Feet
It was the dead of night… Okay, maybe only an hour after curfew so it was 'the beginning of night but it was still super dark'. All of the campers happened to be sleeping when Travis walked up to the Demeter cabin door. The only sounds in the night were the crickets and cicadas chirping annoying from the woods. Travis fidgeted in the dark, trying to decide whether or not he should knock- and risk waking everyone- or climb through the window- and risk Katie yelling in his face, which would also wake everyone up. Travis sighed and jumped nimbly through the open window. His feet didn't even make a sound as they hit the wooden floor, which came from many years of practice. He carefully walked past the bunk beds where Katie's siblings slept and over to Katie's single bed in the back. When he got there, he found his girlfriend wrapped in her blanket so tightly; she looked like a purple burrito with a face. He had to resist the urge to snicker and go back to his cabin to get a camera.
"Katie," Travis whispered. He grabbed her shoulder and shook. Katie groaned in response and turned away. Travis then kneeled down and shook her harder. "Katie!" he hissed. Katie sighed and rubbed her eyes.
"George, you know you don't need help going to the bathroom anymore," Katie mumbled, her words slurred from sleepiness.
"Katie, it's Travis," Travis said. Katie stopped rubbing her eyes and squinted at him.
"Travis? What are you doing in my cabin in the middle of the night?" Katie squeaked. Travis could sense her voice getting louder and louder. He quickly put a finger to his lips. Katie quietly pushed his hand away and pulled her blanket up to her chin as if she was naked.
"It's actually not the middle of the night. It's only the beginning, but it's still super duper dark…"
"Travis, I don't care. What are you doing in my cabin?" Katie asked. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she added, "And why are you wearing a suit?" Travis looked down at his clothes.
"Everything but a jacket. It's too hot to wear a stinkin' jacket," Travis said. He noticed her still staring at him. "You like?" he asked, standing up and spinning mockingly.
"You look… sharp. I like it," Katie said, biting back more of her praises to keep from inflating his head. However, when she saw Travis beaming, Katie couldn't help but think of how cute he looked.
"Really?" he whispered excitedly, kneeling back down next to her.
"Oh yeah," Katie said, fiddling with the lapels of his dress shirt. Travis then remembered why he was in Katie's cabin in the first place. He grabbed Katie's hand and pulled her up out of her bed.
"No, Travis stop," she protested, "What are you doing in my cabin?" Katie asked again.
"I want to take you somewhere," he said, reluctantly pulling Katie into a standing position. He then handed her the daisy he had hidden behind his back. "I couldn't find a rose," he whispered.
"A daisy is just fine," Katie said, setting the flower down on her nightstand.
"But I didn't get you one, I got you two!" he said proudly, pulling another flower from behind his back. Katie smiled and smelled the flower, setting it next to the other one. "Aaaand I lied because I got you a third one!" Travis said, pulling one out of his pants pocket.
"Are you going to hand me a whole bouquet one at a time?" Katie asked, "Because we can speed this up, if you want." Travis shrugged and turned away from her. Katie tried to peek over his shoulder to see what he was doing. It looked like he was unbuttoning something.
"Ta da!" Travis whispered eccentrically, holding out the rest of the daisies. His shirt was half unbuttoned and his chest was in plain sight.
"You were hiding them in your shirt?" Katie asked, raising an eyebrow, but taking the flowers anyways. Not answering, Travis took her arm and started leading her to the cabin door.
"Where are you taking me?" Katie asked.
"A date," Travis said. At this hour? Katie thought, but shrugged.
"Alright, let's go," Katie said, starting to walk off.
"Hold on," Travis said, grabbing her arm, "I dressed up. You at least have to change out of your pajamas." Katie looked down at her clothes. She was wearing an orange tank top and pink and purpled striped pajama bottoms. "Are you wearing fuzzy socks?" Travis asked, intrigued. Katie wiggled her toes and tried to hide her feet.
"They're comfortable," she said, her face getting red. Katie was thankful for the darkness in the cabin.
"They're cute," Travis told her. "Meet me in front of your cabin. I have to get something first."
"I can't believe you're still wearing the fuzzy socks."
"Hey! I wore a dress for you! Plus, it's cold and they're comfortable," Katie said. She brushed off her red dress. Katie had worn her socks under her sandals- which Drew would've scolded her about, but Katie was never one that was into fashion dos and don'ts.
