Penelope Orion: Prophecies

Chapter 5

Jason's P.O.V.

THE STORM CHURNED INTO A MINIATURE HURRICANE. Funnel clouds snaked toward the skywalk like the tendrils of a monster jellyfish. Kids screamed and ran for the building. The wind snatched away their notebooks, jackets, hats, and backpacks. I skidded across the the slick floor, Penelope slipping out of my grip, screaming. Leo lost his balance and almost toppled over the railing, but I grabbed his jacket and pulled him back.

"Thanks, man!" Leo yelled.

"Go, go, go!" said Coach Hedge.

Piper and Dylan were holding the doors open, herding the other kids inside. Piper's snowboarding jacket was flapping wildly, her dark hair all in her face. I thought she must've been freezing, but she looked calm and confident - telling the others it would be okay, encouraging them to keep moving. Leo grabbed Penelope, who was having trouble standing and He, Penelope, Coach Hedge, and I ran towards them, but it was like running through quicksand. The wind seemed to fight us, pushing us back.

Dylan and Piper pushed one more kid inside, then lost their grip on the doors. They slammed shut. Piper tugged at the handles. Inside, the kids pounded on the glass, but the doors seemed to be stuck.

"Dylan, help!" Piper shouted. Dylan just stood there with an idiotic grin, his Cowboys jersey rippling in the wind, like he was suddenly enjoying the storm.

"Sorry, Piper," he said. "I'm done helping." He flicked his wrist, and Piper flew backward, slamming into the doors and sliding to the skywalk deck. Penelope screamed, but the wind ripped the sound out of her mouth.

"Piper!" I tried to charge forward, but the wind was against me, and Coach Hedge pushed me back. "Coach," I said, "let me go!"

"Jason, Penelope, Leo, stay behind me," the coach ordered. "This is my fight. I should've known that was our monster."

"What?" Leo demanded, tightening his grip on the seven year old. A rogue worksheet slapped him in the face, but he swatted it away. "What monster?" The coach's cap blew off, and sticking up above his curly hair were two bumps - like the knots cartoon characters get when they're bonked on the head. Coach Hedge lifted his baseball bat - but it wasn't a regular bat anymore. Somehow it had changed into a crudely shaped tree-branch club, with twigs and leaves still attached.

Dylan gave him that psycho happy smile. "Oh, come on, Coach. Let the boy attack me! After all, you're getting too old for this. Isn't that why they retired you to this stupid school? I've been on your team the entire season, and you didn't even know. You're losing your nose, grandpa."

The coach made and angry sound like an animal bleating. "That's it, cupcake. You're going down."

"You think you can protect four half-bloods at once, old man?" Dylan laughed. "Good luck." He pointed at Leo and Penelope, and a funnel cloud materialized around them. They flew off the skywalk like they'd been tossed. Somehow he managed to twist in midair with her, and slammed sideways into the canyon wall. He skidded, clawing furiously for any handhold. Finally he grabbed a thin ledge about fifty feet below the skywalk and hund there by his fingertips, while Penelope clung onto his shirt, screaming.

"Help!" he yelled up at us. "Rope, please? Bungee cord? Something?"

Coach Hedge cursed and tossed me his club. "I don't know who you are, kid, but I hope you're good. Keep that thing busy" - he stabbed a thumb at Dylan - "while I get Penelope and Leo."

"Get them how?" I demanded. "You going to fly?"

"Not fly. Climb." Hedge kicked off his shoes, and I almost had a coronary. The coach didn't have any feet. He had hooves - goat's hooves. Which meant those things on his head, I realized, weren't bumps. They were horns.