Chapter Text
EVEN BEFORE I WAS ELECTROCUTED, I was having a weird day. A tall lady with cat eye glasses was peering down at me, deep brown eyes staring into my soul. “Name?” She asked in a scratchy voice. She held a clip board which I could make out had names on it. I paused for a minute. The weird thing was I couldn’t remember my name. A small voice at the back of my mind whispered ‘Jason.’ As that was the only thing I was currently able to go off, I mumbled out “Jason?” The lady peered down at me “Jason?” she repeated, before scanning down her list of names. “You’re on the list, get on the bus” She stepped out of the way to an entrance of a bright yellow school bus. Or at least what I thought a school bus would look like. For some reason I couldn’t recall ever going on an actual school bus before. I walked down the isle a few dozen kids sprawled in the seats in front of me, listening to iPods, talking, or sleeping. There was only one spot left on the bus and so I did the logical thing of walking over to sit on it.
As I ran over the few previous seconds of forgetting my own name, I slowly began to realise there was a lot of things about me that I didn’t know. I struggled to think of things I knew about myself. That was weird. The seat was at the very back of the bus, there were two kids who looked my age – weird I didn’t know my own age – fifteen? Sixteen? The back seats where a five-seater but the two teens, a girl and a boy occupied two seats each with their shoes on the seats. I took a breath and sat on the middle unoccupied seat. The girl wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket, her chocolate brown hair was shoulder length and choppily cut, like she had cut it herself. Her eyes stared me up and down, assessing me in a way, the weird part was it seemed like her eyes kept changing colour at first they where dark brown, but by the team they had reached the end of my body they looked emerald green. Black outlined her waterline, like old Egyptian kohl eyeliner. “Piper” She said settling her eyes on my face, it clicked a second later that must have been her name “Leo” she said pointing to the boy next to me. He had curly black hair and pointy ears, his smile was boyish, mischievous. “So, what’s your story then?” asked the boy that I assumed was Leo. I froze like a deer in headlights, I couldn’t remember why I was on this bus, I couldn’t remember where this bus was going, I couldn’t even remember my own last name. Piper rolled her eyes “Don’t mind Leo, he’s probably just looking for some new blackmail so he stops being the butt of all the jokes” Leo gave Piper the middle finger jokingly “Maybe I was just trying to make a friend, ever considered that?” I felt like I was in the middle of something, Leo and Piper knew each other, they were friends. “Jason” I said gesturing to myself “Do you know where we are going?” Leo and Piper shared a look. “Yeah…” said Piper “Grand Canyon, you know the big excursion we go to first day of Wilderness school, they raved about it for the first hour of information night. “Wilderness school?” I implored, highly confused.
Before either of the two could answer me, a loud voice captured the attention of all the kids on the bus. “All right, cupcakes, listen up!” A guy I assumed was a teacher shouted. 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 mouldy. 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. He would’ve looked scary if he hadn’t been five feet zero. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, “Stand up, Coach Hedge!” “I heard that!” The coach scanned the bus for the offender. “Coach Hedge” I repeated to myself, a technique I didn’t’ remember learning but knew it would help me remember names. Coch Hedge couldn’t find the offender. “We’ll leave in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don’t lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes causes any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way.” He picked up a baseball bat and made like he was hitting a homer.
Pieces clicked in my head, Wilderness school, this must be one of those ‘schools for troubled kids’ aiming to turn kids straight with being outdoors. “This is some kind of mistake” I said, “I’m not supposed to be here.” Leo laughed “Yeah, right, Jason. We’ve all been framed! I didn’t run away six times. Piper didn’t steal a BMW.” Piper scowled “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 me like, can you believe her? I decided that I was the only amnesiac here and would have to get a cover on why I was here to blend in until, well something was bound to happen soon enough. I put on a laugh agreeing with Leo. The bus finally began to move, and Piper rolled her eyes again – she did that a lot – and put in earphones before resting her head on the window looking at the rapidly increasing vast desert. Leo also quickly moved away his attentions from me to the outside world. His long, nimble fingers wouldn’t stop moving—drumming on the seat, sweeping his hair behind his ears, fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket. Either the kid was naturally hyper, or he was hopped up on enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo. I spent the rest of the bus ride thinking over who I was and what on earth I was meant to do when we got to the canyon.
The bus dropped us off in front of a big red stucco complex like a museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. Maybe that’s what it was: the National Museum of Nowhere, I thought. A cold wind blew across the desert. I hadn’t paid much attention to what I was wearing, but it wasn’t nearly warm enough, jeans and sneakers, a purple T-shirt, and a thin black windbreaker. I glanced apprehensively at the other kids: maybe twenty guys, half that many girls. None of them looked like hardened criminals, I wondered what they’d all done to get sentenced to a school for delinquents, and I wondered why I belonged with them. I stood with Piper and Leo because I sure didn’t know who else to stand with. One of the other guys dropped back to join us as the group was heading into the museum. The new guy wedged himself between me and Piper and knocked Leo down. “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. permanent blindness may occur. He wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey, Western jeans and boots, and he smiled like he was God’s gift to juvenile delinquent girls everywhere. I hated him instantly. “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, I’m gonna kill this guy. Leo got up and brushed himself off. “I hate that guy.” He offered me his arm, like we 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,” I said, “you’re weird.” “Yeah, I get that a lot.” Leo grinned.
