Katie POV

Victory! My chocolate was mine once again and I stuffed it in my mouth and ate it as fast as I could. Chocolate was far too important to me to run the risk of Stoll stealing it again. I can't believe I let him take it in the first place. I danced back to my cabin in celebration of this one up I got on Stoll and once inside, crept quietly to my bed with a big grin on my face. As I lay there waiting for sleep with my eyes closed, I realised something. My eyes snapped open.

Holy crap. I kissed Travis Stoll.

I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night - well, morning – and I was sluggish getting up and ushering my cabin to breakfast. I dreaded seeing him after last night. My siblings and I were almost the last ones to enter the mess hall, excluding the Hermes cabin for obvious reasons, and I waved to Annabeth and Percy as I passed. Just as we settled at the Demeter table, the Hermes kids filed in. I could see Conner and Travis in the back, whispering back and forth, throwing shifty glances around. This was normal, but I'm sure those glances were a different sort of shifty.

One of those glances from Travis suddenly landed on me and he blinked comically when he met my eyes, realising that I was looking back at him. I hurriedly and pointedly turned my focus to my breakfast and pretended not to notice them as they headed towards food. I couldn't help but notice, however, some of the things they were whispering. "Come on, there's no way that happened, she hates you," Conner was saying. Travis shook his head, bemused. "I know, man, but I'm telling you it happened!"

So he was already gossiping about me. Jerk.

It might have been because I really didn't want to but I'm sure that I saw Stoll more than usual today. He spent an awful lot of time staring at me and while I'm sure some others would consider it flattering, I just got annoyed. And not because every time I looked up and his eyes were on me I remembered the taste of his lips on mine or the softness of his hair… Totally not for that reason. It just put me on edge. I don't like being like this, all wound up over a guy. Of course, the school time head counsellor of Demeter Cabin, aka my best friend picked up on this and pestered me until I cracked.

"I don't wanna talk about it, Miranda."

"I just want to help. You know that, Katie. This isn't like you."

"Nothing happened. I'm fine."

"No you're not. Tell me. Please?"

"Okay, fine! But not here, not now. Later, back at the cabin at free time?"

"Okay. Just remember that it's probably not as bad as you think."

She was probably right. That didn't stop me from blushing bright red when Travis leaned past me to grab a bow for archery class.

"Oh my gods." I cringed a little. "Oh my gods." I cringed a little more; I knew that tone. "Oh my gods!" The pitch of her squeal made me wince. Miranda was flailing her hands in excitement. "You go, girl! Way to take control!"

"Miranda. This is a catastrophe. Why are you celebrating?!" My best friend rolled her eyes. "It's really not that bad, Katie. You kissed a guy. Big whoop."

"But it's not just a guy! It's frigging Travis Stoll! He also happened to be gossiping about it before breakfast this morning!" I was getting a little agitated by now; why can't she see how much of a problem this is?

"Even better, he's gorgeous. You chose well. And I hadn't heard anything about it so if he was trying to spread rumours, he's really, really bad at it. Who was he talking to?"

"Conner." Miranda just looked at me. That annoying, flat 'are you serious?' look that always means I'm being a bit irrational.

"Katie, look at this from his perspective for a second. You, a fiercely independent and feisty, not to mention supremely attractive young woman who takes every opportunity to make sure he knows you dislike him, kisses him. If you were him, wouldn't that seem incredibly weird and therefore confusing? I'm sure he was just trying to work it out."

There was a long silence as I tried not to consider this. It helped my intolerance of Stoll pranks to imagine they weren't really human. Well, demi god. I flopped back to lie fully across my bed with a groan. "I hate it when you're right!" I complained.

"I know you do," Miranda quipped back as she combed her fingers through tangled hair. And then we were quiet again.

She knew I needed to think. I stayed where I was for the rest of our free hour. Miranda pottered around the cabin, tidying here and there, making beds and helping whoever came looking. She was there with me but not being chatty or overbearing. That's why she was my best friend. It seemed like no time had passed to me when the gong rang for dinner. I blinked up at the underside of the bed above me and looked around for Miranda. She was already by the door waiting for me. I hurried after her and we made it just as the Stolls did.

Conner went ahead (snickering, the little jerk) while Travis paused as if to let Miranda and I go first. He blushed and stuttered, as did I, and Miranda stood beside me with a big grin on her face. She shot me a meaningful wink as she followed Conner and then I wasn't just blushing; I was burning. Even worse, Travis noticed. He seemed to relax a bit because he got out a coherent "hi" after that, and when I'd answered in kind, he gestured with a sweet smile for me to go into the mess hall in front of him.

