Falling Hard

I woke up to the sound of my cabin bustling around. I slowly walked out of my private bedroom and saw chaos all over my cabin. I let out a sharp whistle and the whole cabin froze. Then they got ready at a slower pace. I walked to the deserted bathroom and took a quick shower. I put on a pair of old faded jeans and my camp T-shirt. I put my hair in a messy ponytail and walked out of the bathroom. While I was talking to my friend Dylan, the conch horn shrieked across the camp. My cabin got into a straight line with the oldest at the beginning and the youngest at the end. I walked out the door first with my cabin following me. I saw that all the other cabins were all out and looked like they were struggling to not laugh. My whole cabin was confused. We walked out and stopped in front of the humongous fire pit. I turned around with my clipboard, to check the attendance, and immediately froze. My whole cabin turned around and was shocked to see that our cabin roof was decorated with Easter bunnies. Just that it wasn't any Easter bunnies, it was chocolate Easter bunnies. My face turned red from my anger and I slowly turned around to the rest of the cabins. My eyes looked over ten cabins and stopped when I saw cabin eleven trying to contain themselves. I slowly, but steadily, walked to my "favorite cabin." I turned to the counselors, who were brothers, who were quietly snickering to themselves. They were the Stoll brothers. If you got them mad, they would just publicly embarrass you and/or your cabin. Believe me, I know what it feels like. I walked to the older brother and tried my best to not slap his smirk off his face. I looked straight into his eyes and saw his pretty baby blue eyes staring back at me.

I looked at him and asked, "Why'd you do it?"

"I don't know," the blue eyed boy said.

Then the activities director, Chiron, came out, saw what happened to cabin four, and sighed loudly. He sent everybody, but the two kids who were staring at each other.

"Travis and Katie, after breakfast I want you both to come to the Big House," the camp director said in an exasperated tone.

Both teenagers stomped to the pavilion to go back to their cabins. Throughout breakfast, both Travis and Katie were sending glares at each other. Breakfast ended quickly and Chiron stood on the big stage preparing to speak in front of the camp.

"Good morning everybody, I need for the cabin counselors to go to the Big House and get their cabin's schedule."

All the cabins went to their cabins, except the counselors. The counselors walked to the Big House and grabbed their schedules. Travis and Katie were trying to sneak out without being seen when Chiron called their names. Both turned around to see the 40 year old man staring at them. Both followed him to his office with slumped shoulders. He sat down at one side, while they sat on the other side. He sat there for about five minutes looking at them sending glares to the other person.

Chiron suddenly said, "This rivalry has to end. It's gone too far from Katie's bras hanging on the flag pole to Travis' hair dyed pink. Today, I want you both to spend your free time together. I scheduled your cabins to be together for the rest of the summer."

Both teenagers were shocked. Both had to be with each other for the rest of the summer. Katie then spluttered, "But Chiron, th-that's two months. I can't be with him for five minutes, much less two months."

At the same time, Travis was sitting there, shocked and frozen. Then he said, "Camp rules say that two campers that belong in different cabins aren't allowed to be together in the same cabin. So, technically we can't spend our free time together."

Both Chiron and Katie were just looking at Travis. Katie thought, wow he actually does have a brain.

"Yes, I have a brain. How do you think I create those pranks?"

"Did I just say that out loud?"

"Yeah you kind of did."

Katie asked Chiron, "When do we have to start?"

"I suggest you start right now. Now go collect your cabins and meet at the arena. First, you've got swordplay."

Both Travis and Katie stood and walked out of the Big House. Neither liked the new arrangement. They both walked slowly for about ten minutes before Katie got out of her trance.

"This is your fault you know. If you'd stop playing your pranks, then neither of us would have to go through this torture," Katie said her words full of hate.

"Why is it my fault? You're the one who's always screaming and getting mad."

Katie ignored Travis for the rest of the walk. They both decided which cabin to tell first. They decided on Katie's cabin, so Katie led the way and opened her cabin door. They both couldn't believe what they saw and heard.

