Chapter 11

The rest of the night seem to fly by in a blur. For once I had actually felt like a normal teenager, kid of. Instead of running from the cops the night ended with the campers weapons drawn and sprinting as the harpies had found us. Luckily Travis, Nyssa and I made it back to the boat before the harpies caught up. By the time we had made it back to the other side of the lake it was three in the morning and I had a slight headache from the closeted wine.

A couple of campers from the Aries cabin had brought some of the wine they had fermenting in their closet, It didn't taste the best and there wasn't much but hey, we had to work with what we could get. However as Demeter kids we did have the ability to speed up the process and not make it taste like dirt but where was the fun in that? Although there wasn't much to get everyone drunk, there was enough to make the campers forget their manners. By the end of the night, the bonfire was littered with empty cups and scraps of toilet paper.

The next morning as I sat in the dining pavilion, Chiron had made an announcement declaring that who ever was caught being guilty for going to the party would end up having dish duty for the rest of the summer. So far only Scottie from the Hypnosis cabin had been caught because he was found sleeping on a tree branch. Chiron had tried to pry out of him who had gone to the party but he fell asleep in the first five minutes so he didn't remember anything. Typical Hypnosis kid, sleeping everywhere they go. No one really talked about the party because Chiron was bribing the campers with drachmas to try and find out who had gone. Now it was only safe to talk to the kids who had gone, but still spies were everywhere. Chiron had even gotten through to my 8 year old brother. He knew we had gone to the party but he said he Chiron needed Evidence that we had actually went so he could pay him. Now he's been walking around with a recorder that he had the Hephaestus kids make him hoping we'd slip and accidentally say something about that night.

As for Travis and I, I felt like our fake relationship was progressing. We had been on a couple of dates so far and we currently had five days left of the bet. I tried to not think about it and cherish the few days I had left with him. I wondered if he would be as sad as I would be when this ended. A part of me thought he would, I mean yes we were technically "dating" but he didn't actually have to take me on any dates.  He didn't have to put in any effort, its not like anyone from school was here to monitor us. Sure last night was to impress Cassandra but none of the other dates had been out of spite, not that I knew of. I hated to admit it, but a part of me was scared that this really was just a bet to him. My feelings for him had grown during our short time together, and I couldn't tell if it was all one-sided.

The best option I had at this point was to just shut out any feelings I had for him, why waste my time on someone who could possibly not feel the same for me? It would save me from heart break and the low mental state that would sure ensue. 

If he did feel the same however... no Katie no, there is not point of even getting your hopes up .  I tried to shut my thoughts about my feelings for him away and focus on today. 

Travis and I had a group event as a couple. I couldn't be focused on my feelings for him while trying to act like his girlfriend. We were going to be taking the jet skis supplied by the Hephaestus cabin and racing some of the other cabins out on the lake.  I currently was in the bathroom of my cabin applying sunscreen on my face. The thick greasy  paste made me look like a ghost.

 I heard the door to the cabin open and a voice rang out," Katie c'mon its time to go! ". The sound of his footsteps traveled across the room until they reached outside the restroom door. 

" Hold on Travis I'm almost finished! ". I braided my hair as fast as my fingers could move and threw on a pair of Mirandas flip flops that sat in the restroom, good thing we wore the same size.  I opened the door to see Travis leaning against the frame picking at the petals of the sunflowers that sat in a large vase nearby.

  "Don't touch the flowers!" I whacked his hand away, but to my surprise he slipped his fingers through mine. His hands were softer than I expected, and his hand seem to swallow mine up, not that I was complaining. I turned my head the other way to hide the smile that had crept up on my face. 

C'mon Katie you are embarrassing yourself here! I cleared my throat as we headed out the door and asked, " So who else is going with us?"

 He scratched the back his head which exposed a little bit of his midriff. His sharp V- Line was showing and I quickly averted my gaze so he wouldn't catch me staring. Hopefully he wouldn't ask why my cheeks were so red, I could feel how hot my face had become. " Uhh, Connor, Will Solace, Terra ,Drew, Clarisse, Lou Ellen, Nyssa, and a few other people ". 

The short walk to the beach consisted of Travis teasing me about how pale I looked and ended with me tripping him and he gracefully face planting right in front of Drew Tanaka. Her long black hair moved as if there was a breeze blowing by and she managed to make a loose camp shirt look good. The perks of being the daughter to the goddess of love and beauty.

 Travis stood up wiping the sand off his face, and gave me a slight shove.

" Well Travis thats no way to treat a girl now is it?" Her arms were crossed in front of her, and by the tone of her voice I could tell she was not on my side.

