EVEN BEFORE THEY GOT ELECTROCUTED, Jason and Aimee were having a rotten day.
Aimee woke in the backseat of a school bus, not sure where she was, holding hands with a boy she didn't know. That wasn't necessarily the rotten part. The boy was attractive, but she couldn't figure out who he was or what she was doing there. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, trying to think.She couldn't recognize her surroundings.
A few dozen kids sprawled in the seats in front of her, listening to iPods, talking, or sleeping. They all looked around her age ... fifteen? Sixteen? Okay, that was scary. She didn't know her own age.
The bus rumbled along a bumpy road. Out the windows, desert rolled by under a bright blue sky. Aimee was certain she didn't live in the desert. She tried to think back ... the last thing she remembered ...
She heard a voice behind her. "Jason,you okay?"
Aimee looked over her seat to find Jason holding hands with a girl in faded jeans,hiking boot and a fleece snowboarding jacket. But that wasn't the first thing that Aimee noticed,the girl's choppy chocolate brown hair was what really caught her eye. It was uneven and had thin strands braided down the side. She had no makeup and Aimee decided that she didn't need it,the girl was pretty enough without it.
Jason looked up at Aimee. "Um,I don't know-"
Aimee felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to find the boy sitting next to her looking right at her.
"Aimee are you okay?"
Aimee almost smiled,almost. She nodded slightly answer the boy even though she wasn't okay at all. She had no memory of anything before waking up on the school bus and from what she could see,Jason didn't either.
In the front of the bus, a teacher shouted, "All right, cupcakes, listen up!"
The guy was obviously a coach. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could just see his beady eyes. He had a wispy goatee and a sour face, like he'd eaten something moldy. His buff arms and chest pushed against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon workout pants and Nikes were spotless white. A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. He would've looked pretty scary if he hadn't been five feet zero. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, "Stand up, Coach Hedge!"
"I heard that!" The coach scanned the bus for the offender. When his eyes found Jason and Aimee,his scowl deepened.
A jolt went down Aimee's spine. She was sure the coach knew her and Jason didn't belong there. He was going to call them out, demand to know what they were doing on the bus—and neither of them would have a clue what to say.
But Coach Hedge looked away and cleared his throat. "We'll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. Don't lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes causes any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way."
He picked up a baseball bat and made 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 kids are the animals.'"
She said it like it was a joke they'd shared before.
Jason looked at Aimee who shrugged. They couldn't remember a thing but each other. They knew that they'd known each other for a long time but nothing past that.
"This is some kind of mistake," Jason said. "We're not supposed to be here."
Aimee nodded in agreement as the boy next to her turned and laughed. "Yeah, right, Jason. We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Piper didn't steal a BMW."
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?
Aimee was lost in thought as she stared at the boy. He looked like a Latino Santa's elf, with curly black hair, pointy ears, a cheerful, babyish face, and a mischievous smile that told you right away this guy should not be trusted around matches or sharp objects. His long, nimble fingers wouldn't stop moving—drumming on the seat, sweeping his hair behind his ears, fiddling with the buttons of his army fatigue jacket. Either the kid was naturally hyper or he was 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, 'cause I used mine for spit wads days ago."
Aimee made a little face at the thought of spit wads. "Gross."
Leo finally noticed how Jason was looking at him and checked his reflection in the window."Why are you looking at me like that? Somebody draw on my face again?"
"We don't know you," Aimee said. Aimee gave Jason a look out of the side of her eyes. He nodded slightly knowing what the look meant.
Leo gave her a crocodile grin. "Sure. I'm not your boyfriend or Jason's best friend. I'm his evil clone."
Aimee and Jason's eyes widened when they heard him call himself her boyfriend. Heck she just fucking met this boy. Aimee was about to say something when she was interrupted by Coach Hedge.
"Leo Valdez!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front. "Problem back there?"
Leo winked at Aimee. "Watch this." He turned to the front. "Sorry, Coach! I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?"