"I can't wait till Katie and Travis realize that they like each other and date. I mean this rivalry has been going on since they were 12 now their 16. Can't they just be somewhat friends or acquaintances?" Katie's favorite cabin mate, Corinth, said.

They just stood there till her cabin mates saw them. They all quickly stood up, with faces as red as a rose. Corinth nervously asked Katie, "Hi Katie. Um, how long have you two been standing there?"

Completely ignoring the directed question, Katie said in a quiet voice, "You guys think I like Travis. You think I should date him. My own cabin mates have gone against me," then she saw her brother in the group of people and continued. "My own brother thinks that I should date my enemy."

The whole cabin went silent. Everybody, including Travis, was staring at me. I didn't know what to do. This summer has been the worst summer ever. I'd become cabin counselor after my friend, Miranda, was going to college. I had extra responsibility this summer than I did last summer. I was overworked. With this new problem, I just couldn't handle it anymore. The only thing that I thought of was to run and hide. That's just what I did.

I ran out to the forest. Behind me, I could hear people calling my name. I'd had enough. I ran out to the only spot I could think of, mine and Travis' special spot. I could remember the night when we both ran into each other trying to get away from our problems. It was an almost perfect night.

I was walking through the sinister looking forest trying to just have some alone time. That day, Travis and his adolescent little brother, Conner, thought that it would be funny to switch cabin 4's soil to crushed Oreos. I, along with my whole cabin, was furious. I had gone to the laughing brothers and had almost knocked them out. I would've, but my friend Clarisse had stopped me before I could.

My cabin and I had worked all day to fix all of the demolished flowers. We only took breaks for lunch and dinner. My cabin was exhausted by the time it was curfew. More than half of the cabin was asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows. After I'd checked that everyone was asleep, I snuck out of the cabin and walked to my special hideout that only I'd known.

My secret hideout was this tall tree that I would climb to see the stars. The camp was in a rural part of the country so you could actually see the stars. I climbed the tree and sat in my little carved out branch. Below me, I could hear someone shuffling underneath the tree. I held my breath waiting for the person to walk by. Instead, I felt them start to climb the tree.

I was shocked to see the one and only Travis Stoll. Both of us looked at each other before Travis said, "Are you going to just sit there and gawk at me or are you going to be a nice person and scoot over so I can sit?"

I rudely said, "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be doing some prank on my cabin?"

"Gosh Katie, I would've never guessed that you were so mean."

"You know I didn't mean that. I just want to know what you're doing here."

"I just happened to see you walk this way and I kind of followed you here."

"Oh." That was all I could say. My not-so-secret crush had followed me to my not-so-secret hideout place in the middle of the night. I didn't know if that was Stalkerish or sweet. The only problem was that he probably only saw me as a person to prank on.

After my awkward comment, an awkward silence followed it. We both sat there on the smoothly carved branch waiting for the other person to leave. I didn't know what to do. I'd never really been alone with a guy by myself. I could feel my eyes starting to drop and before I knew it, I was asleep with my head on Travis' lap.

The last thing I remember is Travis chuckling to himself and gently picking me up. I could hear him climbing down the tree with me barely hanging on. He carried me bridal style to my cabin and opened the door to the cabin. He carried me to my room and set me on my bed. He softly gave me a kiss on my forehead and whispered into my ear, "I like you little hideout, it's nice. It can be our little secret. Just you and me Katie." He gave me another kiss to my forehead and walked out of my cabin.

After my little flashback, I suddenly saw my special tree. I knew only one person could find me if they wanted to. I climbed to the carved branch and sat down. Before I knew it, I was asleep on the branch hearing people call out my name in the distance.

I was sleeping peacefully when I felt someone shake me. I shook it off and tried to go back to sleep. The mystery person kept on shaking me and I was getting a little annoyed. Katie barely opened her eyes before she was engulfed in a bear hug. The mystery person pulled back. Katie was happy to see Travis sitting in front of her.

