Travis awoke to an annoying thump, thump, thump on his forehead. Squeezing his eyes shut tight, he swatted the hand flicking his face away. "Get up!" the familiar voice of Conner shouted in his ear. Travis groaned and rolled over in response. A sudden gasp escaped his lips as the sheets covering him were yanked off quickly, letting the cool air of the camp wash over his bare skin. He could feel goose bumps on his arms and back.
"What the hell?" he yelled, trying to grab the blankets back for himself.
"It's Hades, Travis," Conner corrected with a smirk, throwing the covers across the room, almost hitting one of their half-sister's in the head.
"Go away," he moaned, rolling over once more and curling into a ball, trying to gather as much body heat as possible.
"Come on," Conner persisted. "You have to wake up."
"Why?" Travis asked, his voice muffled by the pillow smushed against his face.
Connor rolled his eyes and yanked the pillow out of Travis's grasp, making him groan once more. "Cuz the conch shell blew like half an hour ago and if you don't wake up soon, Chiron's gonna come over here and wake you up. I just thought waking up to my gorgeous face would be so much better then his nasty, scraggly beard."
Travis grunted and rolled over once more, opening his eyes slightly so he could glare at his brother angrily. "I'd rather wake up to anyone other than you," he mumbled tiredly.
"What if I pretended to be someone else? Oh! You'll just love this one." He cleared his throat before speaking. "Oh, Travis!" Conner exclaimed in a terrible country accent. "Y'all has to wake up now! Why? Cuz I love y'all, of course! And I wanna suck ya teeny, tiny, little-"
"You sound nothing like Katie," Travis interrupted while finally sitting up in his bed. Touching his bare feet against the cold wood floor sent chills down his spine. He grabbed a random orange shirt lying near his bed, smelt it, crinkled his nose up in disgust, shrugged, and pulled it over his head before speaking once again. "You can hardly even tell she has an accent."
"How would you know?" Conner asked. "You don't even listen to her. All you do is stare at her boobs all the time."
Travis scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You sure about that?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Who's the manslut in this brothership?"
"It sure as hell isn't me," Conner said smoothly, glancing away from his brother.
"Sure it isn't." Standing up from the bed, Travis grabbed a towel and walked towards the door. "I'm gonna go take a shower."
"You don't need a shower. You just want to take the long way to the bathroom, around the Demeter cabin, to see if you can catch a glimpse of a naked Katie Gardner."
He scoffed. "Psh! . . . Psh!" Opening up the door, he refused to meet Conner's eyes. "Maybe," he mumbled under his breath quietly before quickly running out the door and down the steps of the porch. Just as he reached the final step and slowed down, a shine from the ground caught his eye. He bent down and picked up the small penny from the dirt. Standing back up, he brought the coin up in front of his face so he could look at the small, bronze man better. Smiling to himself, Travis thought, Must be my lucky day.
Waking up back home for Katie was just like they described in the stories. The rooster would cluck in the distance. The smell of freshly-mown grass wafted through the air. The bright sun of the early morning would shine in through her bedroom windows, lighting the whole room, giving every piece of furniture a nice, yellow glow.
So when she woke up to the familiar toxic smell of nail polish filling her stuffy cabin, she couldn't help but be disgusted.
"Katie!" exclaimed her half-sister Sierra. Her voice was far too loud and chirpy for this early in the morning. "Finally you're awake, silly!"
"Yeah," she agreed without emotion. "Silly me." Rubbing her eyes tiredly and stifling a yawn, she pushed back the covers and walked over to the small desk Sierra was sitting next to. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?" she asked, rolling her eyes melodramatically. "I'm painting my nails, obviously." She applied another coat of bright pink polish to her middle finger and smiled as it shined in the light.
"Are you trying to kill me?" Katie questioned, walking over to her bunk and pulling her suitcase out from under the bed.
"What?"
"Are you trying to kill me?" she repeated, looking at her clothes skeptically. "If we don't open up a window I'll suffocate. That stuff smells like shit."
"Well it's better than actually smelling shit. The stables haven't been cleaned in, like, a week. If we open a window, it'll smell like we're sitting in the boys' bathroom." Sierra quietly cursed under her breath as she messed up the paint on her thumb.