Coach Hedge 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 cracked up. The coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared: "The cow says moo!"
The kids howled, and the coach slammed down the megaphone. "Valdez!"
Piper stifled a laugh. "My god, Leo. How did you do that?"
Leo slipped a tiny Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. "I'm a special boy."
"Guys, seriously," Jason pleaded. "What are we doing here? Where are we going?"
Piper knit her eyebrows. "Jason,Aimee?you guys are joking right?"
"No! I have no idea—"
"Aw, yeah, of course they are joking," Leo said. "They are trying to get me back for that shaving cream on the Jell-O thing, aren't you?"
Both Jason and Aimee stared at him blankly.
"No, I think they are being serious." Piper tried to take Jason's hand again, but he pulled it away.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I don't—I can't—"
"That's it!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front. "The back row has just volunteered to clean up after lunch!"
The rest of the kids cheered.
"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 two hit your heads or something? You really don't know who we are?"
Jason shrugged helplessly,he looked at Aimee who was staring at her pale hands. "It's worse than that. We don't know who we are."
The bus dropped them in front of a big red stucco complex like a museum, just sitting in the middle of nowhere. Maybe that's what it was: the National Museum of Nowhere, Aimee thought.
A cold wind blew across the desert. Aimee hadn't paid much attention to what she was wearing, but it wasn't nearly warm enough:black skinny jeans and purple converse sneakers, a purple T-shirt with a few small holes here and there,and a thin black hoodie.
"So, a crash course for the amnesiacs," Leo said, in a helpful tone that made Aimee think this was not going to be helpful. "We go to the 'Wilderness School'"—Leo made air quotes with his fingers. "Which means we're 'bad kids.' Your family, or the court, or whoever, decided you were too much trouble, so they shipped you off to this lovely prison—sorry, 'boarding school'—in Armpit, Nevada, where you learn valuable nature skills like running ten miles a day through the cacti and weaving daisies into hats! And for a special treat we go on 'educational' field trips with Coach Hedge, who keeps order with a baseball bat. Is it all coming back to you two now?"
"No." Aimee and Jason glanced apprehensively at the other kids: maybe twenty guys, half that many girls. None of them looked like hardened criminals, but Aimee wondered what they'd all done to get sentenced to a school for delinquents, and she wondered why she belonged with them.
Leo rolled his eyes. "You're really gonna play this out, huh? Okay, so the three of us started here together this semester. We're totally tight. You do everything I say and give me your dessert and do my chores—"
"Leo!" Piper snapped.
"Fine. Ignore that last part. But we are friends,Piper is Aimee's best friend. Well, Piper's a little more than to you Jason, the last few weeks—"
"Leo, stop it!" Piper's face turned red. Jason could feel his face burning too. He thought he'd remember if he'd been going out with a girl like Piper. Aimee hid her smirk behind her hand which was covered by her hoodie sleeve. Jason gave her a playful glare.
"They've got amnesia or something," Piper said. "We've got to tell somebody."
Leo scoffed. "Who, Coach Hedge? He'd try to fix Jason by whacking him upside the head and would have Aimee be the target for the archery clubs practices"
The coach was at the front of the group, barking orders and blowing his whistle to keep the kids in line; but every so often he'd glance back at Jason and Aimee,and scowl.
"Leo, they need help," Piper insisted. "They got a concussions or—"
"Yo, Piper." One of the other guys dropped back to join them as the group was heading into the museum. The new guy wedged himself between Jason and Piper and knocked Leo into Aimee. "Don't talk to these bottom-feeders. You're my partner, remember?"
The new guy had dark hair cut Superman style, a deep tan, and teeth so white they should've come with a warning label: do not stare directly at teeth. permanent blindness may occur. He wore a Dallas Cowboys jersey, Western jeans and boots, and he smiled like he was God's gift to juvenile delinquent girls everywhere. Aimee she was going to hate him instantly.
