Dorothea Lovejoy had a glare plastered onto her face as she stood in front of her school. The cold wind bit at her tan skin, flushing her cheeks and painting the tip of her nose red.

       She stood in between her two friends, Leo Valdez and Piper Mclean. Piper was about an inch or two taller than the other two and she had short brown hair that was chopped unevenly. Her eyes constantly seemed to change color, reminding Dorothea of a kaleidoscope.

Leo, on the other hand, was the shortest of the bunch, putting Dorothea— or Dottie as people liked to call her— right in the middle. Leo was scrawny and for some reason, he always seemed to have a mechanical tool with him. He had a signature troublemaker smile, brown curly hair, and elfish features.

"What's the point of going to the Grand Canyon?" She grumbled, sick and tired of waiting in the cold for their school bus. "It's not like we're going to learn anything useful out there."

       Piper chuckled, nudging her slightly. "Chill, Dottie. I'm sure it'll be fun."

"Pipes, when was the last time you actually had fun on one of these educational trips?" Leo jumped in, doing air quotes around educational trips.

Piper opened her mouth, most likely to plead her case, when the school bus pulled up and Coach Hedge started barking orders.

       They filed into the back of the bus, Piper sitting by herself behind Dottie and Leo. Dottie practically tackled Leo in a desperate attempt to claim the glorious window seat. For a scrawny guy, Leo could put up a good fight, as he threw her to the other side of the bus, successfully claiming the seat.

She flipped him off as she walked back, rolling her eyes at the smug grin on his face as she sat down in the aisle seat.

As the bus ride went on, Leo found it an excuse to talk her ear off, something she didn't appreciate. She tuned his voice out to background noise, something that she was easily able to do having spent most of her time in the Apollo cabin, the former biggest cabin.

Suddenly, Leo nudged her out of her daze. "Watcha thinking about?" he asked her, noticing how she stared blankly at the back of the seat in front of her.

She turned to look at him, a small smile creeping its way up her face. "I'm just thinking about how I'm going to kill a little twink named Leonidas Valdez if he doesn't leave me alone."

She heard Piper snort behind her as Leo rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," he said sassily, "you know you love me."

She raised an eyebrow, "Do I though?"

       Leo feigned a shot to the heart, clutching his chest dramatically. "Oh, how you wound me, Dottie."

       Dottie laughed, something was very rare since she was fourteen.

      "Yeah, yeah. Now let me go to sleep, I've been up for Gods know how long."

Leo shrugged and simply pulled out a pipe cleaner from his pocket, continuing to fidget with it.

Sleep never came easy to Dottie, plagued by nightmares in her own mind. Sometimes they would get so bad that she wouldn't sleep for days. But for some reason, today Hypnos decided to take mercy on her as she dozed off almost immediately. It didn't even strike her as odd when she realized she'd had a dreamless sleep.

        Dottie's sleep was interrupted by her body violently being thrown into the seat in front of her. She groaned and remained on the ground of the bus, feeling little crumbs of food all over the floor.

       She heard Leo giggling, no doubt about her predicament. "Jesus Christ! What the hell happened?"

       "Animal ran into the road, and the bus driver slammed the brakes," Leo shrugged.

         "Great," Dottie replied. She rubbed her head, feeling a small bump forming. She frowned, that was some of the best sleep she'd had in years!

       She climbed back onto her seat, leaning over Leo to get a gist of their location. The bus rumbled along a bumpy road, a desert rolled by under a bright blue sky. There wasn't a cloud in sight.

"Jason, you okay?" she heard Piper ask.

Dottie frowned. She didn't remember anyone named Jason from school, nor did she remember Piper sitting next to anyone for that matter.

       She turned to look at Piper and this Jason character. She saw Piper holding hands with some blonde guy with disheveled hair and bright blue eyes. He wore jeans, sneakers, a purple t-shirt, and a thin black windbreaker.

       He caught her gaze and she quickly whipped her head back. "Hey, Leo,  who is that sitting next to Piper?"

       Leo looked up from whatever he was building. "What?"

       "The guy that's sitting next to Piper. Blonde hair? Eyes so blue we should probably get him brown contacts? Purple t-shirt," she panicked.

"Oh, that's Jason, duh," Leo said.

"Who the fuck is Jason?"

Leo rolled his eyes, annoyed with her antics. "You cannot be serious, Dottie. You know Jason he's Pipers boy—"

"Alright, cupcakes, listen up!" Coach Hedge said from the front of the bus. He had a baseball cap on to hide his horns, and it was pulled so low you could only see his beady little eyes. Call her crazy, but Coach Hedge scared her.

