antiscians [leo valdez]

»I. i almost died(again)

Jocelyn's day was pretty rough even before she almost fell off the Grand Canyon.

It really started at the bus ride, which was a rolling box of Hell. 

The bus rumbled along the desert road. Jocelyn's head was placed Leo's lap, and his head was bobbing against the window. Piper and Jason had taken the seats across from them. Jocelyn opened her eyes slowly, and noticed Leo was awake. He gave the girl a bright smile, despite being tired and annoyed for being cooped up in the small seat for so long.

Both Leo and her were ADHD, which simply meant they hated sitting in one place too long. Which is what they had been doing the past few hours. 

Jocelyn sat up, allowing him to move around. Glancing to the left of them, Piper was holding hands with a sleeping Jason.

"Look at the love birds," Jocelyn teased Piper, who gave her a sweet glare in return.

Jason stirred after what seemed like a long time, and Piper squeezed his hand.

"Jason, you ok?" Leo snickered.

Jocelyn watched Jason sit up. He had a really weird vibe to him, and Jocelyn wasn't sure what to make of him. She twisted her ring out of habit. Jason let go of Piper's hand, and it wasn't hard to pick up on a flicker of hurt that crossed the girls face.

"Um-I don't-" Jason started to mumble, when Coach Hedge decided it was a great time to stand up and yell. For Coach, any time was a good time to yell.

"Alright, cupcakes! Listen up!" 

Coach Hedge was a retired satyr, which meant he kept demigods safe. Jocelyn assumed he was here to keep her out of trouble, but he often overlooked her, which seemed odd.

Also, it confused her on why he hadn't rescued her from the dreadful Wildness School already. Although, Coach was the main reason it was unbearable, and she wasn't sure if she was ready to leave Leo and her friends behind to go die on a dangerous quest for a random God that happened to need her help that day. 

"Stand up, Coach Hedge!" A random kid from the middle of the bus yelled, and Jocelyn held back a snort. Coach's eyes scanned the bus with dark eyes to find to guilty student, but with no prevail.

"I heard that!" He yelled. Coach Hedge locked eyes with Jason, which he usually didn't. Now that she thought about it, Jason always managed to lay low and Coach never seemed to notice him. Her memories of the blonde boy were surprisingly blurry, almost like a fog cast over most of the things they had done together, in their crappy little friend group.

"We arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner and don't lose your worksheet. And if any of you precious little cupcakes cause any trouble on this trip, I will personally send you back to campus the hard way," He demonstrated by swinging his favorite bat.

"Can he talk to us that way?" Jason asked Piper. Jocelyn looked back at Leo with an amused and confused face, who glanced back at her with the same expression. Piper simply shrugged.

"Always does. This is wilderness school, where the kids are the animals,"

Jocelyn could tell Piper was getting worried, it seemed like Jason didn't have a clue where he was. Maybe the ride was too bumpy and got a concussion.

"This is some kind of mistake," he said. "I'm not supposed to be here," Leo laughed at his friend.

"Yeah right, Jason. We're all framed! I didn't run away six times, Joce didn't break a historic statue, Piper didnt steal a BMW," Jocelyn rolled my eyes. She would never live it down. It's not like anyone knew who the man was anyway.