Okay, so this is actually an outtake of my other story The Parent Trap, but this can be read as a standalone as well. The only background info you need to know is that this is set in an AU regular camp coincidentally called Camp Half-Blood. Connor and Travis are brothers, and Katie still has that unfathomable love for gardening.


Travis reached down gently into the back pocket of Katie's jeans. His gut screamed that something was going to go wrong, but as always the prank began in the heart.

Everything was going fine— Katie's back was to him and she hadn't noticed him yet—until the stupid phone beeped as a text message came through.

Travis yanked his hand out, and let it rest in his hair casually, despite his heart racing.

Katie reached with her hand to retrieve the phone, silence it, and go back to dutifully listening to the counselor teaching the class. Travis couldn't help but wonder about how oblivious she was.

He took a calming breath, and slid his hand back in to find the phone. Ha! I've got it, thought Travis as his fingers swooped in like the claws of one of the Grab-N-Go games. Gently, with two fingers, Travis eased the phone out. With a hasty glance around him, Travis sighed in relief. And here he was, worrying that he would be—

"Is that my phone?" asked Katie, whirling around. If she was surprised to see Travis, she didn't show it. But on the other hand, her surprise (for lack of a better word) to see Travis with her phone was very much evident from her wide, disbelieving eyes.

"No…" lied Travis.

She squinted her eyes at him. "Oh, sure. It simply couldn't be my phone if it says my name on it!"

"What?" asked Travis, sounding slightly out of breath and particularly frazzled compared to someone who normally dealt with the wrath of Katie Gardner. "No, it doesn't," he countered, tucking the phone into his back pocket. In retrospect, that probably hadn't been such a good idea.

"Max!" screamed Katie. "Travis stole my phone and he won't give it back!"

Max, the poor unfortunate counselor about to meddle himself into a huge mess he probably hadn't originally wanted to be a part of, turned to sort out the situation. "Travis, would you like to interrupt our terrific gardening class with your plea?"

"My what?" asked Travis in a high, abnormally squeaky voice.

"Are you going to defend yourself and claim you didn't commit the offense you are accused of committing?" asked Max. Clearly, Max had been watching far too many court cases on television.

"No…"

"It was just in my back pocket, and then I saw it in his hand," narrated Katie. "And now it's in his back pocket."

The entire class snickered, but Travis didn't dare show any emotion at a time like this. He had never ever been caught like this. Where was Connor when he needed him?

"Is it true, Travis?" interrogated Max, turning to address the defendant— er, Travis.

Boy, was this not going well for Travis. He stayed silent and stoic.

"And it's right here!" exclaimed Katie, swiftly reaching her hand into his back pocket (to which Travis squirmed in protest but tried to relish the feeling as he knew it would probably never happen again in his entire lifetime), pulling out her phone. "Aha!"

"You do realize you just groped my butt?" Travis pointed out to her carefully.

Katie— poor, innocent, unsuspecting Katie— dropped her phone in shock.

It fell with a resounding thud like a slap in the face. And the worst part was that Travis didn't even need to look down to know that the phone had cracked.

She didn't even pick up the phone. Travis looked up to Katie's face, smirking and trying to capture the moment. Katie's face was bright red, and her eyes were wild, feverish with emotion. Her mouth was pulled together in a taut, angry and sharp line, ready to lash out at anyone near. But it must have just been Travis thinking he saw that tightrope waver between dark humor and despair.

Travis foolishly hoped that he would survive this encounter. He was proven wrong by her speech.

Travis spared himself the pain of her actual words, and instead wisely decided to focus on how beautiful she was when she hated him. With a couple flyaway hairs sticking up angrily from her hair, she simply radiated rage that was completely directed at Travis. Whoever said Katie Gardner was emotionless was an idiot. Waves of rage emanated from her being. At least all her attention was on him. Dang, he should do this more often.

Travis, with two placating hands up in the air, squatted down slowly. He picked up the phone cautiously— just as he had done earlier while stealing it— and held it out to her like a prayer of peace.

Katie stared at the phone for two blank seconds before snatching the phone out of his dangerous grip.

Max, the same unfortunate counselor, was now tiring. Travis figured he came to Camp Half-Blood to teach, not to witness flirting between his students.

"Okay, everyone. That's enough! We've had far too many distractions already. Let's get back to learning how to weed a plant properly," insisted Max. "I don't want any of you killing the ground itself!"

Everyone sluggishly got back to work understandably, considering they'd all witnessed pretty good drama for the day and didn't want to leave. But despite it all, Travis didn't talk to Katie for the rest of the class. If there was one thing that could get between Travis and what he wanted, it was Katie and her unfathomable love of nature.

Travis could mess with her even more later. First things first. He had to look good in front of Katie.

Ow! thought Travis sharply. He looked down at the current weed he was trying to pull. The poor plant had seen better days. Let's just leave it at that.

So much for that idea.

Travis sighed. This was harder than it looked. Impressing Katie, not weeding a plant. Although that was pretty frustrating as well— ugh.

But Travis would find a way. He'd always find a way. Why? Because deep down, Travis was a hopeless romantic.

Don't believe it? Go ask Katie.


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