Chapter 14- A start

Travis stifled a yawn. It couldn't be helped. It was just so boring and irrelevant. Here he was, at the student council meeting, leaning across and poking Katie with his pencil. And Katie, a little irritated, tried to swat his hand away.

"Can you stop that?" Katie demanded.

"But it's just so boring!" Travis whined. "I don't get why I'm here."

Katie rolled her eyes at his response.

"You're the captain of the track team, you tell me."

"All I requested was some new water bottles!"

"Yes, Travis" Katie sighed. "That involves asking for Student Council for some funding so that you have the money to buy it."

Travis gaped at her. "We are literally children. Why on earth does a high school student council control something that's an adult's job."

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Huh?"

"Mr. D…"

"Oh, yeah," Travis muttered. Dionysus, or "Mr. D", was the principal of their high school. Travis had no idea how he was qualified, but Mr. D was in placed charged as 'punishment'. Travis forget the logistics of it, but Mr. D hated students. And being as lazy as he is, he basically put the student council in charge of everything. "I completely forgot about that."

Katie snorted. "You tend to do that often."

"Hurtful," Travis said. More often than not, it was Katie who snarked at Travis more than anyone else. He spun his pencil around a couple times. He looked at his pencil, and then at Katie. And back to his pencil.

"You're not ticklish are you?"

Katie stiffened. "No… Why you ask?"

Travis ignored her question and doubted her answer. Well, only one way to find out. And in an instance, Travis poked Katie's ribs.

Katie gave a quick yelp before quickly covering her hand over her mouth. Cute, Travis thought.

She glared at him, cheek and neck flushed. "What do you think you're doing?" She demanded.

"What do you mean?" Travis asked innocently. "I'm just taking my notes here and planning on how to propose properly in front of these esteemed students… Why you ask?"

"Travis! That's loads of-"

"Excuse me," Renya interrupted. "Is there anything that seems to be a problem here, Gardener?"

Oh.

Katie looked around nervously. Everyone's eyes seemed to be on them now.

Jason raised his eyebrows, unable to hide the smirk from his face. "Would you both like to go out and… 'settle' your differences in private?"

With Jason's suggestion, a couple of giggles and snorts echoed through the room.

She was definitely going to kill him once they were done.

"No it-"

"It's fine," Travis interrupted. "It was my fault. I was finishing up the budget plan for the Track team, and I wanted to ask Katie's opinion on it."

He picked up a paper in front of him, and sure enough, there seemed to be numbers, graphs, and an explanatory essay on it.

"This paper explains our estimated cost for tournaments, travel expenses, gear, and of course, new water bottles," Travis explained.

Katie was impressed. She thought Travis was going at the meeting without any preparations and just beg Jason and Reyna, (the heads of the council), for some money, hoping to get some biased help because of his friendship with Jason. But clearly, he came prepared.

Reyna raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Well, we'll see how your proposal and be the judge of it."

"It's not unreasonable," Travis promised.

"Besides," Katie added, "the track team always has a great record. They have been doing well since the Stoll brothers came in. You should take that into consideration. After all, the merit system is still in semi-play, right?"

Travis glanced at her, slightly surprised to see she was placed on his sides.

"She's right," Jason said. "I mean, the basketball and swimming-"

"Don't forget football!" Frank added.

"Right, those teams have proper, organized funding because we still account for the merit system. The track team should benefit from it as well."

"Of course," Reyna said. She gave a suspicious look to Katie. "But we must see the proposed plan without any… 'biasedness' towards it though."

Katie blushed at her accusation. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

"Anything else?" Jason asked, looking around the room. "Alright, good job guys. Meeting adjourned."

Katie walked outside the room to see Travis waiting for her.

"Hey," Katie said.

"Thanks for your help," Travis said. "I completely forgot to add about the merit thingy."

She smiled at him. "Don't mention it."

With her smile, Travis was fully enthralled by her. She can be so pretty sometimes, Travis thought. He didn't mean to, but he was staring at her lips. He remembered the kiss at the library. Would she mind if he did it again?

"Well," Katie whispered as if she could read his mind. She leaned forward just a little. "What are you waiting for?"

Was that a green light? Travis didn't know, but ah, screw it. Travis slowly leaned forward.

Slowly, slowly they almost met. They were inches apart when-

"Oh, hello."

Both Travis and Katie jumped back to see Jason smiling at them.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Jason said, not really sounding sorry at all. "Did I interrupt something important?"

Crap.

"No, not at all," Travis said, trying to look composed.

"We were just chatting," Katie added.

He just gave them a smile. I know what you guys are up to. "As a leader and a person responsible for executing proper etiquette…

"No PDA you two," he teased.

"We weren't doing any of that," Katie denied. "We're just friends."