Travis was more than happy to find Katie alive. The woods were known for people to get lost and were the home for very dangerous animals. He tried to follow her, but immediately lost her. He ran to tell Chiron that Katie was MIA. Chiron sent a rescue crew of five to go search for her. At the time, Travis wasn't thinking straight.

The rescue crew consisted of Travis, Conner, Corinth, Dylan, and Clarisse. All got ready to find their missing friend, or in Travis' case missing lover. All got ready and split up into two groups. Corinth, Dylan, and Clarisse would search in the Northern part of the woods. Travis and Conner would search in the Southern part of the forest. Truly, Travis already knew where Katie would be; he just couldn't face that place again by himself. It had been two months since that night had occurred. Travis thought that Katie had already forgotten what happened. Conner thought that it would be best if they split up and call out to the other if they found Katie.

Travis walked to the tree. He climbed the tree hoping that he would find Katie in it. Thankfully, the fates were on his side and Katie was asleep on the robust branch. Travis let out a breath that he'd held. He was thankful to find that Katie was okay. He sat there looking at the small figure lying on the branch. He didn't notice that he was staring at her until she started to stir in her sleep. He thought she looked beautiful.

He softly shook her. He tried his best to not to scare her. She just shifted herself to a better position. He shook her once more and she hardly opened her eyes before he engulfed in the biggest hug he could manage. She was more than surprised. Travis pulled back and his baby blue eyes meet Katie's grass green eyes. He didn't notice how close they were until he saw Katie flushed from the closeness. Travis noticed that Katie looked very pretty when she was embarrassed. He started to lean down and close his eyes. Before he closed them, he saw Katie lean forward. They were centimeters apart before Conner had to ruin their moment together.

"Travis! I couldn't find Katie."

Both Travis and Katie were devastated that their moment had ended before it could start. Travis yelled back to Conner, "Yeah, I found her." He looked back at Katie and asked, "Are you ready to back to camp? Everyone was worried sick about you." Katie only nodded sad, but excited to go back to her siblings.

Katie had never felt this way with any guy she'd dated or seen. Travis seemed to always make her feel full and empty at the same time. She always thought of as a kleptomaniac not someone who could make her feel very special. She felt a little sad that Conner had ruined their moment. Although that made her feel that she still had a chance to win Travis' heart.

Katie followed Travis down the tree and to Conner. She bet she looked horrible. The sun was already setting when she'd woken up. Conner was pacing around waiting for them. When he saw Katie, he ran to her and gave her a tight hug. Katie hugged him back and then turned to Travis.

"Do you know what time it is?"

Travis looked down at his watch to check the time. "It's almost seven o'clock." That had meant that dinner had started about thirty minutes ago and was about to end in an hour. Katie decided that she would wash up and go to dinner with the Stoll's brothers.

"I'm going to take a shower and get ready. You two should shower. We all smell really bad. I'm pretty for sure that the others are already at dinner."

Both brothers nodded and the trio split. All went to their cabins and got ready for dinner. They all met up at the fire pit and headed into the pavilion to go to meet up with their cabin mates. They planned on sneaking in and Katie sitting with them. The campers had other plans.

When they trio opened the doors, the whole pavilion went silent. Not a single noise was heard. Some people stared at Katie with shock written all over their faces. Some people, Katie's cabin mates, ran over and gave her a hug. Others just smiled at them. The trio walked up to the front table where Chiron and the head counselors sat. Chiron just smiled at them with a twinkle in eyes that was rarely seen.

The trio sat at one end of the table. Katie cat between Conner and Travis so that she wouldn't get bombarded with questions and because some guys, guys from cabin six, were staring at her so much they made her feel uncomfortable.

After dinner, Katie and the Stoll's all sat next to each other at the camp fire. After what had happened, Katie didn't feel like talking. The camp fire was the same as always. Cabin seven would lead the camp in sing-alongs and they would sing for an hour or two. After the camp fire, Travis walked Katie to her cabin just for extra protection. Katie truly thought that he didn't need to, but the other side of her told her that she should.

As the couple walked to the cabin, Travis was trying his best to start a conversation. All his attempts were failures. Katie would only make small comments back to him. Travis knew she was sorting out her feelings for him because that's exactly what he was doing. Their love/hate relationship seemed to be leaning more on the love side then hate.

