Katie sat outside cabin four surrounded by a small circle of dead grass, a reflection of her current mood. It was her first winter at camp, her first Christmas without her father and it was driving her mad. Camp was great and all but it always seemed like a warriors place. Training was everything and often children of more peaceful deities, like her mother Demeter, were underrated or ignored. At home she was truly at peace with her little garden in the backyard and time with her family. Back in the rural parts of Georgia she missed the annual family Christmas party and making Christmas cookies with her father for the local homeless shelter. But this year her father had to go on a business trip and her stepmother was quite busy as a lawyer working on a particularly difficult case. Now she was stuck at camp, watching everyone run around in the small drizzle of snow that the camp border had allowed in for some decoration.

She could not deny the beauty of the camp around Christmas time. Thalia's old tree had a string of lights around it, many of the cabins had the small electric icicles over their door post, an official tree was decorated in the center or the ring of cabins, and the small bit of snow fall made it seem like a strange, little, Greek, winter wonderland. Yet the temperature stayed nice a cool like a late summer's day and activities continued as the always have. Sword fights in the arena caused the clash of metal on metal to ring through the camp, whinnies of many Pegasus could be heard form the lightly decorated stables, and though many of the campers were gone for the Christmas holidays there was still quite a multitude still present due to the recent influx of new cabins. And as always you can hear the cries of the unfortunate new victim of one of the Stoll brothers pranks, becoming much more frequent since the arrival on many new campers.

Those two knew just how to tick her off, being a frequent victim of their pranks. After the bunny incident and when they recently had turned her batch of red roses green along with lots of other tomfoolery had really made her indifferent towards them especially Travis who was the instigator of many of the pranks towards her. She knew the feeling was duel sided due to their constant mockery of her "prissiness". Though she did chuckle a bit when she saw a particularly funny incident involving a golden mango and the Aphrodite cabin. They ended up looking pretty funny after being caught; Connor with his cloths always too small and Travis stuck in permanent make up was quite the sight to behold. Those boys had it coming and this time it was her turn to prank them. Yes her idea was cheesy and a classic but in her current upset state it seemed like a wonderful idea.

She had recently been told to watch her back due to the annual Stoll brother's Christmas prank and while reflecting on this along with just how awful her Christmas was turning out to be, the idea came to her. This was just what she needed; she would prank them first and finally set the record straight that she was no naive victim. It was time to stop mopping around and have some fun with the Christmas she was stuck with. Though she was no mastermind she knew she had to start prepping her plan.

When she relayed her plan to her fellow cabin mates, they laughed for a bit and then agreed to help her in its execution. When all the stakes were set it was it was time to get the brothers. She found them around the sword arena trying to pickpocket a daughter of Iris on her way to swordplay practice.

" Travis, Conner, get over here you big jerks," she shouted trying to look as flustered as possible. The looked up, a bit confused, and began muttering to one another as the jogged up to her. Conner sighed and looked at her with a fake pouty lip and with a mocking voice said.

"What ever did we do this time your prissiness?" And Travis added with the same degree of mockery,

"Oh yes what ever did we do to anger you prissy pants?"

She gave them a rude look and muttered aggravated,

"You know what y'all did, just come with me." She stormed off towards my cabin. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the boys look at each other and shrug. Then they jogged after her to see what was up. When they finally got to the door of cabin four she paused for a second and then whistled and when the signal was sounded mistletoe grew all over the place. The Boys looked around confused until she started laughing and said,

" It's my turn for the prank this year, who wants to be the first one to kiss me?" Then she puckered my lips and began to make kissy noises. Travis's jaw dropped and his face turned a shade of crimson. Conner began to laugh nervously and slowly back away. As she advanced, both boys took off in opposite directions and Katie decided to follow Travis down towards the woods leaving a crowd of laughing cabin mates behind her. When she finally caught up to him, she was surprised to see he was standing in a small concealed garden near the edge of the woods filled with newly budding lime green roses. Katie stopped to admire the little garden completely shocked. Then she asked,

"What is all this?" He then walked up to her and grabbed her hands and said with a sly grin,

"Funny how we had the same prank planned for this year." She then looked up and noticed the small leafy green plant over my head as he pulled her in and kissed her. At first she was shocked and wanted to pull away but then she closed her eyes with this new feeling arising in her and she kissed him back. When he pulled away she realized that maybe she was not so irritated with this guy. Maybe all along there has been this sort of attraction buried under all the contempt. She looked at him and blushed and saw he was just as red in the face as she was. Then she took advantage of the moment and pulled him in for a small kiss and the world dissolved around them. It was just them in a brief moment of bliss. When they pulled apart Travis laughed nervously and said,

"Not to bad Prissy Pants."

Then she laughed and blushed all over again. Maybe her Christmas was not so bad after all.

Authors Note: Hey thanks for reading this little one shot. I know I am a bit late releasing a Christmas post but who cares. I made this story for my Seaweed Brain who helped me come up with this story's concept. I wrote this for fun and in one sitting so my grammar and other writing basics might be a bit sloppy but I did try a bit. I am on holiday so I am not in the mood to be a stickler for perfect writing. Anyway I hoped you enjoyed this and Happy Holidays to all. J