The Extinction of Heroes

Chapter 1: My Coach is a One Eyed Freak

Brace's POV:

"I've got this image

Engraved in my mind

Of a life that I had,

In a whole different time."

American Authors~ "Home"

The day started off fairly normal. My classes were challenging as usual. I always struggled because of my dyslexia. The words never lined up right, numbers got reversed. I always had to get at least Cs so I could stay eligible for basketball.

Basketball was the most important thing in my life. It calmed my ADHD, and it was about the only thing in the world that brought my mom and I together.

My mom hated my dad. When she was eighteen he got her pregnant and left her. I can see her reasoning, and sometimes I hat him too. At the same time, he's my dad. I've always wanted to know more about him.

It also doesn't help that I don't take after my mom much. While my mom is blonde, I have my father's brunette hair. Her eyes are green, mine are grey. She's beautiful. People say I look like her with different hair and eye color. I don't know about that.

Our personalities aren't entirely different. That's one thing that we sometimes have problems with. We're both stubborn, no one is ever willing to back down from an argument.

But basketball helps our relationship. My mom loves bragging to her friends about how her daughter plays in the varsity team. She loves cheering me on. I think it makes her feel like she succeeded as a parent, even though she was so young.

Although after today I'm not so sure I'll ever play basketball again. After school we had practice. It's an hour long. Sixty minutes, thirty-six hundred seconds. But today, Coach Cane cut practice short.

Coach Cane was a big guy. He had dark skin, and dark hair. His eyes were two different colors, one blue and one brown. That always struck me as odd but I never thought too much about it.

As I walked out of the locker room he called me, "Rivers, come to my office." I grabbed my phone and slid it into my pants. I was wearing athletic shorts so I just stuck my phone between the elastic waist and my skin.

I walked into his office. I didn't know what this was about. I feared it was about eligibility. I was struggling in algebra. I came through the door and Coach Cane was quick to shut it. I looked at him and right before my eyes his two eyes changed to one murky blue one.

"I smell Ares blood," he practically growled.

"Coach? What's this about? Is this about basketball?" I said. I wasn't sure what was happening. He had one eye!

"You know! My leader wants as many of your kind as she can get. A daughter if Ares! You'll make a great soldier in her army," he said, sounding pleased with himself.

"I'm gonna go now," I say, taking a slow step back.

"NO!" He literally doubles in size and reaches a hand out to grab me.

I dodge to the side and run to the door. I throw it open and run out. He's right on my tail. I run to the athletic supply closet. I hurled many volleyballs and basketballs as I can at him. He doesn't seem to be very fazed. I grab a golf club and charge at him. I try to hit him but he nearly snaps it in half.

I finally stab it in his eye. He falls to the ground clutching it, yelling really loud. At that moment a boy and a girl walk in the gym. The boy has black hair and sea colored eyes, the girl has blonde hair and gray eyes. He looks at Coach then at me.

He takes a pen out of his pocket and uncaps it. A bronze sword comes out. My eyes widen. They nearly fall out of my head when he stabs the one eyed coach.

The boy looks up at me, "Hello, I'm Percy Jackson, and I need you to come with me."

+++

After the crazy afternoon I had, I followed Percy and Annabeth, I learned was the girl's name. Maybe it was bad judgement, but I wasn't sure what was going on, and they had just saved my life.

Percy looked at me, "What did he say to you?"

I shook my head, "He kept talking about Ares blood, whatever that is."

Annabeth pointed at my waist, "Is that an iPhone?"

"Yes," I said, "Why?"

"Give me that, it's a practically monster magnet!" She said. I gave it to her hesitantly. She threw it at the ground and stomped on it a few times. They both continued walking at a fast pace. My phone was a shattered pile of metal.

I stared at it in disbelief. I stopped walking and they both turned around.

"Stop! I don't know you, my coach attacked me, and you two practically kidnap me, and you destroy my phone!" Percy put his hand on my shoulder.

"Look, I know it's crazy, but it'll only get crazier. You have a right not to trust us, but if you want to live we're your only hope," He said. So I followed him, because if more monsters like Coach Cane came around, he was right.

We reached an abandoned hotel, and Annabeth said,"Here's your new home."