It's been a while since my last Tratie one shot, so of course I needed to do one now!:) This story idea has been bugging me for forever (OK, fine, more like two weeks. But still…), so I just had to write it!

Hope you enjoy, and please review! :D

Oh yeah, and that disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: I, Potato Jam 7 do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. If I did, then I would probably be sitting in a hot tub now, eating an unlimited supply of coconut milk chocolate ice cream! Yuuuuummmmm…OK, now let the story begin!

Stuck at the Top

Katie Gardner had been waiting three whole hours for a ride on the Ferris wheel.

She didn't mind though. Katie was used to working long hours in the sun, not doing anything but planting strawberries, which frankly wasn't much different than standing and waiting in line. In fact, she was so accustomed to the sun beating down on her back, she hardly ever got sunburned or sweated.

The boys ahead of her had apparently not. And those boys just so happened to be the Stolls.

The Stolls. Katie's archenemies . Which was just terrible, considering there were two of them- Travis, the ringleader, the bad influence, the flirty one who never got a girl anyway, and then Connor the whiny one.

If you looked up 'double trouble' in the dictionary, a picture of the Stolls would probably be there.

Katie tried to ignore them as they argued complained to each other about the heat of the day. Instead, she tried to focus on the now fast moving line.

In Katie's opinion, it was a total mistake for Chiron, the camp director, to let a whole bunch of ADHD demigods into a carnival. He should've let the responsible ones, like Katie go, not the irresponsible ones like –who else?-the Stolls go.

"Traaaaavis, how many more minutes?" Connor whined. He was thirteen, but still whined anyway, which annoyed Katie almost to the tipping point.

"Will you just shut up?!" Katie asked, because she could no longer take anymore of his whining. Travis and Connor looked around at her in surprise, like they'd just realized for the first time that Katie was standing there. Figures, Katie thought when she saw their surprised expressions. Katie was the type of person that could be in the middle of a room, but nobody would actually notice she was in there. It was like she was always invisible.

"But I'm dying of thirst and hunger out here! Plus the sun's gonna scar my precious skin!" Connor protested.

"Your precious skin?" Katie made air quotes around the words "precious skin".

"Yeah…you know, all Hermes kids have it! 'Cause we're awesome, you know. But my skin is more precious because I'm Connor The Awesome Stoll."

"Hey, I'm the awesome one here!" Travis said before Katie could tell Connor how ridiculous she thought he was.

"Nuh-uh! I'm hotter, awesomer, and cuter! Plus, I have a zero pack! What now, bro?"

"A zero pack? Isn't that the same as just saying you have nothing?" Katie asked, hands on her hips.

"Well, duh, but if you say it like that people actually think you have something," Connor whispered out of the corner of his mouth. Travis opened his mouth to say something, but before he could start, a college aged dude manning the wheel shouted, "Next up!"

At that precise moment, Katie realized that she, the Stolls, and the girl ahead of them were up next. "Go!" she said, shoving Travis forward. Travis, being as dumb as he was, didn't catch the message and accidentially lost his footing and collided into a cotton candy booth to his right. He landed in a pillow of blue and pink puff balls. Katie and Connor rolled their eyes.

"Hey! Cotton candy! I love this stuff! Can I have some?" Travis gave big puppy dog eyes to the dude. When the guy just grunted as he punched Katie and Connor's tickets, Travis tried again. This time he made some pouting noises, and said in a very teary voice, "Single tear?"

The guy tuned up to face Travis. It was really a pathetic scene. Travis was lying on the ground, bags of cotton candy in both hands, making fake putting noises. His lower lip pooched out, and his eyes looked mournful. The guy must've been really pissed off at Travis, because he murmured, "Fine. Just take it. And then go AWAY!"

Travis's face broke out into a grin as he wiped the fake tears that Katie had failed to recognize. He scooped up the cotton candy in both arms, handed the guy his ticket, and stepped forward to get into a cart with Connor.

Connor, however, had other plans. He was sitting in a cart next to the other girl in line, who happened to be Kayla, daughter of Apollo, Connor's crush since the beginning of time. Everyone at camp knew it, maybe even Kayla, which explained why she looked a little uncomfortable to be in the same cart as Connor Stoll.

"Yo, Connor! What's the girl doing in there?"

"The girl can hear you," Kayla said coolly. Meanwhile, Katie just sat awkwardly in the cart behind them, watching the entire scene unfold.

"Yeah, whatever, sorry Kayla. ANYWAY, what the heck do you expect me to do, bro?!"

"Ummmm….ahhh…" Connor trailed off. Then his eyebrows suddenly turned up and his eyes sparkled. "Sit with Gardner," he said mischievously.

"What?! Sit with Gardner? No w-"

Before Travis could finish his rant, the operator asked Travis, "Would you please find a seat?! We're leaving now!"

"Fine!" Travis said. "I'll get you for this one, bro!" In a huff, he plopped down next to Katie, cotton candy and all. Katie puckered up her face like she'd tasted sour milk, and instinctively inched away from Travis as the doors were closed and the wheel started to spin.

"I don't smell!" Travis said, and immediately after he said that, sniffed his armpits. Katie just rolled her eyes, and turned the other way so she could see the beautiful view outside.