Wrinkling her nose in disgust, Katie sighed. "Fine. I gotta go take a shower anyways." After rolling her eyes at the smirk Sierra was sending her, she grabbed her towel and quickly ran out the door, trying to get away from the horrible stench. She was so set on leaving the cabin, though, she forgot her outfit she had set out on her bunk. . .
Travis continued to walk towards the bathroom, a bit more confidence in his step. Stealing always made him feel better. Whether it be taking the clothes off somebody's back or picking up a coin on the ground, the adrenaline rush that followed definitely made up for any consequences.
As Travis kept walking, he hummed some song he had heard on the radio that hadn't left his head for days. He stared up at the sky. It was bright blue and the sun shone down on the camp, warming Travis's face. He was so distracted by that cloud that looked like a ninja that he didn't notice when he bumped into another camper.
"Woah," Travis started as he tried to balance himself and the other person. As he looked down, he immediately recognized that head full of dark hair. "K-Katie," he stuttered, his hands frozen on her shoulders where they were supposed to be keeping her steady. They seemed to be helping him out more than her. Travis felt his heart jump as he noticed her clutching the towel wrapped around her tightly. Her wet hair stuck to the nape of her neck. He could have sworn he saw a tint of red on her cheeks. Whether it was from anger or embarrassment or something else entirely, Travis couldn't tell.
"Get out of my face, Stoll, or I'll roundhouse your ass," she said angrily while shrugging his hands off of her and walking back towards her cabin.
"Yeah," he yelled after her. "I'll see you around too."
He continued to watch her retreating figure as she hopped up the steps and slammed the door behind her roughly. As soon as she was out of sight, Travis took a shuddering breath. Ooooh, today was definitely going to be a good one.
"I can't believe you sometimes, Percy!" Annabeth shouted angrily, stomping down the steps of the Poseidon cabin. "How could you forget our first anniversary?"
"I'm a dude!" Percy whined while bounding down the steps after her, trying to make her understand. "I don't remember these kinds of things!"
"It's on your birthday for the gods' sake! How could you not remember?"
"It's harder than you think!"
"Ugh!" Annabeth groaned loudly before stomping away towards the Athena cabin.
"Don't you stomp away from me!" he yelled after her. "I'm the guy in this relationship! I'm supposed to stomp away first!" She didn't even turn around to acknowledge him.
Percy huffed angrily and turned around, heading towards the bathrooms. He loved Annabeth, he really did, but sometimes she could just get him so . . . frustrated! As he walked across the tiles of the bathroom, he could practically hear the water sizzling in the pipes.
Travis walked through the doors of the bathroom with a smile. He swung the towel over the door and stepped into the small shower, bobbing his head to the beat inside his mind.
As he placed his hand gently on the shower knob, he braced himself with a deep breath. Twisting it to right quickly, Travis bit his lip, expecting the cold sensation to wash over him, but was surprised by the scalding hot water that came out of the faucet instead. He jumped slightly in astonishment and stared at the water as it rained down on the tile beneath his feet. As it hit the hard surface, small droplets would jump up and bite at Travis's legs. He watched in amazement as steam began to fill the small compartment, clouding his vision and making it hard to breath.
He smiled. You could never, never ever, get a hot shower at Camp Half-Blood. If someone said that they had a hot shower that morning they were practically saying that Travis was ugly (psh!). Even those people who thought they were just plain genius because they thought of taking showers in the middle of the night didn't get hot showers. Yeah, maybe they weren't as cold, but they sure as hell weren't hot.
But Travis was having a hot shower.
In Camp Half-Blood.
Hot damn.
As he stepped under the flow of the water once more, his smile widen. Could this day get any better?
Hawthorn had declared her life miserable. Her life was so miserably miserable, they could make some badly-written angst movie about it that people would pay $7.50 to go see just so their lives would seem better.
Not only was the hawthorn tree like the ugliest tree in the world, but Jeffrey, the hottest satyr to ever walk the face of the planet didn't even know the poor little nymph existed.
Hawthorn sighed yet again that morning as another camper came up and asked for hash browns. She stared at him with sad eyes. He was one of those rowdy Stoll brothers. She had no idea which one. They were both ridiculously annoying, but she didn't have the energy to argue with him this morning. She sadly placed a scoop of the potatoes on the boys plate and he walked away without any sign of appreciation. She sighed yet again. Apparently she was invisible to all of the campers too.
