𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 •| ⊱ Jason Grace¹

•| ⊱ ONE

[ chapter one: hermia ]

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When her eyes fluttered open she realized she was in the backseat of what looked to be a school bus. The cold room she was in earlier was no where in sight. Hermia wasn't sure where she was and Gaea never explained where she was going. But to make matters worse, she was holding hands with a boy that wasn't Lysander.

Well that wasn't necessarily a rotten part. The boy was cute, but she couldn't figure out who he was or why she would hold hands with him. Especially considering she had a boyfriend. Mia sat up and quickly removed her hand from the boys tight grip. Her head moved frantically as she searched for any sign of Lysander or her brother Demetrius.

All she saw though were a few dozen kids sprawled in the seats in front of her. They were all listening to iPods, talking, or sleeping, but no Sander or Demetri. Sadly for her she remembered what Gaea had said. "There dead."

A tear escaped her eyes as she pictured both Sander and Demetri dead. She was so lost in her thoughts that she paid no mind to the bus rumbling along a bumpy road. She hadn't even realized that the boy who was sitting next to her had squeezed her shoulder.

How she didn't realize that he had grabbed her shoulder was beyond her. But his soothing voice, even if he sounded a bit confused, seemed to draw her attention back to him.

"Hermia, you okay?"

What caught her attention about him was his electric blue eyes and his blonde hair. Other than that she was too out of it to pay attention to anything else. Behind he's eyes though she could tell he was confused and lost as if he too had just woken up in a strange place.

Mia moved his hand away from her shoulder and pretend not to notice the confused look in his eyes. She also moved closer to the window to put the much needed space between them. "I don't know-" She was cut off by a new voice.

In the front of the bus, a teacher shouted, "All right, cupcakes, listen up!"

Hermia could tell the guy was 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. Then his eyes fixed on Mia and the boy next to her. That's when she realized his scowl had deepened when he saw them.

Mia moved awkwardly in her seat as she thought about how the coach knew she didn't belong here. He was going to call Hermia out, demand to know what she was doing on the bus-and sadly she wouldn't have a clue what to say.