The Return of the Chocolate Bunnies
Disclaimer: I do not own Heroes of Olympus or Percy Jackson or the Bunny heist.
Travis Stoll was considered as weird, a lunatic, a kleptomaniac, or as Clarisse likes to call him "dead meat", take your pick, Travis wasn't that fussy on titles. Perhaps he was considered weird because he decided to hide a golden mango inside the Aphrodite cabin, leading to the penultimate cat fight. Or it could be he had the artistic talent to decorate the Demeter cabin with chocolate bunnies; he thought it added pizazz to the harvest goddess' cabin.
Usual morning procedures were varied in the Hermes cabin; it wasn't exactly alarming for Travis when he was being aroused by having an icy bucket of water slushed on top of his head. Travis' dazzling eyes – or Travis liked to believe they were dazzling- flew open, his glowering gaze fell upon his younger brother Connor. His partner in crime, his fellow prankster, his buddy, his sidekick… Actually ditch the last one, whenever he mentioned Connor being the assistant, it usually left an ugly surprise in his bed; yes, Connor has hid Clarisse's underwear in Travis' bunk several times…
Connor's crooked smirk was engraved on his face. Travis could sense his overwhelming surge of achievement; this was most probably a dash revenge for the prank Travis performed on Connor yesterday. Long story short: Travis made Connor into a human carrot, a fake-tan even the falsest, phoniest daughter of Aphrodite would be jealous of – actually Travis noticed Drew gawking at Connor a few times, obviously desiring plenty of Connor's fashion tips.
"Revenge is best served cold and in a bucket my brother," Connor chanted, whilst he strutted towards the centre of the chaotic, cluttered cabin, where all the other children of Hermes were sitting in a peculiar-shaped circle.
"Great. Now that Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber are here, we can get to business," Tomi, Travis' younger, and less experienced thirteen-year-old sister, stated. Her teeth were etched into a devilish grin so untrustworthy, Hermes would be proud.
Wonderful, Travis thought. Today was Saturday, where the most marvellous, magnificent, mischievous prank took place. The whole cabin participates in making the camp living Hades on Saturdays. This Saturday was no exception.
"Right then kiddies, what's our act of brilliance today?" Travis questioned, brushing his hands back and forth, desire dancing in his eyes.
Perrie, the youngest, responded "Number One: I am not a kid. I am a mature woman of nine. Number Two: If you call me one again, I will blame my latest trick on you, and that will involve some angry magicians. Number Three: I suggest not the Hecate cabin, they won't be able to handle another trick, especially not after I swapped their bat mucus with the snot."
"Perrie, you're nine, and what have I told you about pranking the Hecate cabin? Unless you want to turn into a slug, I suggest not to do it," Connor scolded.
"I like slugs," Perrie shrugged, her flaming curls bounced upon her slender-framed shoulders.
"Well, now we've confirmed Perrie's love for slugs, I'd appreciate it if we stuck to the main topic: which cabin is going to be our next victim?" Travis asked.
Travis examined the cabin, Larry, Barry and Harry – identical triplets with almost identical names. Travis could never tell them apart, he hated that, were all examining the substance in the ears. Probably wondering if it could make an interesting explosive Travis wondered. He reminded himself to ask later what the results were. However, the rest of the cabin was as deep in thought as any ADHD children could be.
"Ares?" Connor asked.
"No, my girlfriend angry isn't a pretty sight. I'd rather live this week." Chris Rodriguez shuddered, finding the sight of Clarisse furious somewhat traumatising.
"Not that she's a pretty sight in the first place. What about Aphrodite?" Felix - the legend who flooded the Hephaestus cabin - suggested, changing his first opinion after the death glare he received from Chris.
"They've lost their comical touch, ever since Little Miss Movie Star became head of the cabin. Drew was so much more scam." Tomi informed, performing an earth-trembling belt, half way through her speech.
"Little Miss Movie Star? You like Drew more?" Larry enquired; obviously the entertainment of picking his earwax had disappeared.
"Hades No! Trust me, I'd pick Piper any day" Tomi yelled, the horror on her face confirmed she was severely serious.
"Well, we've crossed out Hecate, Aphrodite, Ares and Athena cabin would give us a one-way ticket to Hades. May I suggest the Demeter?" Connor requested, his eyebrows rising to such an extent they disappeared under his messy mop, whilst exchanging an expressive look with Travis.
The rest of the cabin showed signs of agreement, a rare sight. Travis would usually be thrilled with a chance to exceed the excellence in the 'le chocolate bunnies on a roof' fiasco (Note: Travis decided to add 'le' in the beginning to give the fabulous finesse). Alas there was one problem, and her name was Katie Gardner.
