✦ ۰ —ᣞ ACT . ONE i.
chasing shadows
a. ﹙ born ﹚ leader : 🎥
" when you are young they assume you know nothing. "
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december 18th.
YOU.
——- Y/n's story began as every great story did; crammed into a bus full of annoying teenagers, heading straight for the largest canyon in America. With the way her headache progressed, she seriously considered jumping into the canyon when they arrived.
She's leaning against something, half asleep. The bus hits a bump and Y/n jolts up. Her eyes finally adjust to the bright light emitting from the snow and sun outside, pooling into the bus. She rubs her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie and yawns loudly.
"You okay over there?" A voice called out right next to her. The thing her head was resting upon had turned out to be a boy around her age, with black, curly hair that stuck out in every direction, like it couldn't be tamed. He had dark brown eyes, brown skin, and a goofy smile on his face.
Y/n didn't recognize him — she was certain she had never met him in her entire life. And the same went for everyone else. She knew nobody on this bus. Deciding against making a big scene about it, Y/n looked to the boy, nodded, and stuck a cold hand in her pocket. She felt something equally chilly, hard and square hit again her hand, and so she inspected it; it was a smartphone.
The boy next to her turned around to talk to someone as Y/n turned the phone on. She pressed the on button, and it opened up to a lock screen that had a picture of her and a girl she didn't recognize either. Except, she knew that she did know her, and just couldn't remember. She had that feeling.
The girl had dark black hair worn in a ponytail, a mole under her eye, glowing tan skin, and threw up a peace sign in the picture while wearing a t-shirt with a black flannel. Her wrist was decorated with bracelets, one of which had a name on it. Y/n turned the phone to try and read it; it said 'Y/n'.
Is that her name? Oh man, I don't even remember my name. The name on that bracelet sounds familiar, but I can't place it. She thought as she tried to remember the password to the phone. After a couple of tries, Y/n sighed in frustration. She dropped the phone on her lap when she saw a polaroid picture stuck in between the phone and the clear case.
It was another picture of her and that girl, but this time they were at what looked to be an amusement park. This picture was taken at the very top of a Ferris wheel, and it had a date written at the bottom; 6-15-XX. This summer?
Next to the date, was a little note that said 'Never forget', followed by a poorly drawn heart. She shrugged, and opened up the phone again, putting that date in as the password this time. When the home screen opened up to her, Y/n muttered a short 'yes!' in excitement.
"Dude, ya know we're not supposed to have those! Put it back before you get us in trouble..." The boy next to her said in a hushed tone, pushing the phone towards her pocket, where she reluctantly put it back.
"Oh, she's awake? Morning N/n!" A female voice said from behind her. Y/n sat up, turned, and saw a gorgeous girl, with choppy brown hair, bangs, and eyes that seemed to shift colors. "Morning..." She muttered back.
She looked to the right to see another boy, this one with short blond hair, and a scar on his lip. He looked, well, confused.
"Well, now the whole gang's up! Sweet." The brown-haired boy said, wearing the same goofy smile on his face.
"Yeah, too bad we're cramped in this bus for another half hour." The girl said, crossing her arms.
"Leo Valdez! Problem back there?!" A loud, husky voice scolded. The kid next to her — Leo, Y/n presumed — turned to look at her for a second. "Hey, watch this," he said, before standing up and cupping his mouth with his hands, "Sorry, coach, I'm having trouble hearing you!"
Y/n sat up higher to get a better look at the coach — he was a stubby old man, shorter than her, and had a look on his face like he had eaten something sour. He grunted, seemingly pleased to have a reason to use the megaphone clipped to his side. He unclipped it and brought it to his mouth. When he repeated what he said previously, his voice sounded robotic, like Darth Vader's. He brought it back down and examined it as the kids on the bus chuckled.
He attempted to speak into it again when it said "The cow goes moo!"
The coach looked like he was about to explode. His face went slightly red when he yelled, "Valdez!"
Leo lightly laughed in the seat next to Y/n, trying to hold it in. "My god, Leo, how did you do that?" The pretty girl laughed.
