Hey all fellow demigods! This is my first story and it's only a one-shot. Please review and give me pointers. Hope you enjoy!
Katie POV:
I never did appreciate being woken up by screaming.
It was the second week of camp in June, a hot summer day just like any other. I usually wake up before most of the camp with exception of some of the Apollo cabin. I don't know if those kids ever sleep. However, I must have slept through my alarm this morning because I woke with a start when i heard shrieks outside Cabin 4.
I immediately bolted out of bed and out the front door, tripping over my feet and pajama pants, only to step out into the sunlight with campers laughing and shouting in delight. They were all on their way to breakfast, settling in as cabin counselors began discuss what seemed like important things.
How could I forget? Today was the first capture the flag of the summer.
I ran down to the dining pavilion, only to be greeted with a few snorts and surprised glances from other demigods, who were eating breakfast and talking about strategies and allies for the event today. I hadn't realized that till just now that I was still in my pajamas, barefoot and my hair was sticking up in all different directions.
Everyone was silent while I scanned the room, hoping that my secret crush was not yet at breakfast. A few campers whispered to each other in hushed tones.
"Why is Katie dressed like that?"
"She's normally always awake by now..."
"Maybe she's not feeling well."
My hopes were crushed as soon as he walked in, with his younger brother and the rest of his cabin, always late for every meal. His wild dirty blonde hair was spread all around his face and his eyes were just as scheming as always. His pointy ears stuck out from around his hair. He wore his orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and khaki shorts, with blue Nikes and his camp necklace with clay beads on its tied around his neck. Thankfully, he hadn't spotted me just yet so I should've had time to make a run for it, but I was frozen.
Travis Stoll had spotted me. His eyes widened with surprise for a split second, and then smirked. Wait, was he blushing?
"Hey Katie!" Travis called from across the pavilion. Oh crap. He ran over to meet me as the rest of his cabin settled down to being eating. I stayed, not moving a muscle, only imaging what I looked like to him. He didn't seem to look at me as though I was dressed any different than usual.
"Um uh-h Hey Travis," I tried to say without stumbling over my words. Normally I wasn't this flustered mourned him, but because of my current outfit choices, I had a slight blush on my cheeks. "What's going on?"
"Nothing much, just late as usual. What's with the pjs's?" Travis asked, trying to be subtle but holding back laugh.
Oh great, now he's making joke out of it too. Just my luck.
I tried to come up with a suitable excuse. "Oh well, um, I heard some screams from outside my cabins and I seemed to have woken up late so I just kinda bolted out of bed and forgot that everyone was just excited about capture the flag today and I thought maybe a monster had gotten into the camp."
"Oh yeah! About capture the flag today..." Oh my gosh, he really was blushing a little.
He began again after an awkward pause, "Would you like to team with with our cabin? We're already allies with the Hephaestus and Dionysus cabins too. It would be great to have your help in the game today. What do ya think?"
Me? He wanted my help? "Why would you want Miranda and I to help?" I asked, slightly dumbfounded by the request.
Travis then said in his best announcer voice a little too loudly, "Who wouldn't want the help of the oh so talented Miss Katie Gardner herself on their team?" A few campers laughed at his puffed out chest and goofy look on his face.
I slapped on the arm, in which he winced. "Shut up, Travis! I've already been embarrassed enough today with running around in my pajamas."
He smiled in return and chuckled. "Ya know, I think the wild-crazy-hairdo-and-barefoot-with-pajamas look suits you well."
This resulted in another slap.
"Ow Katie! Do you have to hit so hard?" In the distance, I could see the whole Hermes table shooting me approving glances and laughing at Travis Stoll's current situation.
"To answer your question," I began, "The Demeter Cabin would gladly team with the Hermes kids. As long as you don't try anything stupid before it starts later today."
"No promises," Travis said mischievously, with that cute little smirk he always makes.
Katie, stop that! I mentally scolded myself. Travis probably has his eyes on some other girl, so don't get your hopes up.
"I'm gonna go get cleaned up for breakfast before Miranda begins freaking out about where I am. See ya later Travis!" I bolted back to my cabin before I could embarrass myself any more.
Travis POV:
If getting Katie Gardner on my team for capture the flag meant bruises from the lady herself, I was all for it.
As soon as her bolted away to go get ready for breakfast, I jogged back over to my cabin's table, where they all seemed to be snickering at something.
"What?" I asked, hoping to figure out why they were all looking at me and laughing.
My brother, Connor spoke up first, still wheezing as he spoke. "Dude, you are so gushing over her! Why haven't you just asked her out already?"
Was it that obvious? I thought. I hope not.
