𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬'𝐬 𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 • 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺 𝘫𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘰𝘯

Laistrygonians

"No way, Jackson," said the guy. "Who is that? She is not your—" 

"Give it back!"

Percy was blushing, his ears were pink.

The guy handed the photo to his ugly buddies, who snickered and started ripping it up to make spit wads. They were new kids who must've been visiting because they were all wearing those stupid HI! MY NAME IS: tags from the admissions office. They must've had a weird sense of humour, too, because they'd all filled in strange names like MARROW SUCKER, SKULL EATER, andJOE BOB. No human beings had names like that. 

"These guys are moving here next year," the guy bragged."I bet they can pay the tuition, too, unlike your retard friend." 

"He's not retarded." 

"You're such a loser, Jackson. Good thing I'm gonna put you out of your misery next period." 

His huge buddies chewed up my photo. I wanted to pulverize them, but I was under strict orders from Chiron never to take my anger out on regular mortals, no matter how obnoxious they were. I had to save my fighting for monsters.

The bell rang.

Percy was about to leave, so I took my chance.

"Percy!" I whispered-shouted.

He turned around, but he didn't see me. I forgot I had the invisibility magic. 

Before I could try calling him again, a crowd of kids rushed for the gym, carrying Percy and another guy along with them. 

~

The gym uniform at Meriwether is sky blue shorts and tie-dyed T-shirts.

We decided not to join Percy in the changing room. That was a sight I hoped to never see.

When we got into the gym, the Coach was sitting at his little desk reading SportsIllustrated. He looked about a million years old, with bifocals and no teeth and a greasy wave of grey hair. He reminded me of the Oracle at Camp Half-Blood. 

The guy who was teasing Percy before said, "Coach, can I be captain?" 

"Eh?" the Coach looked up from his magazine. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Mm-hmm."

The guy grinned and took charge of the picking. He made Percy the other team's captain but it didn't matter who Percy picked, because all the jocks and the popular kids moved over to the guy's side. So did the big group of visitors. 

The guy spilt a cage full of balls in the middle of the gym.

A horrible feeling formed in my gut and I winced, this wasn't going to end well.

"Scared," a big guy in Percy's team mumbled. "Smell funny." 

Percy looked at him. "What smells funny?"

"Them." he pointed at the visitors. "Smell funny." 

They were cracking their knuckles, eyeing Percy's team like it was slaughter time. 

I wonder where they're from. 

Someplace where they fed kids raw meat and beat them with sticks, probably. 

The guy blew the coach's whistle and the game began. His team ran for the centre line. On Percy's side, one guy yelled something in Urdu and ran for the exit. Another guy tried to crawl behind the wall mat and hide. The rest of Percy's team did their best to cower in fear and not look like targets.