She then turned over tome and said, " You know Katie if you get ever get sick of how he treats you, you could always send him over to me, I have my way with persuading men." With that said she gave me a sly wink and eyed him down as if he was her prey. Visibly uncomfortable, he let out an awkward laugh and tried to look at anyone but her. 

As horrible as it was, his uncertainty with her gave me a new found confidence. " Well Drew if he ever becomes my sloppy seconds you'll be the first to know."

She let out a high pitched laugh and placed her hand over heart saying, "Oh sweetie is that was he is to you? Sloppy seconds? Hmm, Seeing as how this conversation is going I don't think you two will be together much longer. Well it was nice catching up, Travis you'll know where to find me whenever you get over whatever this is." With that and a sweet smile she turned on her heel leaving me fuming. I hated how easily it was for her to get under my skin. It made it even more infuriating that she looked good while doing it.

Travis leaned over to me and said, " Judging by how angry you look right now, I know It's not the best time to tell you this but maybe referring me to as you future sloppy seconds may have not been the best word choice." If looks could kill I was certain mine could at this point. Of course looking back at it I could've said something that wouldn't come back to bite me but I wasn't a  daughter of Apollo, weaving insults on the fly wasn't a talent of mine. He held his hands up in defense and backed away saying, " I'm going to leave you here to cool off, meet me at the shore in five minutes!". 

I was thankful that he left, that interaction left me in a bad headspace and I needed to get myself together. I sat on the soft sand and ran my hands beneath it. I could sense the seeds of grass that lay beneath it. They weren't set to sprout for another week or two but I could change that. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and focused all my energy on my hands. I could feel the tingling in my hands as small blades of grass started to poke through the sand. Once they reached about a foot high, I plucked them from the ground and started weaving them through one another. Within a couple of minutes I had weaved a small grass crown and my anger had subsided. I rolled it between my fingers plucking out any stray blades that made it look imperfect. I was interrupted when I felt a small tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Nyssa standing behind me. 

" Mind if I join?" I patted the ground next to me and we sat in silence staring at the waves.

After a couple minutes of me perfecting my crown, she asked "So you and Travis huh? "Her eyebrows wiggled as she let out a small giggle.

I fidgeted with the crown turning it between my hands. Should I tell her what was going on? It would be nice to have  a friend at camp who knew what was going on. Nyssa wasn't one to gossip and after being chased down by harpies last night, I feel like we had gotten a little closer. After a quick minute battle in my head, I gave in and decided to confide in her.

" Ok, I have to tell you something, me and Travis aren't really dating ". I didn't know how I had expected her to react, but I didn't think she would be so casual about it.  She took a small sip of the coke she had in her hands and said " I know ". 

" Really? How? I thought we were playing it off pretty well."

" Well first off, I've had arts and crafts with you and Travis since I first moved here, and not once have I seen you guys sneak out to make out, and if you know Travis you know how many times he's skipped arts and crafts for his girlfriends." Upon realizing what she said my heart sank a little. How could I have been so stupid? In all the years I had known Travis I had seen him show up to the arts about a handful of times. However ever since we started dating, he showed up everyday with me, I guess I wasn't worth the time of skipping.

See this is why we don't get our hopes up. I bottled whatever disappointment I felt and  tried to focus on what Nyssa was saying. I didn't want her to have to repeat what I already didn't want to hear.

"... second you guys fight more than you flirt, and third I heard you guys talking about it the other day in the stables ". 

" What exactly did you hear?" I questioned.

" I heard him complaining about how long this fake dating was taking and how he was losing his player status ". She answered. My conversation with Travis in the stables instantly replayed in my head, leaving me with more rejection and disappointment to bottle up. Although I was still secretly holding on to the fact that maybe he too was hiding his feelings for me, those thoughts all came crashing down when he had asked to end the bet early. I of course said no, only because I don't back down from challenges, or so thats what I keep telling myself. Travis however still wanted the reputation of being a ladies man, and as he stated, being in a relationship wasn't helping him. It had hurt my feelings knowing how he had wanted it over that quick. I mean I knew he didn't like me like that, but you know I thought he would change, I was wrong like always. 

" Oh that makes sense, we shouldn't have been so loud. What were you doing in the stables anyway?".

She blushed a deep tomato red and muttered " Nothing, just checking on the horses ". I raised my eyebrows at her knowing she was lying and told her, " I told you my secret, now you have to tell me yours ".

" Well technically I already knew you secret so.." I raised my eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes. 

" Fine, I was there because I was following Wildfeijhbfkjf ". She shoved her face into her towards the end preventing me from understanding what she was saying.

" Ok, how bout speaking some English here please ". I joked with her.

" I was kind of following, but not stalking Will Solace, because I kinda like him ". She started blushing wildly and put her head in her hands and started mumbling. 