"Want thhome cothon canthy?" Travis asked, mouth full and bag open. Katie grimaced as he stuffed another tuft of blue cotton candy in his mouth.

"That crap? Never! It's just a whole bunch of sugar, carbohydrates-"

"Jeez, I never asked for a lecture."

"Well, you really should be informed about the food you put in your body," Katie told him matter of factly.

"Hey, no worries! I eat my 'five a day' or whatever. Yep, I just ate three bowls of corn yesterday, and then for a midnight snack I had some wild blueberry jelly beans-but I think I had a lot of jelly beans so it probably comes out to about to two servings. I don't know, what do you think, Ms. Vegetables and Fruit Expert?"

"I think you should meet my dear friend broccoli," Katie muttered under her breath, "He'll probably shock you system."

Luckily Travis didn't hear her. He just went back to munching away on his bag of vile, unhealthy cardboard- uh, excuse me, cotton candy. Finally, Katie had a chance to gaze out of the window, and get loose herself in the vast sea of clear blue sky and clouds. However, something in the back of her head kept nagging her, but she couldn't quite pinpoint it. Katie dismissed the nagging thought and went back to staring out the window.

That is, until the Ferris Wheel broke down. They were at the very top when it happened. An announcement with a perky female voice came on the speakers saying: "Pardon the interruption, but the ferris wheel has broken down. We currently have technicians working on it, and we expect it will be fixed in thirty minutes. Sorry for the inconvenience!"

"Goody!" Travis said, "More time with my cotton candy!" When he said 'cotton candy' Travis wiggled his eyebrows and hugged his cotton candy close to his chest. "You no touchie my cotton candy, Gardner," he said, "I know you want it."

Katie just rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. Thirty minutes stuck up here with Stoll? Not going to happen!

She stared out the window, looking out into the pure blue sky. It was one of those days when the sky was so bright, it filled you with a sense of hope and happiness, and made you forget that anything in the world was wrong. Staring at it, Katie felt like she was three again, when all she cared about was whether her dad would buy her some ice cream or not.

"Oh, crap, I need to pee."

Travis Stoll interrupted Katie's sky-staring session, and she whirled around. And that's when she realized what had been nagging her-Travis Stoll's eyes were the same exact blue as the sky.

"Y-y-your eyes," Katie said on surprise, "They're blue!"

"Last time I checked," Travis said ignorantly, "Now where do they expect people who need to pee to go? Like, should I dig a hole? Or pee out the window?"

Katie didn't have time to pay attention to Travis's…uh…interesting comments. Instead she stuttered, "But I thought they were brown!"

"Um, Gardner, are you color blind or something? 'Cause my eyes have been blue since the day I was born."

"But how come I never noticed it?" Katie couldn't believe she'd let this detail slip over the past five years. Eye color was usually the first thing she noticed.

"I need to pee," Travis responded.

"But…but…how?"

"What do you mean 'how' Gardner? My mom had blue eyes. Hermes has blue eyes. So, yeah, it's a total miracle both their sons ended up with blue eyes," Travis said sarcastically.

"But how can someone so….ugly-"

"Watch it, Gardner."

"-and annoying and rude end up with eyes that are so," Katie gulped, "innocentandbeautiful."

"What was the last part, Gardner? Didn't quite catch that," Travis asked.

"I said: innocent and beautiful," Katie sighed. She hated to admit it, but his eyes were really really nice.

"Well, Katie, sometimes, I think that you're so busy finding ways to hate me that you don't notice my extreme awesomeness. Like, there's beauty everywhere and anywhere, in every single person, if you really look, but you're so busy being determined to hate me, that you don't notice the stuff right in front of your face. Dang, I gotta pee, BAD!" Travis hugged his thighs to his arms, and contorted his face.

Katie thought about that for a moment. And then she realized that pretty much every word out of Travis's mouth was true. She was out to hate him. So out to hate him, in fact, that she couldn't even notice the obvious beauty. At that moment, Katie Gardner decided she was going to open her mind to Travis Stoll a little more. Pretend she was seeing him for the first time. Because, when they first met (and Travis had put a whoppe cushion under her chair), she hadn't really given him a chance. And everyone deserves a second chance, even the boy who put a whoppe cushion under your chair.

"Hey, you know what Stoll?"

"That I just peed myself? Oh crap, why did I just say that?!" Travis clamped a hand over his mouth.

Katie bit her lower lip, and looked down. Sure enough, there was a small wet spot on his jeans. Katie couldn't help but crack up.

"Don't laugh!" Travis tried to protest, but eventually he started laughing too.

When they finally stopped laughing, Travis asked her, "Hey, um, what were you going to tell me?"

"Oh…that! I was going to tell you that you're actually not that bad, Travis"

"Gasp! You finally used my first name!" Travis said in mock surprise.

The silently sat there for a few minutes, and then Travis finally spoke up. "Hey, Katie, you know you're not that bad either."

Katie smiled at him. He really wasn't that bad. At that precise moment, the wheel lurched forward, and they began to slowly descend downwards.

Katie glanced at the blue sky outside. She was ready to give Travis a second chance.

The End!

So that's the end, peoples! Sorry about the blue eyes part, I know I already mentioned it in Blue, but for some reason I always like to include Travis's eyes in my stories:) Anyway, hope you enjoyed Travis's little, um, tinkle back there and please review! Have a great day!