Katie really liked Travis and wanted to talk to him, but all the stares from dinner were engraved into her head. The way everyone was staring at her gave her chills running up and down her back. Katie could kind of tell that Travis liked her a little.

"Do you know that the fireworks are in one week from today?" Travis asked Katie trying to hint to her that he wants to take her.

"Really, I didn't know that. Probably some guy will ask me out before the end of the week."

Jokingly, Travis said, "I think a lot of guys are going to ask you out."

"Probably they will; probably no one will ask me."

"I'm pretty for sure someone will ask you."

"Thanks," was all Katie said as she lightly blushed. "I just hope they don't ask me in a big crowd. Last time cabin six heard I was going out with somebody, they tortured me with makeup."

Travis just smiled. The last time cabin six gave Katie a makeover, she looked great in the end. Of course Travis preferred here without the makeup. He didn't want to tell her that he wanted to go with her yet. He wanted it to be a surprise.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Katie," Travis said then he leaned over and gave Katie a kiss on the cheek.

Katie couldn't help but blush at the kiss. She really needed to control her hormones. "Bye Travis."

I went into my cabin and saw that everyone was getting ready for bed. Some cabin mates came over and gave me a hug. I was happy to be home. I went into my room and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. My night was full of dreams of a certain Stoll.

I woke up to the sound of my cabin. Cabin eleven had a whole lot more campers then there were supposed to be. You could hear people yelling "Where's my shirt?" and "Get out of the bathroom!" Pretty much, I loved my cabin. I was the most chaotic cabin at camp. I got up and a sharp whistle was heard. Everybody froze and turned around.

I started yelling orders to them and they all got ready, but at a slower rate. I smiled to myself at what happened last night. I finally had the guts to kiss Katie. Even though it was on the cheek, it still counts. I got ready and started to plan a prank with my brother Conner.

Then after finishing our future prank, I turned around to my cabin and yell out, "Okay everybody line up. The oldest in the front and newbies in the back of the line." As soon as I said that, the conch horn screeched. I truly was the better counselor when it came to actually caring about the campers. Conner wasn't really good with kids. Conner and I led the cabin outside and met up with the rest of camp. I looked over towards cabin four and my eyes met two green eyes. We both smiled at each other and we all headed down to breakfast.

Today, I had a mission that I needed to accomplish. I was going to ask Katie to the fireworks. I needed a plan to do this. It was going to be hard since this was Katie that I was asking.

The fireworks were our way of celebrating the Fourth of July. Everyone would find a date and go to the fireworks. The fireworks usually start at eight and go on for an hour. The fireworks were always different each year. Cabin nine would always make the fireworks.

Right now, I was trying to find a certain person in this big crowd. The pavilion was always chaotic at this time. I'd finally spotted the person I needed. For my plan, I needed one girl from cabin six and one girl from cabin eight. I easily spotted the cabin six's counselor, Piper, and pulled her away from her table.

Piper is this Cherokee girl with eyes that change with every emotion she has. Piper was probably the most beautiful girl from cabin six because she didn't use makeup and perfume. Even though she's a tomboy, don't let that fool you. Piper can also be the very girly girl. Piper can just talk to you and then you will do whatever she needs you to do.

I took Piper by the hand and walked to grab the second girl. Annabeth was her name. Even though she looked like your stereotypical Californian girl, she can be an awesome planer. She was sitting at a table with her three best friends Percy, Thalia, and Nico. She was talking to Thalia when I got to her table.

"Annabeth," I said nervously. "I need your help for something."

She turned around and was shocked to see me. Usually campers from cabin eleven and cabin eight don't get along. I mean, it wasn't our fault that we'd forgotten that every person from cabin eight were afraid of spiders.

"Sure what do you need my help for," she asked once she got over her shock.

"Well, can we go somewhere else? Thalia can come if she wants to."

Thalia decided to come and we all walked over to an empty table. All girls turned their heads toward me.

