Sky Boy ~~~ Jason Grace

~Chapter 1~

Jason POV

He woke in the backseat of a school bus, not sure where he was, holding hands with a girls he didn't know. That wasn't necessarily the rotten part. The girl was cute, but he knew she wasn't the girl that he could remember. No, the girl he could remember was sitting in front of him looking at him with mischievous brown eyes, and a small smile. 

The girl beside him squeezed his hand. "Jason, you okay?" 

Jason let go of her hand. "Um, I don't--"

In the front of the crowed bus, a teacher shouted, "All right, cupcakes, listen up!" 

The guy was obviously a coach. He wore a baseball cap, a bright orange polo shirt, nylon workout pants, spotless white Nike's, a megaphone, and a whistle which hung from his neck. He could have been scary except for his unusually small stature of five foot zero. 

"Stand up, Coach Hedge!" One of the student shouted. 

The coach's beady eyes scanned the bus for the offender until they landed on Jason who felt a jolt go through his spine. Jason was sure he was going to be called out and interrogated about why he was on the bus- and Jason wouldn't have a clue about what to say. 

In the end coach looked away and cleared his throat, "We'll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don't loose your worksheet. And if any of you cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip I will personally send you back to campus the hard way." 

He picked a baseball bat and made it like he was hitting a homer. 

Jason looked at the girl next to him. "Can he talk to us that way?" 

She shrugged. "Always does. This is the Wilderness School. 'Where the kids are the animals.' " 

She said it like it was a joke they had shared before. Not that Jason could remember. 

"This is some kind of mistake," Jason said. "I'm not supposed to be here." 

The boy beside the mystery girl turned and laughed. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Piper didn't steal a BMW. And Lily didn't set a restaurant on fire." 

The girl blushed. "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 Jason like, Can you believe her?

The girl, now know as Lily, smacked Leo on the back of the head. "I didn't set the restaurant on fire, I just was in the kitchen when the oven exploded." 

Leo smacked the girl on the back of the head, which started a wrestling match between the two in the bus seat. After they had settled down Jason could see how they may be related. They shared the same curly black hair, pointy ears, babyish faces that bore cheerful eyes and mischievous smiles. The same smiles that told you that neither should be trusted around matches or sharp objects. The both had long nimble fingers never seemed to stop moving.  Either they were both naturally hyper of they were hopped up on enough sugar and caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo. 

"Anyway," Leo said, "I hope you've got your worksheet because we used ours for spit wads days ago. Why are you looking at me like that? Did Lily draw on my face again."

"I don't know you," Jason said .

Leo gave him a crocodile grin. "Sure. I'm not your best friend. I'm his evil twin Lily."

"Leo Valdez!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front of the pack school bus. "Problem back there?"

Leo and Lily winked at Jason. "Watch this." Leo turned and yelled, "Sorry, Coach! I was having trouble hearing you could you use your megaphone, please?" 

Coach grunted like he was pleased to have an excuse. He unclipped the megaphone from his belt and continued giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader's. The kids on the bus cracked up. The disgruntled coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: "The cow says moo!"

The kids howled, and the coach slammed down the megaphone. "Valdez! Which one of you did it?" 

Piper stifled a laugh. "My god, Leo. How did you guys manage to pull that off?" 

Leo slipped a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve while Lily pulled wires from her jacket pocket. "We are special kids."

"Guys, seriously," Jason pleaded. "What am I doing here? Where are we going?"

Piper knit her eyebrows. "Jason, are you joking?"

"No! I have no idea-"

"Aw, yeah, he's joking," Leo said. "He's trying to get us back for that shaving cream and Jell-O, aren't you?"

Jason stared at him blankly.

"No, I think he's serious." Piper tired to take his hand again, but he pulled away.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't---I can't---"

"That's it!" Coach hedge yelled from the front. "The back row had just volunteered to clean up after lunch!" 

The rest of the kids cheered while Lily just groaned.

"There's a shocker," Leo muttered.

But Piper kept her eyes on Jason, like she couldn't decide whether to be hurt or worried. "Did you hit your head or something? You really don't know who we are?"

Jason just shrugged helplessly, and looked at the long hair Valdez in front of him. "It's worse than that. I don't know who I am."

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How was that for a first chapter. As you may have noticed I'm trying to stick really close to the book. All right to this book and characters goes to Rick Riordan.