Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.
Author's Notes: Hey, guys! Not much to say about this chapter. Well. There could be, but I'm keeping my thoughts to myself. :)
Hope you enjoy, and until next week,
~TGWSI/Selene Borealis
Ἀπόθῃσκε! – Die!
~The Finding Home Saga~
~Finding Home~
~Chapter 30: I Play Dodgeball With Cannibals~
The first half of my day went pretty okay after that.
Callie and I shared almost all of our classes, so after her dad tried to make Lord of the Flies seem more interesting than it really was, we went to our next period, Physical Science. Since it was almost the end of the year, our teacher decided to give us a taste of what Chemistry would be like in our junior year – I guess she thought Biology was too boring or something. Combining it with what we'd learned, we were supposed to make these rock crystals. She said if we did it successfully, then within a week we would be able to eat them, as she would store our results in the fridge until they were ready.
"Percy, I don't think you're doing yours right," Callie informed me.
I gritted my teeth. "Shut up."
"Seriously, you're supposed to – "
"I said shut up!"
...Yeah, I didn't have nearly as much fun with it as she did.
World History was next. We were preparing for the end of the year map quiz, where we would have to correctly identify at least seventy-five countries. Today's ones were in Europe, and that was a freaking pain in the ass. All of the countries were so small I had to write their names in small print, but of course with my dyslexia that just made reading them all the more difficult. Before I knew it the country names were swimming off of my page – was Latvia north of Lithuania or was it the other way around? Was the Czech Republic first or was it Slovakia?
"Percy, what is this country?" the teacher asked me.
I looked up at the projector, squinting. I knew it wasn't Croatia, it didn't look like a Pac-Man. "Is that Serbia?"
"Close," she said. "This is Bosnia and Herzegovina."
...Holy shit, how was I supposed to memorize that kind of name for such a small country? And why did she have to call on me when I didn't even have my hand raised but the one girl who'd been acing all of these maps did?
My Algebra class went a bit better than my first three, not much really to say there. At lunch, Callie and I sat at our table in the corner, where only the two of us ever sat. Her MP3 player made a reappearance, and the two of us did our best to listen to it stealthily so that none of the lunch-duty teachers would notice it and confiscate it. Thankfully, none of them did.
Which brings me to Gym. I never liked Gym, but after finding out I was a demigod and having to fight literal monsters, I liked it even less than I did before. Goode High School's gym outfit was a pair of emerald green shorts and a grey t-shirt, the school's colors. I tried to change into my gym clothes as fast as possible, studiously ignoring everybody around me, but apparently I wasn't fast enough. As I moved to leave the boys' locker room, I felt someone shoulder me into the lockers. "Hey," he laughed, and then said something I'd really not bother to repeat.
Yes, despite being a fucking demigod and going to a different school, I still had a "bully." It's funny how that worked out. I only had the one class with him, Gym, and didn't usually let what he said bother me. He also isn't that important. But I figure I might as well tell you a little bit about him.
His name was Matt Sloan, and to be fair he was the school bully. He picked on everybody, the kind of kid I'm sure made the Board of the school decide to keep me because I wasn't nearly as bad in comparison to him, despite my reputation on paper. He wasn't big or strong, but he acted like he was. He had eyes like a pit bull and shaggy black hair, and he always dressed in expensive but sloppy clothes, like he wanted everybody to see how little he cared about the money his family had used some of to get him into this school. One of his front teeth was chipped from the time he'd taken his daddy's Porsche for a joyride and run into a PLEASE SLOW DOWN FOR CHILDREN SIGN.
Oh, and he was homophobic. There was that, too. But I'm sure you already guessed that.
I didn't really care about him, though. I just started to walk away like I'd never even heard him.
Sloan didn't like that. As I exited the locker room, I heard him shout, "You're dead, Jackson!"
Pfft. As if.
In the gym, the motley crew of kids dressed in emerald green and grey assembled. I walked over to Callie as our PE teacher approached, a fat old guy who...I honestly can't remember the name of. Mr. Wilson, maybe? Yeah, let's go with that.
Along with Mr. Wilson, there was a pack of other kids not dressed up in the gym uniforms, so they must've been visiting. They were also some of the meanest, cruelest kids I'd ever seen before. Their HELLO! MY NAME IS tags were filled out with stupid shit, too, like MARROW SUCKER, SKULL EATER, and JOE BOB. No human beings had names like that, and I couldn't believe the secretaries at Goode had just let them do that.
"Alright, class," Mr. Wilson said, sounding like he'd given up on life three decades ago. "We have some visitors who are interested in becoming students here next school year, be sure to be friendly with them. Today we are going to be playing dodgeball."
"As we do everyday," another girl named Indiana Jones – yes, I shit you not, that was her name, I felt so bad for her because of it – deadpanned in that same tone.
Mr. Wilson didn't even bat an eye. "Yes. Now, captains will be – "
"Coach, can I be captain?" Sloan interjected, wearing a predatory grin.
