How It All Goes Down
Jason
- Jason wakes up on a bus and doesn't remember anything. He doesn't even know his age. "Scary," as he says.
- There's a girl sitting next to him holding his hand; she seems to know him, but he is confused.
- At the front of the bus, Coach Hedge stands up to tell the kids what to do, and Jason realizes that Coach Hedge knows that Jason doesn't belong on the bus.
- Jason says he doesn't belong on the bus. Leo Valdez, a fidgety kid, tells Jason that he's his best friend. He also tells Jason that Piper (the girl who was holding his hand) stole a BMW, or, according to her story, talked the dealer into giving it to her.
- Leo thinks Jason is joking about not remembering anything, but Piper starts to get worried, as you would too if your boyfriend suddenly said he didn't remember you.
- At the front of the bus, Hedges keeps bellowing. Leo tells him to use his megaphone, but when he does, it malfunctions weirdly (blaring "The cow says moo!"), which seems to somehow be Leo's fault.
- The bus stops at a museum. Jason half-convinces Leo and Piper that he has amnesia, so Leo explains that they're at the Wilderness School—a school for problem kids—and are currently on a field trip.
- Leo also explains that Piper has been dating Jason for the last few weeks, which embarrasses Piper. She wants to tell Coach Hedge that Jason is concussed, but Leo figures it won't help.
- A jerky kid named Dylan comes up, pushes Leo down, and grabs Piper, who is supposed to be Dylan's partner. Jason hates him at once. He wears a shirt that says I am an evil bad guy on the front of it in giant letters (okay, he doesn't actually wear a shirt that says that, but he might as well—it's pretty clear this kid is trouble right away).
- The museum is about the Grand Canyon, which is where they are, and organized by the Hualapai tribe.
- Some kid teases piper for being American Indian (she's half Cherokee) and for not having known her mother. Coach Hedge prevents Piper from hitting them.
- They go out to the Grand Canyon, which Jason thinks is impressive. Grand, even, you might say.
- Jason gets dizzy. A storm is coming and he has a bad feeling. Without knowing why, he pulls out a gold coin. Leo is impressed with the gold coin, which is grand in its own right, though not quite as grand as the canyon.
- Leo and Jason have a worksheet they're supposed to fill out, but they don't get much work done on it because Jason is sick and Leo is constantly fiddling and building things; in this case a pipe cleaner helicopter, which he actually gets to fly a little bit.
- Jason goes to Coach Hedge, who confirms that Jason just appeared on the bus. Jason is relieved that he's not going crazy… though he does have amnesia, which is a problem in its own right.
- Hedge thinks Jason is hiding something, but Jason convinces him that he really doesn't know what's going on.
- Hedge babbles about camps and half-bloods and extraction teams, and then the storm comes in hard and Hedge tries to get all the kids back inside.