Hey! I'm back. I'm going to be posting a lot less often because of school, but I'll try to make the chapters longer to make up for it. Read on!

Katie's POV

Fire

"Travis? What the Hades are you doing in here?"

He probably tried to answer but was laughing so hard he couldn't get out more than a squeak.

"Travis!" I exclaimed angrily.

"I'm sorry, man." he gasped. "I'm sorry." He wiped a few tears from his eyes and turned to me for a second.

Then, he cracked up all over again.

"Get out!" I snarled through my teeth.

"I'm sorry!" he claimed once more, pushing me away.

"It's just not,"

He giggled,

"Every day that,"

He chuckled a little,

"You see."

He snorted and burst into a fit of chuckles.

"Spit it out, Stoll." I demanded.

He wiped his eyes with his sleeve again and took a deep breath. "I was saying, that it's not every day that you see a blue faced daughter of Demeter, standing there holding a toilet plunger up like a baseball bat, and screaming like a banshee."

He burst out laughing once more and, thanks to training, I punched him square in the jaw where I knew it would hurt.

"Ouchee!" he exclaimed holding his face.

Sadly I wasn't strong enough to make it really hurt.

"Get out." I stated for the second time, the red of my face probably showing through the blue.

He held his hands up in defense before grabbing his cot from behind the door, and making his way past an angry daughter of Demeter with her arms crossed and her foot tapping, over to the door that separated our rooms; chortling to himself the whole way.

"Goodnight, my beautiful Kate Pate." he announced with a bow. "May you have dreams of princesses and ponies and rainbows, and, may I just say, that I do love your monkey underpants."

He ran out of the room before I could murder him.

"So much for having a great night." I sighed, listening to his laughter through the wall.

I stared at my angry blue reflection in the mirror and felt a shudder of determination go through me.

"I'll get that idiot back, is all I can say."

Connor's POV

I bet you're wondering where I was this whole time that Travis and Katie were having their fun. Well, I was in the bathroom once again, being Lord Sink Man and conjuring up a rainbow under the shiny gold faucet. Aphrodite was watching Tratie (that's what she calls them) on her TV and was feeding me info about what was going on. Every now and then I would hear them though the door and through the TV on the other side of the IM. I was surprised nobody had come to our room to complain yet.

"We're geniuses." sighed Aphrodite, turning back to me.

"We are." I agreed. I heard the sound of Travis laughing his butt off and the door to our rooms being closed so I lowered my voice. "What should we do next?"

Aphrodite paused, her bright green eyes sparkling as she thought. "Hmm, well, it seems to me like they have this whole love/hate relationship going on pretty well, huh? Making fun of each other and all."

"Agreed."

"But, in order to get them together as a couple, we need to lean them more towards 'love,' don't you think?"

I nodded. "We need to find a way to make it so that they are forced to be romantic. Then, maybe they'll realize that they do, in fact, like each other."

"Yes, yes." nodded Aphrodite, an evil smile on the corners of her beautiful lips. Gods, they were bright. None of my girlfriends had ever had lips that bri-"

"Connor, darling."

"Right!" I exclaimed, probably a little too loudly. I forgot she could read my mind.

"What's that, bro?" Travis called from the bedroom

I gulped. I was a terrible liar. "Uh, nothing man." I claimed. "Just singing a rap song… Eminem… Yeah!"

"Whatever," I heard Travis mutter under his breath.

I smiled weakly, proud of my temporary skill.

"I've got to go." I whispered to Aphrodite after I was sure he wasn't listening. "I promise I'll try to come up with a way be matchmaker."

Aphrodite grinned. "I love you, Connor."

I blushed. "Er – thanks – that's… Nice of you." I winced at how stupid I sounded.

"You're not stupid." Aphrodite said, making my face even redder.

"Goodnight." I mumbled after a moment.

She laughed. "Goodnight Connor dear."

Katie's POV

I woke up in the middle of the night, being shaken awake by two annoying sons of Hermes.

"What do you want?" I grumbled, throwing a pillow at one.

"Umff!" The dirty blonde fell down on his butt.

The other rolled his eyes. "Katie, there's a fire in our room!" Travis yelled, "I don't know how you did it, but you slept though the alarm!"

I yawned. "Yeah right, Stoll; like I believe a prankster like you." I kicked him off of me and leaned back against my pillow.

"Get-Up-Now." Connor demanded as he got up, throwing the pillow back at me but missing. "We're serious." he said." Do you hear that blaring noise?"

I listened carefully and, sure enough, the annoying shrieking of the fire alarm was shocking my head. I hadn't heard it before because I had still been half asleep. But I was wide awake now.

The loud noise was finally beginning to register in my head and something in my brain was screaming Danger! Danger! Smelling smoke, I jumped off my bed and grabbed my pants from on top of my backpack. Travis and Connor tried to hurry me along but ended up just getting on my nerves.

"Come on, Katie! Come on, Katie!"
"Shut up!"

"Hurry!"

"I'm hurrying!"