He had a wispy goatee and a sour look on his face like he had eaten something moldy. His buff arms and chest pushed up against a bright orange polo shirt. His nylon workout pants were a spotless white. A whistle hung to his neck and a megaphone was clipped to the belt around his waist.

       He was pretty intimidating for a five-feet-zero satyr. When he stood up in the aisle, one of the students called out, "Stand up, Coach Hedge!"

       "I heard that!" Coach said, scanning the crowd for the offender. Then his eyes fixed on Jason and his scowl deepened. After a few seconds, his stare moved to Dottie, he raised an eyebrow as if to ask do you know this rando? She shook her head. This Jason guy was most definitely the monster they'd been sensing for the past few weeks.

Coach Hedge looked away and cleared his throat. "We'll arrive in five minutes! Stay with your partner. 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 picked up a baseball bat and made like he was hitting a homer.

"Can he talk to us that way?" She tensed up hearing Jason talk. The way he spoke sounded all too familiar.

       "Always does," Piper said nonchalantly. "This is the Wilderness School. 'Where the kids are the animals.'"

"This is some kind of mistake," he said. "I'm not supposed to be here."

     "You see, Dorothea over here seems to think the same," Leo laughed and turned around to face him. "But I think you two are trying to prank us."

      She turned around to face Piper and Jason. "Im being serious, Leo. I have no clue who that is."

      Jason turned his gaze to her, seemingly shrinking under her scrutinizing glare. Her grey eyes practically pierced into his soul.

       "Yeah, right," Leo laughed again. "We've all been framed! I didn't run away six times. Dorothea didn't fight some girl and Piper didn't steal a BMW."

Dottie, in fact, did not fight a girl, but it was a lie that was believable enough.

       Piper blushed. "I didn't steal that car, Leo!"

       "Oh, I forgot, Piper. What was your story? You 'talked' the dealer into lending it to you?" He raised his eyebrows at Jason like, can you believe her?

       "Anyway," Leo continued. "I hope you brought your worksheet, 'cause I used mine and Dottie's  as spit wads earlier."

       Dottie's head snapped to look at Leo. "You did what?"

      "Yeah, I got bored while you were taking a nap."

      She reached over to slap the back of his head, his curly hair tickling her palms. "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

       "Coach Hedge is going to kill me, Leo!"

"You'll be fine," Leo said. "You got to live a little, dude."

He turned back to Jason, who was looking at him like he was some foreign alien. "Why are you looking at me like that? Somebody draw on my face again?"

"I don't know you," Jason said.

Leo gave him a crocodile grin. "Sure. I'm not your best friend, I'm his evil clone."

"Leo Valdez! Dorothea Lovejoy!" Coach Hedge yelled from the front. "Problem back there."

She pushed back the urge to yell Yes! There's a random blonde dude who just magically appeared on this bus!

Leo winked at Jason. "Watch this." He turned to the front. "Sorry, Coach! I was having trouble hearing you. Could you use your megaphone, please?"

Coach Hedge grunted like he was pleased to have an excuse. He unclipped the megaphone from his belt and continue giving directions, but his voice came out like Darth Vader's. The kids cracked up. Coach tried again, but this time the megaphone blared; "The cow says moo!"

The kids howled, and the Coach slammed down the megaphone. "Valdez!"

Dottie smiled as Piper stifled a laugh. "My god, Leo. How did you do that?"

        Leo slipped a Phillips head screwdriver from his sleeve. "I'm a special boy."

       "Sure you are," Dottie quipped.

       "Guys, seriously," Jason pleaded. "What am I doing here? Where are we going?"

       Piper knitted her eyebrows, any trace of her previous enjoyment replaced with worry. "Jason, are you joking?"

"No! I have no idea—"

"Aw, yeah, he's joking," Leo said. "He's trying to get me back for that shaving cream on the Jell-o thing, aren't you?"

"First of all," Dottie said while crossing her arms, "that never happened. Second of all, he's right. He isn't supposed to be here."

       "Yeah, Leo I think he's serious." Piper tried to take his hand again, but he quickly pulled it away.

       "I'm sorry," he said. "I don't— I can't—"

        "That's it!" Coach Hedge screamed from the front. "The back row has just volunteered to clean up after lunch!"

       The rest of the kids cheered.

       "There's a shocker," Leo muttered.

       But Piper kept her eyes on Jason, as did Dottie, for two different reasons, however. "Did you hit your head or something? You really don't know who we are?"

       Jason shrugged helplessly. "It's worse than that. I don't know who I am."

lali yaps

Hello good days nation!!!

Shoutout to Bailey my queen for coming up with the ship name (brainstorm) love u flayedcrank!!

Pls don't be a silent reader I beg of you...