I've had a crush on Katie since our first summer together when we we're thirteen. Now we're sixteen, and I still haven't mustered up the courage to ask her out. I almost puked trying to ask her to be allies with my cabin.
"I am not! I just asked to her to be allies with us for capture the flag today, that's all." I soon as I finished, the whole cabin could see me blushing profusely.
"You are so love sick." Connor said.
"Whatever man. I'll deal with it later. Anyways, listen up. For the game today, We're teaming up with Hephaestus, Dionysus, Ares and Demeter. I've already talked to Nyssa, Pollux, Katie and Sherman so we're all set. We're going against Athena, Apollo and Aphrodite. We'll need to keep an eye out for those Apollo kids, they can be tricky when they want to be. The other head counselors have already discussed the game plan. Here's how it's gonna go."
XoXoX
Katie POV:
I ran with Miranda, Billie and the newest Demeter kid, Brooke Cox to meet the rest of the cabins we teamed up with. I was wearing my armor and had my dagger secured on my belt, but I probably wouldn't use it. More than likely I would be needed to trap some kids in the opposing cabins in some vines or have them wrapped in tree branches.
I managed to spot Travis and his brother talking to their cabin and I ran over, ushered the rest of my cabin to follow.
"Hey Travis, you know the plan right?"
"Yep," he replied with a smirk.
Both Travis and I were responsible for attempting to recover the flag together. The idea made me blush a bit, but I quickly shooed away the thought.
I realized Travis and I were staring at one another, and I cleared my throat to disperse the awkward silence. Travis then spoke up.
"All right everyone, listen up!" He now had the attention of our team with Sherman, myself, Connor, Nyssa and Pollux standing in front. "Katie and myself will do our best to acquire the flag."
Someone form the crowd shouted, "Woah Travis, since when do you use words like 'acquire'?"
He grunted and rolled his eyes to continue. "Does everyone know their jobs on the field today?" Everyone grunted in response enthusiastically, anxious to get started. All the campers were dressed in their armor with weapons at their side and paying close attention to Travis as he continued. "All right then, lets prepare to fight. TEAM RED!" The rest of the demigods shrieked in response, unable to contain their excitement. As the rest of the team left, I pulled Travis aside quickly.
"Uh, hey Katie. What's going on?", Travis asked with a look of confusion on his face.
I didn't blame him, I'm really quite sure why I needed to talk to him. I just let instincts to do the talking.
"About today in the dining hall, why didn't you make fun of me like everyone else? More importantly, why did you ask me to be on your team?" I asked innocently.
Travis POV:
I'm not quite sure how everyone in the camp know that I have this huge crush on Katie and she doesn't seem to know at all. Why would she care anyways? With her beautiful brown hair, stunning green eyes and petite figure, guys around camp would be drooling all over her. Katie just didn't seem to be interested in me.
As we were walking to the field to start the camp, she grabbed my arm and pulled me away.
"Uh, hey Katie. What's going on?", I said in confusion. What did she need to talk to me about? Especially alone; as if I needed to be anymore nervous around her or have Connor make more fun about me.
"About today in the dining hall, why didn't you make fun of me like everyone else? More importantly, why did you ask me to be on your team?" she asked quietly.
Did Katie really think I would make fun of her? I hope I hadn't come across to her like that. I was now determined to let her know I cared about her.
"Katie," I started, "why would I ever make fun of you? You were just worried about all the other campers safety this morning when you were still dressed in pajamas. That's nothing to be embarrassed about. And about capture the flag, I think we work pretty well together as a team, you and I. I just thought it would be nice to win for a change against the Athena cabin and and with your help, I think we could pull it off. I never meant for you to think I would make fun of you. Yeah i was laughing but it was just because i thought you looked super cute." I finished, blushing intensely and avoiding Katie's eyes.
Then I let what i had just said settle in.
Oh no. Katie looked shocked when I said that last part, and part of me thought she would begin laughing at me. But when i looked down, she put her hand on mine, and her other hand went up to my cheek to make me look at her.
At the sudden contact, I felt this weird feeling in my stomach and I could feel the heat in my cheeks. What was she doing?
"Travis... do you really think I'm cute?" She looked at me, she eyes full of surprise and curiosity.
Immediately, I quietly said but gently, "Of course I do Katie, I think you're stunning."
Her eyes filled with what I thought was anger, but turned out to be happiness. She threw her arms around me neck, having to stand on her tip toes and hugged me. I was completely froze for a few seconds and then realized I should probably hug her back. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer to me, wondering if I had said the right thing. She pulled away and looked at me.
