Thank you thank you thank you for all those reviews, guys! :D I LOVE YOU PEEPS! I don't think that I was able to respond all of them, and if I forgot to respond to yours, I am so sorry:( I'll try to be better with review-responding from now on:)
Aaaannnyway, it's Tratie time guys! Be prepared for MORE horrible story telling ;)
Long after Percy finished telling his tale, an awestruck silence swept over the room. Even Nate didn't utter a word, even though it was obvious that he was just waiting to jump up and scream, "SPRINKLES!". Percy let a small smile of satisfaction creep onto his face. I AM the World's Best Man Babysitter, he thought, I should have a show or something where I teach men to babysit. Yup, I can see it now- America's Next Man Babysitter! It'll be one of those shows where at each level I eliminate one person. Of course, I'll have lots of fans. Everywhere I go, I'll be signing t-shirts and-
"Okay, okay, okay," a voice said, interrupting Percy from his thoughts. He looked up to see who was speaking-Travis! Percy glared at him. He should know better than to interrupt my adoring fans, who are relishing in the awesomeness of my story, Percy thought stormily.
Travis continued, "I know Percy's story was cute and everything, but seriously, it was just so…so..sappy!" Travis let out a shiver, "So now it's time for some EXTREME ROMANCE! And that's why I'm going to tell you the story of how I met Katie next."
"Hey, who said you could go next?!" demanded Leo.
"Duh. I'm the Master of the Bathroom, and I always go second because second is the best!" Travis exclaimed, like everyone should know that.
"What's Master of the Bathroom?" Amanda asked. Travis ignored her.
"Leo's right," Frank echoed, "Why should you go next?"
"I agree too," Jason chimed in. Percy, who was still slightly upset with Travis for stealing his spotlight, grunted in agreement.
"Tell you what, Zhang," Travis said, thumping Frank on the back (Frank shuddered), "I'm going to promote you to Chief of the Bathtub, because you look like a panda, and I LOVE pandas. Plus, you're pretty darn awesome. Valdez, I'm un-promoting you from Chief of the Bathtub!" Travis pointed a finger at Leo.
"What?! You can't do that!"
"Oh, yes I can! Now you're officially Chancellor of That Rug By The Toilet That's There In Case You Have Bad Aim! Grace, I'm gonna make you Lord of the Space Underneath the Sink. Jackson, you're Ruler of the Toilet Paper."
"What? I'm way better than toilet paper!"
"You get what you get and you don't get upset."
"I HATE MY NEW JOB!"
"Too bad, Valdez."
"Is being Chief of the Bathtub good?"
"What does Lord of the Space Underneath the Sink do?"
"What's going on?" asked Samantha.
Silena shrugged. "I have no idea."
Before things got too out of hand, Jason was able to clear his head and get the guys to stop bickering. "QUIET," Jason said in a forceful, commanding voice. Almost instantly, the arguing ceased. Percy glanced up, feeling somewhat stupid. How had they let themselves get carried away with Travis's imaginary bathroom world? They were terrible babysitters. "Sorry," Percy mumbled to Jason and the kids.
Apparently, Leo felt just as guilty about the argument, because he cleared his throat and said, "Um, I think it's okay if Travis goes second."
"Thank you Chancellor," Travis said with a smirk. "Now listen up, cotton swabs, 'cause I'm gonna tell you about how I met Katie!"
"Cotton swabs?" the kids chorused, confused.
"Yeah, that's what I call my peasants," Travis replied. "You know, since I'm Master of the Bathroom?"
The kids nodded, even though they looked like they didn't get it. Travis continued speaking. "Honestly it wasn't love at first sight," he said.
"It wasn't?!" asked Lucy, eyes wide. She, Amanda, and Lucy all exchanged looks, like they couldn't believe that Travis and Katie used to hate each other.
"Yeah," Travis answered, "We used to hate each other guts. I think that was mostly my fault, because the first time we met, when Katie came to camp, I put a whoppee cushion under her chair at dinner. You know, I still don't think she's forgiven me for that," Travis said with a chuckle. Percy smiled, because he remembered exactly how Katie's face looked when she found out that there was whoppee cushion under her chair.
"Anyway, I paid the price for that whoppee cushion-after dinner, when I admitted to Katie that I put it under her chair, she scratched my arm. And she scratches HARD! See, I even have a scar to prove it," Travis said, rolling up the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a faded scar, that sort of looked like a hamburger. "I don't know how she knew I've always wanted a tattoo of a hamburger on my bicep," Travis said admiringly.
"Really?" asked Esperanza.
"Nah," said Travis, "I was just joking. A steak tattoo would be much cooler than a hamburger. Hey, where were we with the story? Oh, yeah, when Katie scratched me! So, from there, things went downhill-I always pranked her, she always blew up at me. We were archenemies."
"If you two were archenemies, then how did you ever end up married?!" Madison exclaimed, frustrated.
