"I really don't get you sometimes."
Travis Stoll turns to look at his younger brother Connor. Currently, they're spying on the Demeter cabin from right under their window; they're waiting for its occupants to leave so the Stoll brothers can put into effect their latest prank, an genius (according to Travis) plan in which they will replace all of the plant seeds in the Cabin with poison ivy seeds. (See? Genius!)
"What do you mean?" Travis asks as his gaze returns to Katie Gardner who is turning the cabin upside down in search of her rusty tin watering can and asking (ordering) her siblings to help find it. Travis chuckles as he thinks of the watering can (which according to Katie has sentimental value because it was a gift or something) hidden under his bed in the Hermes cabin.
"That right there." Connor answers. Travis glances at him, somewhat confused.
"Yeah, 'that right there'. That really clears things up. I don't know what I would do without you, bro." Travis responds, sarcasm dripping from his tone. Really, just because Travis is clearly the smarter brother doesn't mean he can always understand his brother's nonsense.
"I meant how you're always looking at Katie Gardner. And just so you know, without me, you'd be dead. And bored." he adds almost as an afterthought. Travis shakes his head. If he was dead and bored, that would mean he was in the Fields of Asphodel and he knows that there's no way in Hades that someone as awesome as him wouldn't end up in Elysium. (Or so he tells himself, anyways.)
"I'm not always looking at Katie Gardner. Just shows what you know. And by the way, you know nothing. Without you, I'd still be the awesome person I am today, only less irritated." Travis answers. Connor sighs as if he's about to explain something very obvious to somebody very stupid.
"Face it, man! You like Katie Gardner! I'm your brother, I should know these things. And there's no way in Hades, you'd be awesome without me. This whole camp knows you're only awesome because my awesomeness rubbed off on you." Connor replies. (The word 'awesome' is starting to lose all meaning in Travis's mind due to the overuse of it.) Travis lets out an exasperated sigh.
"Let me put this in a way you might understand. Me no like Katie. Me be awesome. You be stupid." Travis says slowly as he grabs Connor by the shoulders and shakes him for emphasis. Connor pushes Travis.
"Don't touch me." Connor threatens. Travis takes this as a challenge and pushes him back. Connor shoves Travis and Travis's head conks against the ivy-covered walls of the Demeter cabin. Travis is about to retaliate and-
"Travis Stoll, why in Hades are you hiding in the bushes outside my cabin?" Katie Gardner hisses. Connor mumbles something about him existing too. Travis springs up to his full height and puts on what he hopes is a charming smile. Connor takes advantage of the fact Katie is unaware of his presence and runs away to his cabin. (There are many things that Connor Stoll is willing to do. Risk Katie Gardner's wrath is not one of them.)
"Well, you see Katie dear, there's-"
"Call me 'dear' and I can guarantee you won't ever reproduce." Katie interrupts threateningly. Travis assumes that she's pissed off over her missing watering can and she suspects him of stealing it. He isn't sure whether to feel insulted or flattered.
"Well as I was saying, me and my brother just happened to be in the area and we...We...Uhm..." Travis falters. He can't think of a good explanation. He notices that Connor's gone and swears under his breath. Damn, now he's going to have to face Katie alone. (Gods help him.)
"I bet he was spying on us in the hopes of seeing Katie change clothes..." Katie's sister Lily whispers loudly to her siblings who chuckle and unsuccessfully try to hide it. Warmth floods through Travis's face. Like he'd ever spy on Katie in the hopes of seeing her naked! Pssh. Not like he's ever considered it...More than twice, three times, five times tops! (All right six, but that's as high as he'll admit! Not that there's any other times to admit. Pssh.)
Katie's fourteen-year-old brother Mark (who by some miracle is a teenage boy who doesn't like suggestive jokes) silences his siblings and says "Maybe Travis took your watering can, Katie." Mark walks away because it's not like he just gave Travis a death sentence or anything with that suggestion. Of course he didn't.
Travis trys to get up from the bushes but trips and falls on his face. He starts tugging on his foot but it's stuck among the bushes. Crap.
Katie has a thoughtful look on her face as she seems to consider Mark's suggestion. She apparently accepts it as truth and she glares at Travis.
Travis frantically looks around in search of anything thatcould be used as a weapon to defend himself. Nothing.
Katie pulls a dagger from her back pocket. That's actually kinda hot, Travis thinks to himself. He immediately shakes his head of the thought. Katie Gardner equals his death and annoying him and violence, not attractiveness.
Katie walks slowly to where Travis is sprawled out on the grass. She stops when she reaches Travis. Her scuffed black Converse are millimeters away from Travis's face.