"I didn't think you even noticed me Travis." Was she blushing?
"Well of course i notice you Katie, you're like my best friend." When I said that, she seemed to deflate a little but then i grabbed her hand and intertwined our fingers and she looked at me, surprised.
"Katie, there's something I need to tell yo-" I was cut off by Chiron's horn sounding the alarm for the game to start. Looks like my confession will have to wait.
"Come on." Katie said. "Lets head off, we can talk again after the game is over." She still had a smile on her face and I couldn't help but smile back.
We ran off, still hand and hand to the field for capture the flag towards our team.
Katie POV:
Did Travis really just tell me I'm stunning? A million thoughts ran through my head as we ran back to the field to start the game, not realizing till we arrived that we were still holding hands.
"Wondering where you two love birds went," said Connor, smirking at our hands.
I quickly pulled away, heat rising into my cheeks.
Chiron interrupted the silence. "Campers! Take your positions. As soon as one team has retrieved the other's flag, we will then check for the injured. Please try your best to not injure anyone to badly. We do not need a repeat of last year, Mr. Yang." Chiron glared in his direction.
Sherman rolled his eyes. "I was only protecting the flag, I didn't mean to break Michael's leg!"
"Anyways," Chiron continued, "get ready!'
Travis and I took to the front of the red team, ready to sprint off into the woods looking for the blue team's flag.
Chiron sounded the horn, and the red team screamed like banshees, heading into the woods to fight while Travis and I went off alone to look for the flag. As we went, I trapped a few Athena boys in tree branches before heading farther away from the field of battle.
As we slowed down, Travis would occasionally look at me and laugh.
"What?" I asked, confused by his laughter.
"You're just incredibly cute when your focused," Travis replied with a smirk.
I immediately blushed. Then from in front of us, four blue team campers jumped out of no where, probably meaning the flag was close by or either wise they we be on the field.
"Well this just got interesting," one of the Apollo kids said.
"Who would've thought we would come across Tratie?" The campers laughed at that.
Tratie? Who is Tratie? Travis seemed to be just as confused as I was.
"Who is Tratie?" Travis asked out of curiosity.
"Well it's your couple name obviously. Everyone in camp can see you two are crazy about one another. It's undeniable," explained one of the Apollo girls.
Couple name? We're not even together though?
"You're just trying to distract us, lets get on with this," I said, ready to kick their butts.
"Traite style," said Travis, smiling at me. I smiled back, reading his mind and knowing the plan.
I trapped one of the Apollo boys up in vines and unsheathed my danger to fight the other. The girl came at me with her dagger only a feet inches longer than mine and I let my instincts take over. I ducked and swiped her legs out from underneath her throwing her off. I grabbed her dagger out of the grass where she dropped it and had her tangled in vines before she knew it. While I took care of the other boy, Travis was simultaneously fighting both of the other Apollo boys and I couldn't help but watch. He had really improved using his javelin. He hit one of the boys in the helmet and he crumpled to the ground immediately. Travis moved on the next boy knocked his weapon out of his hands in a flash, and had him pinned against a tree with a nasty gash on his arm.
"Travis, lets move to find the flag." I said, admiring his work.
He wiped sweat off his forehead, while looking at me and smiled. He look then changed to horror.
"Katie, look out!"
I barely had time to take in what he said before a sharp pain in my left arm showed up. I cried out in pain, as i felt an arrow stuck in my bicep and fell to the ground. Travis had a mixture of emotions on his face as he shouted my name; anger, pain, sadness but mostly a murderous look in his eyes. He spotted the kid who shot the arrow and almost took of after him but I stopped him, my ears still ringing and my vision green with pain.
"Travis." I struggled getting my words out through the pain. "It's okay, we need to find the flag."
"Screw the game, you're hurt." He face was frantically trying to think of what to do as he crouched down next to me.
"You go find the flag, I'll stay here. It's alright." I tried to reassure him but I didn't seem to be getting through this clouded mind.
"No way Katie, I'm not leaving you like th-" I cut him, not having any clue what I was doing.
I pulled his shirt to me with my right hand and planted a soft kiss on his lips. He was completely shocked at first and then settled into it. It lasted about 15 seconds before I pulled away. His face was both shocked and thrilled.
"Go win it for me. I'll be okay." Travis still looked like her wanted to protest but I gave a kiss on the cheek, and told him to go. He gave me one last look of reassurance and he headed off.
Travis POV:
As I ran away from Katie, I tried to comprehend what had just happened. It all occurred so fast. Now Katie Gardner was sitting in the middle of the woods with an arrow in the back of her left arm and she just kissed me.
