Child of Zeus {Interactive Story} (PJO/HOO/TOA)

ONE: Killer Volleyball Game

It happened every year - or so I'd been told.

Okay, listen. I was a kid with many problems. ADHD...Dyslexia...You name it. That doesn't really do me any good at school.

I can't focus in my classes. I get bored too easily. I don't like being crammed in a small school for six and a half hours a day.

Basically, I was a below C average student who got into a lot of trouble. Most of the time, it wasn't my fault. Regardless of that, I'd been kicked out of every school I'd been in since the third grade the same year I enrolled in it.

This year, I was determined to be good.

It was already June, anyway. I was in the home stretch. It was June twelfth. Two-and-a-half weeks more, and I'd be at home with my mom and dad. And in September, I'd be getting ready to come back here. Then maybe I could actually partake in this 'school tradition'.

It was a volleyball game. I know - what could be so special about a volleyball game? Well, the Barton Middle School Panthers's were here to play against our team; the Dorianne Middle School Lizards.

Now, you're probably laughing. Wow, lizards. That sure sounds intimidating. But don't let the name fool you, because our Lizards were aggressive and tough to beat.

I mean, I'd never actually seen the girls play, but Johnny Overwood - my best friend - had told me nonstop how amazing they were.

Apparently, the games were legendary. It was a year-end game for fun, but the bragging rights were suppose to be the equivalent of untold riches.

There was never a long-running streak. Usually, one team won one year, the opposite team the next, and so on. Sometimes, if they were really lucky, a team would get two years in the lime-light. Last year the Panthers had won, and our whole school was determined to make sure it didn't happen again.

"Wait until the first game is done," Johnny smiled excitedly as we took our seats on the crowded stands. Our backs were turned to the school. Since it wasn't raining, the games were outside in the heat of the sun. This meant that the bleachers were moved around the volleyball court - as if closing off the exit for those playing the game.

Though Dorianne was a small school, building- and student-wise, we made up for it in school spirit and sporting fields; a football field, a race track, basketball courts, tennis nets. Behind the football field, there was a forest that stretched way out. Why anyone thought it was a good idea to put a school near the woods, I had no clue. All I was sure of was that there was a legend of a ghost in there, and everyone stayed away.

Ghosts, ha.

Personally, I was never a big sports fan, and I didn't try out to join any teams. But we were the most competitive school I'd ever been to when it came down to athletics, and the games were always exciting.

"The Panthers pick someone from our school to sub in with our team, and the Lizards do the same for Barton." I wasn't sure how that worked out, but Johnny seemed happy enough about it.

He was a scrawny 5'5" guy, and cried a lot when he was stressed, or upset, or frustrated. He had shaggy blonde hair hidden under a green DORIANNE MS cap (which he always wore), light skin and soft blue eyes. Despite us only being in seventh grade, he had acne and whiskers on his chin. I'd always secretly wondered if he'd been held back several grades.

Sitting down in his green muscle-shirt and a brown jacket and jeans and sneakers, packed next to the six-hundred other students from Dorianne sporting the same school colours, you might not see anything wrong with him. But Johnny had a problem.