"You know...Seeing as you're in no position to defend yourself...I think I'll go easy on you..." Katie whispers. Travis brings himself up into a sitting position and unsuccessfully tries to scoot away. Katie strokes her dagger. Note to self, Travis thinks, Don't steal gardening supplies from children of Demeter who are permanently PMS-ing...
Katie smirks. Anger is clearly etched across her freckled face. (But there's something in her eyes that Travis can't decipher. An expression he sees in the mirror sometimes as he thinks of girls. One girl in particular...)
Five minutes later, Travis shuffles into his cabin rubbing his right forearm. Connor's sleeping in his bed. Travis grabs a small red bouncy ball he nicked from the camp store earlier in the day and throws it at Connor.
Connor jerks awake when the ball makes contact with a certain spot between his legs (Lucky aim, Travis thinks) and nearly falls on the floor in his panic.
He appears as if he's about to yell at Travis for waking him up but instead he says "Dude. What happened to your arm?"
Travis glares at Connor for a moment. "Well while you were napping and probably dreaming about doing gods-know-what with daughters of Aphrodite"-Connor makes no effort to deny this and his lips curl up slightly-"I was kicked in the arm. Twice. By Katie Gardner, who apparently has bricks for feet."
Travis shuffles over to the mini-fridge hidden in the corner of the messy cabin and pulls out an ice pack. He throws himself on his bed and winces as he presses the ice pack to the growing bruise. "Stupid Katie Gardner and her homicidal tendencies..."
Connor chuckles. "Ah, young love."
Travis throws a pillow at him.
::
"Why don't you ask her out?"
Travis briefly considers punching Percy's arm. (Apparently, Katie's murderous inclinations are rubbing off on him.) But then he realizes Percy probably wouldn't notice, what with him bearing the Curse of Achilles and all. Damn. Travis yawns. (He's not a morning person.)
"Ask who out?" Travis replies, pretending that he has no idea that Percy's talking about a certain daughter of Demeter who's only two people away from him. He nudges Percy to get him to move as the serving line moves a grand total of three inches.
"The girl you keep on looking at every five seconds." Percy says as he helps himself to an unnatural amount of bacon. Travis wonders for a moment if Percy's life goal is to give himself a heart attack before the end of the summer session as he glances sideways at Katie.
"Who, Katie?" Travis answers before he can stop himself. Damn. Now he's admitted that he keeps on glancing over at Katie Gardner. But it's only because he's making sure she doesn't try to kill him with a fork or something. (Or so he tells himself.)
"So you admit that you're staring at Katie?" Percy asks, a triumphant grin on his face. He has the Curse of Achilles, you can't hit him..., Travis reminds himself.
"No. I'm checking to make sure that she doesn't come after me with kitchen utensils." Travis says in what he hopes is a convincing tone as he rubs the bruise from yesterday. Apparently, it isn't because Percy doesn't let the subject drop.
"Seriously. Just ask her out. The whole camp's waiting for it. I hear Connor even has a bet with a bunch of people on when you guys get together." Percy continues as he piles five scrambled eggs on his plate because apparently he wants to find out if cholesterol poisoning is as fun as it sounds. Travis's mouth drops open in shock.
Connor had set up a bet? Without his help or approval? About when he was getting together with Katie Gardner, no less!
Travis decides that his brother has commited treason of the highest kind and must suffer dearly. Maybe Travis could steal Connor's secret stash of chocolate bars and candy and give them out to the younger campers as Connor watches...Yeah, that could work...
Travis feels a pair of eyes staring at him. He snaps himself out of his reverie and notices Percy staring at him with a somewhat creeped out expression on his face. Travis assumes he probably had a maniacal expression on his face. He decides to change the subject.
"You're not one to talk, Percy. We all had to wait like three yearsfor you and Annabeth to get together." Travis says, hoping that Percy will be distracted from the whole topic of his (non-existent) crush on Katie. Percy blushes redder than the strawberries on his plate.
"Don't change the subject." Percy mutters, the blush still on his face.
"Hurry up! I'm starving to death over here; you have no time to analyze every shred of food!" Katie snaps at the twin Apollo campers in between her and Travis who are taking a very long time in choosing what they want for breakfast. The campers ignore her and Katie starts tapping her foot, an irritated expression etched across her features.
Travis starts observing (not staring!) Katie and the twins as they glare at each other.
After a few minutes, Katie (who is the death glare master) lets out an exasperated sigh and decides to skip the twins. They glare daggers at her but say nothing. Travis is still looking at her, never having fully realized that her eyes are kinda pretty even when she's angry...
