Ω When a prank is no longer just a prank Ω

-Katie-

Today is April Fool's Day. A day you need to be really careful with the Stolls. And with one of them sleeping in your bedroom, you can't expect anything better.

Katie woke up with a loud noise ringing through the camp, just as she began to wonder what happened, she remembered today is April Fool's Day. Then she started to hear cusses all over the Cabins. The Stoll decided this year's camp prank is set every single person's alarm at 6am and turn it to the loudest.

Until Katie noticed that her alarm is normal, she knew something is wrong. Travis is preparing a special prank for her. But the day when on just fine. No water pouring down on her head. No chocolate bunnies on her cabin roof. No mud on her room floor. No strange color dye in her shampoo. Even her plants are as good as usual.

"Travis, do you care to explain?" Katie called him when they cross path at the arena in the afternoon.

"About what, Katie-Kat?" He sounded delighted; defiantly planning something.

"My alarm isn't set up by you guys."

"Are you are saying that you are willing to have your alarm ringing out loud at 6 every morning? I'm happy to do the favor"

"No! You know what, never mind. Just keep doing you sword fight."

So, when Travis didn't come to room at night, she didn't feel suspicious. He has been acting strange to her the whole day, though she is a little anxious about not getting any kind of pranks, it's good not dealing with those things. After leaving a note on her table, she quit waiting for him and went to sleep.

That's when all hell break loose.

*Demeter pic

She has a nightmare, again. With Travis sleeping by her side these days, she almost forgot how having them feels like, almost.

She was ten years old again. Monsters started to find her and this time it is on her way home. When she showed up with scratches on her hands and knees, her father questioned her.

"Do you think I sent you to school so you can have fight?"

"No! I didn't —"

"You better have a good excuse."

"I have these because a monster is chasing me!"

"What monster? There is no such thing on the world! Don't lie to me girl."

"Yes, there are! The monster I saw today only have one eye!"

"You know what, maybe I should just you send to see if you have some mental issues." Her dad grabbed for her hand and forcing her to follow him. Katie kicked and scream to let go, but a ten years old girl stands no chance against an adult. She finally succeeds when the man loosens his grip as he took out the key to unlock the door. Katie ran into the house, buying herself sometime, also knowing she can't pass the front door without getting caught.

"Come back at once!" Her father shouted.

"No!" Suddenly, vines from the garden outside climbed into the house, grabbing the man's ankle, prevent him from getting near Katie.

"Stop doing the witchcraft!"

Katie ran upstairs and locked herself in her own room. The branch of the tree outside her window reached in, climbing around the walls, until in whole room looks like a treehouse in the middle of a jungle. When she was smaller, she used to think that being locked in a room is scary. She knew that if her just ran away, the police will just send her back here, her person hell. So now this is the only way she can escape from her father. A week after this, a satyr showed up and took her to Camp Half Blood.

Katie woke up by her own screams, hand clenching tight at the green cover. She touched her cheeks with her hands slightly trembling and feel the wet tears all over, then she started to take deep breathes to recover from the horrible memories. Knock, knock. Her heart sank, it must be Miranda.

"Katie, is everything all right? I heard you sobbing so I tried to get in but the door is locked." Pause. "Is he in there? I thought you won't have nightmare if he's with you?"

"No." Katie replied, just loud enough for the person at the other side of the door to heard it.

"No for not all right or he is not here?"

"Both." Katie can almost see Miranda frowning, face scrunch together.

"Do I need to did anything for you?" Katie thought for a second, thinking what she needs the most right now. A hug from a person who has a stupidly good smell on his shirt and has a troublemaker smile.

"Can you tell him to come. Please."

Miranda hesitated for a moment. "Okay, let's hope I won't get caught."

"Don't jinx it. Thanks for everything, Mir. Good luck." Katie said softly.

She heard footsteps leaving the door, Miranda set off to find Travis. After the conversation, Katie felt the emotions rolling back to her, the plants beside her bed suddenly become sick and the leaves on the tree started to turn yellow. The moment before they were just not standing straight, some of the leaves were heads down, but it got worse. Her emotion is high jacking her powers of controlling the plant. She held her hands in fist so tight that she knows her nails are going to draw bloods in her palms sooner or later.

