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.” “We’ll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. He was going to call Jason out, demand to know what he was doing on the bus-and Jason wouldn’t have a clue what to say.īut Coach Hedge looked away and cleared his throat. He was sure the coach knew he didn’t belong there. Then his eyes fixed on Jason, and his scowl deepened.Ī jolt went down Jason’s spine. “I heard that!” The coach scanned the bus for the offender. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called, “Stand up, Coach Hedge!” He would’ve looked pretty scary if he hadn’t been five feet zero. A whistle hung from his neck, and a megaphone was clipped to his belt. His nylon workout pants and Nikes were spotless white. His buff arms and chest pushed against a bright orange polo shirt. He had a wispy goatee and a sour face, like he’d eaten something moldy. His baseball cap was pulled low over his hair, so you could just see his beady eyes. In the front of the bus, a teacher shouted, “All right, cupcakes, listen up!” Her eyes seemed to change color like a kaleidoscope-brown, blue, and green. She wore no makeup like she was trying not to draw attention to herself, but it didn’t work. Her chocolate brown hair was cut choppy and uneven, with thin strands braided down the sides. She wore faded jeans, hiking boots, and a fleece snowboarding jacket. He tried to think back … the last thing he remembered … Jason was pretty sure he didn’t live in the desert. Out the windows, desert rolled by under a bright blue sky. They all looked around his age … fifteen? Sixteen? Okay, that was scary. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to think.Ī few dozen kids sprawled in the seats in front of him, listening to iPods, talking, or sleeping.

The girl was cute, but he couldn’t figure out who she was or what he was doing there.

He woke in the backseat of a school bus, not sure where he was, holding hands with a girl he didn’t know. EVEN BEFORE HE GOT ELECTROCUTED, Jason was having a rotten day.

The lost hero by rick riordan