The storm churned into a miniature hurricane. Funnel clouds snaked toward the skywalk like the tendrils of a monster jellyfish.
Kids screamed and ran for the building. The wind snatched away their notebooks, jackets, hats, and backpacks. Sol skidded across the slick floor, slamming into the side rail, her head hitting the ground. Leo lost his balance and almost toppled over the railing, but Jason grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.
"Thanks, man!" Leo yelled.
"Go, go, go!" said Coach Hedge.
Piper and Dylan were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside. Piper's snowboarding jacket was flapping wildly, her dark hair all in her face. Sol thought she must've been freezing, but she looked calm and confident- telling the others it would be okay, encouraging them to keep moving.
Sol, Jason, Leo, and Coach Hedge ran toward them, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to fight them, pushing them back.
Dylan and Piper pushed one more kid inside, then lost their grip on the doors. They slammed shut, closing off the skywalk.
Piper tugged at the handles. Inside, the kids pounded on the glass, but the doors seemed to be stuck.
"Dylan, help!" Piper shouted.
Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm.
"Sorry, Piper," he said. "I'm done helping."
He ficked his wrist, and Piper flew backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck.
"Piper!" Jason tried to charge forward, but the wind was against him, and Coach Hedge pushed him back.
"Coach," Jason said, "let me go!"
"Jason, Leo, stay behind me," the coach ordered. "This is my fight. I should've known that was our monster."
"What?" Leo demanded. A rogue worksheet slapped him in the face, but he swatted it away. "What monster?"
"You never said anything about a monster!" Sol gaped at Hedge.
"I just thought it was Jason!"
Jason looked back and forth between Coach Hedge and Sol. "You thought I was... a monster?"
"Yes!" They both yelled.
The coach's cap blew off, and sticking up above his curly hair were two horns. Coach Hedge lifted his baseball bat- but it wasn't a regular bat anymore. It had changed into a crudely shaped tree-branch club, with twigs and leaves still attached.
Dylan gave him that psycho happy smile. "Oh, come on, Coach. Let the boy attack me! After all, you're getting too old for this. Isn't that why they retired you to this stupid school? I've been on your team the entire season, and you didn't even know. You're losing your nose, grandpa."
The coach made an angry sound like an animal bleating. "That's it, cupcake. You're going down."
"You think you can protect four half-bloods at once, old man?" Dylan laughed. "Good luck."
Sol reached up to her ears. "He's not the only protector here, bi-" She stopped. Where were her earrings?
"Looking for these?" Dylan sneered as he dangled her bronze seashell earrings in front of her. Shit, Sol thought. They must have fell out when she hit her head on the skywalk!
Dylan pointed at Leo, and a funnel cloud materialized around him. Leo few off the skywalk like he'd been tossed Somehow he managed to twist in midair, and slammed sideways into the canyon wall. He skidded, clawing furiously for any handhold. Finally he grabbed a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk and hung there by his fingertips.
YOU ARE READING
El Héroe Perdido (Alma del Olimpo Libro 1)
Fanfiction*The Lost Hero (Soul of Olympus Book 1)* SOL HAS A MISSION. One that she can't mess up. She's been posing as a student chaperone for two demigods at the Wilderness School for a week. Suddenly, a boy named Jason shows up with no memory, but her charg...
