It all started when I was sitting in a random tree in the forest, trying to ignore the stupid nymphs and their bickering over which satyr was the hottest.
It wasn't like I wanted to be up there at the moment, though. I would have much rather been on the ground in the strawberry fields, sitting on the cool dirt under the hot sun and flirting with a very sweaty, very dirty, very adorable daughter of Demeter. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to happen. If I went anywhere near that certain girl at the moment, she would most definitely scream her lungs out at me and pin me to the ground in an effort to avenge her whole cabin for the most recent prank I pulled, which, if I might add, was all Connor's idea.
Not that I would admit that the idea of her pinning me to the ground kind of turned me on. After all, I'm a Stoll, and Stolls don't have crushes on girls. Girls, however, most certainly do have crushes on Stolls, and seeing as I am a Stoll, with my amazingly awesome good looks and my trademark smirk, I'm supposed to wait for Katie to admit her obvious feelings for me, and only then can I admit my feelings for her.
Yeah, it's kind of a science. Connor and I are just a couple of geniuses when it comes down to relationships, you know?
Anyway, back to why Katie was mad at me.
So a few hours before I had been sulking in that tree, I was sitting on my bunk in the Hermes cabin, talking to Connor about the latest prank we had pulled on the Apollo kids and trying to cool off from the blaring sun outside. Right in the middle of our conversation, though, Connor jumped up from the floor where he was sitting and cried, "Dude, I just thought of the most brilliant prank in, like, the history of pranks!"
"Uh, okay," I replied, surprised by his sudden outburst. "What is it? Because I'm not letting you think it's brilliant before I tell you so."
Connor just rolled his eyes at first, but then he said, "Okay, so this is what I'm thinking…"
About an hour later, Connor and I were in the Demeter cabin while its occupants were at hand-to-hand combat class with Annabeth in the arena, admiring our work. You see, Demeter kind of has this weird obsession with cereal. So, Connor and I figured we'd just please some of her children by decorating their cabin with an assortment of whole grain Cheerios. We had used string to make a bunch of chains of Cheerios that we'd hung on the bunks, the walls, and the ceiling. Then we'd littered the ground with a bunch of cereal boxes that we had emptied. Oh, and we set it up so that the first person who walked in would step on a string that would trigger a bucket of milk above his or her head. The bucket would then spill milk all over the place, especially on that one lucky camper, and then the strings of cereal on the ceiling would become unfastened and shower the cabin in a mess of some sort of breakfast catastrophe.
You have to admit, my brother is a pure genius, although not as much as me, of course.
Anyway, after finishing up our beautiful work, we hurried over to a patch of bushes nearby, where there was a perfect view of the scene to come. As expected, the Demeter campers were spotted by my brother and me about five minutes later. They were slowly trudging along to their cabin for a break after an obviously very long, very tiring session with Annabeth. Katie, as always, was leading her siblings to the area of our little prank, looking very frustrated from her lesson and, yes, very hot. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, loose brown strands framing her face in a way that made her look really tough, like if you said one word that ticked her off, you would most certainly be in the infirmary for the next few days. She was wearing jean shorts that ended at the knee and a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt that fit her perfectly, along with a pair of forest green Converse sneakers. Her jaw was set determinedly, and her eyes were a perfect shade of bright grass green. Her light pink lips were set in a grim line, and I could just barely see the cute little freckles that spotted her nose. Twenty-two of them. Yeah, I counted one day while she was yelling at me. They were just so adorable and I couldn't help thinking how much I wanted to kiss her on the nose…
Anyway, I also didn't have to look to know that there was definitely some dirt under her fingernails from continuous gardening all summer. She walked with confidence in her step, not caring about what those gossipy daughters of Aphrodite thought of her. That's what I love about Katie. She's just who she is, and she doesn't care about what others think. Not about her looks. Not about her attitude. Not about anything. She's just Katie.
And she's definitely proud of it.
So as I was watching my obvious crush and fantasizing about a kiss from her, I had forgotten about the little prank my brother and I had created for the Demeter cabin. Just as Katie began to turn the doorknob, I was snapped out of my thoughts as I remembered the impending doom that was sure to take place at her entrance. She stepped inside, and as expected, a series of curses and threats ensued. I immediately turned my head around to face Connor. Our eyes met, and no words needed to be spoken. The message we shared was obvious.
Run.
My fellow Stoll and I jumped up from behind the bush and bolted to the forest, just as Katie Gardner stomped out of the cabin, milk streaming down her face and her hair a nest of string and Cheerios. She looked around with pure fury plastered on her face, searching for the culprit, or in our case, culprits.
And that's when she saw us.
We were just about to enter the woods when she snapped her head around and saw me first. I could literally see her vision tunneling in on me. Then she looked behind me at Connor, who was running as fast and far as his legs could take him. She narrowed her eyes and began sprinting toward us, quickly catching up. My brother and I entered the woods and began swiveling around the trees, Katie right behind us. Just before she was about to tackle me to the ground, I veered to the left of a giant oak tree. Seeing as Katie had her eyes on me and not on the natural course ahead of her, she immediately slammed into the tree and flew backward, landing on her back.