"Go away, Dylan," Piper grumbled. "I didn't ask to work with you."
"Ah, that's no way to be. This is your lucky day!" Dylan hooked his arm through hers and dragged her through the museum entrance. Piper shot one last look over her shoulder like, 911.
Leo got up and brushed himself off. "I hate that guy." He offered Jason and Aimee his arms, like they should go skipping inside together. "'I'm Dylan. I'm so cool, I want to date myself, but I can't figure out how! You want to date me instead? You're so lucky!'"
"Leo," Jason said, "you're weird."
"Yeah, you tell me that a lot." Leo grinned. "But if you don't remember me, that means I can reuse all my old jokes. Come on!"
Jason figured that if this was his best friend, his life must be pretty messed up; but he grabbed Aimee's hand and pulled her behind him following Leo into the museum.
They walked through the building, stopping here and there for Coach Hedge to lecture them with his megaphone, which alternately made him sound like a Sith Lord or blared out random comments like "The pig says oink."
Aimee watched as Leo kept pulling out nuts, bolts, and pipe cleaners from the pockets of his army jacket and putting them together, like he had to keep his hands busy at all times.
Both her and Jason were too distracted to pay much attention to the exhibits, but they were about the Grand Canyon and the Hualapai tribe, which owned the museum.
Some girls kept looking over at Piper and Dylan and snickering. Jason figured these girls were the popular clique. They wore matching jeans and pink tops and enough makeup for a Halloween party.Jason laughed quietly when he saw the look that Aimee was giving the girls,he could tell that she wanted to kill these girls.
One of them said, "Hey, Piper, does your tribe run this place? Do you get in free if you do a rain dance?"
The other girls laughed. Even Piper's so-called partner Dylan suppressed a smile. Piper's snowboarding jacket sleeves hid her hands, but Jason got the feeling she was clenching her fists,just like how Aimee was.
"My dad's Cherokee," she said. "Not Hualapai. 'Course, you'd need a few brain cells to know the difference, Isabel."
Isabel widened her eyes in mock surprise, so that she looked like an owl with a makeup addiction. "Oh, sorry! Was your mom in this tribe? Oh, that's right. You never knew your mom."
Jason had to hold back Aimee as Piper charged at Isabel, but before a fight could start, Coach Hedge barked, "Enough back there! Set a good example or I'll break out my baseball bat!"
The group shuffled on to the next exhibit, but the girls kept calling out little comments to Piper.
"Good to be back on the rez?" one asked in a sweet voice.Jason felt Aimee's
grip tighten on his hand as she tried to stop herself from doing something brash.
"Dad's probably too drunk to work," another said with fake sympathy. "That's why she turned klepto."
Piper ignored them, at first Aimee was the only one who was try to keep herself from hurting the girls but now Jason was ready to punch them himself. They might not remember Piper, or even who they were, but they knew that they hated mean kids.
Leo caught Aimee's arm. "Be cool. Piper doesn't like us fighting her battles. Besides, if those girls found out the truth about her dad, they'd be all bowing down to her and screaming, 'We're not worthy!'"
"Why? What about her dad?"
Leo laughed in disbelief. "You're not kidding? You really don't remember that your best friend's/girlfriend's dad—"
"Look, I wish I did, but I don't even remember her, much less her dad."Leo whistled. "Whatever. We have to talk when we get back to the dorms."
They reached the far end of the exhibit hall, where some big glass doors led out to a terrace.
"All right, cupcakes," Coach Hedge announced. "You are about to see the Grand Canyon. Try not to break it. The skywalk can hold the weight of seventy jumbo jets, so you featherweights should be safe out there. If possible, try to avoid pushing each other over the edge, as that would cause me extra paperwork."
The coach opened the doors, and they all stepped outside. The Grand Canyon spread before them, live and in person. Extending over the edge was a horseshoe-shaped walkway made of glass, so you could see right through it.
"Man," Leo said. "That's pretty wicked."