"What are you looking at, Travis?" she snaps, her irritation not having worn off yet. Travis snaps himself out of his reverie (which, by the way, does not mean he likes Katie Gardner) and answers "Nothing, Katie. Nothing."
Katie turns back to the selection of food laid out in front of her and smiles when she sees her favorite cereals (Travis somehow knows that this list is comprised of anything chocolate-y). Travis turns away from her, slightly red in the ears and contemplating the possibility of Katie being bipolar.
He elbows Percy when he hears him mutter "Should've asked her out..."
This, of course, adds another bruise to his arm.
Damn Curse of Achilles.
::
"Travis!"
Travis turns his head around in search of the person who called his name and he sees Annabeth. Annabeth jogs over to where he is.
"So what's up?" she asks. Travis wonders why Annabeth is talking to him. They aren't exactly great friends. (She still hasn't completely forgiven him for locking Percy in a closet with Rachel a few weeks ago.)
"Nothing...Just walking to archery class..." he answers somewhat apprehensively. He's half afraid that she's finally going to get her revenge and that he may never recover from the emotional scars. The other half is afraid is that she's going to hire Katie to do the work for her. He suppresses a shudder.
"So, I overheard your conversation with Percy." she says casually. Travis mentally translates this to 'Percy told me about the conversation you had and I'm saying I overheard so you don't get yourself injured by trying to kick my invulnerable boyfriend's ass.'
Travis starts walking faster. Why is it that people had suddenly decided to interrogate him on his relationship with Katie? He pranks her, she yells at him, he pranks her again, and the glorious cycle continues. It's not that hard to grasp really.
Annabeth quickens her stride and catches up to him. Travis glances at her out of the corner of his eye. She has a 'Don't run away because I can and will follow you until I get answers' look on her face. (He's good at recognizing this expression; he sees it all the time on Katie.)
Travis sighs as he realizes that he's not getting away from this interrogation and he stops walking. Annabeth looks pleased at his surrender.
"Now, I'm not going to ask you if you like Katie. I already know you do." Annabeth tells him. Travis opens his mouth and is about to protest but Annabeth shushes him.
"Don't deny it. It doesn't take a child of Aphrodite to know you're always pranking her cabin to get her attention." Annabeth says in a matter-of-fact tone. Travis doesn't really know how to respond to that. Sure, he isalways pranking the Demeter cabin but that's only because Katie's reactions amuse him. Her reactions are especially enjoyable when she's standing thisclose to him and she's thisclose to stabbing him and she's so close he could kiss her if he wanted to.
Not that he wants to kiss Katie. Pssh. Of course not!
Travis is snapped out of his deep thinking (Travis Stoll having deep thoughts? Wait, what?) by Annabeth's chuckle.
"What?" he inquires, half afraid of the answer. He knows that when it comes to girls like Annabeth and Katie, it's best to be half afraid at all times for they are capable of a lot of masculinity-degrading actions when provoked.
"You were thinking about her!" Annabeth bites her lip to stop from laughing. Travis feels heat flooding into his cheeks.
"I was not!" he retorts lamely, his cheeks turning redder.
"Yes, you were! You're blushing!" Annabeth can't stop the giggle this time. (Travis Stoll blushing, Annabeth Chase giggling- the world must be coming to an end.)
"Yeah, well, shouldn't you be making out with Percy in a closet somewhere?" Travis says, remembering the time he was walking around the Big House after a meeting with Chiron concerning his behavior (so he threw some firecrackers on the Demeter cabin's roof, big deal) and he heard...noise coming from a closet. He opened the closet and out tumbled Percy and Annabeth who at least had the decency to look embarrassed at being caught. (Travis was just glad they had their clothes on. And that they didn't murder him.)
Annabeth turns tomato red, obviously recalling the same memory. Travis's blue eyes widen slightly as Annabeth's hand twitches towards her dagger.
"D-Don't talk about that! Just...Drop it! You know what? Bye, Travis!" Annabeth sputters as she turns around and leaves him alone.
Travis smiles, pleased that he managed to get Annabeth to leave him alone. He realizes he managed to escape from this interrogation unharmed, unlike the others which resulted in his being bruised.
Thinking that maybe the day will be get better from here, Travis starts making his way to his archery lesson, not even caring that he's late. Suddenly, Travis trips on the outstretched leg of a huge (think human skyscraper) son of Ares who is unnaturally tough-looking. He slams down onto the ground, face-first. The son of Ares traipses away, laughing.
