I heart Tratie ! I hope you enjoy this because honestly, it sucks.
Katie watched as Travis danced to a slow song, his hands on Nikki Grey's hips. Cammie Morgan stood next to her, and they joked about how Cammie wouldn't cry again because no boy had asked her to dance. Katie laughed, but as she watched Travis and Nikki talking and laughing, too, she couldn't help but notice she felt just the tiniest bit jealous.
She had pulled up to the dance with Kimmy Hayashi, daughter of Aphrodite, and Jenny Takerton, daughter of Hermes. It was a random community dance that all the Camp Half-blood kids had gotten special permission to attend.
As soon as the three girls got out of the car, Katie spotted Cammie Morgan and Nikki Grey, daughters of Athena, hanging out with their best friends Corey Ackerman and Kimmy's twin sister Kiley. Corey, being the daughter of Nike, had her hair pulled back in a ponytail and tennis shoes on.
"Katie!" Cammie called, a big smile and a skeptical look plastered to her face.
"My person!" Corey squealed. The other two girls smiled and waved.
Katie smiled back and said, "Hey! My person!" Katie, Kimmy and Jenny joined the long line of teenagers walking towards the building the dance was being held in. Corey's younger brother pushed Katie gently.
Katie turned around and said, "Carlos!" She shoved him back and they both laughed.
"Hey," Brian said in a low mocking voice and poked Katie in the side. "Hey, Kimmy. Hey, Jenny."
Inside, people were dancing. Katie hated dancing. She sat down on the side with Pollux. He complained that his friends still were not at the dance. Travis, Connor and Bradley Lyre were running late.
"Look," Pollux suddenly sat up straighter. "There they are!" Katie turned her head.
"Oh, yeah," she murmured. "Finally." Katie and Pollux both stood up and walked over near the entrance.
"Finally!" Pollux exclaimed. Greetings were exchanged and the three new arrivals sat down, while the other two stood in front of them.
"I think everyone should sing 'Happy Birthday' to Bradley," stated Connor.
Katie glanced over at Bradley. "Oh, yeah! It's your birthday! Happy birthday, Bradley!"
Bradley looked around, a confused but knowing grin on his face. "Whose birthday is it? Hmmm? It's not my birthday!"
"Sixteen!" Katie smiled. When Bradley refused to admit to his birthday, the boys began talking about video games. Katie felt like sitting, so she sat in front of Travis.
He groaned. "Don't do that!" Katie glanced up from fixing her skirt.
"Do what?" she asked innocently, although she knew exactly what he meant.
"You'll make us look bad." Travis stood up. "Here. Sit."
Katie shook her head. "Then you won't have anywhere to sit."
"Just … please." Travis rolled his eyes.
So Katie obliged. "You sure?" For all the pranks Travis had pulled on Katie, he actually was quite the gentleman. In fact, the more Katie thought about it, the more she realized all the times he wouldn't let her carry something big or heavy if a boy was around, especially himself. Or if he did let her carry it, he made sure she knew he wasn't happy about it.
There was the time when Travis needed help putting away a table and Pollux and Connor were supposed to be the ones helping. They couldn't stop arguing about who should help Travis, so Katie had simply walked over and picked up the other end. Travis had then delved into a protesting speech. "Oh, gosh. No, Katie, You're making us look bad. C'mon."
Katie had protested back. "You are helping, so you do not look bad."
Then there was that time …
Someone was tugging Katie's hand. "What?" she snapped. "Oh, Jenny, Kimmy."
"Let's dance!" both girls shouted. Katie shook her head and tried to pull her hand away, but Jenny's grip was too tight. Kimmy grabbed her other hand and both girls dragged Katie over to where Cammie, Nikki, Kiley and Corey were dancing in a small circle.
"Hey!" they laughed. When Katie just stood there, they pushed her.
"I don't dance," Katie complained. At the last dance they had all been to, Katie had stood on the side talking to Carlos and his friend Josiah the whole time.
"Just move." Katie tried jumping up and down, and shaking her shoulders. After two seconds, she stood immovable once more. A slow song came on and the group of girls ran off to hide behind some pillars. Cammie pulled Katie aside.
"So, Nikki hasn't talked to Travis since she asked him to go with her to our senior prom, and Kiley hasn't talked to Bradley." Cammie informed Katie.
Katie sighed. She already knew. Travis had told her what was going on and she thought it was stupid. They're going to prom together, why can't they talk to each other?
"We need to get them to talk," Cammie continued her irritated rant.
"Wait, are you and Geoffrey talking?" Katie interrupted.
"Yes, we don't talk about prom, but at least we talk."
Katie shrugged her shoulders. "Well, we could get Travis to come dance with us."
"That's what I was thinking, except I don't talk to him that much, so …" Cammie trailed off.
"Sure." Katie ran off and skidded to a stop in front of Travis. Her hands on his knees she said in her best you've-got-no-choice voice, "You need to talk to Nikki. Now."