Katie turned away from Travis and started walking. After a few paces, she felt his hand brush over hers. She subtly glanced down at their hands and found him trying to find the best way to hold her hand. Katie rolled her eyes at his cute attempts and grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers in his. He led her over to the beach, where a picnic awaited them.
A blue checkered blanket was flattened out over the sand and three candles were lit and placed in the center of the blanket. Two Dixie plates lay on the blanket. On them were baby carrots, an apple, and a sandwich. Katie sat down behind and plate and Travis brought his plate over so he could sit next to her.
"I would've had this date at daytime, but the beach is always super crowded. I wanted us to have some privacy," Travis explained to her. Katie smiled at him appreciatively.
"What's in the sandwich?" Katie asked, "PB and J?" Travis grabbed a baby carrot off of her plate and popped it in his mouth.
"Peanut butter and honey. It's much better than jelly. And do you know what's also good with PB and H?" Travis asked, starting to lean over to the picnic basket that lay beside the candles.
"Brown sugar?" Katie asked, taking a bite out of her apple. Travis stopped what he was doing.
"Brown sugar! I should've thought of that!" Travis muttered under his breath, "Actually, I was going to say…" Travis pulled out a big bag of barbeque chips.
"Chips?" Katie asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah!" Travis said, opening the bag and sticking some chips in between the two bread slices, "The barbeque chips are so much better than the regular. Try some," he said, holding his sandwich out for her to taste. Katie leaned over and took a bite from the sandwich. It was good… in fact, it was great! Katie took the sandwich out of his hands and started scarfing it down. When Katie was done, she looked up and saw Travis watching her with a ridiculously stupid grin on his face.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Katie asked.
"What?" he asked. The grin grew bigger.
"Did you do something to the sandwich? What's up with that smile?" Katie asked, motioning to his face.
"No, I didn't do anything to the sandwich, it's just that… you have a bit of honey here," Katie smiled sheepishly and started to reach for a napkin. "Wait, let me," Travis said. He reached over and wiped the drop of honey that was falling off of the corner of her mouth. "I just-"And that was when his voice decided to stop working. I love you. I love you! I LOVE YOU! Holy Hera, Travis! Spit it out! "I have to show you something," he said.
"What?" Katie asked. Travis lifted up the bottom of his dress pants to show her his fuzzy socks. "No way! You have fuzzy socks too? And they're purple!" Katie said, laughing. She then lifted up the bottom of his pants higher. "What's this? Is that pink I see?" She started hooting with laughter.
"I sleep with them too," Travis laughed, taking off his shoes and socks and standing up.
"This is perfect!" Katie laughed, "You can't criticize me with my socks now!"
"Yeah, okay. Take off your shoes," Travis commanded.
"Why?" Katie asked. Regardless, she slipped off her sandals and lay her socks down beside them.
Travis hopped onto the sand, kicking his bare feet around on the sand for a few minutes. Katie watched his childish antics, itching to join him. Unconsciously, she buried her feet under the sand. Travis stopped jumping around and bowed to her. "May I have this dance?" he asked, holding out a hand.
Katie bit her lip. "I don't know, Travis…" she said. Travis calmly strolled over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. In one swift motion, he lifted her off the ground, pulling her feet out of the sand.
Katie let out a scream in surprise, but that quickly turned into laughs. Travis hugged her waist, swinging her in a circle. Katie leaned down so her nose was touching Travis'.
"Put… me… down…" she said, soft and sultry-like. Travis swallowed and slowly dropped Katie to her feet.
"Dance with me," he whispered. Katie slowly nodded, suddenly realizing how close to the water they were. Travis lifted her up, so her feet were on top of his. "I'll lead." He winked. Katie rolled her eyes.
"Fine. But next time, I get to lead," she said.
Katie felt slightly uncomfortable having her big feet on top of his. They were practically the same size! Travis didn't seem to mind though. Closing her eyes, a ghost of a smile appeared on Katie's face. Relaxed, Katie rested her head on Travis' chest. She was jolted out of her daze when she felt cold water touch her ankles.
"Travis! Don't you dare get this dress wet!" Katie yelled. She jumped up and wrapped her legs around Travis' waist in an attempt to keep her clothes dry. Travis laughed and continued wading into the water, ruining his good pants. Eh, he didn't like them that much anyways (and they were Chris Rodriguez's).
Katie started climbing up Travis, desperately trying to stay away from the water. She moved to Travis' back and he gave her a piggy back ride. He still walked deeper into the water. His hips were at water level and Katie whimpered when the cold water hit her legs, knowing that her dress would be next.