Aimee totally had to agree. Despite her amnesia and her feeling that she didn't belong there, she just couldn't help being impressed.The canyon was bigger and wider than you could appreciate from a picture. They were up so high that birds circled below their feet. Five hundred feet down, a river snaked along the canyon floor. Banks of storm clouds had moved overhead while they'd been inside, casting shadows like angry faces across the cliffs. As far as Aimee could see in any direction, red and gray ravines cut through the desert like some crazy god had taken a knife to it.
Aimee suddenly got a piercing pain behind her eyes. Crazy gods ... Where had she come up with that idea? She felt like she'd gotten close to something important—something she should know about. She also got the unmistakable feeling she was in danger.
"You alright?" Leo asked Aimee setting hand on her shoulder before looking to Jason. "You're not going to throw up over the side, are you? 'Cause I totally should've brought my camera."
Jason grabbed the railing,Aimee leaning on it right next to him. He could see that they were both shivering and sweaty, but it had nothing to do with heights. Aimee blinked, and the pain behind her eyes subsided.
"We're fine," Jason managed. "Just a little headache."
Thunder rumbled overhead. A cold wind almost knocked them sideways.
"This can't be safe." Leo squinted at the clouds as he came up behind Aimee. "Storm's right over us, but it's clear all the way around. Weird, huh?"
Aimee looked up and saw Leo was right. A dark circle of clouds had parked itself over the skywalk, but the rest of the sky in every direction was perfectly clear. She had a bad feeling about that.
"All right, cupcakes!" Coach Hedge yelled. He frowned at the storm like it bothered him too. "We may have to cut this short, so get to work! Remember, complete sentences!"
The storm rumbled, and both of their heads began to hurt again. Not knowing why she did it, she reached into her hoodie pocket and brought out a bracelet—a circlet of shimmering gold with a few charm. Stamped on one of the charms was a picture of a sword. On the other was some guy's face contorting in pain. The inscription said something like portae mortis et ostia.
"Dang, is that gold?" Leo asked. "You've both been holding out on me!"
Aimee slipped the bracelet around her wrist securing it tightly, wondering how she'd come to have it, and why she had the feeling she was going to need it soon.
"It's nothing," Jason said. "Just a coin and a bracelet."
Leo shrugged. Maybe his mind had to keep moving as much as his hands.
"Come on," he said. "Dare you to spit over the edge."
They didn't try very hard on the worksheet. For one thing, Aimee was too distracted by the storm and her own mixed-up feelings. For another thing, neither her nor Jason had any idea how to "name three sedimentary strata you observe" or "describe two examples of erosion."
Leo was seriously no help. He was too busy building a helicopter out of pipe cleaners.
"Check it out." He launched the copter with a big smile. Aimee figured it would plummet, but the pipe-cleaner blades actually spun. The little copter made it halfway across the canyon before it lost momentum and spiraled into the void.
"How'd you do that?" Aimee asked surprisingly Leo with her suddenly talking.
Leo shrugged off his surprise. "Would've been cooler if I had some rubber bands."
"Seriously," Jason said leaning his arm on Aimee's shoulder which barely came up to his chest, "are we friends?"
"Last I checked."
"You sure? What was the first day we met? What did we talk about?"
"It was ..." Leo frowned. "I don't recall exactly. I'm ADHD, man. You can't expect me to remember details."
"But both of us don't remember you or Piper at all. We don't remember anyone here. What if—"
"You're right and everyone else is wrong?" Leo asked. "You think the two of you just appeared here this morning, and we've all got fake memories of you?"
A little voice in Aimee's head said, That's exactly what I think.
But it sounded crazy. Everybody here took them for granted. Everyone acted like they were a normal part of the class—except for Coach Hedge.
"Take the worksheet." Jason handed Leo the paper. "I'll be right back."
Before Leo could protest, Jason headed across the skywalk pulling Aimee behind him despite her complaints.Their school group had the place to themselves.