Travis stood up and followed Katie to where her group of friends was starting to dance to a fast song. He went and stood by Nikki and started dancing and talking to her. Cammie high fived Katie.
Soon another slow song came on and Travis asked Nikki to dance with him. Cammie and Katie went off to hide behind the pillars. Katie glanced at the dance floor, but quickly looked away. She didn't want anyone to think she was staring at Travis and Nikki. Not that she was. Staring. At Travis and Nikki.
"So, I'm totally not gonna cry because no one asked me to dance," said Cammie. Katie shot her a look that told her she had no clue what she was talking about. Then she remembered. "You know, cause the last dance."
"Oh, yeahhh," Katie said and they both laughed.
When another fast song came on, Katie managed to slip away without Cammie noticing. She went and stood in a corner of the big rectangle shaped room and crossed her arms over her chest. Ten minutes passed, fifteen, some adult chaperones would come and talk to Katie, then go back to patrolling the room for some awful teenage behavior that needed to be stopped. Katie leaned back against the wall and rolled her eyes.
Dances were so stupid.
Then she saw Travis walk towards her.
"Hey, why aren't you dancing?"
"I don't dance." Katie played with the ends of her falling curls.
Travis grinned at her. "Me neither, but I'm dancing! Come on." He tugged on her hair lightly, then pulled her forward by her hand.
The two of them walked back over to the group of girls. Just then a Justin Bieber song came on and Katie looked over at Cammie who was squealing.
At the same time, Cammie and Katie announced to the group of friends, "We're totally going to see the Justin Bieber movie! You guys should totally come!" Cammie was a huge Justin Bieber fan, but Katie barely knew who he was and had no opinion of him. The rest of the group looked at them and then started mocking them and Justin Bieber.
"Really? You're gonna waste your money on that?"
"He is kinda cute," Katie said and twirled her hair around her finger.
"He sounds like a girl! Like, seriously." Travis argued. Katie rolled her eyes.
Tuning them out, Katie and Cammie began singing with the song. They all had fun and danced stupidly.
"Katie," Cammie said. "We need to get Bradley."
Katie ran over to Bradley and with the same tone she had used on Travis, told him, "Dance with Kiley. Now."
He sighed and got up to follow Katie over to Kiley. Perfect timing, too because a slow song came on. A few songs later, and another slow song was on and Kiley was dancing with Travis instead of Bradley. Once again, Cammie and Katie went off behind the pillars. She saw Kiley giggling at something Travis had said, and was reminded of when Travis had a huge crush on Kiley, but never really talked to her.
Katie felt hollowness in her chest. What the Hades? Was she jealous? Sure, she and Travis were somewhat friends now, and they hung out a lot, but that didn't mean she liked him … did it?
Before she could ponder it any further, Cammie said, "I want an ice pop!" So they downed four each before the last song of the dance came on. Cammie left Katie to go find her three friends, so Katie began wandering around looking for Kimmy and Jenny.
"Travis." Katie said.
"Hey, you should go get one of these," he said as he began eating an ice pop.
"I already had four." Katie admitted.
"Well, go get another one!"
"Come with me," Katie smiled. Travis quickly downed the rest of his ice pop and followed Katie to the snack counter. A lady handed her two ice pops.
"Which one?" she asked Travis. He studied the two ice pops – one green, one pink. Katie took the opportunity to study Travis' face and think about the feelings of jealousy she might have felt earlier that night.
He was kind of cute. With a mess of curly brown hair, arched eyebrows and a carefree attitude, he definitely had snagged some cute girlfriends in the past. So what would he see in Katie? Katie was boring. She too had brown hair, but hers was straight and boring. She liked to garden. She found it exciting and fun, but a boy like Travis Stoll would think it was an activity only old ladies participated in.
"I'll take that one." Travis interrupted Katie's thoughts and took the green one from her right hand. They began walking around the room again as people cleaned up their things.
"Have you seen Jenny or Kimmy?" Katie asked. "They were my ride."
Travis shook his head absently and looked around. He grabbed Pollux's arm as he walked by. "Hey, have you seen Jenny or Kimmy?"
"I think they left." He said. That confused Katie. They would never leave her unless they knew she had a ride. Seeing the look on her face, Pollux told her. "Someone may have told them you left with Travis." He looked between the two.
"Oh, okay, thanks," Katie said. Now she had to find a way to get back to camp. The camp buses had left an hour ago with all the younger campers.
Pollux looked at Travis. "I'm gonna give Connor and Bradley a ride …" He gave Travis a meaningful stare.
Travis thought for a minute, "Okay, ummm, I'll see you back at camp."
"Aren't you coming to the mortal party not too far from here?"
"Oh, man, I forgot. Maybe next time? I have some … things to take care of back at camp." Travis put on an apologetic expression.
"Sure, I'll see you two later," Pollux looked at them strangely.
"Hey, Katie," Travis looked at her.
"Hmmm?" she asked, still looking around the room, hoping to find someone who would give her a ride, or at least acting like she was. Really, she was hoping Travis would offer to drive her.
"Do you wanna ride with me?"
