldn't have a clue on what to say.
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 cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way."
"The hard way?" Dionysus asked. Everyone looked at him. They hadn't realized he was listening,
He picked up a baseball bat and made like he was hitting a homer.
Ares laughed. "I like this dude!"
Jason looked at the girl next to him. "Can he talk to us that way?"
She shrugged. "Always does. This is the Wilderness School. 'Where the kids are animals.'" She said it like it was some joke they'd shared before.
Piper frowned. It was. Aphrodite looked up from her mirror, feeling a wave of hurt. She looked at Piper, and frowned. Piper was good at hiding her emotions. Aphrodite scrunched her eyes. What was their relationship?
Her musings were interrupted when a voice punctured her mind. "Something wrong?"
She looked at Ares, thinking he was the most likely to care, but was surprised to find it was actually Hephaestus, who was looking at her with caring glance. Ares hadn't even looked up from his stupid daggers. "No, everything's fine." Maybe Ares doesn't care.
"This is some kind of mistake," Jason said. "I'm not supposed to be here."
The boy in front of him turned and laughed. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Piper didn't steal a BMW."
Hermes and his cabin gasped. Then they bombarded Piper with questions. "Why did you steal it? Where did you steal it from? What type of car was it? Are you are sister?"
She laughed. "You'll find out, don't remember, don't remember, no."
"Dang it."
The girl blushed. "I didn't steal that car Leo!"
"Oh, I forgot, Piper. What was your story? You 'talked' the dealer into lending it to you?" He raised his eyebrows at Jason like, Can you believe her?
Drew raised her eyebrow. That sounded like… it couldn't be! She looked at Aphrodite. Aphrodite promptly looked away.
Leo looked like a Latino Santa's elf,
Piper burst out laughing. Everyone looked at her. She fell on the ground. After she calmed down, she apologized. "I don't think Leo would like that description very much."
with curly black hair, pointy, ears, a cheerful, babyish face, and a mischievous smile that told you right away this guy was not to be trusted around matches or sharp objects.
"He doesn't need matches." Piper spoke again.
Everyone looked at her. "What do you mean."
"Hephaestus knows what I mean."
Hephaestus looked at her. "Valdez?"
"Yep."
"Well, we're all gonna die."
"I know! That's what I said!"
His long nimble fingers wouldn't stop moving-drumming on the seat, sweeping his hair behind his eyes, fiddling with the buttons on my army jacket. Either this kid was naturally hyper or he was hopped up on enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo.
"Really Jason?" Piper smirked. "Really?
"Anyway," Leo said, "I hope you've got your worksheet, 'cause I used mine for spit wads days ago.
Artemis and her hunters sighed. "Boys."
Why are you looking at me like that? Did somebody draw on my face again?"
"Again?" Athena asked.
Piper laughed. "Again."
"I don't know you." Jason said.
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 Jason. "Watch this." He turned to the front. "Sorry Coach! I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?"
"Oh gods." Hephaestus said. "If he's anything like his mother, this isn't going to go over well." Piper burst out laughing again.
Coach grunted like he was glad to have an excuse. He unclipped the megaphone from his belt and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader's. The kid's cracked up. The coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: "The cow says moo!"
"Yep." Hephaestus sighed. "He's like his mother." The Hermes cabin laughed.
The kids howled, and the coach slammed down the megaphone. "Valdez!"
Piper stifled a laugh. "My god, Leo. How did you do that?"
"Gods" Apollo corrected.
Leo slipped a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. "I'm a special boy."
"You can say that again." Piper's good mood vanished and she sighed. The rest of the room looked at her. What happens in the future?
"Guys seriously," Jason pleaded. "What am I doing here? Where are we going?"
Piper knit her eyebrows. "Jason, 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?"
The Stolls gasped. Katie sighed. "I'm never eating Jell-O again."
Jason stared at him blankly.
"No, I think he's serious." Piper tried to take his hand again, but he pulled away.
"I'm sorry," He said. "I don't-I can't-"
"That's it!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front. "The back row has just volunteered to clean up for lunch!"
The rest of the kids cheered.