I slung my backpack over my shoulder and followed them out the door. Other people in the hotel were running around frantically, counting their kids and trying to get all of their belongings. One man was balancing his laptop in one hand and his suitcase in the other, while talking on his cell phone.

"There's a fire!" he yelled to the person on the other line.

I grabbed Travis and Connor's hands and took off towards the staircase. I accidentally bumped into a plump woman doing her makeup in a tiny mirror.

"Watch it, brat, there's a line!" she growled, touching up her lipstick.

The first few firemen were walking the hallways, trying to get people as far away from Connor and Travis's room as possible.

"How did you manage to blow up your room?" I asked, taking a step forward as the long line inched forward.

Connor shook his head. "I have no earthly idea. We heard the smoke alarm, got rained on by those stupid good for nothing sprinklers, and got the heck out of there."

"And we didn't waste time putting on pants." Travis emphasized.

He was trying to make me feel bad for taking extra time, but I ended up just laughing at the sight of him and his brother in matching boxer shorts.

"Dollar signs. Really guys?" They blushed in a twin-like way and turned away from me.

As Travis turned, I noticed a long, raw looking, red mark on his arm.

"What's that?" I asked him, pointing to it.

He looked down. "What? Oh, uh… Nothing, don't worry about it." he pressed his fingers on the skin next to it and winced.

"Travis." I took a step closer, and picked up and examined his arm.

I was no kid of Apollo, but the burn did not look good.

It spread from the bone next to his elbow down to his wrist, and the skin around it was a bright pink. Travis, although not crying out, appeared to be holding his breath.

"How did you get this?" I asked putting his arm back against his side.

He shrugged. "I think the fire first started next to me. It touched my arm before the alarms went off."

I grimaced.

"Don't worry about it." he insisted. "Really, it didn't start hurting too bad until now." He stared at me with those grey-blue eyes of his. "Honest."

I bit my lip and placed my hand on his shoulder. I was about to mutter something to make him feel better when a voice behind us yelled,

"Hey blue face! Get your rump down those stairs before we all burn and rot in Hell!"

It was the cell phone man. I turned back to the staircase and pulled Travis and Connor (Travis by his good arm) down the stairs. When we got to the bottom, police ushered us through the front doors, and out to where the large group of hotel guests were standing in their pajamas.

We parked ourselves down on a curb and I let the brothers look through my bag to see what we had left.

As they named the few items in good condition, I thought about what had happened during the night.

Dolos had come to me, as usual, but this time he was infuriated.

His stringy brown hair was sweaty and his plump hands were shaking.

"You did not to my bidding, Katie Gardner." he hissed through clenched teeth.

I sleep-gulped (if that's possible) and stared at him. "That's right." I answered, trying to summon up courage. "You're not in control of me, Dolos."

Instead of growling like I thought he would, he curled his thin lips into an evil sneer.

"Is that right, Katie Gardner?" he asked. "You don't have to do what I say because I'm not in control of you." he laughed. "Well. Let's see if you still think that after what I put you through tonight."

He laughed once more, like a villain in a superhero movie, and his image started to fade into Thalia's Pine at Camp Half-Blood.

"It is one o' clock." Dolos informed me. "You have three hours to comment on Connor's muscles before I bring about something even worse than what you are about to experience."

I shut my mouth up tight and refused to meet his black ugly eyes.

"Three hours!" he screamed as his image went away and I was left dreaming about capture the flag once more.

"Oh, lord, no." I muttered to myself.

"Something wrong, Princess?" Travis asked, except his voice sounded more strained than usual.

"Nothing's wrong." I said turning. "Holy moly, Travis, why are you sweating so much?"

I stared at his sopping brow and shiny face. Perspiration was practically dripping off his chin.

"It's just a little hot." he answered wiping his face.

I noticed he used his left hand.

"Travis, it's about sixty five degrees and you're in boxer shorts." I stared at him, concerned. "Is your arm okay?"

He stared at me blankly, obviously debating on whether or not to tell the truth. "No." he finally sighed.

I tried to figure out some way to help him, but my mind was blank. Connor searched through the backpack for a first aid kit but only found a small canteen of nectar.

"Here." he poured a few drips onto Travis's arm, but insisted upon using the rest of the unsubstantial amount of liquid in case of a worse injury. "Hey Katie, what time is it?" he asked, slipping the canteen back into my backpack.

I checked my watch. "2:08." My mind couldn't help but realize that I only had about fifty minutes to comments on Connor's muscles before Dolos 'brought about something even worse than what I was about to experience.'

I wasn't stupid, I knew that Dolos was the reason the fire started in the first place. How else would it start right next to Travis's arm?

I looked over at the raw red mark and the pained facial expression on the boy's face and felt a stab of guilt. It was my fault that Travis was burned and all the belongings he brought got lost. If I had just commented on Connor's muscles-

No Katie, said a voice inside my head. Don't go there. You are strong. Don't let Dolos boss you around like this. Show him that you are in control of your own body.

At this I held my chin up higher and decided that no matter what, I was not going to comment on Connor's muscles.

And oh what a mistake that was.

Haha! I'm so mean…