F is for Fireworks
Travis released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He had been nervous the entire day. He had asked Katie to the Fireworks, yes, the Fireworks . . . as friends. Yeah, he was depressed about it too, but this is the Fireworks we're talking about and he's going with Katie Gardner. Even if it was just 'as friends' he couldn't help but be a bit excited. Taking a deep breath, he gently knocked on the Demeter cabin door. He held his breath until the door swung open.
"Hey, Ka – Melani?" His smile faded and he gaped at her. He looked up at the cabin number, making sure he was at the right cabin. Melani was the Aphrodite cabin's new councilor after the war and Conner's obsession. He had been trying for about two years now to get her to go out with him, doing everything from giving her cabin a perfect score when he did cabin inspection to opening doors for her to pretty much being her servant. And he called Travis desperate.
She rolled her eyes at him. "Don't get all excited in your pants just yet, Travis. You haven't even seen Katie." She smiled and opened the door a bit wider, revealing three of her sisters huddled together, trying to conceal a squirming person from Travis's view. Two of the three moved away, leaving Katie in the empty space behind them. She was yelling at the third Aphrodite girl, using curse words a sailor would blush at. Noticing the absence of the rest of the group, she turned around. Once she saw Travis she smiled slightly. Realizing what she was doing, Katie blushed, bit down on her lip, and then looked down at her feet. "Hey," she said, looking up momentarily.
"Wow, Katie. You look . . . wow." Katie was dressed in a small jean skirt with leggings underneath, and a simple gray shirt. Her hair had been straightened, and she was wearing a small amount of makeup that made her eyes look gorgeous. She blushed a darker red once his words soaked in, and Travis joined in the blushing party once he realized what he had said.
Melani stomped on Katie's toe, making her glare up at her. She motioned over to Travis with her head, giving her a knowing look. Katie sighed, rolled her eyes, and turned back to Travis. "Thanks. You too," she muttered with a smile and a blush. Travis really hoped she was being like this because she was nervous, not because she didn't want to do this.
"I, uh, got you a flower." He held out the small yellow dandelion. Katie couldn't help but smile.
"That's a weed, smart one," Melani accused, making Travis feel like an even bigger idiot than normal.
"Melani," said Katie in a scolding voice.
"What? It is!"
Katie rolled her eyes and took the dandelion from Travis. She smiled. "Thanks, Travis. I love it."
He tried to hide the blush from his cheeks. "We better get going," he said. Katie nodded her head, walking out of the cabin, Travis trailing behind her. They walked in silence towards the beach, their arms brushing each other occasionally, bringing goose bumps to both.
"Have fun, you love birds!" Melani shouted from the Demeter cabin, smiling after them. They were just too cute together. She laughed and closed the cabin door.
Katie sighed and turned to Travis. "I'm sorry, about her. She can be really annoying."
Luckily, he laughed. "It's cool. Conner was bugging me about it all day, too." She nodded and stared down at her feet as they walked. "But it's okay. Cuz remember. We're just friends." He tried to keep the disappointment from his voice, but was pretty sure he did a crappy job of it.
"Yeah," she muttered. "Just friends." To Travis's surprise, he thought he heard disappointment in her voice as well. His smile was inevitable.
They arrived at Travis's set up blanket quickly after that. The sight made Katie giggle. Travis had never heard her giggle before. He liked it. "Nice blanket."
He blushed. "Thanks, I know." They stopped in front of the blanket to admire it. It had a simple picture of Pikachu from Pokemon, alongside a Pokeball and 'Gotta catch em all!' in giant, yellow letters. "I was obsessed with Pokemon for a few years there when I was younger." She rolled her eyes and laughed slightly. "And I will admit, I had a crush on Pikachu for a while there too."
"I thought Pikachu was a boy."
Travis shrugged. "Either way, I was in love with it. Our children would have my looks and its lightning powers. They were gorgeous." He sat down on the blanket and absently stroked Pikachu's head.
Smiling once more, Katie said, "I was always more of a Piplup girl myself." She tried to sit down, but was having difficulties due to the skirt. She grunted under her breath. "I hate skirts."
Travis smiled and held out a hand. "I'm not much a fan, either. They always made me look fat." She smiled, too, and grabbed his hand. He helped her sit down and cross her legs. "There you go." He really should have let go of her hand, but he didn't. She was glad.
They were both blushing deeply at their linked hands and their close proximity on the small blanket. They looked up and blushed deeper, but they didn't look away. Katie's eyes fluttered shut and she leaned in. Travis was about to follow suit when –
"Can I get you anything to drink this fine evening?" They split apart quickly, unlinking their hands and making sure they were as far away from each other as possible on the blanket. Katie gaped at the small Hermes boy who had come to camp just two weeks ago. She believed his name was Timmy. He was wearing a tiny tux, and he had a mustache drawn under his lip. He was carrying a silver tray. She had to try hard not to laugh.