"Traitors." Piper smiled, lost in old memories.
"There's a shocker," Leo muttered.
But Piper kept her eyes on Jason, like she couldn't decide whether to be hurt or worried.
"Both"
"Did you hit your head or something? You really don't know who we are?"
Jason shrugged helplessly. "It's worse than that. I don't know who I am."
Hestia gasped. Only a few gods could do that...
The bus dropped them in front of a bid red stucco complex like a museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. Maybe that's what it was: the National Museum of Nowhere, Jason thought.
"Seriously Jason?" Annabeth and Piper said at the same time.
A cold wind blew across the desert. Jason hadn't paid much attention to what he was wearing, but it wasn't nearly warm enough: jeans and sneakers, a purple t-shirt, and a thin black windbreaker.
The gods exchanged anxious-no, terrified-glances. The purple shirt is just a coincidence!
"So, a crash course for the amnesiac," Leo said, in a helpful tone that made Jason think this was not going to be helpful.
"It probably isn't"
"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?"
Everyone burst out laughing.
"No." Jason glanced apprehensively at the other kids: maybe twenty guys, half that many girls. None of them looked like hardened criminals, but he wondered what they'd all done to get sentenced to a school for delinquents, and he wondered why he belonged with them.
"You never told us." Piper said sadly. Everyone was struck by confusion once again.
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.
"Leo!" Piper snapped.
She then blushed.
"Fine. Ignore that last part, But we are friends. Well, Piper's a little more than your friend, the last few weeks-"
Piper blushed and Aphrodite shrieked, "Jiper, Jiper, Jiper, Jiper!"
"Leo, stop it!" Piper's face turned red. Jason could feel his face burning too. 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 Jason by whacking him upside the head."
Dionysus nodded. "I like his teaching style."
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 Jason and scowl.
"Leo, Jason 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 the museum. The new guy wedged himself between Piper and Jason and knocked Leo down.
Hestia gritted her teeth. It may not seem like it, but she can be violent if someone is being a massively rude jerkface.
"Don't talk to these bottom-feeders. You're my partner, remember?"
"Bottom-feeders!" Everyone jumped. They had forgotten about Hestia.
The new guy had dark hair cut superman style, s deep tan, and teeth so white they should've come with a warning label: do not stare directly at teeth. Permanent blindness may occur.
"Seriously Jason?" Piper laughed.
He wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey, Western jeans and boots, and he smiled like he was God's gift to juvenile delinquent girls everywhere. Jason hated him instantly.
"Jealousy!" Aphrodite was acting like she was just given a bajillion dollars worth of free clothes and shoes.
"Go away, Dylan," Piper grumbled. "I didn't ask to work with you."
"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.
"I was like 911." Piper murmured. "He was a creep."
Leo got up and brushed himself off. "I hate that guy." He offered Jason 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."
"Leo," Jason said, "you're weird."
Annabeth, Piper and Grover laughed at Percy's look of horror.
"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!"
"Seriously?" Artemis asked.
Jason figured that if this was his best friend, his life must be pretty messed up,
"You got one thing right." Piper murmured.
but he followed Leo into the museum.
Suddenly, they were interrupted by a flash of light.
Out of the light tumbled an elf. No, not an elf, more of a boy with elvish features. He was wearing suspenders and a tool belt, and had smudges of oil and grease all over his face, hands, and clothed. He spun around turning to face the gods. "Oh, what the Hades do you want now!?"
Zeus looked furious. "Who dares-"
He was cut off by Leo. "I am busy right now! Can't you wait another day or two! But no! The all-powerful gods of olympus need help! Everyone drop everything!" He glared at the gods. Then he smiled. "Kidding! What does Zeusie-poo need Flaming Valdez for today!"
They stared at him. Piper cleared her throat. "Um.. Leo? We're in another time period. They didn't bring you here."
"Oh!" He smiled. "What are we doing then?"
Apollo stepped in. "One, you are here to read the Heroes of Olympus series, a chronicle of your adventures. Two, what were you doing? And three, did you just call the King of the Gods Zeusie-poo?"
