A Tale of Two Connors
A/N: Hey guys! So yeah, I was kind of feeling bad about there not being enough independent Connor fics, (considering the fandom considers him to be a bit of a weakling compared to Travis,) so he asked me to write one! So yeah, hope you like it! Because nothing says epic like a two-shot *insert epic smiley face here.*
Disclaimer: Do I look like I own PJO? No. I don't. Because if I owned a book series that made as much money as this one does, I'd be chilling on my private beach, not writing fan fictions.
Part 1: In Which Our Second Favorite Stoll Brother Gains an Actual Personality… or Something Like That.
Connor Stoll was never lonely.
Connor was a very mischievous boy, and his constant companion and best friend was his brother Travis. Connor and Travis Stoll were together so much, that people stopped thinking of them as separate people. They went together like peanut butter and jelly. Macaroni and cheese. Hot cocoa and marshmallows, popcorn and butter. Chips and salsa. Percy and riptide, Drew and her mascara, Clarisse and a weapon. They were never apart. They were never apart, that is, until that fateful day when Connor Stoll decided he was tired. He decided to be an individual.
The birds were singing, the sun was shining, the pegasi were frolicking through the strawberry fields. Yes, I said pegasi. As in, the mythical creatures. Connor was a son of Hermes, the god of travelers and thieves. So lets just say he picked up a lot of, well, interesting qualities from his dad. Travis and Connor—err, I mean, Connor and Travis, were hanging outside their cabin being extremely bored. Being bored was an unusual event for the Stoll brothers, so it was no surprise when Travis proposed an idea, to break the long, excruciating silence.
"Dude!" Travis said, "I'm craving coke. Lets go get some from the stash." Awkward moments don't come often between the two, but that certain day Connor had been extremely withdrawn. Travis almost always leads the conversations, but Connor was never silent. Finally, the silent one spoke. "Sure."
"What's wrong with you today, man? You haven't been yourself." Travis asked, a little less than concerned.
"Oh," Said Connor, in an extremely sarcastic tone. "Because you know me so well." At this comment, Travis decided that he was positively disgusted and sick of his brothers bad attitude. In an angry tone, that would have made babies cry, he snapped "Yes, actually, I know you better than anyone else. I also know that you have a really, really bad attitude right now. Snap out of it, or I'm going to be a really angry person."
"Fine, whatever. Lets go get some coke."
"Hey Travis!"
"'Sup Stoll's?"
"Oh Travis! Katie is looking for you."
"Hey look, it's Travis and Connor!"
"Oh! Travis, I was just looking for you."
"Oh, uhh… hi Connor. Anyways, so Travis…"
After a life full of taking second place to his brother, Connor was sick of not having enough attention. After the initial confrontation minutes before, Travis had all but completely forgotten his brothers strange behavior. That made the upcoming outburst seem even more unusual. If anyone was paying attention to Connor, (which we all know no one was,) they would have noticed that his face getting red with annoyance and frustration. They would have noticed his hands getting fidgety, as he struggled to hold back the words he so desperately wanted to say. Of course, no one paid any attention to Connor. No one noticed, and the outburst happened.
"That is it! I'm sick of this! In fact, starting today, I am no longer Travis Stoll's brother. I'm Connor. The most awesome person at camp, and I deserve respect!" Connor yelled, jumping on a bench nearby so that everyone could hear him. "Look Travis. I don't want to be bossed around by you anymore! I'm a seriously cool dude, but no one ever notices that. In fact, I bet I'd be the most popular dude in the Hermes cabin if it weren't for your little infamous crush on Katie. Yeah, I said it. Travis has a crush on Katie everyone! And yes, I just broke the secret brother trust, because we aren't brothers anymore."
After this long, angry rant, Connor jumped off the bench, and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him. He didn't stop running until he reached the Poseidon cabin, his destination. He knocked on the door no more than three times, and waited for his friend to come to his rescue. When the door opened, Percy's face said it all. Word of Connor's outburst had reached all corners of the camp in less than 10 minutes. Percy ushered him into the cabin, and quietly closed the door. Things were silent for a bit, until Connor finally opened his mouth to speak. "Look, I'm freakin out man! I'm freakin out!" The silence said that Percy was waiting for more of an explanation. "I've always just sat back and let Travis boss me around all of my life. 'Connor lets steal this.' 'Lets pull this prank' 'I want to do it my way.' I've always just let it go, but I'm tired of being known as Travis's brother. We used to be an even team, but now it's mostly Travis and his sidekick. You're the hero, you don't get what it's like, but I was still kind of hoping. Well, I don't know. I want you to teach me how to be an individual." Now, Percy tried really hard to understand Connor's reasoning, but he still found the entire situation a little bit humorous. He tried to suppress a giggle, after all, guys do not giggle. "You want me to teach you to become an individual?" Percy asked, with a hint of mockery in his voice. If Percy had any mean intentions, Connor didn't pick up on it. "Yeah!" He said, "You're a pretty cool dude. No one ever accuses you of being someone's sidekick."