After a few more minutes of scooping and plopping, Hawthorn felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around, and gasped slightly when she saw who it was. It was Jeffrey. Yes. As in the Jeffrey. He smiled down at her brightly, showing off perfect teeth that matched his equally perfect hair and face. Ooooh, he was perfect.
"Hey!" he said nicely. "They ran out of milk out there and I was wondering where some more might be."
"R-R-Right there," she stuttered, pointing over to the small refrigerator filled with food.
His smile widened. "Thanks!"
Hawthorn watched as he grabbed the milk and walked out of the kitchen. As soon as he was out of view, she took a shaky breath.
He talked to her! He talked to her!
Hawthorn had declared her life amazing.
Travis finished his breakfast quickly, as he always did. He sighed. He was still really hungry but whenever he went up to ask that annoying little nymph whether he could get seconds she would snap at him rudely and blame him for global warming.
Oh well.
Today was Travis's lucky day. Nobody could say no to him.
With a confident smile, he walked up to the counter with his tray in his hands. He stood in front of the small nymph expectantly, but she didn't even look at him. Instead, she stared behind him with a smile. Her chin rested in her hand, and she sighed dramatically.
"Hey," Travis said with a smirk. She didn't respond but just sighed again. "Hello?" he asked, waving a hand in front of her face. She moved her gaze over to him, still with a smile on her lips.
"Hi," she said dreamily.
"How's your morning so far?"
"Fantastic," she drawled before looking behind Travis again. He turned around and followed her gaze to a table full of satyrs. He rolled his eyes. Nymphs.
"Really? Well that's awesome. I was kinda wondering if maybe you could make mine as awesome by giving me seconds on hash browns . . ." His voice continued to get quieter as he kept going.
"Huh?" she asked staring at him again. After a second, she nodded. "Yeah, sure. Whatever." She scooped him some more potatoes and turned back to her stalking with a sigh.
Travis smiled and turned to go back to his seat. Oh, he could get used to this.
Finishing his second round of potatoes, Travis sigh contently.
As he waited for his brothers and sisters to finish their own breakfasts, Travis placed his hands in his pockets. He was surprised to feel a small, smooth object hit his fingertips. Pulling it out he remembered it was the penny he had found earlier. That then led him to remember the amazing morning he had had so far. It sure was his lucky day.
Or maybe it wasn't just the day. Maybe it was the penny.
He had heard of people getting luck from like a rabbit's foot or a four leaf clover. Maybe he could get luck from a penny.
But no. No, it couldn't be true.
Or could it?
"Hey kid," Travis called from his seat to a random camper that was walking nearby and carrying his tray of breakfast. He stopped in his track and pointed to himself.
"Me?" he asked.
"Who else would I be talking to?" Travis questioned rudely. "Just come here."
The kid nervously stepped closer and stared down at him. "Yeah?"
"Hold this for me." Travis held out the penny and dropped it into the kid's open palm.
"Can I keep it?" he asked as he inspected it closely.
"Of course not!" he exclaimed. "Just wait."
An awkward silence developed between the two after a few seconds. "So-" the kid began, but was interrupted as Clarisse came up behind him and pushed his back, causing him to stumble. He caught himself before he fell but he wasn't quick enough to get the bowl of cereal that had slipped off his tray before it landed in Travis's lap.
"What the hell!" Travis shouted loudly while standing up and brushing the soggy cereal off of him. The kid looked around nervously.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," he muttered over and over again.
"Just give me my penny and leave!" The kid nodded quickly and followed directions, practically running from the room.
Travis cursed as he stared down at his wet clothes, his fingers curling around the penny angrily.
"Oh my gods. What happened?" came a gentle voice behind him. Travis whirled around to find Nelly, the only nice girl in the entire Aphrodite cabin. And, oh yes, she was hot.
"I, uh, I spilled," stuttered Travis.
"You poor thing," she said sympathetically before grabbing a handful of napkins and running over to clean him off. "Here, let me help you." Travis stared down at Nelly with wide eyes and his mouth slightly agape as she got down on her knees and rubbed her hands over his chest and thighs. He swallowed and glanced at the other end of the table at his brother who was also staring at the rhythmic motions of her hands.
"How?" Conner mouthed to him curiously.
But Travis didn't answer. He looked down at the small copper penny in his fist and smiled.