Travis forces himself to stand up with a groan. He brushes the dirt off of his jeans and Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and feels a painful throb somewhere above his right eye. He puts his hand on the throb and feels a bump starting to form. He lets out a frustrated sigh.
Damn.
::
"You're a moron."
Travis balls his hands into fists. All he wants is to be left alone. Is that too much to ask? Isn't it bad enough that he's been interrogated not one, not two, but three times in the past twenty-four hours? Why can't the world stop conspiring against him?Why couldn't the world at least leave him alone for a few minutes so he can take a nice shower after a long day?
"Did you not hear me? I said you're a moron."
That's it. If that person calls him a moron one more time, he can and will beat them up.
"Helloo? Earth to moron!"
Travis turns around to face the person and finds himself looking down at a thirteen-year-old boy named Will, a recent addition to the Aphrodite cabin. Travis is unsure of what to do. How in Hades is he supposed to vent his anger when a thirteen-year-old is the one provoking him?
"Yes?" Travis asks through clenched teeth. Will stares at him incredulously.
"You really don't know why?" Will responds in disbelief.
"No. Wait...No, I haven't done anything bad...Today at least." Travis answers. Will shakes his head slowly as if gravely disappointed.
"I can't believe you don't know." Will says.
"Know what?" Travis asks. Seriously, he just wants to take a shower in peace. Travis decides he's had enough of this irritation and turns around so he can enter the showers but he almost crashes into a trio of Aphrodite girls whose names he has not bothered learning.
"Oh no, Travis. You're staying right there." says the tall brunette in the middle. She seems to be the most intimidating due to her death glare. (How is it that daughters of the love goddess can look so nice one second and menacing the next, Travis may never know.)
Travis can tell what the conversation is going to be about. Apparently, the whole camp got a memo instructing them to interrogate him on his non-existent (no really, it is) crush on Katie. The shorter red-head to the right of the brunette has her arms crossed as if daring Travis to leave. He sighs and decides to stay because he doesn't need a repeat of what happened last time he messed with the Aphrodite cabin. (He looked like a circus clown for a month.)
"Fine. Whatever." Travis says, holding his hands up in defeat. The trio looks surprised for a moment but they quickly compose themselves.
"All right. How do you feel about Katie Gardner?" the younger-looking blonde to the left asks him. Travis sighs. He expected this question.
"Nobody seems to understand. So, I'm going to say it very slowly. I. Do. Not. Like. Katie. Gardner. Once again: Me like Katie? No. And finally: Me. No. Likey. Katie. And I never will." he answers slowly, becoming increasingly irritated. Why can't people just accept he pranks her for the hell of it?
"I don't believe you," pipes up Will from behind, "You're in denial." Travis ignores this comment. The trio nods in agreement. Travis decides that he'd like nothing more at the moment than to just disappear.
"You know what? I. Give. Up. All I want to do is take a shower and go to sleep afterwards." cries Travis, not being able to hold it in anymore.
"Take a shower? Really? That's what you want to do?" says the tall brunette in the middle in disbelief.
"Yes. Take a shower. Now try not to have too much fun with that mental image and leave me alone." Travis responds. The girls' cheeks are glowing red. He smirks in triumph and takes advantage of their embarrassment to walk away from them and head to the showers, happy that this day is coming to an end and hoping that tomorrow that isn't as frustrating and doesn't leave him as injured. (Because seriously, two bruises and a bump- just how unlucky can he be?)
He's about to open the door when someone else does and it slashes across his face, leaving a a faint scar on his cheek.
He just can't win, can he?
::
Travis walks out of the showers, feeling refreshed and he's about to make his way towards his cabin when he hears a sniffle come from behind the girls' showers a few feet away. He wonders if he should go check up on whoever it is. He hears another sniffle and decides that being the awesome person that he is, he should go check up on the person. If he's lucky (which he hasn't been so far today, but whatever), it'll be a cute girl in need of a shoulder to cry on. He smiles at the thought.
The smile is quickly wiped off when he reaches the girl. It's Katie Gardner, sitting in a patch of dead grass. And she's crying. Travis makes a mental note to start preparing for the apocalpyse.
"Uhm. Katie? Are you all right?..." he asks nervously. He's never dealt with a sad Katie before. He's only dealt with angry Katie, pissed off Katie, frustrated Katie, irritated Katie, and bitchy Katie. (The difference between all those sides of Katie? How badly they hurt Travis.)
Katie appears alarmed at the sound of his voice and springs up instinctively. She looks at him and turns away again, a blush creeping up her cheeks. She starts wiping the few tears on her face off with her arm and tries to hurry past Travis. Travis grabs her wrist. She doesn't even bother jerking away like she usually would.
