Charmolypi

Chapter 86

"Coach, can I be captain?" Matt Sloan asked as the class gathered in the gym.

"Eh?" Coach Nunley looked up from his magazine for the first time since the students had entered the gym. "Yeah, mm-hmm," he mumbled.

Sloan grinned and took charge of the picking. He made Percy the other team captain. Sloan made sure to pick all the athletic and popular kids, including the group of visitors, which left Percy with all other kids who, conveniently, were all victims of Sloan and his gang's bullying.

"He's worse than little Malfoy," Bellatrix said, her voice a mix of disgust and amazement.

Matt Sloan spilled a cage full of balls in the middle of the gym.

"Scared," Tyson mumbled. "Smell funny."

Percy looked at him questioningly. "What smells funny?"

"Them," Tyson said pointing at Sloan's new friends. "Smell funny."

Many looked confused at what happened. Why was Tyson able to smell something weird in relation to Matt Sloan's friends.

Regulus remembered how, in the previous demigod movie, Grover was able to smell monsters when they were on the quest. What if Tyson was a Satyr as well.

The visitors were cracking their knuckles, eyeing the pair like it was slaughter time. Percy's thoughts were interrupted when Sloan blew the coach's whistle, and the game began. Sloan's team ran for the center line. On Percy's side, someone ran out of the gym, another one crawled behind the wall mad and hid, while the rest of the team did their best to cower in fear and not look like targets.

"Tyson," Percy called. "Let's go-" a ball slammed into Percy's gut, and he sat down hard in the middle of the gym floor and his eyesight got fuzzy, while the other team exploded in laughter.

Many flinched, especially the quidditch players. It wasn't a mystery that being hit by a speeding bludger was not fun.

"Percy, duck!" Tyson yelled.

Percy rolled as another dodgeball whistled past his ear at the speed of sound. The ball hit the wall mat and the boy that was hidden there yelped.

"Bloody hell..."

"What is going on?"

"This is so messed up!"

"Does this happen at all muggle schools?"

The muggle born witches and wizards all looked startled. Was that how things happened in American schools?

"Hey!" Percy yelled at Sloan's team. "You could kill somebody!"

The visitor named Joe Bob grinned evilly. He looked bigger, even bigger than Tyson. His biceps budged beneath his T-shirt. "I hope so, Perseus Jackson! I hope so!"

"Shit," Regulus whispered, his eyes wide. When he looked at his friends, he could tell that they, too, knew that they were monsters and not ordinary students.

Percy froze when he heard him saying his name that way, but that was when it all clicked. Monsters. The visitors were growing in size. They were no longer kids, they were eight-foot-tall giants with wild eyes, pointy teeth and hairy arms and tattooed with snaked and hula women and valentine hearts.

Many gasped in horror and disgust at how the creatures were transforming.

Matt Sloan dropped his ball and looked at the monsters in shock. "Whoa! You're not from Detroit! Who..."

The kids on both teams started screaming and backing towards the exit, but one of the monsters threw a ball with deadly accuracy, slamming the gym door shut. The kids banged desperately on the door but it wouldn't budge.