Previous Apollo Awards entries for your reference or entertainment!
Voting is closed. Thank you to everyone who participated in last year's Apollo Awards, and congratulations to the winners! Stay tuned for information for 2024!
Contest presented b...
Travis accidentally sets fire to the flowers of Katie
Features Travis Stoll x Katie Gardner (Tratie)
No content warnings apply!
Travis was currently walking to the Pavilion. He was high on alert, since he had accidentally pranked Katie Gardener and was expecting vines to come out of nowhere and strangle him. She was like a monster when she was mad. Well not really, she was beautiful, but Travis didn't mean it romantically, of course not. She was just very pleasant to look at and listen to. Besides, the teasing from Connor would be endless, not to mention the amount of times he had pranked her. No, Travis Stoll didn't like Katie Gardener. Travis walked into the Pavilion, just in time to see one of his latest pranks go successfully.
"STOLLS" Clarisse yelled out in anger as cheese dripped from her head. Travis looked to Connor, who was shoving the last of his mac and cheese in his mouth, and Connor looked to Travis and they both ran for their lives while laughing at the furious Clarisse who was covered in melted cheese. Travis glanced to the side and saw Katie wearing a beautiful flower crown that resembled her godly parent's crown, who was Demeter, but with various shades of red, pink, and white. She was laughing at something a nymph had said, and she looked like a goddess. That caused him to trip, which caused Connor to stop, and Clarisse had enough time to catch up to the brothers. Katie looked over at the twins, a little bit of worry evident in her face but mostly annoyance there too.
~~~
"What the Hades happened to you?" Connor said with a groan as he sat up in his bed. Both twins were beaten up badly by Clarisse, which landed them in the infirmary.
"I dunno, i tripped"
"You tripped? Like I'm buying that," Connor replied with a scoff.
"What do you mean?"
"Everyone in Camp knows you have a thing for a certain daughter of Demeter" Connor said.
"I do not like Katie," Travis replied with a huff. Connor raised an eyebrow skeptically and then his eyes widened as he looked behind Travis.
"What now? There's an angry Katie Gardener marching over here, isn't there?" Travis said dryly, not surprised. Connor smirked and ran out of the infirmary.
"GOOD LUUUUCK" He yelled as he ran out.
"I FLIPPING HATE YOU"
"LOVE YA TOO BRO" Connor yelled out in response. Katie marched inside, with a trowel in hand, fuming. Travis didn't expect Katie to smack him with the trowel, but she did, and it hurt.
"Hi Kit kat-Owww, what was that for?" Travis asked, holding his head in pain.
"That was for my begonias, and don't call me Kit kat" She said, crossing her arms with a huff.
Travis had accidentally flung a piece of wood at the gazebo that had been built by the Hephaestus kids to make peace with the Demeter kids after flinging greek fire into the flower bed during the war on accident. To be fair, Leo had set the piece of wood on fire and it had spread way too close to his fingers, so a terrified Travis had flung it at the gazebo, which didn't have any other plants other than Katie's begonias.
"I swear Hermes kids have no heart sometimes" Katie muttered angrily as she stalked out of the infirmary.
"Well, meet me at the gazebo remains after lunch and then we'll see who has a heart" Travis blurted out impulsively. Katie looked back at him from the doorway.
"Did you just ask me out on a date?"
"What? Noooo, just wanna make it up to you" Travis supplied but Katie raised an eyebrow skeptically.
"I'll think about it," she said as she walked out. Travis stood there in disbelief, until a bunch of his friends swarmed him and congratulated him for finally doing what they thought was the unthinkable.
"You did it bro, I'm so proud of you right now" Connor said, wiping away fake tears.
"Yeah, we all thought you'd be a Percabeth repeat" Leo said with a smirk, to which Percy replied with a smack to the back of the head of the son of Hephaestus.
"Now tell us what your plan is and we'll help" Chris said, who Travis respected and appreciated. After a minute of silence, the gears in Travis's head began to turn and he gathered his friends to help him. It was going to be fun, for Katie mostly.
~~~~~~~
"Okay Stoll, I thought about it and came so here I am, you better not be wasting my time" Katie said to Travis as she walked to where the gazebo used to be but in its place a new one stood in its glory.
"Yeah, the Hephaestus cabin was okay with rebuilding it and I thought I could help you plant some new flowers to make up for the incident," Travis gestured to the packets of seeds, soil and gardening tools.
"That's actually pretty nice, so sure," Katie said with a shrug. They worked for a few hours, Travis at some point tripping and falling face first into the dirt and Katie bursting out laughing, to which Travis flung some dirt at her. They bickered every now and then but it was just friendly banter. Katie's feelings for Travis bloomed and Travis was happy to see her happy. Soon all the seeds had been planted and it was close to dinner.
"This was fun" Katie said as they sat side by side in the gazebo admiring the work of their hard work and plant powers.
"So why should it end?" Travis said with a smirk. Katie was a bit suspicious but she went with it.
"Wait here, I'll be right back" Travis continued and quickly jogged off to Hades knows where. When he got back, he was carrying a picnic basket and a small box.
"I got food!" Travis raised the picnic basket with a smile that Katie mirrored. They ate the sandwiches he had brought and sat in silence for a little while, enjoying each other's company.
"I also have this," Travis gestured to the small box with a sheepish smile. He was never good at gift giving and felt terrified Katie wouldn't like it which is weird since he has fought literal monsters before and this little thing scares him? Life is weird. He handed the box to Katie.
"Is it for me?"
"No it's for your sister"
She frowned and punched his shoulder.
"It's for you, don't worry," he said with a smile. She opened it and gasped. Inside was a beautiful sunflower necklace.
"Travis, its beautiful"
"Like you" He said under his breath but Katie probably had heard him and blushed a dark red.
Katie stood up and so did Travis. They walked to the cabins and they stopped in front of Katie's.
"Uh, this was nice," Katie said shyly, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Yeah, Night Kit Kat" Travis said.
"Goodnight Stoll" The daughter of Demeter smiled and walked into her cabin. As soon as she did, Travis pumped his fist in the air happily, and Katie saw this through the window and giggled. Travis noticed her and bolted back to his cabin before the harpies would attempt to eat him alive. Connor and a few others from the Hermes cabin bombarded him with questions but he was too happy and tired to answer them. He collapsed on his bed with a dreamy smile and drifted into his dreams of Katie, Begonias, and talking sandwiches.
