AN: StarrySea and I had a great time on this. I hope you guys like it! And Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday to Thalia, and, most of all, Happy Winter Solstice everyone!
The twinkling lights on the Christmas tree and the ones decked throughout the house declared Christmas with every color. Stockings hung on doors and the mantle. There was a beauty of the season that started with the first snowflake, that lifts your spirits with the promise of the holidays, to the midnight of Christmas Eve standing in the cold and staring up at the clear winter moon wondering what the morning will bring.
Everyone was peacefully asleep in their cabins, except for a certain two brothers, who were sneaking across the snow, ruining the perfect Christmas scene.
Travis had his hand pressed over his mouth. Pranking was one thing, but Christmas was so much different. One: Christmas involved presents, which opened up multiple doors. Switching, stealing, holding for ransom, replacing... Two: Christmas involved Christmas lights: massive amounts of bright, colorful electricity. Connor was heading for Cabin 10. There's no telling what was crossing his crafty mind.
Connor entered Cabin 10 quietly. Oh, this was going to be good! As everyone slept on, he quickly went to work, unwrapping Christmas lights and rewrapping them around everything, including the campers. The trunks were in a tangle of cords and brightly coloured bulbs. Travis opened the door silently and held out his hands, full of snow. Connor moved to the makeup kit perched at the end of Drew's bunk. Soon it was full of quickly melting snow. Connor pulled a strand of lights behind him out the door and pulled them taut across the doorstep. Light up tripping material.
The brothers snickered as they tiptoed out "like ninjas", as Conner reminded Travis. As they crept back across the snowy Christmas landscape, Conner didn't fail to notice as the eldest Stoll ducked into a very green cabin to deliver a very special present.
Connor stood in the snow rolling his eyes. How his brother had fallen head over heels for that Demeter girl was beyond him. It had been Travis's idea to even put chocolate bunnies on the roof. Inside, Travis set the box on the floor by her bunk. He'd stolen a couple of straightners from the Aphrodite cabin and demanded that they wrap it prettily to get them back. And the gift looked awesome. He turned to sneak back out the door when Katie made a sighing sound, which Travis thought was rather cute, but headed outside to be safely asleep before the sun rose.
The next morning, Katie was woken up by her younger sibling's squeals. As she got up, she almost stepped on a beautifully wrapped present by her bed. She picked up the little box and ripped open the paper before her siblings could see it. It was a small, elegant silver bracelet with a daisy charm nestled in a velvet box. A ripped piece of binder paper fluttered to the ground.
"Travis." she mused and slipped it on her wrist. Her sister grabbed the paper from the ground and before Katie could react, held her hands in a dramatic pose and started reading.
"My dear Katie," Katie made a grab for the letter but was fended off and sat back down on her bed. "I hope you like this bracelet that I stole for you." she looked up. "Katie that is SO sweet! He stole it for you, wait this isn't from a-" she glanced at the bottom of the letter. "Travis! Oh my gods Gardner!"
"You'd think that she would have figured that out by now." one of the older kids whispered.
Katie blushed. "That's mine, can't you guys mind your own business for once?"
"No." her sister answered for all of them. "You can't be involved with a Stoll, Katherine. You're better than that. May I remind you these are the people that ruined our roof?"
"I didn't say I was getting 'involved' with a Stoll. And he isn't that bad!"
"Oooh, he isn't that bad." her sister teased.
"He's not!" she retorted and snatched the paper from her sister before she could continue down the letter. "Go grow roses for cabin inspection or something."
"That's in the afternoon."
"You can't be too early!" she looked back down at the paper. It continued how he hoped that she would have the best Christmas ever, and spend some of it with him. The end was sweet, about how beautiful she was before closing with "Yours forever, Travis Stoll".
She heard an indignant shriek coming from next door and peeked out the window. A daughter of Aphrodite emerged from the cabin with a Christmas light entangled make-up kit followed by her brother who tripped out the door on a strand that ran over the threshold. "Stoll!" Katie groaned.
At the same time, the girl screamed the same thing. Katie saw Conner glance out the window of the Hermes cabin and stifle a laugh. He gestured to Travis, who first glanced at the Aphrodite girl before looking across to the Demeter cabin window. He looked shocked but happy when he saw Katie, and she smiled. He pointed at his wrist, and she held her own up to show him that she was wearing the bracelet.
He smiled sweetly and winked, which made her wonder if there were more chocolates on the roof, or if the bracelet was going to explode. There was no telling with a Stoll, but it was just a Christmas present. She smiled and spun it around her wrist.