Maybe it was too early in the day for tourists, or maybe the weird weather had scared them off. The Wilderness School kids had spread out in pairs across the skywalk. Most were joking around or talking. Some of the guys were dropping pennies over the side.
About fifty feet away, Piper was trying to fill out her worksheet, but her stupid partner Dylan was hitting on her, putting his hand on her shoulder and giving her that blinding white smile. She kept pushing him away, and when she saw Aimee she gave her a look like, Throttle this guy for me.
Aimee motioned for her to hang on before she was dragged away by Jason. They walked up to Coach Hedge, who was leaning on his baseball bat, studying the storm clouds.
"Did you do this?" the coach asked Jason.Jason took a step back.
"Do what?" It sounded like the coach had just asked if Jason had made the thunderstorm.Coach Hedge glared at him, his beady little eyes glinting under the brim of his cap.
"Don't play games with me, kid. What are you two doing here, and why are you messing up my job?"
"You mean...you don't know us?" Jason said. "We're not your students?"
Hedge snorted. "Never seen you two before today."
Jason was so relieved he almost wanted to cry,Aimee could feel stress fall off him in waves. At least they weren't going insane. They were in the wrong place.
"Look, sir, I don't know how we got here. We both just woke up on the school bus. All I know is we aren't supposed to be here."
"Got that right." Hedge's gruff voice dropped to a murmur, like he was sharing a secret. "You both got a powerful way with the Mist, kid, if you can make all these people think they know the two of you; but you can't fool me. I've been smelling monster for days now. I knew we had an infiltrator, but you don't smell like a monster. Both of you smell like a half-blood. So—who are you, and where'd you come from?"
Most of what the coach said didn't make sense, but Jason decided to answer for the both of them honestly.
"We don't know who we am. We don't have any memories. You've got to help us."
Coach Hedge studied their faces like was trying to read their thoughts.
"Great," Hedge muttered. "You're being truthful.""Of course I am! And what was all that about monsters and half-bloods? Are those code words or something?"Hedge narrowed his eyes. Part of Aimee wondered if the guy was just nuts. But the other part knew better.
"Look, kid," Hedge said, "I don't know who the two of you are. I just know what you are, and it means trouble. Now I got to protect four of you rather than two. Are you the special package? Is that it?"
"What are you talking about?"
Hedge looked at the storm. The clouds were getting thicker and darker, hovering right over the skywalk.
"This morning," Hedge said, "I got a message from camp. They said an extraction team is on the way. They're coming to pick up a special package, but they wouldn't give me details. I thought to myself, Fine. The two I'm watching are pretty powerful, older than most. I know they're being stalked. I can smell a monster in the group. I figure that's why the camp is suddenly frantic to pick them up. But then you pop up out of nowhere. So, are you two the special package?"
The pain behind Aimee's eyes got worse than ever. Half-bloods. Camp. Monsters. She still didn't know what Hedge was talking about, but the words gave her a massive brain freeze—like her mind was trying to access information that should've been there but wasn't.Aimee stumbled into Jason who was pushed forward, and Coach Hedge caught him. For a short guy, the coach had hands like steel. "Whoa, there, cupcakes. You say you both got no memories, huh? Fine. I'll just have to watch both of you, too, until the team gets here. We'll let the director figure things out.""What director?" Jason said as he held Aimee up. Her head felt like it was freezing and on fire at the same time. "What camp?""Just sit tight. Reinforcements should be here soon. Hopefully nothing happens before—"Lightning crackled overhead. The wind picked up with a vengeance. Worksheets flew into the Grand Canyon, and the entire bridge shuddered. Kids screamed, stumbling and grabbing the rails."I had to say something," Hedge grumbled. He bellowed into his megaphone: "Everyone inside! The cow says moo! Off the skywalk!""I thought you said this thing was stable!" Jason shouted over the wind still trying to keep Aimee on her feet."Under normal circumstances," Hedge agreed, "which these aren't. Come on!"