"Ow," she moaned with her eyes closed. I edged closer to her to make sure she was okay, but she heard me making my way toward her, and her eyelids flew upward, her green grass eyes glaring at me. "STOLL!" she cried. I started running away from her and further into the forest. She continued to scream at me from the ground. "STOLL, IF YOU EVER COME NEAR ME OR MY CABIN AGAIN, I AM GOING TO PIN YOU DOWN, STUFF AMBROSIA DOWN YOUR THROAT, AND WATCH YOU BURN TO BITS, ALL WHILE LAUGHING! DON'T LET ME SEE YOU AGAIN!"
Let's just say I began to run a little harder.
Leaving Katie lying on the ground, I finally caught up to Connor, who was climbing up the tallest tree he could find. I climbed up after him, thanking the gods for the fact that Katie had decided not to
So that's why, as I mentioned earlier, I was sitting with my fellow Stoll in a tree, trying to ignore the chattering nymphs below, when Connor spoke. "Dude, why don't you just go get her?"
"Who?" I asked nonchalantly.
"Stop denying it, you moron. Everyone knows you have totally loved that Gardner for, like, a gazillion years. It's no secret. Just admit it already and ask her out. But you have to tell me one thing first."
"What?" I asked, somewhat surprised that pretty much the whole entire camp knew I technically loved Katie Gardner.
"Why her? I mean, you probably could have nearly any girl in this whole entire camp, and you choose Katie Gardner. Why not some Aphrodite chick or something? At least they're attractive."
Suddenly a flare of anger bubbled up inside me. "WHY HER? WHY HER? BECAUSE KATIE GARDNER IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRL I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. SHE'S SMART AND FUNNY AND ADORABLE, AND I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT HER! I LOVE THE WAY HER NOSE CRINKLES UP WHEN SHE HATES AN IDEA, AND I LOVE THE WAY SHE THROWS HER HAIR UP IN A STUPID PONYTAIL EVERY SINGLE DAY AND STILL MANAGES TO LOOK HOT! I LOVE HOW SHE CAN KICK MY BUTT ALL THE TIME, ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE'S MAD AT ME, AND I LOVE WHEN SHE ROLLS HER EYES AND THROWS SARCASTIC COMMENTS AROUND LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS! I LOVE HOW SHE SNORTS WHEN SHE LAUGHS REALLY HARD, AND I LOVE EVERY SINGLE LITTLE FRECKLE ON HER NOSE. I LOVE HOW SHE RUNS, AND I LOVE HOW SHE WALKS! BUT MOST OF ALL, I LOVE HOW SHE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT WHAT ANYBODY THINKS OF HER! SHE'S JUST KATIE GARDNER, AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS DAUGHTER OF DEMETER, AND THAT'S ALL SHE WANTS TO BE! I LOVE HER, CONNOR, BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT! I CAN'T ASK HER OUT 'CAUSE SHE'LL WRING MY NECK IF I SHOW MYSELF TO HER RIGHT NOW, BUT I CAN'T GO ANOTHER MINUTE WITHOUT HER! WHAT DO I DO?"
By this point, I was out of breath, and tears were streaming down my face. I had loved Katie Gardner since forever ago, and I had thought I was going to lose her after the war with the Titans. During the months before we had fought, I had silently cried myself to sleep every night, praying to the gods to spare her. When I had found out she had survived, I cried again, but only in relief. Now, all I wanted was to show her how much I loved her, but I didn't know how.
I stared at Connor after my rant, expecting him to tell me to chill out or something, but instead he just gave me a small smile and looked down. I kept staring at him, waiting for him to look up at me again, but he didn't, so I looked down, too.
And that's when I noticed Katie Gardner standing at the foot of the tree, gazing up at me, tears streaking her face, hands shaking.
I looked back at Connor, who was now giving me a little smirk, and then climbed down the tree to where Katie was standing. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I walked over to her with my hands in my pockets, my face as red as a tomato. "Uh, did you hear any of that?"
She just nodded her head slightly.
"Well, uh, sorry if I scared you or anything. We can just pretend that never happened – "
"NO!" she screamed. Then she realized how loud she was talking. "I mean, uh, no. I really like you, too, Travis. Heck, that's why I yell at you all the time. I just didn't want you to know before… Actually, I was kinda walking over here after tending the strawberries to get you guys for dinner and tell you I'm sorry, but…"
"Well, apology accepted, Miss Gardner."
Katie smiled, but then she began to look a little nervous. Um, Travis, did you really mean all of that stuff you said before about… Well, about me?"
"Yeah, I really did," I replied.
She seemed to return to her confident demeanor. "So, what do we do now?"
"How 'bout this?" I answered with a smile before leaning down and giving her a soft little kiss. She smiled against my lips, and we stood there for about a minute before Connor had to interrupt, breaking us apart.
"Well, I'd love to stay and watch you two lovebirds confess your undying love for each other, but I'm hungry, so can we go to dinner now?"
"I guess we should," I said, smiling at Katie and taking her hand before leading her to the dining pavilion.
On the way back, I thought about what everybody would say about the two of us dating, but the truth is, I didn't really care. I had Katie Gardner as my girlfriend, and nothing else really mattered at the moment. I just held her hand tighter, keeping her as close as possible.
So, in the end, Stolls always do get the girl they want…
Even if sometimes they have to embarrass themselves a little bit to get her.