"Katie, what's wrong? Is this about that watering can I stole? I'll give it back..." Travis asks, concern evident in his voice. Honestly, he doesn't think the watering can is why she's crying but he figures lame humor is the way to go with the situation.
"Just forget about it, Travis." she replies as she tries to walk away. Yeah, sure, Travis is just going to forget he saw Katie crying. Like that's such an easy task. Pssh. Travis keeps his hold on her wrist.
"You were crying. I want to know why. That way, I'll have my next prank victim." Travis says, hoping that sad Katie isn't one to hit amazingly good-looking, totally awesome, hilarious, humble geniuses such as himself.
Katie lets out a weak chuckle. The corner of her lips tug up slightly. She wipes the last tear off her face and a thoughtful look crosses her face.
"Well, I'll tell you. But just so you know, I was not crying, I was-"
"Leaking?" Travis offers with a smirk. Katie shoots him a pointed look.
"Whatever. So, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, I'll tell you what was wrong." Katie says. She sucks in a deep breath.
"The thing is...I was walking around and I kinda overheard some Aphrodite girls talking about...About the guy I like. They had asked him if he...If he liked me. And he said he never would...And I don't know I just...I kinda snapped. And I started...leaking...Only a little, though." Katie adds.
The gears are spinning in Travis's head. Katie's story reminds him of earlier, when the Aphrodite girls had asked him about Katie...He had said he would never like her...Just like the guy Katie likes...
Travis remembers all of the people today who had asked (interrogated) him about his feelings towards Katie. He had said no each time...Maybe he said no for the wrong reasons...Travis knows for sure he doesn't like Katie...But there are emotions other than like, that's for sure...Stronger ones...
"Uhm. Travis? Helloo?" Katie says while she waves her free hand in front of Travis's face. Travis comes back to reality.
"Katie? Do I know this guy?" Travis asks tentatively. Katie's cheeks redden.
"Yeah..." she says while nervously twirling a lock of her brown hair around her finger.
"Is he like the awesomest guy in all of Camp Half-Blood?" Travis asks. Katie chuckles.
"He seems to think so." Katie says with a smirk. Her face isn't blotchy anymore and that familiar spark in her eyes is back.
"Would you have a problem with this guy suddenly kissing you?" Travis asks with a smirk. Katie appears to mull this over.
"Well..." she says as if uncertain of her answer. The smirk on Travis's face disappears.
He should've known. He should've known that Katie wouldn't want to kiss him. In fact, she probably wasn't even talking about him in the first place. He kicks himself internally. How could he be so stupid? He shouldn't have expected Katie to even like him after all he's done to her. Really, he should've-
And suddenly Katie's kissing him, both hands fisted in his curly brown hair. He stands there frozen for an instant (are pigs going to start flying anytime soon?) until it seems to click in his brain that Katie's kissing him and he should probably kiss her back before she tries to murder him.
So he deepens the kiss and...he likes it. (Seriously, is Aphrodite pranking him?)
After a few minutes, that pesky human need for oxygen forces them to break apart. (Damn.)
Travis stands there awkwardly with his hands in his pockets. Katie's looking at her feet. She glances up at him and he blushes (seriously, since when is he a thirteen-year-old girl?).
"I thought you hated me." he blurts out. He kicks himself internally. Yeah, such genius on his part, kiss Katie and remind her that she hates him! Yeah, Travis is sure that with charm like that, he probably isn't ever getting laid by anybody at all. Idiot.
"Well...I don't hate you. You just irritate me a lot." she answers with a smirk. Travis smirks. (He realizes that that's all he and Katie ever seem to do. Smirk.)
"I irritate you? Like when I pulled away from that kiss? Does that count?" Travis responds slyly. Katie's cheeks defy the laws of nature and turn redder.
"Yea. Like that." she replies. Travis leans in for another kiss (and Connor says he hasn't got game!) when Katie puts a hand on his chest to stop him.
"Yeah, not until I get my watering can back. Sorry." Katie says sweetly, not sounding the least bit apologetic at all.
But that's when Travis realizes that everybody's wrong, he doesn't like Katie Gardner.
Nope.
He loves her.
(A/N) Yeah, I don't know if I quite did them justice but this was fun to write. (Absurdly long Tratie fic ftw. :P) The world needs more Tratie. Like seriously. They're too awesome. Well, on another note, I have a few ideas for continuing this but that depends on whether or not you (the readers) want me to.
Thanks for reading. :)
Disclaimer: And this totally kills the story. Great.