Gods, this inconsistency is driving me crazy! Do I refer to him as Stoll like I used to or is he Travis to me now? Is he really the sweet gentleman he can be or is he the gossiping jerk I thought he was this morning? Should I be blushing in his proximity or scowling? Should I glare at him when he stares at me or smile? I decided I would call him Travis, since that is his name, and I'd be civil, maybe even friendly unless he gave me a reason not to be.

After dinner, the entire camp was divided into teams. It was time for Capture the Flag. By team vote, Annabeth captained our team (just to make things interesting, Percy was captaining the other team) and we formed a plan. And because it was an Athena cabin plan, of course it worked. Percy's team fought valiantly but in the end we came out the victors and during the celebrations, I noticed Travis grinning at me while Conner sulked beside him. Conner's reaction seemed logical – they had lost. Why was his brother grinning? Then I did something I never thought I would do. I playfully stuck my tongue out at Travis, who somehow managed to grin even wider. I smiled and turned back to my team, feeling flustered and my heart going faster than usual. It was because we won. Right?

As we trooped back towards camp, a few quiet conversations going back and forth now that the celebrations had died down, I couldn't help but replay that broad smile on Travis' face. He was gorgeous; I had to admit that to myself. His smile had seemed so genuine, he had been so pleased that I was laughing and enjoying myself and even more so when I had sort of included him in it, shown that I didn't hate him as much as I always professed. Maybe – just maybe – there was something between us.

The campfire was tall and warm and bright, casting golden light over all the campers that gathered around it. As the Apollo cabin leads the songs, I watched Travis. He sang loudly and badly with his brother, and I giggled at the dramatics of them. Miranda nudged me to get my attention and grinned knowingly at me. The song ended and flowed into a new one, a piece a little more serene than the others but not at all depressing. As I looked back towards Travis, he wasn't there and Conner was now singing with his other siblings. I tried not to be disappointed and I tried harder not to let it show. A hand on my shoulder snapped me out of it and I turned sharply, ready to throw a punch if need be. It wasn't needed. Travis leant down and murmured in my ear, "Will you come for a walk with me? Please?"

I held back the shiver his low voice sent down my spine and nodded, swallowing my nerves as I got up to go with him. I refused to look back as we walked away, a respectable distance and awkward silence between us, but I still felt the judgmental eyes of some of the campers on us. We didn't speak as we made our way down to the lakeside, where Travis sat down on the dock. I hovered uncomfortably, unsure whether I should sit too. After a long moment of this, Travis staring out over the water and me being awkward as usual, he looked up at me with a small smile. "You can sit down, you know." I gave him an uncertain smile in return and sat upon my crossed legs. The silence continued.

"I guess you're wondering why I wanted to come out here?" he asked. I hadn't thought about why here but I nodded anyway. "It's just so much fresher, cleaner by the lake. There's some clarity, nothing clouding your mind."

"I'm actually more wondering why you wanted to talk to me."

"And that's part of the reason I didn't want anything clouding your mind." He paused and my heart raced. What is he going to say?

"Katie… Last night you showed me that you are more than meets the eye. I'd always thought you were attractive, that's true, but I never imagined you breaking a single rule. I thought you were uptight and while I'm sure that works for you, I just find it boring. That's why you were the victim of so many pranks, I wanted you to let loose and have a bit of fun. And then you broke the rules and you were sneaky and clever and suddenly you were fascinating. Hypnotically so. And then you kissed me. And I don't even have the words to describe it."

I had sat listening quietly, trying not to take offence at some of his bad phrasing – it took some work, believe me – but when he said that, I blushed furiously. It was just a kiss, and it was from me, probably the least experienced of all the campers. There's no way it had that sort of effect on him. "Would you believe it if I told you I don't even remember getting back to my cabin?" he asked, realising that I was speechless and disbelieving.

"Really?" I whispered. He nodded.

"Gods, Katie, you have no idea how attractive you are, do you? I guess what I'm trying to say here is that – is that I really like you. And if you'd be willing, I'd like to go out with you."

Wait, what? My mind went blank. He just asked me out. He just asked me out. What the Hades should I say? What should I do? Crap, crap, crap, what do I do? Taking in my blank expression, he backtracked quickly and tried to make a joke. "Or, y'know, another kiss would do," he said as he chuckled weakly. My brain still wasn't working properly and without even thinking about it or deciding to, my body stood and walked briskly away, leaving him sat on the dock. I went straight back to my cabin and to bed but was unable to sleep. Everyone else came in from the campfire and I turned my back to them. They didn't need to know that I was awake.

Travis watched Katie leave. He knew he needed to let her. She needed time if she was ever going to go out with him. It still didn't make watching her walk away any less painful. "Shit," he sighed.

A/N: So there we go.. I know it's not as good but I've written something again! Thanks for all your support, I never would have done this without believing that you wanted to see it. As you can probably tell, there's going to be another chapter for this story just to finish it up. Leave me a review and I'll get it up as soon as I can (: xxx