I took a deep breath and quickly said, "I need your help asking Katie out."

They took one look at each other and then started to laugh. I was mad. I just asked them for help and they just laugh.

"What's so funny? This is a real problem."

"It's just that your brother is a player and you need help asking one girl out," Thalia said still laughing.

"Can you just help me? It's already very embarrassing that I had to ask you now your laughing at me."

"Okay we'll help you."

As Travis was getting help from the three girls, Katie was sitting with her cabin and was glaring at each girl's head. All of them knew that Katie had a huge crush on Travis, now they were all flirting with him. I had to keep myself from going over there and slapping each girl that she thought were his friends.

"I can't believe that they're flirting with him."

"Who's flirting with who?" said Corinth.

"Nothing."

By the time the girls explained the plan to Travis, Travis was smiling like a big idiot. He was going to ask Katie in front of the whole camp. The day had passed by really quickly. By the time it was dinner, Travis was ready to do the big challenge.

Travis already got approved by Chiron to ask her after he swore that it wasn't a prank. He was almost for sure that she was going to say yes. He was very nervous as dinner got closer and closer. Suddenly, the conch horn yelled out and Travis got his cabin out and in the pavilion.

"Dude, what's wrong with you? You're acting all nervous," Conner asked Travis.

"Nothing, it's just that I've got something special planned to night."

"Okay," a confused Conner said.

Once everyone was inside the pavilion, Chiron got on the stage and said, "Good evening everyone. Tonight we have a special request from Travis Stoll."

Travis nervously got on the stage. Everyone's eyes were on him. He cleared his throat and said, "Katie, I was wondering if you could go to the fireworks with me."

Everyone's eyes turned to Katie. They were all anxious to hear what she would say. One moment they were enemies then the next they were friends. They were an odd couple. They would fight a lot. Travis would end up apologizing to Katie. That was the cycle that everyone knew.

In my mind, I'm completely shocked to see that Travis Stoll just asked me out. I wanted to say yes, but a part of me wanted to say no. I looked around at everyone's anxious faces. I bet that they thought I was going to say yes. The only people that didn't look shocked were Annabeth, Thalia, Piper, and Percy. Nico looked pretty funny sitting with a bunch of people that knew what was going on.

Anyways, I couldn't decide whether to say yes or no. If I said no then that would make Travis feel horrible and he would probably hate me. If I said yes then that would look weird going to the fireworks with my enemy as my date. I couldn't decide. I was fighting with myself. Probably I was crazy or I was just having a change of heart. I knew that I only had a couple of seconds, or else he would think that I would say no. I was running out of time.

For every second that Katie sat there, my heart was being torn to pieces. I felt that she was going to say no. I had always wanted to be more than a friend to her. She never really noticed. I decided that someone needed to end the uncomfortable silence.

"It's okay if you say no. I mean, we could still be friends," I said in a very sad tone.

It was a minute before Katie said anything. During that minute Katie knew she had a definite answer.

"Travis I don't want to be friends," Katie said seeing that Travis had a heartbroken face. "I want to be more than friends. Maybe after the fireworks, we could date. That's only if you want to."

When Katie finished saying this Travis had a huge smile on his face. He was so happy. She'd finally said yes and that she wanted to date him, so that they could skip over the awkwardness after the fireworks. He was grateful for that. He was so happy that he didn't notice his brother coming onto the stage and dragging him back to their table. He kept his eyes locked with his date.

The week went by so quickly for Travis. Travis and Katie had started going out the day after he'd asked her out. He spent all his free time either helping Conner pull some prank or spending his time at the strawberry fields with Katie. The fireworks were amazing. Cabin nine did an amazing job with the fireworks.

Both Katie and I spent as much time with each other. We were planning on introducing each other to the other's parents. I wanted so badly for Katie to meet my mom. She was an angel to my brother and me. Every night, I dreamed of my future with Katie. I hoped that we would end up with a small family and married together. I should probably stop think about getting married. I just hope that we stay together. For now, I'm going to live my small life with my awesome girlfriend.