" – Matt and," he paused long enough to point to another athletic-looking guy, Tyler Attlebee. "Tyler. You two, pick your teams."
They did. Naturally, Sloan chose all of the visitors, getting all buddy-buddy with them really quickly, while Tyler chose all of his friends plus a few others – namely, me and Callie. He didn't really look happy with the arrangement because hardly anybody here liked me and Callie was the daughter of one of the teachers, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. He knew better than to expect Sloan to pick me.
Sloan's team took one side of the gym, ours the other. Mr. Wilson spilled a cage full of balls in the middle of the gym, then made a few "volunteers" line them up. Those kids then returned to their sides of the court, and we lined ourselves up, too, so we were all facing one another.
The visitors were cracking their knuckles, eyeing us like it was slaughter time. I couldn't help but wonder where they were from. Someplace where they fed kids raw meat and beat them with sticks, probably.
Mr. Wilson blew his whistle and the game began. Sloan's team ran for the center line. Callie, I, and the un-athletic kids all hung back, letting Attlebee and the rest of his friends take the lead. She eyed the other team warily. "Percy, do those kids seem...off to you?"
"I don't know, m – "
Suddenly, a ball slammed into my gut. The force of it knocked the wind out of me. I was able to keep myself from falling, but only barely, my eyes watering as I felt like I'd just gotten the Heimlich maneuver from a gorilla. The other team exploded in laughter.
But I wasn't the only one they were targeting. My eyes widened. "Callie, duck!"
My friend was just able to dodge in time, a dodgeball whistling past where her head had been at the speed of sound.
Whooom!
It hit the wall mat, and one of our teammates yelped.
I couldn't believe it. Dodgeball was a pretty awful game to play, don't get me wrong, but this –
"Hey!" I yelled at Sloan's team. "What are you trying to do, kill us?"
The visitor named Joe Bob grinned at me evilly. Somehow, he looked a lot bigger now...even taller than one of the basketball kids. His biceps bulged beneath his t-shirt. "That is the plan, Perseus Jackson!"
A shiver went down my spine. There was no way he could know my full name like that, unless –
Monsters.
All around Matt Sloan, the visitors were growing in size. They were no longer kids. They were eight-foot-tall giants with wild eyes, pointy teeth, and hairy arms tattooed with snakes and hula women and Valentine hearts.
Sloan dropped his ball. "Whoa! What the fuck?"
He wasn't the only one to have such a visceral action. Next to me, Callie's face was rapidly paling as she looked at the monsters. "O – oh my – !" she breathed.
"Callie!" I shouted. I could only imagine that the monsters were here because of her, since I was wearing my ἒνδεσμα. And if that was the case, she needed to get out of here as fast as possible. I was the only one who had fighting experience here. "Callie, run!"
She looked at me like I was crazy. "What?"
"Run!"
Much to my chagrin, she didn't get a chance to. Before she could, I heard the slam! of a door. When I spun around, I saw that the other students along with Mr. Wilson had started screaming and backing towards the exit, but it looked like the giant named Marrow Sucker had slammed it shut with a ball. Some of the students were trying to pull it open, but it was of no use. It wouldn't budge.
"Let them go!" I yelled at the giants.
The one called Joe Bob growled at me. He had a tattoo on his biceps that said: JB luvs Babycakes. "And lose our tasty morsels? We first came here because of the scent of the half-blood next to you, Son of the Sea God, and your appearance is a nice surprise. But we Laistrygonians will not simply play for your death. We want lunch!"
He waved his hand and more dodgeballs appeared in the middle of the gym in a line. Except, these were not red and made of rubber, but they were bronze and the size of canon balls, with sharp knife points sticking out of them. For any mortal or demigod, picking them up would've cut through the skin like it was made of ribbons, but the giants were able to pick them up easily.
Callie was still standing next to me, frozen in place. I resisted the urge to scream. "Callie!"
Finally, that did it. She ran towards the other exit in the gym, which none of the other students or Mr. Wilson had attempted to walk through. Mortals aren't exactly smart sometimes, I guess.
But before she could open the door, Joe Bob waved his hand again. It audibly locked. The doors to the locker rooms slammed shut. We were all trapped.
"No one leaves unless you're out!" he roared. "And you're not out until we eat you!"
He launched one of the cannonballs at me. I dodged it right in the nick of time, watching as it made deep gouges in the gym's floor out of the corner of my eyes.
Hurriedly, I reached for Riptide. But then I realized, a pang of anger at my own idiocy rushing through me, I was still wearing my gym shorts. I had no pockets. Riptide was still tucked in my jeans in the locker room, leaving me utterly defenseless.
Another cannonball came after me – apparently, they really wanted me to die and get out of their way. I flattened myself to the ground to avoid it, but unfortunately I didn't realize what I'd done until it was too late.
"Flesh!" two giants bellowed at me, glaring. "Hero flesh for lunch!"
They took their aim.
"PERCY!" Callie screamed.