Leo smiled. "Yes, yes I did." He turned to Athena. "Please continue." She looked at him, realizing he never answered Apollo's first question, but continued anyway.
They walked through the building, stopping here and there for Coach Hedge to lecture them with his microphone, which alternately made him sound like a Sith Lord or blared out random comments like "The pig says oink."
Leo grinned maniacally. "So we're at this part!"
Leo kept pulling out nuts, bolts and pipe cleaners from the pockets of him army jacket and putting them together, like he had to keep his hands busy at all times.
Hestia looked at him. He was taking little things out of the pockets of his tool belt, creating a stopwatch, a mini car, a rubber band ball, never keeping still.
Jason 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. Jason figured these girls were the popular clique. They wore matching jeans and pink tops and enough makeup for a halloween party.
Lacy frowned. "Jeans; okay. Pink tops; were they cute? Makeup; to much is a massive disaster." The Aphrodite cabin (minus Piper) nodded, and Aphrodite beamed proudly at her.
One of them said, "Hey, Piper, does your tribe run this place? Do you get in for free if you do a rain dance?"
Hestia's eyes narrowed.
The other girls laughed. Even Piper's so called partner Dylan suppressed a smile. Piper's snowboarding jacket hid her hands, but Jason got the feeling she was clenching her fists.
"My dad's Cherokee," she said. "Hot Hualapai. "Course you'd need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel."
Ares smiled. "Fight! Fight! Fight!"
Isabel widened her eyes in mock surprise, so that she looked like an owl with a makeup addiction.
Athena scowled. Don't offend owls!
"Oh, sorry! Was your mom in this tribe? Oh, that's right. You never knew your mom."
Ares smiled, but Aphrodite, Piper, Leo, and Percy had to take a calming breath.
Piper charged, but before a fight could start, Coach Hedge barked, "Enough back there! Set a good example or I'll break out my baseball bat!"
Ares frowned. "Dang it! When is this going to get interesting?"
Piper and Leo laughed, then answered the question. "In the next chapter!"
Then Leo frowned. "You also get to read about how much I suck at fighting."
The group shuffled 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 to drunk to work," another one said with fake sympathy. "That's why she turned klepto."
Aphrodite looked ready to burst. Everyone looked at her. Why was she so protective of Piper? She barely even knew her!
Piper ignored them, but Jason was ready to punch them himself. He might not remember Piper, or who he even was, but he knew he hated mean kids.
The futures (Leo and Piper) laughed. "You can say that again!"
Leo caught his arm. "Be cool. Piper doesn't like us fighting her battles. Besides, if these girls found out the truth about her dad, they'd all be bowing down to her and screaming, 'We're not worthy!'"
"Why? What about her dad?" Clarisse asked. Everyone jumped. Only a couple of the past campers had said much.
"Why? What about her dad?"
Clarisse blushed. Everybody else laughed. Leo spoke. "That's when I knew he wasn't kidding."
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 dad."
Leo whistled. "Whatever. We have to talk when we get back to the dorm."
"Who's her dad?" Almost everyone screamed.
They reached the end of the exhibit hall, where some big glass doors led out to a terrace.
"Alright, cupcakes," Coach Hedge announced. "You are about to see the Grand Canyon. Try not to break it."
"Try not to break it? Really?" Annabeth asked, exasperated.
"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,
"Least he sort of cares." Poseidon said.
as that would call me extra paperwork."
"Nevermind"
The coach opened the doors, and they all stepped outside. The Grand Canyon spread out 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."
Jason had to agree. Despite his amnesia and his feeling that he didn't belong there, he couldn't help being impressed.
The canyon was bigger and wider then you could appreciate from a picture. They were so high that birds circled below their feet. Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor.
Thalia shivered
Banks of storm clouds had moved overhead while they'd been inside, casting shadows like angry faces across the cliffs. As far as Jason could see in any direction, red and grey ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it.
Jason got a piercing pain behind his eyes. Crazy gods…
Everyone gasped. "Annabeth!" Percy shouted. "Is there anyone named Jason at Camp Half-Blood!"
