It's really funny how things, trivial things, end up being the first step to something that will eventually mean the world to a person.
Like the first time Kurt Cobain picked up a guitar. Of course he didn't know what that would lead him to be. Just think of all events that have happened in the world... picking up a guitar for the first time...meeting a new person...anything.
Everything inevitably affects something.
Take Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll for example. See, ever since they were seven, they were mortal enemies.
Now, that doesn't seem so trivial, hating someone with all your heart, but their relationship started off pretty insignificant.
Seven year old Katie Gardner clutched her father's hand as he walked her up the hill to Camp Half-Blood for the first time. She was still trying to understand what was going on and why she was going to camp all summer, but her father said that a man named Chiron would explain it all to her because even he was still a bit blurry on all of the details.
Little did she know, Chiron wasn't really a man. He had the appearance of one, certainly, while he was stationed in his wheelchair, but the second he got up, Katie had the strongest urge to run back out to her dad, who wasn't even allowed to come into camp.
While Chiron was explaining why he was half horse, what Katie was doing at camp, and who the gods were, the door of a big house opened to welcome in two brown haired boys being dragged in by the ear at the hands of a mean looking man.
"It wasn't us!" one of them shouted. He turned he head slightly and met Katie's eye for a split second.
Katie watched as they were yanked into another room protesting with all their might, and turned back to Chiron once she could no longer hear them. At the time, she didn't realize that one of those curly haired boys would cause her more pain, frustration, sore throats, and paranoia than any other creature in the entire universe.
Over the next few years, the two developed the most infamous rivalry in all of camp, right behind Percy and Annabeth's that is. All of the campers would always know whenever the next Stoll prank was pulled, because Katie's shouts could be heard from either end of camp.
For weeks, Katie and Travis made no contact, but since the Stolls chose their victims by random, their lives collided. It was nothing personal to her at all; it was just how Travis and Connor Stoll entertained themselves. Katie was just unlucky one day, and didn't take it nearly as well as any other camper did.
And there a deep, deep, hatred started to blossom.
For one thing, if there was anything Travis hated, it was people who couldn't take a joke...People like Katie.
If there was anything that Katie hated, it was people who couldn't take anything seriously... People like Travis.
Their hatred for each other gradually started to consume their every thought, their ever move, their every reason for doing anything. If Travis was going to do something, chances were it was to get a rise out of Katie. If Katie was going to do something, chances were it was to spite Travis.
The rest of the campers loved their daily arguments, mostly because they usually got really heated and involved sword-fighting, but sometimes, it got to the point where it was wished that the two would just shut up and be civil.
And it was an everyday thing for an entire decade. Bickering, pranking, shouting, and just general loathing.
It was like they were obsessed with hating each other.
That is, until the day after the Titan War.
Devastation was the main mood of the camp. Sure they won and there was that moment of happiness, but once all the damage was assessed and all the bodies were counted, the moment of happiness seemed obsolete.
All of the remaining campers pitched in to help clean, and after working for twelve hours straight, Katie was beat. She took a walk into the forest where she was absolutely certain no one would be. Unfortunately, once she appeared at Zeus' Fist, she realized that not only was she wrong, but Travis Stoll was there.
She groaned inwardly. She just wanted to be in a relaxed silence for once in a whole week. Like that was going to happen with Stoll around, right? Too exhausted to deal with him, she turned around to leave.
"Gardner, wait."
Katie stopped her stroll and without turning around sighed, "Can we just give it a break for a while? I don't really want to deal with this."
"Actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. See, I could have died yesterday. We all could have died," Travis said.
Thank you, Captain Obvious, Katie thought, slumping her shoulders in a huff.
"I realized that I don't really want to die hating anyone," he continued on to say. "Even you."
Slowly, Katie turned around, feeling more than extremely confused. "Go on."
"I'm not saying that we have to become the best of friends or anything, I'm just saying that we should call a truce. If one of us did actually die, more than half of our entire lives would have been spent purposely pissing each other off. I don't really want to be remembered that way. I'd rather be "Travis Stoll: Son of Hermes; funny, handsome, and poker master" instead of "Travis Stoll: That kid that hated Katie Gardner.""
Katie half rolled her eyes, but she understood what he was trying to say. And insanely, she agreed with him. Not the "Funny, handsome, and poker master" part, but everything else.
Wait, was Travis Stoll actually being... mature?
"A truce..." Katie dragged out.
"Yeah, it's a noun. It means an agreement to stop fighting."
She shot him a glare and immediately snapped, "I know what it means!"
"Well you sounded so unsure; how was I supposed to know?"
A truce with Travis Stoll started to seem like a worse and worse idea. How could they possibly not claw at each other's throats?
Katie took a deep breath. She was so extremely exhausted. The quicker this was done, the quicker she would be able to lie down somewhere.
"All right, a truce."
Without even waiting for a reply, Katie lazily dragged herself away from Zeus' fist in search of a quiet place.
And so it began.