Travis nodded in agreement. Just friends, Travis thought. Right…

Jason rolled his eyes. "Sure, if that's what you want to call it."

Katie sighed. "Shouldn't you be getting home now? It's getting pretty late."

Jason checked his watched. She was right, it was pretty late. "Yeah, I should. We should head out now."

"Coolio," Travis agreed.

Katie checked her phone. "You guys go ahead without me. I have to wait for someone."

Jason tilted his head. "Who?"

And right on cue, as if she was there the whole time, there was a voice behind him.

"I'm here."

Jason jumped at the sound of her voice. The familiarity of it made his stomach drop.

"Piper!" Katie exclaimed, staring at Jason, unable to hide her smirk. She walked over to Piper as Jason tried to recompose himself. "It's good to see you, how was your first day here?"

"This place is amazing," Piper said. "It's so nice here, and everyone is amazing. Although the principal was a little thoughtless and rude."

"Yeah," Travis snorted. "He tends to be a jerk, like, all the time." He walked over to Piper and held out his fist.

She fist-bumped him back. "Glad to see too, Stoll."

"Stoll and I are in the same history class," Piper explained as if she thought Jason wanted an explanation. To which, he did.

Jason grew slightly annoyed and disappointed. Was everyone able to see her beside him?

Travis smirked at Jason. "Yep, in fact! She's my partner in crime in the class."

She laughed as Travis placed an arm around her shoulders. "The misfits of history, that's us."

Katie's eyes twitched a little at the scene, but she quickly dismissed that.

"Anyways," Katie said. "We should get going by now."

"Oh right," Travis said with a smile. "I'm thinking about getting some ice cream before."

"Again?" Katie scoffed.

"What? Ice cream is the food for the gods."

"Fine," Katie grumbled. She looked at Piper and Jason. "You guys coming with us?"

Piper checked her bag. "Nah, I can't. I have to it seems I didn't buy enough supplies," she explained.

Travis nodded his head. "Makes sense, what about you, Jason?"

"Sure-" Piper elbowed him hard-" I mean, I gotta go. Maybe next time."

"Alright then!" Travis decided. "Just us two, KitKat!"

Katie rolled her eyes. "Jeez, just don't be an embarrassment in public, Stoll."

They both walked as Travis made a feigned a hurt expression. "Me? I would never."

"You're so annoying sometimes."

As she saw them walk away together, Piper said, "cute."

Jason tilted his head in confusion. "Wasn't Katie supposed to go with you?"

"Yeah," Piper smiled. "But looks like she completely forgot about that when Travis asked her."

Jason just shook his head. Romance.

"How was student council meeting?" Piper asked as they headed out of school themselves. From a different direction with Travis and Katie, of course.

Jason shrugged. "It wasn't bad."

"Really?" Piper asked. "So it's usually bad?"

Jason stared at her. "I mean, it's not bad. It gets a little annoying, I guess."

"How so?"

"I guess I'm just expected a lot."

"To be an athlete star, a scholar, and a leader," Piper said, talking to confirm his answer.

"I guess," Jason said.

"I wonder… How many people see you as Jason Grace, rather than just, 'Jason'?"

Jason stopped his track at her question. According to most people, he was always the 'perfect' student. He was the role model revered by students and adored by teachers. He was placed at the pedestal. As much as he was something, he was nothing without it. How ironic.

"I don't know," Jason admitted. "But why do you ask?"

Piper just shrugged. "You remind me a bit about Annabeth."

It was partly true. Piper often had to help Annabeth when she felt as if she only had brains and nothing else. Some days Annabeth took pride- intense pride, might Piper add- in her wisdom, but some days, she felt lost about it.

To rely on something so temperamental. Very dangerous, Piper thought.

Besides, Piper was curious. Piper was curious about Jason. She wanted to know who he was. She can whole-heartily admit his attractiveness, intelligence, and capabilities. But she wanted to see him beyond all of that.

"I'm interested in you," Piper admitted. No flirting. No hints. And absolutely NO DRAMA. That's how Piper rolled.

"And you want to know… who I am without my accolades or status."

He was smart, Piper thought.

Jason sighed. "I don't know. I don't know how to answer that question."

"I see," Piper said.

"But," Jason added. "I could say the same to you. And I can tell you have status. You have that look in your eyes about it."

Piper shrugged. "Perhaps."

"Then, how about we answer our questions… together?"

He was looking forward, too afraid to be facing her.

Piper smiled. "Yeah, I could do that."

"And, we could start with Office Depot."

Piper remembered the fact that she needed new paint supplies for her art class tomorrow. It seems he remembered too during the conversation with Katie and Travis. How thoughtful.

"Yeah. I think that's a good start too."

I think that'll do for this chapter... Hopefully my plot will pick up its pace get to the actualy part of the story... But we'll see how that goes! Thanks for reading and let me know what you guys think by reviewing!