Jason Hunter and the Hand of Osiris

Jason Hunter and the Hand of Osiris - Book 2

Chapter 1

The snowball would have hit Jason Hunter squarely in the back of his head, had he not instinctively dodged to the side at the last second. His friends weren't so lucky. A second missile splattered against Amelia Reis's backpack, while a third knocked Kevin Hayashi's glasses into the snow. Jason spun around to see Wade Cooper and his two assistant morons, Ryan and Trevor, coming up from behind.

"Hey, losers!" Wade yelled. "Seen any little green men lately?" The other two snickered.

Amelia glared at them. "Get lost, you jerks."

"Just ignore them," Jason said. Kevin was squinting at the ground, trying to see where his glasses had fallen. Jason dug them out of the snow, shook them off, and handed them to his friend. "You all right?"

Kevin nodded. He tried to blow the last bits of ice off his glasses, but his breath only caused them to mist over. When he put them back on, his eyes disappeared behind the fog.

Wade stopped about ten feet away, with Ryan on one side and Trevor on the other. Ryan was short and wiry, with close-cut blond hair and a permanent smirk. Trevor was as big as Wade and, as far as Jason was concerned, twice as stupid. And that was saying something.

Wade was compacting another snowball in his gloved hands. His winter jacket made him look even thicker around the middle than he already was. "Hey, why don't you call your Martian friends and ask them to take us for a ride in their flying saucer?"

"Yeah, on your special Martian phone!" Trevor chimed in. He laughed out loud, showing the large gap between his front teeth.

Jason sighed in disgust. It had been like this ever since he and his friends returned to Earth. None of them had intended to tell the truth about their ordeal, but they never really had a choice. Jason's parents had been forced to describe their abduction and rescue. The story had been all over the news.

And, of course, no one believed a word of it. Even Amelia's photos of aliens and spaceships didn't make a difference. Everyone assumed they were fake.

Things had been especially bad at school. The three of them were harassed relentlessly by Wade and his goons and shunned by most others. Kevin was used to that kind of treatment, but it was hard on Jason and Amelia. Jason tried to tell himself that a bunch of kids teasing him was nothing compared to being marooned on a deadly planet or facing a pack of ravenous carnivores, but at times he still found himself getting angry.

Wade had compressed the snow in his hands into a ball of ice. With no warning, he threw it hard at Jason's head. Jason thrust out his palm. The iceball exploded into a cloud of fine powder. No one but Jason noticed it had never actually touched his hand. "Back off," Jason said.

"Or what, space boy? You gonna make me?"

"Yeah," Ryan said, "maybe Kevin will use his geek ray against us!"

"Oh, snap!" Trevor said, and the three roared with laughter.

Jason turned to go. "Come on," he said to his friends.

"I thought you said to ignore them," Amelia complained.

"Watch out for aliens, doofus!" Wade called after them. The three laughed again.

Jason shrugged. "I'm ignoring them now, aren't I?"

A moment later, they reached the edge of the school grounds, where they had to split up. Amelia and Kevin had been grounded for a month after their return and had been permanently forbidden to associate with Jason. The only opportunity they had to see each other was at school, and then only for a few minutes at a time. That often made these goodbyes difficult. Today, for some reason, Amelia seemed especially reluctant to part company. She adjusted her Red Sox cap and pushed a strand of hair out of her face.