mistletoe
as told by travis stoll

Christmas, 2:34 P.M.

Okay, he didn't mean to end up under the mistletoe with Katie Gardner. Actually, he wasn't planning on ending up under the magicked mistletoe period. But then again, nothing really went his way most of the time, so he should've expected it to happen.

Problem: he didn't even really want to kiss her.

Christmas Eve, 6:23 A.M.

A package, efficiently tied to a brick, was thrown through the window, effectively shattering it. Then another. Then another. The Hermes kids all woke up immediately, some ducking, some cheering, and some looking in pride at the new way of messaging so you didn't have to use a drachma to send an IM. Of course, the brick messages got messy, but it was just a prototype.

Travis yelled with glee, hopping out of bed and ducking to avoid another brick. There was nothing like waking up to raining bricks. Chris, his half-brother was yelling.

"IS THIS OUR PRANK MATERIAL?" he yelled. Connor took this as a chance to answer.

"ANNOUNCEMENT, PRANKSTERS. THE MISTLETOE HAS ARRIVED." As the co-heads of the Hermes cabin, they had learned to yell pretty loudly. There was a hush as people registered this. Christmas pranking was always fun.

This year, one of the little girls, Amy, had piped up during the annual Christmas meeting, saying that they should try something with mistletoe. Travis had exchanged only one look with his brother and told everyone that Project: Mistletoe was now under the works.

Everyone was chattering, unwrapping the boxes. Bushels and bushels of bright green and red sprigs were inside. He grinned. Yes.

Christmas Eve, 6:43 A. M.

"Come on, Lou," Connor begged his friend. "Please?" The girl raised an eyebrow. Travis winced. The two had somehow become friends, which was why the mistletoe was magicked in the first place.

"And why should I help you?" Travis looked at her. She had a point.

"Well," his brother said, mulling it over. "All right, all right, we'll change shower times."

"Dessert privileges, too," Lou Ellen bargained.

"No," he said. "We can't just take that away from the kids." She sighed.

"Your shower times and half of your cabin's privileges in return for us helping you make them float. You get to choose which half."

"Deal," Connor and Travis chorused, exchanging and evil look. "Now, you can make them stay in the air, right?"

Christmas Eve, 9:23 P.M.

There was no point in hiding the fact that they were planning a prank. They did it every year, anyway, and last year it had been the golden mango prank; now that had been a fun one.

So no one was really surprised when the entirety of the Hermes and Hecate cabins ditched the campfire/singalong thing, because, well, they were used to it. The Christmas Prank tradition had started back in... what, '87? It was in Filing Cabinet D under the third drawer folder C that they kept the Christmas pranks.

"Okay, everyone," he yelled, looking at the crowd. There were way more Hermes campers than there were Hecate campers. He grimaced. "We're going to split up; two Hermes to one Hecate, alright? If you have any problems-" He held up his walkie-talkie. "-contact us. Let's do this right!" Everyone cheered and dispersed.

Unfortunately, he was stuck with Lou and Connor, the two bickering every five seconds.

Christmas Eve, 9:30 P.M.

"Wait, remind me what the plan is?" the girl asked. He pointed to a random spot in the air.

"See," Connor said patiently. "We need you because we want them to hang in the air. That way, we can cover more people. There are around fifty sprigs being placed around Camp; near the lake, in cabins, at the campfire, the stables, pretty much everywhere." Lou nodded and pointed her finger at a sprig of mistletoe, mumbling some mumbo-jumbo that he didn't understand.

The green plant floated up, hovering in the air for a moment, before zooming to the spot where Travis had pointed at. It glowed for a few seconds before it froze in mid-air. Cool. Now what? He turned in circles, trying to analyze another place that would cause likely mayhem. Connor tugged at his sleeve.

"D'you see what I see?" he murmured almost silently. He didn't even hesitate, grabbing both of their arms and pulling them in the direction of the Big House.

Christmas Eve, 10:21 P.M.

"Last one," he said, throwing a sprig towards his brother. "Where should we put it?" They had checked everywhere, but there were no more spaces left to put it.

"We could hide it. Not use it," Lou suggested. He and his brother whipped around to glare at her.

"Where's the fun in that?" they synchronized. They couldn't put it out of the Hecate or Hermes cabin, as those were the prank-creator places, so where? Connor turned in a desperate circle, groaning. Trying to distract himself, he turned to Lou Ellen.

"So how does it work?" She sighed and tugged at her necklace.

"Well, it'll be activated, all of them, tomorrow at 6 AM. There has to be two people underneath it, so then it'll freeze them in a force-field of sorts... Like a giant bubble with a radius of five feet. They can't get out unless they do a lip-on-lip contact, which will sort of fade the 'giant bubble', so to speak. It unfreezes for a hour during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but it'll continue until midnight." He grinned.

"There," Connor yelled. "Found the perfect place." Apparently, they had forgotten Rachel's cave. Everything was falling into place perfectly.