Leo just slipped a small Phillips head screwdriver from his jacket sleeve and said "I'm a special boy."
"Guys, seriously." The blond guy began. "What am I doing here? Where are we going?" His look of confusion turned to worry. Y/n turned more to look at him, and when she met his eyes and understood; they were in the same situation. She shot him a knowing look, and he responded with the same one.
The two had a silent conversation, and if it were spoken out loud, would've gone something like 'Dude, I have no idea what I'm doing here either.'
"Jason, are you joking?" The girl furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.
Leo sighed. "Aw, yeah, he's joking. Are you trying to get me back for the shaving cream on Jello thing?"
"No, I think he's serious..." The brown-haired girl tried to hold his hand, but Jason pulled away.
"I'm sorry. I don't — I can't —"
"That's it! The back row has just volunteered to clean up after lunch!" The coach yelled, earning groans from the back of the bus.
Leo rolled his eyes, "That's a shocker." He muttered sarcastically.
The girl continued to look at Jason, with a look of both confusion and hurt. "Did you hit your head or something? You really don't know who we are?"
Jason's shoulders lowered as he looked to the ground, "It's worse than that. I don't even know who I am."
The girl and Leo exchanged a look of worry, as Y/n kept her eyes on Jason. He looked back up at her with pleading eyes. He didn't have to say anything, she knew what Jason wanted — he wanted Y/n to tell the others about her memory loss as well.
And just as she opened her mouth, about to confess, the coach began yelling again. "You two!" He began, pointing to Y/n and Leo, who were on their knees, and turned around towards Jason and the brown-haired girl whose name Y/n still didn't know, or, remember.
"You sit your butts down before you have to sit with me!" He ordered. In fear of having to sit next to him, Leo jumped down quickly, pulling Y/n with him.
Once coach was off their tails, Leo looked to Y/n. "Y/n? You okay? You've been weirdly quiet. Usually, you talk my ear off during things like this." He joked, attempting to bring the mood back up after Jason's confession.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just, tired. Still." She responded. She wanted to tell him but figured it would be easier to tell both him and the brown-haired girl at the same time rather than explain it twice.
"I would say that's surprising, considering you slept for a whole two hours on the way here, but you've slept for 15 hours straight before." He laughed while shrugging.
Y/n wished she could remember that. She wished they actually were her friends, but deep inside, she knew; that never happened. And she also knew, that before, whatever this is, she never had a lot of friends. She could tell, based on the foreign feeling inside of her when those two talked to her like they were all buddies. Y/n had a feeling that girl in her phone is, or was, the only person close to her.
She smiled at him, going along with what he said. "Yeah, I feel like I could sleep for a whole 'nother day."
"I'm willing to bet twenty dollars you can't." He grinned down at her. He seemed happy that she was okay after the 'Jason Situation'. At least, he thought she was. Y/n felt bad leading him on like that, but the truth is, she didn't even know what to say. She didn't know her own name before they talked to her. How does someone just casually bring that up?
"Alright, bet. Next time I'm free for a whole day, I'll be earning $20." She answered, smugly. Y/n felt it was nice to have a friend like this, but she had a feeling it wouldn't last long. She had a lot of feelings. Particularly bad ones.
— ( ☆ ) —
The bus stopped in front of a huge, mostly glass-covered museum settled in the middle of nowhere. Y/n stood outside, with her hands in her hoodie pockets, slightly shivering. She was wearing a f/b/a (fav band or artist) hoodie, plain blue jeans, and sneakers. Definitely not winter attire. The wind blew her h/l hair around, making her eyes slightly water.
"So, crash course for the amnesiac," Leo began, smiling like what he was gonna say would be more humorous than helpful. "Our school, the 'Wilderness School', is for the 'bad kids'. Your parents, family, guardian, court, or whatever deemed you too troublesome, dangerous, or just annoying and sent you off to this borderline prison in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada, where you learn valuable life skills, like running ten miles a day through desert terrain, training you for the 'real world'. And the cherry on top; Coach Hedge takes us on educational field trips while disciplining the bad kids, which are all of us, with a baseball bat. Ringing any bells?" Leo explained, using his hands to talk like he couldn't keep still for a second.