"Yes, Timmy, we'd love something to drink," Travis said with a smile, his face still bright red. "How about a Coke and a Sprite?" Timmy nodded his head and ran off. Katie stared at Travis in disbelief. He shrugged. "He's definitely a Hermes. He'll do anything for ten bucks."
"You dressed an eight year old in a tux and made him serve on us tonight?"
"He's seven actually. The tuxedo makes him look older."
Katie smiled and laughed slightly. "I actually think it was the mustache. It totally threw me off."
Travis smiled as well. "Yeah. He stole that eyeliner from Melani the first few days he was here."
"That's why I'm not wearing any eyeliner tonight!"
"You don't need makeup. You look perfectly pretty without it." There was an awkward silence that followed while the words soaked in to both of their minds. Travis looked down and blushed, but Katie smiled (and blushed. They always blush.).
"You look pretty without makeup, too, you know?" she said, with a hand on his shoulder. His eyes stalked her hand as it traveled down his arm. He looked up as soon as her hand met his, and –
"Your sodas." They both sighed in slight frustration and looked over at Timmy.
"Thanks, Timmy," Travis said, grabbing the drinks from his small tray and handing one to Katie.
"Anything else?"
"No thanks. You can run off now if you'd like." He scuttled off towards the cabin. Travis turned back to Katie. "Sorry," he muttered, handing her a Sprite.
She plastered a smile on her face and shook her head. "It's fine."
"You're supposed to pop the cap and drink it, you know," Travis told her after a minute or so of silence while she sat and tapped the top of her can.
She smiled. "I don't really like soda." She tried to hand it back to him but he pushed it back at her making her smile widen.
"Excuse me?"
"I don't like the carbonation." She rolled her eyes as Travis looked around, shocked.
"What!" he shouted.
"It, like, hurts my mouth and stuff. I don't like them."
"You say you don't like carbonation."
"Yes."
"So you don't even drink energy drinks?"
"No."
"No Rockstars?"
"No Rockstars."
"No Red Bulls?"
"No Red Bulls."
"No Monster?"
"No Monster."
"How do you live in life?"
She laughed. "I don't know. I don't even like pizza all that much either."
He gaped at her. "You are just . . . Un-American!"
"First off, pizza's Italian. Secondly, we're both technically Greek so it doesn't really matter how American we are."
"Yeah well . . . you're hair smells funny!"
Katie giggled once more while silently scolding herself. She had never giggled before this night. What the hell was wrong with her? "Really?" He nodded. "My hair smells funny?"
Travis sighed in defeat and slumped his shoulders. "No. Your hair smells like apricots."
Smiling, she said, "Thank you."
He shrugged, and was about to reply when a giant BOOM! startled them both. The fireworks had started. Travis sighed and glanced up at the sky. This was probably about the seventh time he had seen the fireworks show, and he was bored of it after the second. He really didn't want to watch it yet again, especially when he could be doing much better things with the girl sitting right next to him.
Travis stood up abruptly, blocking Katie's view of the show. He held out his hand to her which she hesitantly took and stood up, turning slightly red as their palms touched. "What are we doing?" she asked as she stared down at their intertwined fingers. Travis wasn't letting go (not that she wanted him to) and was actually squeezing her hand tightly. "The fireworks just started."
"I'm sick and tired of the fireworks, actually," Travis said, pulling Katie to his chest. She seemed startled, really, but she didn't try to back off. "Once was really enough. So I've decided to make our own tradition now." Katie couldn't speak, couldn't talk, couldn't think. Travis was just so close. Their noses were almost touching, and Katie didn't even want to think about their lips. "We're going to dance," he whispered, his hot breath splaying across her face.
His comment brought her out of her daze though. She shook her head and looked down at their feet; even those were close and made her blush. "I-I don't really want to dance."
"Come on. It'll be fun. I promise."
Katie glanced around nervously and noticed other campers staring at them curiously. Was it possible for her to blush even darker? She tried to push away from Travis slightly, but his hold was strong. "But I'm really not even very good."
"So? Neither am I. We'll look like idiots together." She shook her head. "But if you don't dance with me, I may develop up a stutter. P-P-P-Please." He stuck his bottom lip out and widened his eyes, knowing that Katie couldn't resist a stuttering puppy. Nobody could. Except maybe Batman. That man is just, oh, such a beast.
"But there's all these people watching . . ." She trailed off.
"So? Didn't your dad ever tell you not to care what other people thought?"
"Well yeah . . . but Chiron just put out that thing about PDA and what if we get in trouble?"
"I promise to take all the blame. I'll tell Chiron I was raping you or something. But remember, it's not rape if you enjoy it." She blushed bright crimson and looked down at her feet. Travis smiled. "I'm kidding, Katie, just kidding." She sighed and smiled slightly when she looked back up. "So," Travis backed up from Katie, while still holding her hand, and got down on one knee, "Katie, may I have this dance?"