Because of Katie's protests and Travis' laughing, the two didn't hear the three harpies that were making their way to the beach until it was too late. Right when Katie's dress was about to hit the water, a harpy screeched and Travis' turned around to realize their presence. Katie sighed in relief. On the up side, her dress didn't get wet. On the down side, she and Travis were about to get eaten by harpies! Travis dropped her in shock and Katie fell into the water. Never mind… there was absolutely nothing good about this situation! Katie was still holding onto Travis' neck so he tumbled down into the water with her.
They both resurfaced from the black water with the harpies floating above them, snarling. Katie screamed bloody murder and Travis soon joined in. A harpy wrapped its claws around Katie's shoulders and another did the same to Travis. They lifted Katie and Travis out of them water and threw them down on the sand. Katie was still screaming at the top of her lungs.
Just as a harpy put a bony finger around Katie's arm, Chiron's voice could be heard in the darkness. "What is going on here?" he asked, galloping over. As he made his way to them, he stepped on their picnic blanket, knocking over the candles. The flame immediately set the blanket on fire and Chiron pulled the couple onto his back. "We have to get you two away from this fire," he told them. Katie let out a sneeze, a bit cold from her dip in the ocean.
"My shoes," Katie whispered, "My socks!" Sure enough, both Travis and Katie's socks had caught flame.
"Please put out the fire before it spreads to the camp," Chiron told the harpies. They hissed at him, but obeyed.
Chiron then galloped all of the way to the Infirmary, dropping Katie and Travis onto two separate cots. "Now, what in the name of Zeus were you two doing?" he asked, giving them a stern look.
"I, uh," Katie stuttered. She then let out another sneeze. Not saying a word, Travis got up from his cot and grabbed a towel and blanket from a cabinet. He sat down next to Katie on the cot and gathered her hair up in the towel. He then wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. Katie leaned her back against Travis' chest, looking down on the ground. She did not want to get in trouble with Chiron. She was not known for breaking the rules.
"We just wanted some time alone," Travis told Chiron truthfully. Chiron put a hand to his temple, like he was having a headache.
"I'm going to have to punish you two, you know that, right?" Chiron asked. Katie and Travis both nodded. "Kitchen Duty for a month for both of you." Katie sighed. Well, that wasn't so bad. "And for starting a fire, Travis, you will clean out the stables for two weeks. Katie, you will have to clean the dirtiest cabin from the next five cabin inspections all by yourself."
"Sorry," Travis apologized; already knowing that Katie would have to clean the Hermes cabin. Katie glared at him.
For the first few days in Kitchen Duty, Katie didn't say a word to Travis. She would just clean the dishes hotly, sometimes accidentally (on purpose) splashing Travis with suds. The silent treatment was driving Travis crazy, but he understood why she was mad at him. Eventually, she started talking to him again, but he could tell that she was still majorly pissed. So he decided to do something about it.
"Katie?" Travis said to her when he bumped into her before dinner.
"What?" she asked, standing in the middle of the cabin area, waiting for him to catch up to her.
"I know you're mad at me," Travis started. Katie snickered and rolled her eyes. Mad was an understatement. "But I think the reason you're mad isn't because I gave you a month of Kitchen Duty or cleaning my cabin."
"Really?" Katie asked, "Then tell me, Travis. Why am I mad?" Not answering her question, Travis reached behind his back and pulled out a pair of fuzzy socks. They were green with a pink line at the top.
"They were my extras, but I think you want them more," Travis told her. Her face morphed into one that looked slightly hurt. "And, I remember that you said you didn't like your big feet- that they're about as big as mine- but that doesn't matter to me. In fact, I like your big feet. I like how we can share girly, fuzzy socks." Katie smiled and took the socks off of Travis' hands.
"Thanks Travis," Katie told him.
"Wait! That's not all," he said. He reached into his shorts pocket and pulled out another pair. Katie raised an eyebrow and held out her hand, as if saying: Might as well give them all to me now.
Needless to say, Katie went back into her cabin holding eleven fuzzy socks in her arms. She was wearing the twelfth, of course.
HELLO! LONG TIME NO UPDATE, RIGHT? Well, I'm almost done with this baby! Yeah! Excitement!
So, I plan on having another chapter, then an epilogue.
Yeah, hopefully I don't procrastinate and add the last chapter real soon!
Ta ta.
~ xhiddendreamx