love and war | p.j & a.c¹

1.01

Tyson yelled, "Percy, duck!"

They were throwing the balls at the speed of sound. I glared in their direction, "Hey, you could kill someone!"

"Yeah!" Percy cut in, "What the hell are you doing?"

The visitor named Joe Bob grinned at us evilly, "I hope so, Perseus Jackson and Divinia Harris! I hope so!"

Divinia Harris? My name was Diana. The way he said it sent a chill down my spine, and the way he called Percy 'Perseus'. It was strange, I had no idea Percy was short for something.

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.

Matt Sloan dropped his ball. "Whoa! You're not from Detroit! Who ..."

I stared at them in shock, what the hell? Who were these people?!

The other kids on his team started screaming and backing toward the exit, but the giant named Marrow Sucker threw a ball with deadly accuracy. It streaked past Raj Mandali just as he was about to leave and hit the door, slamming it shut like magic. Raj and some of the other kids banged on it desperately but it wouldn't budge.

"Let them go!" Percy yelled at the giants.

The one called Joe Bob growled at him. He had a tattoo on his biceps that said : JB luvs Babycakes. "And lose our tasty morsels? No, Son of the Sea God. We Laistrygonians aren't just playing for your death. We want lunch!"

He waved his hand and a new batch of dodgeballs appeared on the center line—but these balls weren't made of red rubber. They were bronze, the size of cannon balls, perforated like wiffle balls with fire bubbling out the holes. They must've been searing hot, but the giants picked them up with their bare hands.

"What the hell!" I yelped as i stumbled backwards, "What are you?!"

"We are Laistrygonians, half blood. And we want our tasty lunch."

Half blood? What the-

"Coach!" Percy yelled.

Nunley looked up sleepily, but if he saw anything abnormal about the dodgeball game, he didn't let on.

"Yeah. Mm-hmm," Coach muttered. "Play nice."

I gulped, i had a feeling that these Laistrygonians wouldn't take that advice.

The giant named Skull Eater threw his ball. Percy dove aside as the fiery bronze comet sailed past his shoulder.

"Corey!" Percy screamed.

Tyson pulled him out from behind the exercise mat just as the ball exploded against it, blasting the mat to smoking shreds.

"Run!" he told our teammates. "The other exit!"

I shivered all over but I didn't run, i kept my feet planted on the ground. No way was I going to let my best friends be pummeled by a bunch of freaks with cannonballs. Our teammates ran for the locker room, but with another wave of Joe Bob's hand, that door also slammed shut.

"No one leaves unless you're out!" Joe Bob roared. "And you're not out until we eat you!"

He launched his own fireball. My teammates scattered as it blasted a crater in the gym floor.

Percy reached for the non existent pockets in his gym shorts. Another fireball came streaking toward him. I did probably the stupidest thing i could have done, and ran to tackle Percy to the floor. 

The explosion still blew us head over heels. I found myself sprawled on the gym floor, dazed from smoke, my tie-dyed T-shirt peppered with sizzling holes. Just across the center line, two hungry giants were glaring down at me.