So, the cliffhanger from last chapter isn't going to be resolved for a while because I must stay true to the pattern of chapters (which some of you have figured out :), and therefore I have to have this Tratie-fluff, kind-of-a-filler-sorry-about-that chapter. You guys are just going to have to wait in anxious suspense... Maybe, while you wait, you can amuse yourself by reading and reviewing my other stories! *shameless self-promotion* ;)

If it's any consolation, I won't take long to update. I promise! :)

Thank you for all the reviews! Could we possibly get to 100 with this chapter? :D

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Her fights:

Meanwhile, oblivious to Travis's problems, Katie walked back to the campsite, with Travis's sling, bandages, and stimuli in a bundle under her arm. As she contemplated the problems of liking a boy who couldn't remember her, Katie's brain slowly slipped into memories - memories of a time when Travis did know her, and took complete advantage of the fact that he knew her.

"Travis! What in Hades's name is this?" Katie cut Travis off before he could run away and dangled something in front of his face.

Travis held up his hands in mock terror. "Sp - sp - sp - spider! Get it away; get it away!"

A few children of Athena heard his cries and promptly sprinted as far away as possible, but Katie was unfazed. "You know as well as I do that this is a fake spider," she told him in exasperation. "After all, you're the one who stuck it in Miranda's bed yesterday. I don't even want to know how you snuck in my cabin without being stopped, but I swear to all the gods that I won't let it happen again."

"What makes you think it was me?" Travis asked, feigning innocence.

Katie glared at him. "It's always you, Stoll."

At that, Travis gave up the act and grinned. "Then what makes you think you can stop it from happening again? After all... I mean, originally Connor and I were going to drop this baby onto Annabeth's mattress, but we knew that the Athena cabin would devise some form of revenge so genius that it might actually stop us from ever pranking them again. So instead, we let your cabin have the honor of meeting Ricardo." He rolled the "r" exaggeratedly.

Katie huffed in annoyance. "Two things. One, you named the fake spider?"

"Of course," he said breezily. "He's very near and dear to our hearts. Connor's and my first pet, you know."

Katie rolled her eyes, but decided not to stoop to his level and comment. "Two, what makes you think that my cabin won't come up with some form of revenge so genius that it might actually stop you from ever pranking us again?"

Travis raised his eyebrows. "Because you're a daughter of Demeter," he said, in a "no-duh" tone of voice. "Your cabin is all sunshine and daisies and green thumbs and happiness. You're not about to come up with a devious revenge scheme."

Katie crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "How would you know?"

Travis actually laughed, as if her anger amused him. "Oh, my dear Katie, I just do. You won't be able to stop me from sneaking into your cabin. You won't be able to stop the fake bugs from coming. But the insects might just stop finding their way into your siblings' bed sheets if you give me what I want now."

For some reason, that statement made Katie's cheeks flush. "And what would that be?"

He grinned cheekily. "Your full name, Katie. Spill it."

She stared. "That's what you want? Why?"

Travis shrugged. "I have my reasons. For one thing, it's more satisfying to yell your full name across the green when I want you for something."

"Travis, our cabins hate each other," Katie said bluntly. "Why in the world would you ever want me for something?"

Now it was Travis's turn to turn red. "I have my reasons," he repeated. "Now, will you spill your full name or not?"

Katie had one motto in life, and that was, "Never trust a son of Hermes." She shook her head. "I don't think so."

Ricardo found his way into her five-year-old sister Abigail's bed that night, and four-year-old Gabriel's the next. Katie still refused to give in to Travis's demand. She preferred spending twenty minutes calming her siblings down every night to bowing down to the son of Hermes.

As soon as they had gotten used to the sight of a hairy black spider in their cabin, Ricardo stopped showing up. Instead, a brown centipede (named Gerald, according to Travis) started appearing in corners and on the cabin sink. Katie was spending nearly forty-five minutes calming down her siblings now. And try as she might, she couldn't think of any form of revenge that was terrible enough to stop Travis Stoll from pranking her cabin ever again.

That didn't mean that she would give the son of Hermes what he wanted.

Seven different kinds of plastic creepy-crawlies were appearing in Cabin Four every night, in new locations each time. One cockroach actually fell out of Melly's picture book when she opened it.

Katie was spending over an hour calming down her siblings now. If she waited any longer, some of the youngest kids might be permanently scarred for life.

Katie knew when she was beaten.

"Fine!"

Travis spun around to face Katie, his eyebrows raised in hopeful expectation. "Fine, what?"

"Fine, I'll tell you my full name!" she told him, looking up at the sky as if she couldn't believe what she was doing. (Which she couldn't.) "Just... Promise me that you'll stop putting the fake bugs anywhere in my cabin, or anywhere near my siblings?"

Travis grinned. "I promise. Now spill, Katie."

She sighed. "Kathryn Alyssa Gardner. Spelled K-A-T-H-R-Y-N."

Travis bowed mockingly. "Then I'm Travis Conrad Stoll, at your service, Kathryn."

Katie started. She hadn't expected Travis to give his full name in return. But all she said was, "Don't call me 'Kathryn'. And isn't Conrad rather similar to Connor?"

Immediately, he sprang out of his bow. "Why does everyone always say that?" he asked indignantly. "Connor's middle name is Trenton, okay?"

Katie laughed before she could stop herself, but she smothered her giggles as soon as she saw the triumphant look on Travis's face. She had already given in to his demand. There was no way Katie was going to let him have the satisfaction of making her laugh as well. "Well, I told you what you wanted to know," she said professionally, straightening. "You'd better stick to your oath."

