You Stoll my heart - A Tratie Story

Chapter 11

Even with every camper teasing me about what happened, the weekend was over way too soon. Being back at camp had made me realize how much I'd missed this place. I loved my friends at school, but there was always going to be a part of me I needed to hide from them. Here I had people who understood what I was going through, people who were basically my family. I was sad to leave them, not knowing if I'd see them again before summer, months away.

Jack was already sitting in the car, looking tired. I smiled, knowing all the activities here were exhausting for someone who wasn't used to them. He'd probably fall asleep in a while. "Can I drive this time?" Travis' voice turned my attention away from Jack. "I promise I'll be careful," he added after I'd sent a glare his way. "No, if you fall asleep again we're dead. I'm not lowering our already not-so-high life-expectancies," I said. I wasn't getting killed by Travis' driving skills when I'd survived monsters. "Come on Kates, I'm not tired anymore, I slept. You should know, you were there." I rolled my eyes, still not trusting him. "Besides, I've already got the keys," he said, holding them up. I patted my pocket, but knew it was pointless. "Give them back," I demanded, but he stretched his arm above his head, meaning the keys were out of my grasp. I wanted to get the triumphant smile off his face, but I wasn't about to jump and look like a bloody idiot. So I did the only logical thing. I tickled him and he dropped the keys in surprise. I grabbed them from the ground with a smile. "That wasn't fair," Travis whined. "And stealing my keys was?" He didn't have an answer to that.

Travis came towards me and tried to grab them out of my hand, but I took a step back at the same time. "Want these?" I jiggled the keys in his face. "Come and get them." I turned around and sprinted away. You're probably thinking why I thought I'd be faster than him this time. The thing is, I had my eye on an inconspicuous root sticking out of the ground. When Travis ran past it, I willed it to catch his foot and he fell to the ground. I smiled in victory, until I saw he wasn't getting up. Styx, what had I done? I didn't think he would fall that hard. I rushed towards him. "Oh gods please let him be okay." I turned him around to see if he was conscious, but Travis jumped up and grabbed the keys out of my hands, nearly giving me a heart attack. "What the hell Stoll?" I screamed at him. "You scared the Hades out of me!" He smirked. "Were you worried about me Katie-Kat?" Why was he even asking that? Of course I was worried. Not that I'd tell him that. "I was worried I was going to prison for killing you," I said instead. "Pretending you were hurt, that's low even for you Stoll." He shrugged it of. "Not low, simply genius," he said, looking way too pleased with himself. "Shall we get going? Or do you want to stand here all day sulking about how I outsmarted you once again?" I rolled my eyes but strolled back to the car. "Fine, but if we die, I'll make sure to bother you in Elysium for eternity." Travis opened the car door. "Noted," he said and got in. I rolled my eyes and did the same.

Whoosh

"What are you doing?" I asked in between my laughter. "Dancing," Travis answered. I didn't feel like dancing did enough justice to the 'Single Ladies' routine he was doing perfectly while driving. "I noticed," I said with a grin. "Then why do you ask?" he retorted, one hand on the steering wheel and the other gesturing to put a ring on it. "How do you even know this?" I asked. He shrugged and went on. "My little sister loves Beyoncé." "Yes I'm sure it's only your little sister." He ignored me and continued to focus on the road and his performance. I desperately wanted to film it, but I knew that would make him stop and I didn't want that. I wondered how many times he'd practiced the routine to know it this well. It had to be a lot. I could imagine him and a few little kids dancing to Beyoncé while the other were doing something else. The thought made me smile.

Travis encouraged me to join his dance party, but I was no match for him. After a while we were both laughing at my clumsiness and horrible moves. When Jack began to stir in the back seat, we tried to be a little more quiet but it didn't help much. Even after the song ended we were still cackling, coming up with the most ridiculous dance moves. Jack didn't wake up though, so Travis and I continued to have fun for the rest of the ride. Before I knew it, we were almost home. I was reluctant to go back to school tomorrow and have everything go back to normal. I wished we could always be like this. What if you could? But I pushed that thought away. Travis Stoll and I were enemies, and nothing was going to change that.

Whoosh

We dropped Jack off at his house. Travis had helped him come up with a complicated explanation for him being gone the whole weekend. After they'd spent about 20 minutes working out the details, I was getting tired of it. "Can't you just tell them the truth? You're going to have to do it eventually, why not now?" They both stared at me. "Dam it Kates couldn't you have mentioned that a little earlier?" Travis asked. I shrugged. "It seemed like you were having fun. I didn't want to be a bummer. How come you didn't think of it yourself? It's literally the easiest option." "Maybe, but to quote the song from a few minutes ago, I don't want easy I want crazy." "You don't want crazy, you are crazy." He stuck his tongue out at me and turned to Jack. "Come on, I'll take you inside so Katie can rethink her words." I rolled my eyes while they got out of the car.

As soon as they were out of sight, I got into the driver's seat. It wasn't really about me not trusting his driving this time, but more for the sake of annoying Travis. When he came back a few minutes later, he walked toward the driver's seat and scowled at the sight of me sitting there. Begrudgingly he went to sit on the other side. "Changing seats while I wan't looking? That's low, Katie-Kat." I raised my eyebrows at him. "Almost as low as pretending to be unconscious?" He seemed to remember what happened only a few hours ago. "Well I can't argue with that." I drove to his house and he got out of the car. "See you at school tomorrow," he called over his shoulder.