3

No Food Fights

Connor leaned in towards Travis.

"See that girl over there? Cabin 10," he said. Travis looked up from his Kraft Dinner (best Canadian invention EVER) at the girl in question. It was Émilie Franchebois, a pretty African-American girl from Louisiana. She had curly brown hair, and she was thin, short, and graceful. Her eyes were warm brown and she had a bright smile, fingering the golden loops at her ears.

"Yeah, Émilie." Travis said.

"Okay, look at Jessica, next to her." Connor said. A blond hellhound that had chased Connor and Travis around camp for an hour when they'd replaced the batteries in her hand-held hair dryer with rolls of life-savers.

"Yeah."

"She came in to supper late. This can only mean one thing." Connor hinted.

"She spent a lot of time on that hairdo." Travis said.

"Exactly. You handle anything cheesy substance, I'll pitch the starch, and I'll tell Kate to do the honours of throwing the vegetables."

"No!" Travis said.

"Okay fine, you can throw the starch although I don't see how Kraft Dinner fills that description…2

"I meant, like, no. Like, no no." Travis said.

Connor looked at him like his brother had just gone nuts.

"What do you mean 'no'? We're been waiting the whole year to throw some food at Jessica Parker, and her scary boyfriend from Ares isn't here right now! This is golden, brother, golden!"

"I…" Travis looked over at cabin 4's table. Katie was laughing with her siblings. Her thick and straight and flat brown hair was put up simply and she wore a squared blouse unbuttoned over a white tank top and well-worn jeans. She was laughing and no matter how cute Katie looked when she was frustrated with him, she looked beautiful when she laughed. Travis really, really wanted to be the one that made her laugh and his only chance at that was the bet.

"Look, you've got to swear on the Styx that you won't tell anyone." Travis said.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"I have legal rights!"

"I'm your brother, my legal rights crush yours." Travis said. Connor looked at him with the 'I hate the fact that you're older' look, Travis gave him the 'I know' look and Connor finally agreed.

So Travis quietly told him about the bet and how he had to be good and how Katie had specified that food fights were out.

"Dude, really?" Connor said.

"Yeah, really."

"What fun is she? Really Travis? Why Katie?"

"I don't know, it's just she's so… She doesn't overreact like everyone else when we pull a prank, she's always natural and nice and she takes care of everyone and thinks about every kid in the Demeter cabin and then in the other cabins so… I don't know. She's always herself and what you see is what she is."

"Still, really Trav?"

"You don't get it," Travis argued. "But it's really important to me."

"Am I mentioned in this bet?"

"Only in the fact that I can tell you but if you tell somebody she's killing us both, plus that's an automatic loss."

"Oh thank gods!" Connor said. He pulled back on his spoon and let the potatoes fly. SPLAT!

"Oh my gosh!" Jessica said, reaching for the soggy-with-gravy projectile in the back of her head. She touched with another hand, looked at it and shrieked in disgust. Piper had to walk her back to the cabin.

"'Cause I'm not going good for the world."

"This isn't for the world, it's for Katie."

"Well, her either. But hey, do you think I can get Émilie to make that bet with me? Think about it; we can have nearly any girl on Half-Blood hill with this! You're a genius, Travis!"