"Patience, young cotton swab. I'm getting there," Travis replied, "In a weird way, though, I guess we kinda liked each other. I remember this one time, Katie gave me fake mold for my thirteenth birthday. Then, another time, I bought her a sunhat for Christmas."
"A sunhat for Christmas?" Samantha asked.
"Don't ask. As we got older, I used to hang out in the strawberry fields with her, except we didn't really talk or anything, I just found ways to get on her nerves. I used to tell her all these terrible jokes," Travis said, shuddering at the thought of the jokes. Then he added, "But whenever a guy tells a girl corny jokes, it just means he likes her."
"So you liked Katie?" Dennis asked.
"Yeah, but I didn't know it at the time. Then, this one prank I played changed everything!" Travis said dramatically. The kids leaned forward in anticipation, waiting to hear about the prank. "I put Easter Bunnies on the Demeter Cabin's grass roof!" Travis exclaimed.
"Oh," Amanda said, clearly disappointed, " You always tell us about this one."
"Yeah, but there's more that I didn't tell you. So, the whole camp was watching while Katie blew up at me. After the Titan War-you guys know about that, right?- we had a counselor meeting, and all of the counselors started complaining that we argued too much, and that it was getting annoying to witness yet another Travis/Katie fight. Or a Tratie fight, which was what the Aphrodite cabin called it. I have no idea what a 'Tratie' is. Aaaaannyway, Chiron, who pretty much heads the meetings, said he was disappointed in us, and decided that he was going to find a way for us to spend more time together, so we could hopefully become friends. He told us that Mr.D was going to find us something to do together."
"Is he the fat dude who was obsessed with wine?" asked Lucy.
"Yup!" Travis replied. Thunder rumbled in the distance, but Travis ignored it. "That's him! Anyway, Mr.D decided that we would organize his secret wine cellar in age order, from oldest to newest. Looking back on it, I'm not exactly sure why he let two fifteen year olds into his wine cellar. I mean, that's kind of a recipe for disaster."
"Mr.D 's secret wine cellar was HUGE. It was located about a mile away from camp, and it was underground. Mr.D told us that he was saving up the wine for when his punishment as being head of the camp was up, and he told us that we'd better do a good job, or else he would turn us into dolphins. I told him I'd rather be a narwhal, but he just gave me the finger."
"Katie and I worked all day in that wine cellar. We didn't talk at all, until the end of the day, when we accidentally bumped shoulders. Even then, we didn't say much-just sorry."
"This is getting booorrriiing," Lucy whined, "When's the kissing going to come in?"
"Hold on! I'm getting there! So, it was getting kinda late, and we were getting kinda tired, and then suddenly, I realized that Katie was actually kinda…cute. And all of the sudden, I wanted to kiss her. Really bad."
"Soooo?" Madison prompted.
"So I did what any ADHD, dyslexic demigod would do- I kissed her."
A few of the girls squealed. "What happened next?" they asked.
"Umm….we kind of just stared at each other with our lips pressed against each others. Then Katie started kissing me back. It was weird," Travis said. A few of the girls groaned. Then, Madison asked, "What did it taste like?"
"Um, lips?" Travis asked/said stupidly, "Why does any of this matter?"
"Because," Amanda explained, exasperated, "The way you're describing it isn't romantic enough!"
"I kissed her! It was just a kiss. There's kind of nothing else to tell," Travis replied.
"Did you guys get together after that?" asked Madison, changing the topic.
"Oh, no," Travis said, chuckling, "We didn't get together. Definitely not. Not until a year later."
"WHAT?!"
Travis let a small smile play on his lips. "The thing was," he said, "Gardner and I-"
"Seriously, Travis?" Jason asked, "You call your wife by her maiden name?"
"Why not?" Travis asked stupidly. Everyone sighed with exasperation, but Travis still continued his story. "The thing was, Katie and I had too much pride to admit that we actually liked each other. We'd been archenemies forever, and we both kinda took pride in that. After we kissed and were leaving for the night, we made a pact to NEVER tell anyone what happened in the wine cellar. Then we went on with our lives and acted like nothing happened."
"Until the next year, of course. That's when we got locked in the basement of the Big House, and it was so cold down there, like, negative twenty or something, and we were so bored and there was nothing better to do but kiss, so we did, and then I got the guts to ask her out," Travis finished in one breath.
"That's sweet," Lucy crowed.
"And that's pretty much the end of my story," Travis finished. Unlike when Percy finished his story, there was no clapping, awestruck silence, or visible approval of the story. All that you could hear was the sound of Nate chanting, "Sprinkles, sprinkles, sprinkles," under his breath, and the word "Tratie" being whispered among the three older girls. Travis glanced at them, a look of confusion on his face.
"Now would someone please tell me, what the heck is a 'Tratie'?!"
Hey, Travis isn' t that bad of a storyteller! I originally thought I'd make him a really cocky storyteller, but I actually like him better as a stupid and ignorant storyteller. It's cuter that way;) Anyway, I already made up my mind about who's going next! The next storyteller will be…*drumroll*…sorry, I can't tell you! It's a surprise ;)
Review!:D