If the explanation was directed towards her, Y/n's answer would've been the same as Jason's was; "No." He said, simply.
She followed Jason's eyes to the crowd of students who were separated from them like the four of them were the outcasts in the School of Outcasts, which was saying something. There were around 30-35 teenagers, all cramped in front of a boring-looking museum. None of the kids looked like they deserved to be here, and instead like they had rich, strict parents who had too much money and not enough time for them, so they sent them off here as a 'disciplinary action'.
Leo rolled his eyes at Jason's response. "You're really gonna keep this going? Fine. Me, you, Y/n, and Piper all started here this semester, we're totally the best of friends, like, ever. You do everything me and Y/n say, like our chores, give us your desserts, and-"
"Leo, knock it off!" The girl, Piper, said with a stern face.
"You're no fun." Leo crossed his arms. "Sorry bro, just ignore that last part, I guess. The rest is true, though, we are friends. Well, Piper's been a little, more, to you these past few weeks — "
"Leo!" Piper exclaimed, turning red. Jason also had a light pink hue dusted on his cheeks. Lucky him. Y/n thought.
Piper turned her face back over to Leo. "He's got amnesia or something, we've gotta tell somebody."
"Who, Coach Hedge? He'll just wack him in the head with his bat, and that only worked for the Avengers. Jason will just get a concussion." Leo scoffed.
Piper leaned in closer when she heard Coach Hedge yelling orders. "Leo, he's probably already got a concussion. He needs help-"
"Yo, Piper." A male voice interrupted her. He hung back as the rest of the class entered the building to talk to our group.
"Don't talk to these bottom feeders, you're in our group, remember?" The guy motioned back to his friend who stood by the door, waiting.
He had short dark hair and blinding white teeth. He wore a football jersey, bootcut jeans, and cowboy boots. Just by looking at him, Y/n could tell he thought he was the coolest person there. Delusional people, right?
"Go away, Dylan. I didn't ask to work with you." Piper said through her teeth.
"Aw, that's no fun. Come on, I'm way better company." He looked his arm through here when he whispered something in her ear. Y/n couldn't hear it over the wind, but it looked like Leo did since he was closer to Piper than she was. He scowled at Dylan, and Piper did too. She shot a look back at her friends, practically pleading for help. If Y/n didn't know any better, she would've waltzed right up to him and punched him in the nose, to return her friend.
Or at least, the person who thought they were friends. Y/n was hoping to tell both Leo and Piper about her memory loss while they were all together, but now Piper's gone, so she'll have to wait again.
Leo stood with his arms still crossed, then unhooked them and began waving them in the air mockingly, "I'm Dylan and I'm soooooooo hot! I wish I could date myself because I'm so cool, and hot!" He said, glaring at Dylan's back.
Y/n laughed, and Leo smiled at her. "Leo, you're weird," Jason informed.
"Yeah, I get that a lot. But on the bright side, if you don't remember me that means I can reuse all of my good jokes, now come on!" He grinned, walking into the building with the two following in tow. Jason shot Y/n a look and whispered under his breath.
"You don't remember anything either, do you?" He asked in a hushed tone, so Leo wouldn't hear.
Y/n sighed. "No, I don't. I didn't know my name until Leo said." She confessed.
"When are you gonna tell them?"
"Well, I was waiting for a moment to tell them both since it's easiest, but Piper's gone, so." She shrugged.
"As much as I wanna feel bad for you, I'm somewhat glad I'm not alone." Jason smiled at the girl, and she returned it.
"Hurry up you two! Run if you have to, jeez." Leo exclaimed turning to look at them.
Y/n rolled her eyes and chuckled, catching up to her new, weird, curly-haired friend.
unedited.
a/n: wow, a percy jackson fic in 2022?! 😱 that's crazy! anyways i'm rereading hoo and felt like making this, i doubt it'll get any reads but whatever.