"Gods, I love you," Percy moaned as Annabeth nibbled on the lobe of his ear, one hand tangled in his hair and the other traveling far south, bringing another hearty groan out of the back of his throat. She smiled at the sound and fiercely kissed his lips once more.
Just as Percy was about to discard Annabeth's shirt, the conch shell blew in the distance. She gently placed a hand on his chest and pushed him back. He groaned at the loss of contact.
"We have a swords class to get to," she said with a smirk, walking over to the mirror in the corner of the Poseidon cabin to fix her hair.
"No we don't," Percy complained, coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. She rolled her eyes at his persistence as he kissed her neck softly. Turning around in his embrace, Annabeth glared at her boyfriend.
She nodded. "You have a class of complete idiots to teach and I have some Isis daughter ass to kick. That little bitch thought she could beat me yesterday so I said, 'Hell naw!' and she was like, 'You wanna piece of this?' and I was like-"
"I get it," Percy interrupted with a nod.
Annabeth smiled sweetly. "So we'll continue this . . . " She trailed off and kissed him teasingly on the lips before walking away with extra sway in her hips. When she reached the door, she stopped, turned around, and winked at him. "Later," she whispered before hopping down the stairs and towards the arena.
Percy took a shaky breath as soon as she was out of view, and cursed at the bulge in his pants. "Think Clarisse. Think Clarisse," he muttered to himself as he pocketed Riptide, pulled his shirt back over his head, and followed his girlfriend out the door.
Travis stood next to his brother impatiently in the swords arena. They were naming off all of the other things they'd rather be doing right then than standing around and waiting for Percy.
"Aphrodite."
"Megan Fox."
"Jessica Simpson back when she was hot."
"Heidi Klum."
"Taylor Swift."
"Emma Stone."
"That girl I saw at the gas station one time."
"That one chick in that one movie."
"That other chick in that other movie."
"Princess Leia."
"Han Solo."
Just as Travis turned to stare incredulously at his brother, Percy ran through the doors of the arena. His face was flushed and his hair was a mess. There was an obvious hickey on the side of his neck, making Travis snicker.
"Sorry I'm late, guys," Percy told the class, going to the front and uncapping his sword. "I was kinda busy."
"Yeah," Travis muttered to his brother. "Doing the romance dance." A few chuckles went throughout the crowd as Percy sent him a glare.
Travis's eyes flew over to Katie as soon as Percy began the lesson, stabbing and thrusting at a dummy. Katie looked so hot, even when her hair was up in a ponytail. She was watching Percy studiously and swinging her sword around, not even caring about hitting the people around her. Her shorts were the perfect short and her tank top was awfully low-cut too. Travis smirked. She just loved to tease him, didn't she. He watched as her white and smiley smile exploded on to her face when one of her sisters mumbled something into her ear. He was so distracted that he didn't even notice it when Percy called his name for the umpteenth time.
"Travis!"
"Huh?" he asked, head snapping back to the front of the room.
"I need a volunteer."
"And?"
"And I choose you," Percy said with a sly smirk.
"What is this like Pokemon now? Hell no!" Travis cursed. "You'll beat my ass!"
Percy nodded. "That's kind of the point."
Travis sighed heavily and glanced to the side at Katie. She smirked at him mockingly. With a roll of his eyes, he unsheathed his sword and walked to the front of the class. "You know," Travis started, swinging his sword and getting into a fighting stance, "ever since you won that war, you've been kind of a bitch." A couple of chuckles and "Oooooooh!"s went throughout the crowd.
Percy just smirked and followed Travis's lead. "You're right. I'll try and work on that. But maybe I can make it up to you by teaching you some of the steps to that romance dance, seeing as you've obviously never done it before." The crowd got even louder at that and Travis could distinctly hear his brother's, "Oh! That burn was brought to you by the letter S for snap!"
He shook his head. "Bring it, Jackson."
"Oh, Stoll. It's already been brought."
Travis had been going to camp for seven years now. He was a year-rounder and knew more about camp than most of the people there. Every day of those seven years he has had swords training. He was pretty damn good, but he sure as hell wasn't a natural swordsman like Luke and Percy and such as. So when a loud and familiar "Suck it, Camille!" came from the back of the class, distracting Percy at the sound of his girlfriend's voice, it was actually slightly shocking to everyone when Travis caught him off guard and knocked him to the ground. Riptide skidded across the floor and Travis pointed his sword at Percy's neck, mere inches away.