"Not at Camp Half-Blood…" Leo murmured, quietly enough that only the gods could hear it. They paled noticeably.
"No! There isn't"
Thalia gasped Jason… Gods… Amnesia…!
Where had he come up with that idea? He felt like he'd come across something important-something he should know about.
The gods glared at Hera. She smiled nervously.
He also got the unmistakable feeling he was in danger.
Zeus bit his lip. No matter how much he hid it, he still cared about both Thalia and Jason more than he would admit.
"You alright?" Leo asked. "You're not going to throw up over the side, are you? 'Cause I should've brought my camera."
Thalia looked at him. "Really?"
Artemis sighed. "Boys…"
Jason grabbed the railings. He was shivering and sweaty, but it had nothing to do with heights. He blinked, and the pain behind his eyes subsided.
"I'm fine." He managed. "Just a headache."
Thunder rumbled overhead. A cold wind almost knocked him sideways.
"This can't be safe." Leo squinted at the clouds. "Storm's right above us, but it's clear all the way around. Weird, huh?"
"Weird!?" Athena burst, "That's all you can say!?"
Jason looked up and saw Leo was right. A dark circle of clouds had parked itself over the skywalk, but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear. Jason had a bad feeling about that.
Everyone who didn't know Zeus was Jason's father glared at him.
"Alright, cupcakes!" Coach Hedge yelled. H frowned at the storm like it bothered him too.
Dionysus yawned. "He's the satyr."
"We may have to cut this short, so get to work! Remember, complete sentences!"
The storm rumbled, and Jason's head started to hurt again. Not knowing why he did it, he reached into his jeans pocket and brought out a coin-a circle of gold the size of a half dollar, but thicker and more uneven.
"His weapon?" Percy asked. "In mortal form, like riptide?"
"Yep." Piper and Leo said, popping the p.
Connor and Travis gasped quietly. "Spoilersss…"
Stamped on one side was a picture of a battle-ax. On the other was some guy's face wreathed in laurels. The inscription said something like ivlivs.
"That means Julius in Latin." Annabeth said. "Why does Jason have have a Latin coin that says Julius?"
"Dang, is that gold?" Leo asked. "You've been holding out on me!"
Jason put the coin away, wondering how he'd come to have it, and why he had the feeling he was going to need it soon.
Everyone looked at the futures. Leo winked and grinned widely, while Piper just smiled slightly.
"It's nothing," he said. "Just a coin."
Leo shrugged. Maybe his mind needed to keep moving as much as his hands. "Come on," he said. "Dare you to spit over the edge."
"Boys." Artemis and the hunters.
They didn't try very hard on the worksheet. For one thing, Jason was too distracted on 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 two examples of erosion."
Athena opened her mouth, but Poseidon spoke first. "Keep reading!"
She snorted, but kept reading, thank gods.
Leo was no help. He was too busy building a helicopter out of pipe cleaners.
"Check it out." He launched the copter.
Travis snapped his finger. "He's a son of Hephaestus!"
Katie sighed and shook her head. "Gods, you're slow."
Jason figured it would plummet, but the pipe cleaner blade actually spun. The little copter made it halfway across the canyon before it lost momentum and spiraled into the void.
"How'd you do that?" Jason asked.
Leo shrugged. "Would've been cooler if I had some rubber bands."
"Didn't have my toolbelt." Leo stroked said toolbelt affectionately.
The gods gasped. "That's the belt from the Bunker!" Hephaestus exclaimed.
"Yep."
"You found it?! That means… Hephaestus!" Zeus yelled at him.
"The Fates told me too!" The campers exclaimed confused glances. What in Hades are they all freaking out about?
"You're right. We are all gonna die."
"Shut up, Apollo."
"Why don't you, Artemis?"
"Only if you do first."
"You first!"
"No, you first."
"No, you first"
"No, you."
"No, you."
"No, you."
Shut up!" Hades exclaimed. The campers were all on the floor laughing. Athena sighed (there's a lot of exasperated sighing, isn't there?!) and went back to the book.
"Seriously," Jason said, "are we friends?"
"Last I checked."
"You sure? What was the first 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."
