Chapter 2

(three years later)

(Katies POV)

"Miranda wait up" Katie threw on her worn Camp Half Blood t-shirt and ran after her little sister. The Cabins were all preparing for their weekly game of Capture the Flag. The Demeter cabin weren't usually the most preferred cabin, but they were at least better than the Aphrodite Cabin.

Katie had always enjoyed Capture the Flag. And know at the age of thirteen and head counselor of the Demeter cabin she had a certain responsibility towards the other children in the cabin, but that didn't make her feel anxious at all. She always had a lot of fun running around and battling the other half bloods.

Today the Demeter, Athena, Dionysus, Poseidon and Apollo had teamed up and they had already decided on tactics.

Katie had slowly been making her way towards the other team's flag. She could see it know, moving slightly with the wind. Katie felt her pulse increase, she was so, so close get the flag and win the whole game. As she moved closer towards the flag she could see herself waving the flag in the air, and her teams cheering her on as a champion.

"Thought it was that easy did you?" A voice right behind her said. Katie turned around, slowly. Clarisse stood still, with a spear in her hands a full armor covering her body. Katie started to panic. Of course it couldn't be that easy, she forgot to check for guards, stupid stupid stupid. And now she was stuck there with Clarisse, whom everyone knew were ruthless and being a child of Ares and all she never backed away from a fight, never.

It always had to be her. She always ended up being the one getting her ass kicked in this game. Every darn time she managed it somehow. No wonder everyone looked down at the Demeter cabin, they had a weak ass counselor. But Katie wouldn't back away. She did have her powers and she wasn't all that bad at fighting. If she was lucky she could take down Clarisse, only if she was really really lucky though.

"Clarisse, CLARISSE!" a loud voice Katie knew could only belong to one person was heard through the woods. Travis Stoll came running towards Clarisse, he was about to stop, but when he neared Clarisse, he stumbled over a root and fell right on top of her. Katie had to bit her lip to hold in the laugh. It was comical watching Clarisse fall, and with Travis on top of her, epic! Katie took advantage of their idiocy and started running for the flag and before she knew it she had it in her hands. Katie couldn't believe it. She had actually done it! She had captured the flag!

The celebration and dinner after the game couldn't last long enough. She bathed in tribute and cheering, and found herself hoping this would never end. Later in the evening she her sister came up to her.

"I am impressed", her eleven-year-old sister told her. "You were really good Katie! And when you made Travis fall over the root that way I almost laughed", Katie stiffened for a couple of seconds. Made Travis fall over the root? She hadn't done anything at all. At the the time she had been too absorbed in the game to really think about what had happened. It did seem a little weird now that she thought about it. Travis wasn't usually a clumsy guy. She was a child of Hermes they couldn't afford to do something stupid during one of their pranks or thefts. Was it possible that Travis had fallen over Clarisse on purpose?

(Travis POV)

To tell the truth, Travis had always felt a certain kind of protectiveness toward Katie. Ever since she had gotten to camp, bruised and dirty, he had kept an eye on her, making sure she was doing fine. Some people would call him a stalker, but Travis felt like that was exaggerating. And today during the game, he had seen the fire and lust to win in Katie's eyes and he knew she would have beaten Clarisse. But she wouldn't get unharmed out of the battle, and Travis figured he could spare both Clarisse and Katie the pain, even though it made him the idiot who had lost them the game.

Looking at Katie know, taking in her beautiful features and her lovely smile, he was so happy he had done what he had. Travis could stare deep into her brown eyes forever; you could get so easily lost in them. Aaaaand she was staring right at him. It took all he had to fight down the blush creeping up to his face. He looked at Katie with an eyebrow raised, trying to ask her why she was staring at him, but he feared he knew why. She had figured out. He hoped she would be to angry with him, it would kind of ruin the good deed he had done to let her get the flag unharmed. But when he looked at Katie again and he saw that she walking to him with a shy smile over her face, his anxiety disappeared.

When Katie had reached him, she gave him a hug and whispered a thank you in his ear. Travis was too stunned to move, and as he watched Katie walk away and felt the tightness in his chest, he knew, oh so well, that he was in deep deep shit.

He had a huge crush on Katie Gardner.