"Or what?" Travis asked with a laugh. "You'll make flowers sprout around me?"

There wasn't anything Katie could think to say to that. She just turned around and walked away before she could make an even bigger fool of herself.

Surprisingly, Travis was true to his word. The bugs never came back to Cabin Four. But Katie never forgot that she had lost a bet with Travis Stoll. She hadn't figured out a way to get revenge for Ricardo and Gerald and all the rest of the bugs - yet. But she was nothing if not persistent, and she had plenty of time. Kathryn Alyssa Gardner would spend the next three years of her life trying to get the better of Travis Conrad Stoll.

"And thus the feud began," Katie whispered out loud, an unbidden smile growing on her face. Travis and she had fought countless times over the next three years, arguing about pranks and practical jokes and devious schemes and the practicality of gardening and the usefulness of flora-related powers and a host of other things involving their respective godly parents and cabins. In all those arguments, it was hard to pinpoint just when Katie stopped getting aggravated whenever Travis showed up with that pesky half-smile on his lips and started looking forward to his surprise appearances (although she never admitted that change to anyone, including herself). But there was one particular argument of theirs that Katie remembered well.

It was the day when she finally got the better of Travis Stoll. He had often teased her about how predictable she was - always responsible, always compassionate (towards anyone but Travis), always firmly rooted on the right side of the law. Eventually, Katie had realized that getting the better of Travis Stoll meant surprising him. And she could only surprise him if she stopped being so predictable.

Katie stormed into Cabin Eleven, ignoring the sign taped to the front door that said, "Do Not Enter: Dangerous Explosive Experiments in Progress." She had known the Stoll brothers long enough to understand that the warning was fake, intended to scare away people who were angry at them. Namely, Katie.

"Travis!" she fumed, her eyes darting frantically for signs of the attracti - annoying son of Hermes. "Where in Hades are you?"

"I'm sorry, but the person you are trying to reach is unavailable at the moment. Please leave a message after the tone. BEEEEEEP."

Katie spun around, searching for the voice's source with narrowed eyes. "I know that wasn't an answering machine, Stoll," she said. "It was you. Now stop acting like a child who got caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar and come here!"

"Ah, but Katie, that's just the problem." The words were whispered in Katie's ear, so close to her that she stiffened in shock. "I'm a Stoll. I wouldn't get caught."

She twisted her head to the side and found herself staring into the beaut - bothersome blue eyes of Travis Stoll.

Instinctively, she stepped backwards, but they were still close enough to kiss. (Kiss? Kiss? Where had she come up with that crazy comparison?) For good measure, Katie stepped back again. Then she took a deep breath and started in on her daily rant. "Is that your cover story? 'Stolls don't get caught'? Because believe me, Travis, we caught you and Connor this time. You two are the only people obnoxious enough to replace all the water in the hoses with blue Kool-Aid!"

"Aw, you noticed?" Travis asked, sounding disappointed. "We made it blue on purpose, hoping you wouldn't notice."

Katie glared at him. "Of course we noticed, Travis. Do you have any idea how disgustingly sticky your prank made the strawberry plants? Do you realize how time-consuming it was to get water running in the hoses again and then rinse every drop of Kool-Aid off of those poor plants? Do you know-"

"Actually, I do know," Travis informed her. For a moment, Katie thought that he might actually have been responsible for once and helped clean up without her knowing. But no, he was a Stoll. She must have had too much sun. There was no other way that she could come up with such an insane theory.

His next words confirmed that. "After all, Connor and I had to do a trial run to make sure it would work."

"Agh!" Katie threw her hands up in the air before she could make a ruder gesture. Even if she wasn't around the little kids right now, she still had to set a good example. If she slipped up in front of one person, it would only be a matter of time before she slipped up in front of thirty.

Travis grinned infuriatingly. "'Agh', Katie? Is that the worst insult you can come up with?"

Katie opened her mouth to retort that actually, she knew several insults that might nettle the son of Hermes a little more. But she clamped her mouth shut again before she could voice that thought aloud. Set a good example, Katie, she reminded herself. Gods, that boy made it so hard not to slip up.

The idiot had the nerve to keep smiling and lean closer to Katie, so that their noses nearly touched. "Have I left you speechless, Kathryn?" he whispered.

With that display, Katie found her voice again. "Don't call me 'Kathryn'," she said primly, crossing her arms. "And next time, at least have the decency to direct your pranks towards the Ares cabin. I'm still mad that they cheated at Capture-the-Flag last week."

Travis's mouth dropped open. "Did you just give me permission to prank a cabin? You, Kathryn Alyssa Gardner, 100% responsible daughter of Demeter?"

Katie didn't know why she'd ever thought it was a good idea to tell Travis her full name. "Don't call me 'Kathryn'," she repeated. "And don't be ridiculous. I did nothing of the sort." But she winked at him as she turned on her heel.

Travis had called her speechless. But he was the one who couldn't say a word as she walked out the door.

As Katie sunk deeper and deeper into memories, remembering the clever, crazy, aggravating, adorable son of Hermes that she had eventually admitted to liking (just before said son of Hermes had lost his own memories), her walk slowed unconsciously. Katie ended up moving at half her usual brisk pace. She meandered on, lost in thought, unaware that her clever, crazy, aggravating, adorable son of Hermes was in danger just half-a-mile away. And that she was walking into the same trap.

Dun dun dun... ;)

Any thoughts?