I tried picturing them together but something about it seemed off. " Don't hate me for saying this, but I don't see it."

She looked up at me with her mouth wide open and she gave me a playful shove. We both erupted into a fit of giggles and I further explained myself.  "It has nothing to do with you, I just I don't know I can't picture you guys together."

She let out a sigh and said, " No I understand, knowing my luck he's probably gay." We looked at each other for a moment before doubling over in laughter. In the midst of my giggles I managed to get out, " Why would you even think that?"

She took another sip from her coke and continued, "Well seeing as Im better with machines and not people, Im not really good at reading the room or social cues. I also failed to realize that last two people I had a crush on were gay, at this point Katie I need all the help I can get when it comes to boys." She threw her hands up in the air at the last statement and I managed to recover from my laughing fit. The son of Apollo, gay? It never crossed my mind, but who knows, maybe Nyssa had a subconscious gaydar.

I handed her the grass crown I had made and told her, "Don't worry I'll help you find someone, and this time their preferred sexual orientation will be women."

" Sounds like a plan." We both shook on it and she put the crown in her hair. 

" So how do I look?"

" You look like you could turn a gay man straight." We burst out into another fit of laughter when Travis walked up to us.

" Well look at you miss sunshine, come on its time to get our race on. We are going to go up next after Drew and Conner. They're going to be racing Nyssa and Will ". 

Nyssa and I exchanged glances upon hearing this and I let out a small giggle. Lucky her she had time with him to figure out her feelings with him today. She proceeded to go and find Will on the beach.

Travis handed me a life vest and helped me make sure it was on right.  His finger tips skimmed the side of my waist while reaching for my straps giving me goosebumps. Once he had both straps in his hand he pulled them attempting to make them tighter. The force of his pull caused me to fall right into his chest. Loosing his balance, he wrapped his arms around me and luckily stumbled back into a tree only a few feet away from us. I was now pressed against him as he held on tightly to my waist.

I felt by body go rigid seeing as how close I was against him. I looked up at his baby blue eyes and held my breath at seeing how close we were. I could see the light splash of freckles across his face and how he had a hints of gold scattered among his blue eyes. His lips held a playful smile, and In that moment all I could think about is how his lips would feel against mine.

Our eyes were locked until he broke the silence. "Katie Gardner are those goosebumps I feel?"  The smile on his face grew wider and I felt the blood rise to my cheeks. I pushed myself off of him and tried to play it off as cool as I could. 

" Haha very funny, as a matter of fact I am just cold, nothing to do with you." I nervously bit my lip hoping he wouldn't see how he had affected me.

"Oh I bet, especially in this 90 degree weather." He raised his eyebrow at me as I crossed my arms looking away. A small smile escaped my lips at the thought of my lame excuse.

Good job Katie, if he didn't know you liked him before, know he definitely does.

" It's ok, your secret that me, Travis Stoll, is the most undeniable obvious sexiest man you've ever met. " I rolled my eyes at his comment, why did he have to make this hard on me? Why couldn't he just let it go and not tease me for once?

" You're not a man Travis, you're a boy." I patted the front of his life vest and decided it would be best for me to keep quiet before I further embarrass myself. 

Once again to my surprise he took his hand in mine and led me down to the beach where everyone was getting ready to go.

Landon, son of Apollo stepped us and announced the rules to us since we were new to this." Ok Rules are: Race to the end of the lake and back, and in order to win both you and your partner have to be present on the Jet ski, no taking shortcuts or your out! Try and be careful because if someones dies I'm going to have dish duty, or worse, no dessert for a week ". Our opponents were Landon's twin sister Laura and her boyfriend Tyler son of Hecate. Were so going to lose I thought. He was a son of Hecate and he could use magic, what did we have? A few buttons that could throw water balloons in their face. I was excited but I still had that tiny feeling of us not winning. 

" On your mark get set-".

" Travis do you know how to drive this? "

" No ".

" GO! ".

Travis pressed on the gas and I screamed my head off. The thought of Travis not knowing how to drive this and me dying at 17 pretty much scared the crap out me. He started swerving almost knocking me off into the water. That's when Tyler started throwing fire balls and levitating a few fish out of the water and having us get slapped by fish which I can tell you hurts, AL-OT. I couldn't take it anymore so i pressed one of the buttons on the jet ski and it shot a high jet stream of water on them knocking them off. I thought we were ahead when until one of Tyler's fish hit Travis in the face an knocked him out of the water and flipping over the Jet ski. There was a loud roar and they flew past us.