"Actually, Leo," Annabeth explained. "Demigod ADHD is we absorb to much info, not too little."
"I know that now. Back then I was just some kid with mental problems."
"You do have mental problems."
"Well, duh!"
"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?"
Everyone looked at him. "How did you know?" Athena asked flabbergasted.
Leo smiled, a little uncomfortable. "Lucky guess? Wild imagination? I don't really know."
A little voice in Jason's head said, That's exactly what I think.
But it sounded crazy. Everyone here took him for granted. Everyone acted like he was a normal part of the class-except for Coach Hedge.
"He gets it now." Hestia said. Once again, everyone jumped, having forgotten she was there.
"Take the worksheet." Jason handed Leo the paper. "I'll be right back."
Before he could protest, Jason headed across the skywalk.
Their school group had the place to themselves.
That's never a good thing. Everyone thought it, but nobody voiced it.
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 were throwing 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 white smile.
Aphrodite growled. Why is she acting so protective?
She kept pushing him away, and when she saw Jason she gave him a look like, Throttle this guy for me.
Jason motioned for her to hand on. He walked up to Coach Hedge, who was leaning on his baseball bat, studying the storm clouds.
"Did you do this?" the coach asked him.
Jason took a step back. "Do what?" It sounded like the coach had just asked if he'd made the thunderstorm.
Annabeth saw the threads of a connection. "Mom... What's going on?"
Athena looked at her. "Shh…"
Coach Hedge glared at him, his beady little eyes glinting under the brim of his cap. "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?" Jason said. "I'm not one of your students?"
Hedge snorted. "Never seen you before today."
"So, Leo was right!"
"We already established that, Seaweed Brain."
Jason was so relieved he almost wanted to cry.
"Wimp." Ares smirked.
Piper smirked at him. "Go try and kiss Artemis." Ares suddenly went over to Artemis. Ten minutes later, the campers were confused, Apollo and Artemis were looking smug, Aphrodite was jealous, Ares was in the godly infirmary, and Leo and Piper were laughing their heads off.
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 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've 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 monsters 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'd you come from?"
Leo murmured something but no one could hear it. "What was that?" Thalia asked him.
He jumped, not realizing anyone had heard him. He smiled nervously. "Nothing."
Most of what the coach said didn't make any sense, but Jason decided to answer the question honestly. "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 Jason's thoughts.
"He was." Grover murmured quietly.
"Great," Hedge muttered. "You're being truthful."
"Of course I am! And what was that about monsters and half-bloods? Are those like code words or something?"
Percy laughed. "Code words."
Hedge narrowed his eyes. Part of Jason wondered if this guy was just nuts. 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 special package?" Katie asked.
"What are you talking about?"
Hedge look at the storm. The clouds were getting thicker and darker, hovering right over the skywalk.
"This morning," Hedge said, "I got a message from camp. They said an extraction team was on the way. They're coming to pick up a special package, but they wouldn't give me the details. I thought to myself, fine. The two I'm watching are pretty powerful, older than most.
"You two?" Percy asked Leo and Piper.
"No, Percy. Dylan and Isabel." Piper said, her voice layered with sarcasm.
"Oh!" Percy looked thoughtful. "Then how come you two are here?"
Everyone groaned. Annabeth facepalmed. "Seaweed Brain, that was sarcasm."
"Oh… Oops."
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 Jason's eyes got worse then ever. Half-bloods. Camp. Monsters.
The campers were thinking. Not Camp Half-Blood, but knows about demigods? Maybe a newbie went missing? But why go through the trouble a memory wiping if he wasn't powerful, but the powerful ones were already at camp… What was going on?
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 gut, the coach had hands like steel. "Whoa, there, cupcake. You say you got 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?"
"Just sit tight. Reinforcements should be here soon. Hopefully nothing happens before-"
Lightning crackled 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.
You could cut the tension with a knife.
"I had to say something," Hedge grumbled. He bellowed into his microphone: "Everyone inside! The cow says moo! 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!"
Athena blinked. "That's the end of the chapter. Who's reading next?"
Apollo looked up. "I will!"