Daughter of Aphrodite(a demigod story)

My Soccer Coach is Vaporized

"Are you excited for trying another school?" Dad asked.

I shrugged, "I guess..."

I'm Alyssa Combs; a girl with terrible dyslexia and ADHD, literally, I couldn't sit still for sixty seconds, even if my life depended on it. Because of these so called 'gifts' (what my Dad called them), I was kicked out of every school and even though I'm sixteen, I haven't even made it past freshman year in high school. Reading is hard enough, sheesh; the only thing I was able to read was a few Greek ruins in the museum.

Not too long after I was thrown out of another school, Dad found a summer school for me and it was for the worst of kids; the Yancy Academy. This would be my fourth one, and I heard that my best friend Stewart Lance was going too. Knowing that I'd at least have a friend cheered me up, but I knew that we would end up doing something that would get us expelled. We both had dyslexia and ADHD, there was nowhere meant for us.

I sat in the car with earbuds connected to my IPod filling my head with music that Stewart had recorded. He had played the guitar for as long as I've known him and his singing voice, even as it is developing in the teen years, was marvelous. Though he was pretty light-weight, nothing could outdo his music.

The car stopped in front of the building. Today was the first day of summer school so I had on a nice white blouse, worn out jeans and my leather necklace with a shark tooth I found on the beach in Florida. Dad dropped me off in front, where I saw Stewart being bullied by big boys. Sighing, I slung my backpack over my shoulder and hurried to break up the brawl.

"Hey dummies, why don't you pick on somebody your own size," I shouted, shoving them out of the way.

Something really strange happened; they did exactly as I said, they looked confused at first, found a boy in the group about their height and broke into a fight. Ignoring everything around me, I grabbed Stewart's hand and hurried into the school as the warning bell struck.

"Whoa, how did you do that?"

"I don't know...let's talk about it later."

After Algebra, I saw signup sheets for different activities, such as baseball, culinary arts, art camps and such. What really caught my attention was a sheet for the soccer tryouts; I wasn't able to read it too well but there was a picture of a soccer ball in the corner and what I was able to make out of my dyslexia was 'soccer tryouts after first day.' It's strange they're doing soccer tryouts in the summer but hey, it's a pretty good opportunity. Luckily I had packed some exercise clothes for P.E. Taking out a pen I scribbled on Stewart Lance and Alyssa Combs.

Soccer had been a great passion of mine, I might not be good at homework, but it made up for everything. Dad used to teach a boys team and I was good enough to play on it; since his job transferred from Florida to New York, the team had to break up. Stewart still stayed in touch with me because his mom happened to work for Dad's business, she moved in right across the street, but it's been a while since I have kicked a ball with him and this was the perfect opportunity to make up for my bad grades.

The bell rang at the end of the last hour and I hurried to the girl's locker room to change into my old grey shorts and purple t-shirt that read 'Eat my Dust.' One of the girls also in the room was tall with blond hair tied into a ponytail and stormy grey eyes. She looked to be around my age and came up to me as I was putting my clothes in my backpack.

"Hi, I'm Anna,"

"Name's Alyssa," I felt short standing directly next to her, even though I was five foot four.

"Is this the first time you've played soccer?"

"No, I've played when I was little," I replied tying back my light brown, shoulder-length hair.

Her mouth opened to ask another question but we were pushed out the door by the other students.

We stood in the same field as the boys, when Coach Pounce walked up with the three assistant coaches. They were huge, their shoulders were broad with muscle, they were at least seven feet tall and they wore sunglasses though it was cloudy out. Anna tensed up and I didn't blame her. When any of them would talk, there voice was deeper than a base guitar; it would be bad to get on the wrong side of these coaches. I exchanged a nervous look with Stewart from the boys group.

Coach Pounce made us run around the field, which was about three acres three times and before we could even get a drink of water, it was time for ball handling. Sweat poured down my back and my stomach felt ready to spill its insides. In an hour, the coaches made us line up in front of the goal for shooting, which I was indeed flawless at.

One of the boys had a stupid idea of smacking Coach Pounce strait in the forehead, but before the other boys could stop him, the ball flew through the air and hit Coach, knocking his sunglasses off. I stared in horror at the sight of not two, but one, big green eye right in the middle where the two eyes should be; then all went into chaos and Coach Pounce's name made sense.

The coaches all grew taller and taller into giants and clubs appeared at their sides. Their skin turned olive green and before I could react, I was snatched up by one of the assistant coaches, his grip nearly squeezing the life out of me.

"Alyssa Combs, it looks like your fate will end with a swing of my cl..." he roared and vaporized into dust.

I hit the ground hard, nearly coughing out my spleen. Stewart was by my side in an instant; but we weren't there long and he dragged me just out of reach of the massive club that would have flattened both of us if we lingered. I stood up to see Anna, on top of Coach Pounce, hanging onto a dagger that was stuck in his back. Stewart and I, as if by instinct, dodged another club, staying light on our toes.

Anna tossed us both a dagger, which was heavier than it looked. Something in my nerves made me charge at the giant. He swung his club again but I jumped, tumbled in the air, landed on the club and ran up his arm, putting occasional cuts for help with climbing. His large hand swatted at his shoulder, where I was standing and pummeled me. I stuck my sword in his hairy chest to stop the fall and my weight caused the dagger to slice down; before I made it to the grass; he had vaporized into dust which coated my body.

My vision blurred and my legs crumpled beneath me. Stewart's voice sounded like it was far away and all went dark.