" C'MON KATIE WERE ALMOST TO THE OTHER SIDE! ". He grabbed my arm pulling me up and we were off again. Soon enough they caught up again and I started pressing random buttons on the Jet-Ski. We fell off a few times but we started winning. I pressed another button that threw giant water balloons the size of me but they deflected it and he did the same to us. We reached the other side of the lake, we half way finished with the race. All we had to do was go back to our starting point and win. We went through the same routine of knocking each other off and into the water when the worst happened. We were almost to the end when Laura sped up and started ramming into us. Travis did a sharp turn and my life vest was ripped off of me, having me thrown into the water. I started to swim when I felt something pushing me down.  I looked up to find Tyler using an invisible force holding me down while him and Laura sped off. I know what your wondering about. Wheres Travis? Before I got my last breath and look I saw Travis speeding off thinking he had won. That stupid Idiot hadn't even noticed I fell off. I swear if i live through this I'm gonna smack him. I was finally pushed underwater but the force didn't stop. It keep pushing me deeper, and deeper. I started to panick and air was escaping form my lungs,fast. I tried pushing up but it was no use, it just got stronger. My lungs were burning and my vision was going black. I screamed and screamed hoping it would stop, and it finally did.I gave up, my vision went black, I felt my lungs stop and I slowly floated down to the floor of the lake.

______________________________TRAVIS'S P.O.V.__________________________________

We were winning and nothing could stop us. I could already taste victory.I passed the finish line and everyone was cheering.

"  WE  WIN! WE WIN! ".  Landon came up to me and told me " You don't win ".

" What are talking about? We came in first, so we win ".

" You only win if both of your partners are present. So wheres Katie?". I slowly turned around hoping she would be their, but I knew she wouldn't.   " CRAP ". I turned the jet ski around and started speeding towards the center of the lake hoping I would find her their floating with and angry scowl on her face, but I didn't. I kept looking around until I sped by something that caught my eye. It looked to big to be a fish. I looked more closely to see that it had hair,arms,and legs. I was terrified what if she was already dead. Nice going Travis, the one girl you like you end up taking her on a date that may or may not kill her. I thought.

I stopped driving, ripped off my life jacket and dove in. The water was about twenty feet and she was at the very bottom. The water was murky and hard to see. I went up again for air before going back down. I was going deeper and deeper my arms flailing around trying to find her when I hit something soft. I grasped it and it turned out to be her leg. I pulled her up, but she was unconscious. I pulled her up by the waist onto the jet ski. I didn't check for breathing because by the time I got there I had around 3 or 4 Apollo campers attending her. Everyone surrounded her and Miranda and Nyssa were crying.

I was nervous, what if she died? I don't know what I would do, I'd cry, I wou-

" SHE'S ALIVE ". Screamed Will. Relief washed over me as they put her on a stretcher and they took her off to the infirmary. I didn't want to leave Katie alone but they insisted. Conner put his arm on my shoulder and steered me away to the Hermes Cabin. It was getting dark and I was exhausted. As I was laying in bed, I couldn't stop thinking about Katie. I felt bad about what I did, I mean who wouldn't? I don't know how long I laid there before I got out of bed and walked to the infirmary. I was about to knock on the door when somebody opened it. It was Katie. When I saw her, my heart started to beat really fast and I was getting nervous.

" Oh hey Travis ".

" Katie, I'm really sorry about what happened today and I-".

"  No Travis it's fine it was a mistake and I know you didn't mean to, its fine ".

" No Katie, let me talk. I really truly am sorry. I  freaking almost killed you and I feel really bad about it, I swear. I should have checked up on you to make sure you were still on the jet ski. and I was stupid. I'm sorry Katie I'm sorry ". She stood there for a few seconds before she tackled me in a hug. She let go and we started walking towards the lake. I took her hand in mine but this time it felt different. We had held hands before but that was all in front of the other people and it was fake. This time it was real. She looked over at me and smiled. Not to sound gushy but it got me all hyped up.

" So how did it feel to almost die?" I joked.

She bumped me on the shoulder and we shared jokes all the way through the night before getting so tired we went and crashed out on the sand. Before I fell asleep the last thing I remembered was looking over at Katie and realizing I wanted to fall asleep like this every night, and that sleeping on sand and man-eating Harpy infested grounds wasn't probably the best idea to do.

HEY HEY HEY..... yes I know what you're thinking.. " BEDS EMPTY, NO NOTE,  YOU COULD'VE BEEN KILLED ". Jk. anyway I'm not going to lie and say " Oh i've been busy with life and blah blah blah ". Its just every time I got on wattpad to work on it i would find a book and become obsessed and i kinda forgot about the story.... I'M SORRY BUT I AM GOING TO BE WORKING IN IT FROM NOW ON SO I PRESENT TO YOU..........CHAPTER 11

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