But her scream wasn't like one I had ever heard before. It was more than just a piercing, sharp cry: it reverberated in my eardrums, shocking me to my very core. My world visibly shook, and abruptly I felt something wet coming from my right ear. Instinctively, I dipped my fingers into the wetness, then brought my hand back down to inspect what it was. Red. Blood.
What the –
My left ear, although it hurt something awful, heard shrieks of pain. Looking up, I saw the two giants who had been trying to play a game of bowling where I was the pin were groaning, as were their companions. Their hands were clamped over their ears. As I watched, one of them, visibly shaking, popped into dust.
Right. Monsters had hypersensitive hearing.
"My brother!" Joe Bob the Cannibal wailed. "You will pay for his destruction!"
A third cannonball hurtled towards not me, but Callie, Joe Bob letting go of one of his ears to throw it. She scampered over towards me, the cannonball letting out a BOOM! as it collided with the wall.
"Percy, what are we going to do?" she pleaded, sounding as if she was underwater with my partial deafness.
I had an idea. It was an incredibly stupid idea, but it was the only one I had.
"Callie," I said. "I want you to scream again."
She gaped at me. "What?"
I repeated what I'd said, adding, "I don't know how you did it, but whatever happened to make you do it, think about it happening again, then scream!"
My friend looked like she would rather do anything else, but I watched as she instinctively sucked in a deep breath anyways. Turning away from me, she then let it out.
Of course, the fact that she wasn't facing me didn't matter. It was like a bomb had gone off right next to me. My other eardrum popped, the blood beginning to leak down the side of my neck. But even though I couldn't hear, I could see how two more of the giants vanished into dust, disintegrating.
That left three giants still standing.
I ran away from Callie, towards the door to the boys' locker room. Pivoting on my foot once I was there, I saw one of the remaining giants throw a cannonball at me. I forced myself to wait, counting down the seconds – one Mississippi, two Mississippi – before I dove aside.
Miraculously, the cannonball did not just bounce off of the doors like all the others previously had, but shattered them open. Thanking my patron for my luck, even though I knew she likely didn't have anything to do with it, I ran into the locker room and over to my locker. Quickly putting the code into the lock on it, I pulled it open and grabbed my jeans, searching, searching – aha!
By the time I got back outside, there was one giant left standing, Joe Bob. Like me and all of the other students besides Callie and Mr. Wilson, there was liquid coming from his ears. It didn't look like ichor, the blood of the gods, although it was gold, but something thicker...clumpier. Like sand.
I took this as a good sign.
Uncapping Riptide, I held the sword in its full glory. I hadn't done this in a while, not with the intent to fight or slay monsters, anyways. The weight of it felt good in my hand, regardless of how the mortals were continuing to freak out all around me.
Joe Bob and Callie both faced me; Sloan did too, not having left the court for some reason, but I digress. My friend's expression was horrified, the giant's drawn up in a snarl. I saw both of their mouths move, but I couldn't hear what they were saying.
"Ἀπόθῃσκε, Joe Bob!" I howled.
Then I charged.
I was a little rusty from not having fought for so long. Despite being able to dodge an umpteenth cannonball from him, I wasn't able to do the same with one of his hits. Pain erupted in my left shoulder as I was backhanded onto the ground, and I was pretty sure I felt something crunch.
Still, I came at him a second time. And this one, I was successful, as I thrusted out my sword into his side and pushed up. Golden sand poured out of his wound, and then he was gone, turned to dust just like the rest of his buddies.
Suddenly, all of the adrenaline left my body. Like a marionette that had its strings cut, I fell to the floor, Riptide clattering right next to me.
A moment later, a hand gripped my shoulder. I looked up and saw it was Callie. I tried giving her a smile. "Hey, not bad for your first monsters," I said. "You did a good job!"
She replied with...something.
I winced. "Cal, you shattered my eardrums. I can't hear shit."
She pointed past me.
Following her finger, I saw the exit that opened back out into the school had been opened. A lot of our classmates and our gym teacher were running through it, but there was a girl running in. Easily, I recognized her enough. Silena.
Shakily, I got to my feet. "Silena!" I spoke, but I had a feeling it was more of a shout. "Silena, what's – "
Behind her came Callie's father, Mr. Blofis. The three of them spoke, making gestures and expressions which I could decipher as arguing, but their voices were completely silent to me. In fact, I was a bit peeved about it. I really wanted to know what they were saying, especially at a time like this.
More people were appearing at the exit door. Students, teachers, the principal of the school, even what looked to be a handful of police officers and paramedics. At the sight of the latter two, I knew we couldn't stay.
Grabbing Callie by the wrist, I jerked my head towards the other exit doors, the ones that led out to the parking lot, to Silena. Understanding, she grabbed my other arm. Then I nodded to Mr. Blofis, because there was a...knowing glint to his eyes. He knew his daughter was a demigod. "Sorry, Mr. Blofis! We'll see you at the end of the summer!"
Then, even as Callie struggled against me, I led my friends out of the building.
Word Count: 3,097
Next Chapter Title: Fight Like An Ancient Greek
