Disclaimer- I don't own PJatO

I shut my locker violently. I was talking to my best friend, Jocelyn. We were walking to English class, which in my opinion, was the worst. Honestly, we already know how to speak it! And no matter how much time we spend being tortured by Ms. Gable, that's not going to help our dyslexia. "Joss, when are you leaving for camp this year?"

"I don't know, Katie. Mom said that she'd drive me to the airport the day after school ends, what about you?" Both of us were half bloods living in Virginia. Her father was Apollo, so it makes sense that her mother is a doctor and loves to play the guitar, right? Meanwhile, my father, Eric Gardner, loved to garden and deal with anything involving plants, which explained why my mother is Demeter. If you haven't figured out by now, my name's Katie Gardner.

"Hey, I think that's when I've got my flight! Awesome!" I slapped high fives, and then shifted the books in my arm. The tardy bell rang, and I bit back my cursing in Greek. Joss and I started to hightail it down to the classroom. Here, I'll save you an hour of lectures by the one and only Ms. Gable and skip to what happened afterwards.

"Gosh, why do they even make us take that class?" Joss groaned to me. Ms. Gable had assigned us a ton of homework, which was saying something considering that summer vacation was only three days away.

"I suppose that they do this to delight in torturing us." I replied in a bland tone. Suddenly, Jake Rale and his gang bust into the front door. It was honestly amazing that they had remembered that this was school, seeing as they never bothered to show up. Anyways, back to the more important matter at hand, them. All of them had managed to get their 17 year old hands on some guns somehow. Jake stepped ahead of them, flipping his black bangs out of his dark eyes. He was dressed all in leather, even though it was burning hot.

He yelled into the hallway, "Yo losers, ready to meet your creator?" Honestly, why couldn't he come up with a semi original term? "Cause it's time. Any volunteers?" Crap. They weren't kidding.

I had to do something, half of these kids were my friends. Their families would be completely devastated by their deaths. I whispered in a shaky voice to Joss, "I—I'll sacrifice myself while you knock them out. You know how, but you have to hurry."

Her blue eyes widened as she heard my plan. She hissed at me, "No! I will not!"

Ignoring her, I stepped forward. Hitching on a confident smirk, I called out, "Jake, think you can actually shoot that gun?"

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Oh babe, I know I can. Want me to show you?" He held the gun up threateningly. I saw Joss creeping around the crowd, but they weren't that willing to part easily, so she was making slow progress.

"Well Jake, first, don't call me babe. Second, why don't you?" I spat out disgusted at him.

"Fine. Up against that wall now."

"Well, since you ask so nicely." He scowled at my sarcasm; He probably wasn't used to someone hurling intelligent words at him. Nevertheless, I strode over to the wall. My friends looked like they wanted to stop me, but a lot of them in the back were slowly edging away, and then running in a full blown panic. As the crowd began to disperse more and more to their safety, I grinned, holding my hands up. "Do your worst."

"Sure." That was the last word I heard before he shot the gun. The crack resounded in my skull, echoing around. I saw Joss knock them all out swiftly and silently before they could cause more damage. Looking down, I saw that he had shot me in my stomach, just below my ribs. I saw the sticky red blood seeping out, and then I fainted.

Travis's POV

I was talking to Chiron exasperatedly about some prank that Connor and I had pulled on the Ares cabin earlier when suddenly an IM pops up. It shows someone who looked vaguely familiar, maybe from the Apollo cabin, and Katie.

My Katie.

The one who laid there with a hole in her. A bullet hole. Chiron looked at this in alarm. Katie's friend sniffed, "Chiron… Some idiots… Came… With guns… Katie… Plan…"

Chiron interrupted. "Jocelyn Brown, speak intelligently in a complete sentence please!"

That's who it was! Joss, the great healer chick. She took a deep breath in before restarting. "There was a group of idiots who brought guns to school. Katie's plan was to sacrifice herself to save us, and give me time to go and knock them out. She's still alive and all, it's just that I can't do anymore on her, I need your help if she's going to live! Oh, since when were you there Travis, Connor?" She added the last part on in surprise.

Connor grimaced. "The beginning."

"Jocelyn, I'll have Nico shadow travel both of you here. Travis, get Nico now! Hurry, he's in sword fighting!"

I blinked, "Right." I ran off to the arena, which was only a minute away in sprinting terms. I came up to Nico shaking his dark hair out of his pale face as he dueled Percy. "Nico, emergency at the Big House, Chiron needs you now! A life actually depends on this!"