We walked through the building, stopping here and there for Coach Hedge to lecture us with his megaphone, which alternately made him sound like a Sith Lord or blared out random comments like “The pig says oink.” Leo would smirk every time it happened, I predicted he was somehow behind it, that and the fact the first time it happened Piper turned to Leo giving him a look like ‘Really?’ , that was before Dylan pulled her away again. I 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. I figured these girls were the popular clique. They wore matching jeans and pink tops and enough makeup for a Halloween party. 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. Piper’s snowboarding jacket sleeves hid her hands, but I got the feeling she was clenching her fists. “My dad’s Cherokee,” she said. “Not Hualapai. ’Course, you’d need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel.” Isabel widened her eyes in mock surprise, so that she looked like an owl with a makeup addiction. “Oh, sorry! Was your 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 or I’ll break out my baseball bat!” The group shuffled on 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 too drunk to work,” another said with fake sympathy. “That’s why she turned klepto.” Piper ignored them, but I was ready to punch them myself. I might not know Piper, or even who I was, but I knew I hated mean kids. Leo caught my arm. “Be cool. Piper doesn’t like people fighting her battles. Besides, if those girls found out the truth about her dad, they’d be all bowing down to her and screaming, ‘We’re not worthy!’” “Why? What about her dad?” I asked confused, but Leo was already distracted by something else again.
“All right, cupcakes,” Coach Hedge announced. “You are about to see the Grand Canyon. Try not to break it. 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, as that would cause me extra paperwork.” The coach opened the doors, and they all stepped outside. The Grand Canyon spread 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.” I had to agree. I couldn’t help being impressed. The canyon was bigger and wider than you could appreciate from a picture. We were up so high that birds circled below our 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 I could see in any direction, red and grey ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it.
I felt a piercing pain behind my eyes. Crazy gods ... Where had I come up with that idea? I felt like I’d gotten close to something important—something I should know about. I also got the unmistakable feeling I was in danger. “You all right?” Leo asked. “You’re not going to throw up over the side, are you? ’Cause I should’ve brought my camera.” I grabbed the railing. I was shivering and sweaty, but it had nothing to do with heights. I blinked, and the pain behind my eyes subsided. “I’m fine,” I managed. “Just a headache.” Thunder rumbled overhead. A cold wind almost knocked me 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, huh?” I 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. I had a bad feeling about that. “All right, cupcakes!” Coach Hedge yelled. He frowned at the storm like it bothered him too. “We may have to cut this short” The storm rumbled, and my head began to hurt again. Not knowing why I did it, I reached into my jeans pocket and brought out a coin—a circle of gold the size of a half-dollar, but thicker and more uneven. 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. I put the coin away, wondering how I’d come to have it, and why I had the feeling I was going to need it soon.
“Come on,” said Leo. “Dare you to spit over the edge.” We didn’t try very hard on the worksheet. For one thing, I was too distracted by the storm and my own mixed-up feelings. For another thing, I didn’t have any idea how to “name three sedimentary strata you observe” or “describe two examples of erosion.” Leo was no help. He was too busy building a helicopter out of pipe cleaners. “Check it out.” He launched the copter. I figured it would plummet, but the pipe-cleaner blades actually spun. The little copter made it halfway across the canyon before it lost momentum and spiralled into the void. “How’d you do that?” I asked. Leo shrugged. “Would’ve been cooler if I had some rubber bands.” “Take the worksheet.” I handed Leo the paper. “I’ll be right back.” Before Leo could protest, I headed across the skywalk. Our school group had the place to ourselves. 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 dropping 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. She kept shoving him away, and when she saw me, she gave him a look like, I’m going to throttle this guy if he touches me again. I motioned for her to hang on. I walked up to Coach Hedge, who was leaning on his baseball bat, studying the storm clouds.
“Did you do this?” the coach asked me. I took a step back. “Do what?” It sounded like the coach had just asked if I’d made the thunderstorm. Coach Hedge glared at me, 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?” I asked. “I’m not one of your students?” Hedge snorted. “Never seen you before today.” I was so relieved I almost wanted to cry. At least I wasn’t going insane. I was in the wrong place. “Look, sir, I don’t know how I got here. I just woke up and was told to get 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. “I’ve been smelling monster 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?” Most of what the coach said didn’t make sense, but I decided to answer honestly. “I don’t know who I am. I don’t have any memories. You’ve got to help me.” Coach Hedge studied my face like was trying to read my thoughts. “Great,” Hedge muttered. “You’re being truthful.” “Of course I am! And what was all that about monsters and halfbloods? Are those code words or something?” Hedge narrowed his eyes. Part of me wondered if the 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 are you talking about?” Hedge looked 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 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?” The pain behind my eyes got worse than ever. Half-bloods. Camp. Monsters. I still didn’t know what Hedge was talking about, but the words gave me a massive brain freeze—like my mind was trying to access information that should’ve been there but wasn’t. I stumbled, and Coach Hedge caught me. For a short guy, 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?” I asked. “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. “I have to say something,” Hedge grumbled. He bellowed into his megaphone: “Everyone inside! The cow says moo! Off the skywalk!” “I thought you said this thing was stable!” I shouted over the wind. “Under normal circumstances,” Hedge agreed, “which these aren’t. Come on!”