Katie like to keep the door locked when she is alone in her room, she is just always very careful not to let her siblings find out. That will lead to questions she doesn't want to answer. Furthermore, she doesn't need someone burst in at the wrong place in wrong time and find out Travis sleeping with her. To be honest, she feels save when the door is locked. She is in her own world and no one can hurt her. Miranda didn't know about this, so she is a little surprise when she couldn't come in earlier.

After a long period sitting alone in her bed shivering a little, Katie heard a sound of the door unlock. She is surprised for a second then remembers the child of Hermes have abilities to open locks with their mind, their dad being the god of thieves and somethings like that. On the other side revealed Travis, his eyes wide opened the second he saw the room, then his brows knot together. Miranda trailing behind, she takes a look at the plants around the room and tried to fix it but no use. Katie stared at them with empty eyes, only have a little movement when Miranda hugged her and kissed her in the forehead.

"Be nice to him, okay? And get some sleep after the talk." She took a last look and left the room for them.

"Why aren't you here tonight?"

-Travis-

April Fool's, the day of Stolls! (It rhymes!) He left Katie's room earlier to get everyone's alarm set up, but he has a special plan for Katie. You see, she gets too many pranks everyday so Travis decided her April Fools prank is no prank! He keeps getting glances from Katie throughout the day. Travis can tell she is frustrated and relieve at the time, frustrated at not knowing what heh will do at the next moment but relieve at the fact she hadn't deal with anything herself.

At first, he is considering whether he should go to Katie's to sleep or stay at his own room for the night. But a prank needs to be intact, so no sleepovers today. When he forgets is that Katie has nightmare problems, he didn't think of the consequence and now he wish he had gone to her room at the first place.

*Hermes pic

When he noticed someone is banging on his window, he felt confused. It's nearly midnight, and if that person is banging on the window, it means he or she isn't his siblings. Travis force himself out of his bed and went to the window. He saw Miranda standing outside holding balls of grass made by herself aiming the window. When she saw Travis, she stopped forming them and gesture him to follow her quickly.

"What are you doing here?" Travis asked Miranda after jumping out the window. He is the master of jump out a window by now due to the amount of practice he had these days. He must sound stupid or the question itself is stupid because he received a glare from the girl.

"I want to ask you that question! Katie had a nightmare! I thought you are there so she will be fine, but she —"

"Wait, what?" Miranda sighed.

"Listen, Katie had those nightmares you saw that day for years. Usually, she will find a method to let her come down until it lost its use, then, she will find a new one. It used to be listening to music, knitting and the last one was sleep with me. And that didn't work since March." This is worse than he thought, and it doesn't sounds like a normal nightmare.

"Now?"

"You showed up." Travis blinked. "You are her new method, and let's hope this one hasn't lost its effect yet. There are reasons for her asking you to stay and taking the bet. She's not stupid, she knows you are doing this for blackmail." He knows Katie is nothing but a smart girl, and technically he calls out the bet for his own propose, not for blackmail. But he thinks say those won't help the situation now so he kept his mouth shut.

"How is she now?" Travis asked nervously.

"Before I left, she doesn't let me go in her room and the door is locked." She turned and look at him before they get in the cabin. "Please give her a good reason why you didn't go to her tonight and be careful at your words. Put her to sleep as fast as possible." Miranda seems to be wore out at the whole situation; she must feel useless for not able to calm her own sister down.

"Okay."

They tiptoe through the bunks and get to Katie's door, Travis put his hands on the handle. The door suddenly clicked open by itself, like it sensed his needs. Travis gasped at the sight in the room.

The scene reminds him what happened when Persephone was kidnapped by Hades. Demeter left Olympus in order to find he daughter, then all the plants on earth began to wither and nothing can be grown. This is what the room looks like right now, like there is no longer any life walking through. He doesn't think he can wash the image out of his mind. Miranda tried to cover the damage but it didn't work much. There is a reason why Katie is the one of the strongest demigods, she is known as the most powerful demigod children of Demeter ever seen, and when her emotions overtook her power control, things can go really bad.

Katie curled herself with her chin set on her knees, her green cover hug tightly around her like a cage and she is the bird which is trapped by her own dreams. The pair of green, no, now it looks like emerald, emerald eyes stared blankly at them. Miranda gently hugged her and kissed her forehead; she gave Travis a nod before leaving the room for the two of them. Travis slowly closes their distance just as he about to reach out his hand, Katie opened her mouth and his hand frozen in the air, she spoke.

"Why aren't you here tonight?" Her voice revealed the betray she felt.