She glanced around nervously. Many campers were staring; a few of the Aphrodite girls and some of her own sisters were giggling. "Are you sure?"
"O-O-O-O-Oh no. I-I-I th-think I got that-that stut-st-stutter."
Katie couldn't help but smile and sigh a bit. "Fine," she whispered.
He jumped up quickly while grabbing her other hand and bringing her close yet again. "Shall we?"
She blushed at their close proximity but did not look down for once. "We shall."
Travis took one hand and put it on the small of her back while she took her own and placed it on his shoulder. They nodded to each other before dancing around like idiots together. Travis was trying to accomplish a waltz type dance, but really, they were just jumping around together, getting many stares and laughs from the campers. It really was all fun and games. Up until they started getting closer to the shore of the ocean. The two were having so much fun that they barely noticed that they were starting to walk into the water, wetting their feet and totally ruining Melani's shoes. They also didn't notice the large log that was on the bottom of the ocean floor only 5 or so feet away from the soft sand. Before either could do anything, Katie had accidently tripped over the said log and fallen into the water, soaking her head to toe. Travis stood in his spot, gaping.
"Katie?" he asked when she stood back up, dripping wet. She spit out salty water from her mouth and glared at him. "I am so-"
"No!" she screamed, cutting him off. "Just . . . shut up, Travis." She was pissed. Extremely so. She started walking back to the cabins. Travis ran to catch up to her.
"But, Katie, I'm so sorry."
"What did I say?" She glowered at him.
"Shut up."
"Exactly."
They walked in silence for a few minutes, but it wasn't the normal, blissful silence they usually had together. It was an awkward, angry silence. Travis couldn't handle it. "I've pushed you in the lake before and you weren't nearly this pissed."
Katie glared at him again.
"I'm just saying," he mumbled.
After rolling her eyes, they kept on walking. When they had finally reached the Demeter cabin, she turned to him. "Maybe I'm this pissed because I'm sick and tired of you, Travis." He opened up his mouth to protest, but Katie was not done. "Let me talk!" He let her talk. "You ruin everything! This night was supposed to be special. You're lazy, and immature, and idiotic, and completely and utterly oblivious!" He stared at her in confusion. "You don't know what oblivious means, do you?" she sighed.
"Psh! Of course I do!"
She rolled her eyes and sighed once more. "It means that you can't see what's right in front of you."
Travis placed his hands on her shoulders. She couldn't really help the shiver that ran down her back. "You are right in front of me."
Katie groaned and shrugged his hands off of her. "That's not what I meant!"
"Then what do you mean, Katie? What did I do to make you so mad?" His voice had also risen with his own anger.
His eyes had widen and the tips of his hair were stuck to his forehead from slight persperation. He was breathing heavier than normal and his nostrils were slightly flaring. He was one of the most gorgeous things Katie had ever seen. No! she yelled at herself. Bad Katie! You're supposed to be pissed at him! "Gods, stop staring at me like that," she muttered, turning away with a small frown.
"Why can't I stare at you like this? Maybe I wanna stare at you like this!"
She groaned once more and stared up at him, anger in her eyes once more. Travis could have sworn he saw something else too. Hatred? Lust? He'd never been very good at reading eyes.
"Maybe I don't want you staring at me like that because . . . because maybe it makes me want to kiss you ten times more than normal!" she shouted, her own nostrils flaring, eyes flashing.
"You wanna kiss me?" Travis yelled. He really should've whispered it or said it in a lower, inside voice, but she got him in to this whole yelling thing.
She paused before answering. "Yeah, maybe I do! So what?"
"So maybe I wanna kiss you too!"
"Really?"
"Yeah!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
The next thing Katie knew was that Travis's mouth was on hers. One hand was in his hair - oh, gods! It was so soft. Her fingers twirled around a small curl, pulling it slightly, making Travis make a small noise in the back of his throat. The other hand was on his chest, as if pushing him away, but if you looked closely, her fingers were curled slightly around his T-shirt, pulling him closer. His lips tasted like dirt, but Katie didn't mind. After spending so much time in the Strawberry Fields, digging up weeds and planting bulbs, she had grown to know and love the taste of dirt.
All too soon, Travis stepped back, breaking off the kiss and leaving Katie wanting more. She stared into his blue eyes and sighed . . . but then she realized what she was doing. This was Travis Stoll she was canoodling with. Sure, pretty much everyone in the entire camp knew that she liked him, that part she wasn't freaking out about. She was freaking out about how he thinks he could just kiss her and expect her to not be mad at him anymore. Oh no. Naughty, naughty Koolaid. She was not going to forget about it that easily. She stepped back from him, glaring yet again. He looked at her in confusion.
"I still hate you," she said quickly before turning around and running back up to the Demeter cabin, slamming the door shut behind her.
Travis stared up at the closed door in slight amusement. With a slight smile on his face, he whispered, "Hate you, too."