Travis considered Katie Gardner as weird. He thought it was strange that she talked to plants and encouraged them to grow, Travis had only saw that in prison – now that was a long story, it involved a Wal-Mart employee, 10,000 feathers and the National American Bank. And Travis almost got away with it. Travis believed it was bizarre that Katie ordered the Demeter Cabin to remove the chocolate bunnies – it really was an improvement. Travis supposed Katie's eyes were a peculiar shade of green, as if he were looking at two green meadows. Not that Travis looked into Katie's eyes… Lastly Travis thought it was unusual that the success of pranking her cabin, and especially her, was lacking. That wasn't supposed to happen; Travis was an award-winning prankster.
Travis swallowed hard, aware that all eyes were intently focused upon him, either they were expecting him to decide, or a spider was scaling down his face. He was never sure. After the lack of movement on top of his skull, Travis confirmed it was definitely not the latter.
"Well… Uhh…" Travis murmured, clearing his throat afterwards, not entirely sure on what to say.
"Travis doesn't want to do it because he likes Miss Katie Gardner," Connor teased. This resulted into the whole cabin pulling suggestive faces to each other and making slurping kissing sounds. They sounded disturbingly like Mr D drinking his diet coke.
Being the ADHD child Travis considered whether they were taking kissing tips from Mr D.
"I don't like her!" Travis protested, crossing his arms like a little child would if they were sulking.
"Denial, always the first sign..." Perrie sung in her soprano voice; there was a reason why she wasn't a child of Apollo, the god of music.
Travis glared at his youngest sister, she was battering her eyelashes innocently; she learnt from the best. He debated with himself if he should deny that, but then he realised that would prove Perrie's point. He calmly said "Alright, what are the plans young ones?"
"If we're going to beat the bunny scandal, we're going to have to think big," Barry replied.
"What about something to do with the strawberry fields. I mean, Mr D is up in Mount Olympus ignoring us with the rest of the Gods, he couldn't punish us. Plus, that's where the Demeter kids spend most of their time," Connor suggested, the rest of the cabin slightly stunned that he said something rather intelligent.
"How about," Chris started, choosing each word carefully, "Similarly to our version of the Golden Apple and changing it into a mango, we do a different myth. I'm thinking Pandora's Box."
The whole cabin gawped at Chris, but they quickly recovered giving devilish smirks to each other, ideas sprouting in their mind every second. Travis liked this idea.
Suggestions were being yelled out, the noise in the cabin as cluttered as the appearance. There were ideas of explosives – Harry suggested they were made out of earwax, man-eating plants, Chiron's CDs being played, the vilest ideas that came to mind. Travis was pretty sure her heard Connor mention Clarisse's underwear. Travis was also pretty sure her heard Chris hit Connor in the gut, resulting in a grunt. Seriously, Travis never understood why Connor had the need to mention Clarisse's underwear in every conversation. It was clear neither did Chris.
"Well, I'm pretty sure explosives and man-eating plants count as murder, which is apparently frowned upon. Also, I don't think we're that cruel to play Chiron's CDs; it's against demigod rights." Travis confirmed to his fellow cabin mates. "However, I have an idea and this involves the return of the chocolate bunnies."
Mixed responses followed, some were thrilled that the chocolate bunnies would repay Camp Half-Blood a visit, others thought it was a waste of mouth-watering chocolate, and a few protested that the same trick shouldn't be done again.
"Except it won't be done the same, it will be done better" Travis continued, receiving the whole cabin's attention, there wasn't anybody picking their earwax in sight.
"Continue," Tomi urged, her sky blue eyes, so similar to her half-siblings, and which clashed against her Asian appearance, sparkled with mischief.
"Instead of placing inanimate chocolate bunnies on a roof, I'm thinking they could burst out of a box and do a jazz number," Travis grinned, "I'm thinking a bit of Gaga."
"How exactly are we going to make the dance?" Perrie asked, her eyebrows creasing in confusion.
"Young misguided Perrie, by now you should have realised that this guy can convince anyone. I'm on Lou Ellen's good side. She's interested in the opportunity to prank," Connor informed the nine-year-old, who shuddered at the mention of Lou Ellen – obviously still concerned of the result of her prank on the Hecate Cabin.
"Well," Travis announced, brushing the dust and earwax off his pyjama bottoms, "Mission: Return of the Chocolate Bunnies is a go-go."
To be continued….
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