Christmas, 7:30 A.M.

Ah, there was nothing like waking up on Christmas morning to screams. Nothing like a healthy prank with a lot of kissing. Maybe he could catch a few girls... Nah, he doubted it. Last night, they had mapped out where every single mistletoe was on this giant piece of paper. That way, they knew which places to skirt around or to make sure they weren't with anyone else.

The Hermes cabin filed out of the door in a messy, disorganized line. They carefully navigated as if the whole place was a mine-field, which it technically was, according the Ares cabin. (You had to be careful around them.) People cursed them, pounding on invisible shields, while others were starting to get pretty steamy.

How he enjoyed breakfast.

Christmas, 9:00 A.M.

Report: So far, he'd been bombarded by
1. banana[s] - 2
2. hat[s] - 1
3. knife/knives - 22
4. book[s] - 5
5. javelin[s] - 3
6. cheese - 1

Travis ducked again, adding eraser to his mental list.

Christmas, 2:30 P.M.

"Travis Stoll, I know this is your fault!" He kept running. With Katie, there was this weird relationship thing. They held prank wars every year, and every month, they ate strawberries in the fields. They were, in loose terms, frenemies. How the Aphrodite Cabin deemed them a couple was a mystery.

"Merry Christmas? Happy Hanukkah? Awesome Kwanzaa? Don't kill me?" Nope, it wasn't working. He ran faster.

"I'm going to-" The rest was muffled as he hit the ground hard. Katie started repeatedly punching him, and when he got up to escape, he ran into a shimmering wall. His friend froze.

"May the gods curse you," she hissed. "How do we get out?" He groaned and slid to the ground, feeling utterly hopeless. No way was he going to kiss Katie Gardner.

Christmas, 2:35 P.M.

"Did I ever tell you how much I hate you?" Katie asked, sliding to the ground next to him. He shook his head and stared glumly at his own trap. Stupid.

"I'm not kissing you," he replied.

"Likewise. How long does this last?" Oh, no. But it was only 2:35! That meant... If dinner was at 7:00...

"Well, shit. We're screwed."

Christmas, 2:40 P.M.

"Aw, you two look so cute together," Piper drawled, walking around the edges of the force field. Her voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Shut up," he snapped back.

"Just kiss and get out of it." Piper sighed and shook her head. "You have about three hourse left in there, you know." He watched her walk away.

Christmas, 3:14 P.M.

"Hey, bro, looks like you're in a sticky situation." Connor was frowning. "I'd help you, but I'm no Hecate kid." Then he seemed to cheer up, taking a camera out of his pocket and snapping a photo of them together.

Travis flipped him the bird.

Christmas, 3:21 P.M.

"Okay, can we just kiss?" he asked.

"No."

"Katie, please-"

"No."

"But Katie, come on-"

"No."

Christmas, 3:37 P.M.

"Gods damn it Katie."

"I'm not kissing you!"

"Maybe the Aphrodite cabin was right about us, though. Come on, Katie. Maybe we could be more than frenemies, even though it's highly unlikely."

"Travis Stoll."

"You know, I made sure that the mistletoes were magicked so that no one is allowed to get hurt inside them." Lucky for him.

Christmas, 3:40 P.M.

"You know what, Travis, I changed my mind." He sighed with relief, getting up and offering her a hand. She took it, and they inched closer. He was very well aware of his too-red cheeks and her strawberry-scented hair.

"This is awkward," he muttered, pushing back. She sighed and covered her face with her hands.

"Don't you think I know that?" Making a split-second decision, he grabbed her shirt and pressed their lips together.

Christmas, 3:41 P.M.

"Never again, Stoll," Katie said, wiping her mouth. "Never again." His stomach felt queasy. Kissing her had felt wrong, like he was defying physics or running away from a monster. It made no sense. It just didn't feel right; the way they had kissed, the way his face burned, how they stood awkwardly.

"I agree," he said shakily. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted his brother, grinning madly at the two of them. "Hey, Katie, we agreed on one thing already. You wanna agree on another?"

Katie looked at him and then at his brother. She shrugged in a why-not sort of way.

Christmas, 3:45 P.M.

"We lead Annabeth and Connor over there," he said, pointing to the place where the Big House mistletoe was. "And then either they kiss, and Annabeth kills him, or they kiss, and Percy kills him. Either way, my brother's dead."

"Sounds good to me."

Christmas, 3:52 P.M.

Mission Kill Connor: Success.

Ugh, administrative servers down yesterday meant no posting for me. But they're up now, so I hope you enjoyed it. Frankly, I think Travis and Katie as more I-hate-you-but-have-a-strawberry-before-I-kill-you. I don't understand this fanon couple, though I do think they're cute. Merry Christmas!

Review, please! What are your thoughts on Tratie? Cute? The strangest ship ever?

achieving elysium