EURYDICE || Percy Jackson

2 - Storm Spirits

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STORM SPIRITS
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THE STORM CHURNED into a mini hurricane. Funnel clouds snaked toward the skywalk like the tendrils of a monster jellyfish.

Kids screamed and ran for the building. The wind snatched away their notebooks, jackets, hats, and backpacks. Jason skidded across the slick floor and saved Leo from falling over the railing.

"Go! Go! Go!" Coach Hedge yelled.

Piper and Dylan were holding the doors open, hearing kids inside. Piper's snowboarding jacket was flapping wildly, her dark hair was all in her face. Laviana though she must have been freezing, but she looked calm enough for someone who could die in 5 seconds.

Laviana, Jason, Leo and coach Hedge ran toward them, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to fight them, pushing them back.

Dylan and Piper pushed one more kid inside, then lost their grip on the doors. They slammed shut, closing off the skywalk.

Piper tugged at the handles. Inside, the kids pounded on the glass, but the Dora seemed to be stuck.

"Dylan, help!" Piper shouted.

But Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin, his cowboys jersey ripping in the wind, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm.

"Sorry, Piper," he said. "I'm done helping."

He flicked his wrist, and Piper flew backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck.

"Piper!" Jason tried to charge forward, but the wind was against him, and Coach Hedge pushed him back.

"Coach," Jason said, "let me go!"

"Jason, Laviana, Leo, stay behind me," the coach ordered. "This is my fight. I should've known that was our monster."

"What?" Leo demanded. A rogue worksheet slapped him in the face, but he swatted it away. "What monster?"

That coach's cap blew off, and sticking up above his curly hair were two bumps, like the kind of knots Laviana imagined you would get if you were hit on the head hard enough. Coach Hedge lifted his baseball bat, but it wasn't a regular bat anyone, somehow it had changed into a crudely shaped tree-branch club, with twigs and leaves still attached.

Dylan gave him that psycho smile. "Oh, come on, Coach. Let the boy attack me! After all, you're getting too old for this it's time that why they retired you to this stupid school? I've been on your team the entire season, and you didn't even know. You're losing your nose, grandpa."

The coach made an angry sound like an animal bleating. "That's it cupcake. You're going down."

"You think you can protect three half-bloods at once, old man?" Dylan laughed. "Good luck."

Dylan pointed at Leo, and a funnel cloud materialized around him. Leo flew off the skywalk like he'd been tossed, someone how he managed to twist in midair, and slammed sideways into the canyon wall. He skidded, clawing furiously for any handhold. Finally he grabbed a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk and hung there by his fingertips.

"Help!" He yelled up at them. "Rope, please? Bungee cord? Something?"

Coach hedge cursed and tossed Jason his club, which Laviana thought was stupid. Apparently he knew her, and he gave the weapon to the new kid. "I don't know who you are, kid, but I hope you're as good as James. You two keep that thing busy" he stabbed a thumb at Dylan "while I get Leo."