"Sorry man," Percy said, not sounding very sorry at all, "I'm kind of busy at the moment. Big date with Annabeth and all. It's our anniversary you know. One year together."
"Yeah, yeah. Happy birthday and all that. I guess I'll find someone else to help me. Someone more qualified." Connor said, putting extra emphasis on the word "qualified," making the vowels pop and sounding extremely stupid. Percy wasn't offended.
The next day, everything seemed completely normal. Completely normal until Connor Steele entered the dining hall for breakfast. See, the only "qualified" person Connor could get to help him, was Grover. The conversation between them went a little like this:
Grover: So you want me to help you?
Connor: Yeah, pretty much.
Grover: Well first we need to start with the name.
Connor: The name?
Grover: Yeah! If you change your last name to something other than Stoll, that eliminates the chances of people calling you a "Stoll brother."
Connor: Ohhhh! I think I get it.
Grover: Yeah, so names… names… hmmm… Stoll, Stole, Steal, Stoll, past tense, past tense. Present tense! What's the present tense of Stoll?
Connor: Uhh, why?
Grover: Because you were a Stoll in that past, but now it's the present. See what I'm getting at? Huh? Huh?
Connor: Uhh, sure. Present tense of Stoll? Steele?
Grover: Stoll, stole, steal, Steele! That's it! Perfect. Connor Steele.
And that's how Connor got the last name Steele. Now the pink hair, that's anybody's guess. Only the gods know why Connor chose the unique hair color of pink. Now Drew, being, well, Drew-ish, decided to comment on the new look. "Eww! What is that thing on your head? Oh. It's your hair. I guess that makes since. Being a Steele and all."
"Hey! Don't judge! Only real men wear pink." Replied Connor, laying on the famous Stoll charm seriously thick. Of course, Connor was no longer a Stoll. Lets just say Steele charm definitely doesn't work as well. "Umm, eww." Commented Drew, with one last disgusted look at Connor before running off to tell the rest of the camp the new juiciest gossip about Connor.
Yeah, thought Connor, I've totally got it going on. I'm the coolest thing to hit camp halfblood since… well… ever! Now I'll just find Travis, and show him that I'm totally cool without him. Won't he be surprised! I bet he won't even recognize me. After all, I kind of avoided him all last night, so I haven't really seen him since… well…. Man, I kind of miss that dude. *sigh…*
"Uhh, why are you talking to yourself like that?" Asked one of the newer, younger Hermes campers as Connor approached the table. Oh! Was I talking to myself out loud? Thought Connor. "Yeah, you were talking out loud." Said the younger camper. Connor laughed an obviously fake sounding hearty laugh, and slid into a seat on the table. "Sup Stoll." Sneered Connor as he slid into the table, as if Stoll was the worst word someone could call someone else. "Hello Connor." Replied Travis back at him, in the same tone of voice. "Meet my new, improved brother, Collin Stoll."
"Oh uhhh, I thought I already told you my name is Collin Bradburry."
"Yeah, whatever bro." Said Travis stiffly, giving Collin a punch on the arm. "We're besties now. In fact, you're just in time to witness our newest prank on the Aphrodite cabin."
"You can't replace me!" Connor exclaimed, with hurt apparent in his voice. Just then, a scream more horrifying, and more pain filled then ever before filled the air. The scream was so loud and excruciating to the ear, that every baby within a 50 mile radius suddenly starting crying like never before. "Oh Em Gee!" It was an Aphrodite cabin member, surely. "COLLIN! TRAVIS! What did you do to my Justing Bieber poster? I'm going to kill you!" Collin and Travis high fived, and Travis turned to his ex-brother and said, with a very cocky tone, "You were saying?"
Connor had never been more hurt, and more determined, in his entire existence.
A/N: So how'd you like it? Hopefully I'll have the next chapter up soon. Don't forget to let me know what you guys think! Later gaters,
-Awesomegirl13