Travis smirked. "Best two out of three?"
Percy's state of shock turned to one of joy and slight embarrassment. "It's-" he began but was cut off by a sharp clearing of the throat. They both looked over to see it was none other than Annabeth. She looked at Percy with wide eyes and a small, seductive smile. Percy swallowed hard. "Class dismissed!" he yelled loudly before jumping up, running over to his girlfriend, grabbing her wrist, and practically sprinting out the door, dragging her behind him.
Travis got a few pats on the back before the class dispersed into an empty arena.
"Dude!" Conner exclaimed. "How did you do that?"
Travis flipped his hair and smirked cockily. "That?" he asked with raised eyebrows. "Oh that was nothing. I can do that in my sleep. I eat guys like Percy for breakfast."
Conner stared at him. "Do you know how wrong that sounds?" he asked with a disgusted face.
Travis just smirked and started walking out, Conner following like a lost puppy. "Of course I do, but I've decided to ignore it because nothing could ruin this perfect day."
"And why is it oh, so perfect?" he questioned, running to keep up with his older brother.
Travis stopped abruptly and turned to him with a smirk. "You promise you won't tell anyone?"
"Tell anyone what?"
"It's the penny," he whispered, completely ignoring Conner's question.
"What penny?"
He pulled it out of his pocket with flourish, even making sounds affects as he brought it down and placed it in his palm. "This penny. The greatest penny in the history of the universe. The penny that will someday change the world."
Conner stared at it. "You do realize," he said, "that it's just a penny."
Travis gasped dramatically and held the penny to his chest. "You did not just say that!" he exclaimed, glaring at his brother as if he just said he murdered a man. "This is more than 'just a penny'!" He scoffed and turn his head away, disgusted. "It's a gorgeous little penny that I love more than anything in the world."
"What's so special about it?"
Travis shook his head once more in disbelief at Conner's knowledge, or lack thereof. "It's the greatest penny to ever live. It's made my entire day ten times better. It's my lucky penny."
"A lucky penny?" Conner questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes. What? Do I have to spell it out for you? With this little penny, nothing bad can happen to me. This morning, guess who ran into a half-naked Katie Gardner? And then had a hot shower? Yeah. And at breakfast, I got extra hash browns. Then there was that whole thing with Nelly and the wiping and the rubbing." They both swallowed. "Then this thing with Percy. It's amazing, really."
"It's not the penny, you idiot. I'm sure it's all just a coincidence."
Travis rolled his eyes exasperatedly. "Really, Conner? A coincidence? Is that what it is?" The younger brother nodded his head, his mouth a tight line and eyes wide. "Is this a coincidence?" he asked, holding out his hand and placing the small bronze penny into Conner's open palm.
They stood around in an awkward silence for a few seconds before Clarisse walked by. Suddenly she pushed Travis down making him fall to the ground. "Fag," she said over her shoulder as she strolled away without a second glance.
Travis stared up at his brother with wide eyes and a smirk. "Now watch," he told him, jumping back to his feet and grabbing the penny for himself again. Within a few seconds, the new Aphrodite twins, Sarah and Sara, walked by them. "Hey, Travis," they said in unison, each giving him a glittery wink and wiggling their fingers in his direction. He smirked at his brother mockingly before turning to the ladies with a nod, biting his bottom lip suggestively. They giggled as they walked away, far out of sight.
Travis turned to Conner with raised eyebrows and a knowing smirk. "Jealous?" he asked, his hands out in front of him for extra affect.
"How did you do that?" he exclaimed, eyes wide and head moving side to side as if to see if anyone else saw what just happened.
Travis's smirk just grew.
This is NOT done. Not yet at least. It's just been sitting around on my computer for so long, waiting for an ending that will hopefully come someday, that I was beginning to get pretty sick of it. So I finally decided to take this ridiculously long one-shot and split it into a two-shot. Probably. I still need an ending. I'm thinking he'll loose the penny and get bad luck and then . . . . No freaking idea. Ahaha! Suggestions?
I don't own ANYTHING. Like, at all. And I know that Percy and Annabeth are RIDICULOUSLY OOC, but they're like that on purpose. That's how I needed them to act, so that's how they're acting. Deal with it.
Oh! And kudos to you if you got the Glee reference! Ahaha! It actually made me chickle when I wrote it.
Lather, rinse, review!
:) Jordan