Matt Jackson: The Demigod Trials - The Sacrificial Spire (Percy Jackson World)

Chapter 1: I Run Away From School

My name is Matt Jackson and I'm I'm eleven years old. I used to be a pretty average kid. I liked playing sports, I was awkward with girls, and I didn't like school all that much. Okay, maybe I was a little different from the other kids my age, I had ADHD and dyslexia, and I tended to get into too many fights to stay at one school for very long. I was on my third school in two years, and I managed to convince myself this time was going to be different. I thought my life was pretty weird already... I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

I watched my mom drive away in her greenish-blue Nissan and set my shoulders as I turned to my new school. Students were streaming towards the dormitories of Silver Creek Middle School, some returning for another year and some, like me, here for the first time attempting to figure out where their dorm was, or where their new favourite hangout spot would be. I'd moved in a week early because I was a 'troubled kid'. So instead of checking things out like the other kids, I started walking faster towards my room which of course was on the other side of the campus.

As I walked, I remembered walking through the campus, giving my little sister Sophie a piggyback ride and my mom leading us both through a tour she had planned herself. We all had blonde hair, and both my mom and sister had blue eyes while mine were sea green. We looked almost like different versions of each other since we were all so close in looks. Sophie was clapping and pointing excitedly at basically everything she saw. I could tell my mom's excitement and enthusiasm were pretty forced, unlike Sophie's, and I couldn't really blame her. This was the fourth school she'd given me the tour of all the great spots I'd be able to hang out with the friends I could make. Usually, the spots seemed like pretty good places to hang out with friends, and I might have even been excited about them if I ever actually had friends to hang out with.

Sophie oohed and aahed at the fancy courtyard decorations as we walked. "Look at that one Matty." She crooned pointing at a stone statue of some old guy that helped found the place. I didn't really get how she was so impressed by some dumb piece of stone, but I just nodded and smiled at her. "Wow that one's really cool Soph." I told her. My mom looked back at us, and a real smile spread across her face to replace the forced one she had been wearing all day. "If you stare at it too long, you'll turn to stone and be a statue." She teased causing Sophie to let out a squeal as she hid her face behind my back. Me and my mom laughed as we walked away from the statues, and I promised Sophie we looked away fast enough to save ourselves.

"Are you sure Matty?" She asked looking at her hands to make sure they weren't turning to stone. I poked her belly making her giggle. "No stone belly. That's where it would start. If we were gonna turn to statues our bellies would already be stone." I assured her lifting my shirt to prove my stomach wasn't turning to stone. She reached out and poked me. "Good. I don't want a dumb statue for a brother." She said. I picked her up again, sitting her on my shoulders. "Statues don't give good shoulder rides right Soph?" I called up to her.

She clapped excitedly. "Right!"

I was pulled out of my memories as I heard someone call out from behind me. "Jackson?!" It was the voice of my least favourite middle schooler in the world. Evan Frost. He was sitting with his two goons whose names I couldn't remember. He was the popular kid at my last school before he got kicked out trying to light my shirt on fire while his buddies held me down. He was about five feet nine inches tall already and built like an Olympic swimmer. He had jet black hair slicked back like the guys in that old movie I'd seen with my mom. I think it was called 'Greek' or something. No 'Grease' that was it.

He smiled revealing his blinding white teeth and started walking towards me. "How's my favourite loser doing?" He asked as his buddies snickered behind him "Are you cold? Do you need a little campfire." He pulled a lighter out of his pocket and started a small flame.