Katie kissed me.
I momentarily thought about going back to her, but I knew she would just get mad and slap my arm. The thought made me smile. I was determined to win this for her. In the distance, I could make out a sharp blue flag, guarded by two Aphrodite girls.
Piece of cake, I thought. I sneaked up behind the flag, making sure the girls weren't looking and quickly grabbed the flag and took off, not waiting to see their shocked and angry faces.
Yes! We're actually going to win this time! I ran back in the direction of Katie, taking a few random turns to get the girls off my trail and now I could see her again. She was still sitting right where i left her, but once she spotted me, her face broke into a huge grin. Oh man, I could not wait to kiss that girl again.
"Travis, you did it!" She looked at me with pride, lifting herself up from the ground and grabbing her dagger. Together we jogged towards the battle field where kids were still fighting and I let loose a loud scream of triumph, which was followed by shrieks of excitement from the red team and grunts of annoyance from the blues. As a group, we ran with the flag, myself and Katie in front back to camp. Once we got back, Katie and I were lifted up on people's shoulders and they were chanting my name. It felt like a dream.
Then I realized Katie was still injured. I immediately felt angry at myself for forgetting and even more angry at the kid who shot her. Once they set us down, I called Will Solace over to check out her arm. She had managed to pull out the arrow clean but she was still bleeding through her make shift bandage she made while I was gone. Man was she a trooper.
"She'll be okay. Just some ambrosia and nectar and some rest. She be as good as new in a week or two," Will said with reassurance.
"A week or two?! But what about other activities? I don't want to miss out!" Katie said with a huff.
"Hey, you'll need to get some rest. Don't stress Katie-Cat." I realized I just gave her a nickname with the whole camp watching. I looked down at her and saw her blushing.
Then she playfully hit my arm. "So how did you get the flag?" called out one camper.
I began explaining the story to everyone, avoiding the part about the kiss cautiously. Somehow, though, Connor knew I was hiding something. "So no messing around between the two love birds?" Connor smirked as all the campers snorted and I blushed. One of the campers Katie wrapped up in vines spoke up.
"Not true! I totally saw you two kissing after Katie got shot in the arm!" Then all eyes were on me.
What now? Should I say it's true? Ah, screw it.
With a sigh full of happiness, I answered the question on everyone's mind. "Yes, we kissed."
Immediately, the Aphrodite campers cried out in glee and began screaming "TRATIE!" while other campers passed money back and forth. Did they make bets on us? Was it that obvious?
Katie then had everyone quiet down. I turned to her and just let all my emotions and words spill out in from of the whole camp, not knowing what i was saying or doing.
I took Katie's hands in mine and my feelings just spilled out.
"Katie Gardner, since the day I met you I knew we would be the best friends. Little did i know my feelings would turn into something more as we got older. You are the most radiant woman I have ever laid eyes on. The way you smile give me butterflies, the way you talk about things you love with such passion is mesmerizing and your beauty is out of this world. What I'm trying to say is, I want us to be more than just friends. I love Katie Gardner and I'm not just saying all this because we're in front of all these people."
At this point my hands were shaking as tears were welling in Katie's green eyes.
"You make me happier than I've ever felt and I want to be able to cherish you everyday. Katie, would you do me the honor of becoming my girlfriend?"
Many gasps went up around the crowd. All the Aphrodite and Athena girls were crying their eyes out, while all me cabin mates shot me approving looks. Connor was looking hopefully at the two of us, just as Katie slapped me arm.
For the smallest moment, I thought should was going to say no and beat me to a pulp for saying all this in front of the whole camp. Then she answered my questioned.
"Of course I'll be your girlfriend, you idiot!" She then jumped into my arms, crying happy tears and buried her head into my neck.
I immediately hugged back with just as much love and even let a tear run down my cheek.
"I love you Katie Gardner." I whispered in her ear.
She untangled herself from me and said, "I love you too Travis Stoll."
Meanwhile, the entire camp went ballistic, with some people shouting "Tratie! Tratie!" and others were shouting approvingly at my speech.
I looked back to Katie with a smile so big my face began to hurt. I picked up her and spun her around, as she laughed wildly and when I set her down, I planted a very gentle and passionate kiss on her lips. She was shocked at first, but then responded with just as much love and affection.
This was the beginning of a new story for the two of us; the happiest and perhaps the craziest time of our lives.
So, what did you think? Please review, and even follow/favorite if you like it! All criticism is appreciated! And if you would like, please PM one-shot ideas for any couple or idea you have in mind. I would be thrilled to write it up!
Lots of love and thanks for reading!
xoxo carol mill