"I..." He is considering whether he tell the truth or not. "Today is April Fools."

"I know."

"And my prank to you is no prank."

"Okay?" She looks confused.

"And that includes no sleepover."

"..."

"I don't know you still have the nightmares." Travis said softly after knowing Katie won't give him any response.

Katie's eyes soften. "Neither do I."

"Miranda said that I am your new personal nightmare calm down method." His voice full with amused.

"That you are." The corner of her lips is slightly turned up, and the plants in her room no longer looks sick, the leaves start to turn slightly green and aren't all heads down. Not that they all suddenly recovered, but he supposes that's a good sign.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"About the nightmare?" Katie tilted her head.

He nodded, "If you ask, I could help, you know."

"No, that I don't"

"Well, now you do. Do you want to share it? About you dreams? You know talk about it to someone else usually makes you feel better."

"Okay then." Katie thinks for a moment. "But maybe not today, I don't know."

Travis took that as a yes and get into her bed, they settle themselves in their usual position, they just stay still in silence, when Travis is about to fall asleep, he noticed her hands which are placing on the pillows.

"Your hands were drawing blood." At the center of her palms are four blood marks each. "Let's clean this before sleep."

"It's no big deal, you sound like an Apollo kid." Katie take a look at it before answering.

"At least wash off the blood." Travis sits up, didn't wait for her to protest and head to the bathroom, bringing a piece of wet cloth back. Katie just lies in there, reaching her hands out for him to clean it, looked defeated. He smiled at her childish action and carefully wipe off the dry blood, but still get some wince from Katie when he accidentally touched her wound.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. It's my own doing anyway." She waited him to lay back beside her before she speaks again.

"Why are you so good to me?"

"Because... we are friends?"

"Why is that a question?" Her sound came out strangely.

"Well, I think we are friends, the annoying each other kind, though." He smirked.

"Yes."

"Yes what?" Travis blinked.

"Yes, we are friends." The words left Katie mouth sounds like music, even for him this is a big step.

-Katie-

"I want to tell you," She can feel Travis looked down at her as he shifts his head, "about my nightmare."

"Okay, I'm in all ears."

"So, my dad doesn't know my mom is a goddess, he thinks she left for other man, which is partly truth though, funny. Anyway, he didn't like me as his child, and things get worse when I was five, I learned my powers for the first time." She took a pause and turn around to look at Travis, his face darkens. Katie feels comfortable by not looking into his eyes as she uncovers her childhood trauma so she immediately faces the wall again as she noticed Travis get the situation.

"When I was little, I will faint if I over use my powers. One day, my father found me unconscious in the garden with flowers which shouldn't be growing in that season. He told me don't use that again and grounded me for two weeks, in a closet."

"What!" Travis shouted.

"My ears..."

"What!" This time he said it in whispers.

"Calm down! So, this one is what I dream of the day you burst in. And the one I had today even Miranda doesn't know."

"Something with the locked doors?"

"How...?"

"You just told me you were locked in the closet for two weeks but you locked your room when you sleep so no one can come in. Clearly somethings else happened, otherwise you won't be able to sleep in a locked room after that." Katie stared at him like he is not the same person a minute before.

"What? I'm pretty smart, you know."

"Whatever." Katie rolls her eyes. "The one I had today, long story short, I was ten, my scent grew stronger, you know the elder six thing. I was chased by a cyclops, got hurt, dad noticed, told dad, almost been brought to see a mentalist, power outburst. I locked myself in my room so my dad couldn't take me anywhere. And I literally turned me room into a jungle. I came to camp a month after that."

"Woah." Travis looked at her in owe.

"Okay, off to bed. I need some rest." Katie poked him. She will never admit she felt electricity running through her fingers as she does the action. Travis smiled, not in a 'you are in trouble' way but a warm hearted one.

"As I say, anything for you, Kates." The next thing he do surprised her, he softly kissed her in the hair, on the top of her head, like the thing couples will do, a gesture of affection. Travis seems shocked by his own action, too. His body tense for a whole second, after noticing she isn't going to kick him at the place where sun doesn't shine, he started to stroke her hair with his hands. Just like last time when she had nightmare and after he apologize. She figured he does this whenever he wants to make her feel better, and somehow it worked.

With all the things he did for her, she realized he is something more, more than a stupid crush, more than friends who likes to annoying each other, more than she can identify.

Another main plot! The next one will be fluff (yes, more than this one) XD

-Elva