Nico immediately followed me back, sheathing his Stygian iron sword. We arrived not at all breathless. Really, not sarcastic there. Nico asked in confusion, "Chiron? What do you need—"

"Nico!" Joss called. The IM was still there.

He just realized that. "Hey, Joss! What's up—Oh Hades, what did Katie do?"

Chiron cleared his throat. "Nico, you need to transport Katie and Joss here immediately. If not, then she may die."

"Oh. Right. Joss, where are you?" Nico's response was real smart, right?"

Joss looked around at the bedlam around here worriedly. "We're just outside of Charlottesville. In Fletcher High School. Please hurry!" With that, she slashed her hand through the IM, causing it to dissipate.

Nico shadow traveled away without another word. We didn't have to hold our breaths; Nico came back clutching Joss and Katie. He stumbled onto a nearby deck chair and curled up into a sleeping position, and was already out cold. Chiron started galloping to the infirmary, calling, "Travis, carry her, now, hurry! Joss, get Will and Fay!" Joss nodded and dashed off to the archery range in search of her siblings. I picked Katie up bridal-style and began to run after Chiron. The infirmary wasn't that far away, it was within sight of the Big House. We arrived there quickly, and I gently laid her down on a white cot. Her wavy brown hair tumbled across the pillow, having escaped from its braid long ago. Her emerald eyes were closed, but hopefully not permanently.

Chiron came over with ambrosia and nectar. "Travis, get those bandages now." I rushed over there, grabbing three roles of some sort of snowy white gauze. He took them and immediately set to work on Katie. Chiron breathed a sigh of relief, mumbling, "Good. She won't die." Joss then burst in, leading Will and Fay. The three of them were the best healers in the camp. Chiron glanced up at them, smiling. "She's good. I want you three to watch over her during her recovery, even though it's probably going to be shorter than most. Jocelyn, you need to call your mother and Katie's father though."

Joss nodded sadly. "I'd better get right on that. Do you have a phone I can use?" Chiron unclipped his cell phone from his quiver of arrows and handed it over. Dialing a number, Joss walked outside.

Will raised his eyebrow at why I was here, but didn't question me outright. Fay and him immediately cleaned her up some more, until they nodded in satisfaction. Fay turned to me. "We don't want to leave her alone at all, please come and get one of us if anything's wrong though!" They both left then, without waiting for my response. I smiled down at her angelic head, at her freckles, how they splashed across her nose cutely… Whoa, this was a weird feeling. Wait, I didn't just call Katie cute did I? Wait, why was I even here?

While I was asking myself these questions, Katie stirred. She cracked open her eyes and whispered in a weak and hoarse voice, "Did it work?"

I grinned. I felt like jumping for joy that she was up and moving, well and alive. "Katie, it's al good. You probably saved them!"

Katie shot up, leaning back into her pillows with a groan. "Travis? How in Hades are you here?"

I raised my eyebrow at her. "Katie, we're at Camp Half Blood. Seeing as I am a half blood, that would enable me to be here."

"Aw, shut up Stoll. Why are you here by my bedside though? I thought you had better things to do. People to annoy, pranks to pull."

"Katie, you didn't think that I would leave you when you might die, did you?" I said gently to her.

"Well, it is a possibility—"

"Katie, stop talking." She smiled at this.

"Only when you stop being a klepto." Hades. She got me there.

"How bout before then? I bet I can shut you up right now."

Her eyes lit up. "Ha, how could you do that?" Before she really finished her sentence, I kissed her. Short, but sweet… She had spent the whole entire school year away from here and it was far from strawberry season; and yet her lips still tasted sweetly like them.

Katie's POV

Well, that's one way to shut me up. He tasted like chocolate, Hershey's chocolate. He pulled away, smirking at me. "Pay up."

I stuck my tongue out at him childishly. "We never set any payment."

He heaved an enormous fake sigh. "Then I guess that I'll have to settle for this." He leaned in for another kiss.

Man, I should try this whole almost dying thing if this is what happens.

Um, personally, I think I failed at the Tratie parts. Oh well though!

Anyways, well, I have no idea if Fletcher High School is real, alright? I just made that up.

Also, I'm dedicating this to the people who get caught in shootings in schools… The ones who don't get a chance to say goodbye; The ones who don't get second chances like Katie did.

Review please!

-psylocke13