CHAPTER ONE! alternatively titled: exploding cannonballs of death
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LOOK, IF YOU HAD TOLD ME YESTERDAY THAT I WOULD BE BATTLING GIANT MONSTER BASKETBALLERS, I WOULD HAVE CALLED YOU CRAZY.
I assume you've read Percy's point of view already, though i don't know why. I hope you find my narration a bit more tactful than his, as ninety-nine percent of the time he's doing something that could get the both of us killed.
Gym was my least favourite class, especially at Merriweather prep (we won't talk about how this was my eighth school in eight years). The uniform consisted rainbow tie-dyed shirts and baggy gym shorts which were not flattering no matter what i did.
I walked into the gym with my best friend Percy (as mentioned above) and our other friend Tyson. Coach Nunley was sitting at his little desk reading Sports Illustrated. Nunley was about a million years old, with bifocals and no teeth and a greasy wave of gray hair.
Matt Sloan said, "Coach, can I be captain?"
"Eh?" Coach Nunley looked up from his magazine. "Yeah," he mumbled. "Mm-hmm."
Sloan grinned and took charge of the picking. He made Percy the other team's captain, but it didn't matter who he picked, because all the jocks and the popular kids moved over to Sloan's side.
That left myself (Diana, i forgot to mention that), Percy, Tyson, Corey Bailer the computer geek, Raj Mandali the calculus whiz, and a half dozen other kids who always got harassed by Sloan and his gang.
Matt Sloan spilled a cage full of balls in the middle of the gym.
"Scared," Tyson mumbled. "Smell funny."
"What smells funny?" Percy asked
I furrowed my eyebrows, everything smelled funny in here. It was the gym in sixth period with about twenty guys who all reeked of BO. Percy was literally the only exception, although he did always smell of salt water for some reason.
"Them." Tyson pointed at Sloan's new friends. "Smell funny."
The visitors were cracking their knuckles, eyeing us like it was slaughter time. I couldn't help wondering where they were from. Someplace where they feed kids raw meat and beat them with sticks.
Sloan blew the coach's whistle and the game began. Sloan's team ran for the center line. On my side, Raj Mandali yelled something in Urdu, probably "I have to go potty!" and ran for the exit.
Corey Bailer tried to crawl behind the wall mat and hide. The rest of the team did their best to cower in fear and not look like targets.
I stayed with Percy, despite anxiety increasingly welling in my chest. I knew this wouldn't go well, and I was just hoping i wouldn't get sent to the infirmary again.
That's a story for another time.
"Tyson, Di," Percy began. "Let's g—"
A ball slammed into his gut. He sat down hard in the middle of the gym floor. The other team exploded in laughter.
