Faking It

New Faking It Chapter: 13

I give a small blush as Travis kisses the top of my head before leaving to his next training lesson. As soon as I realize I have a ridiculous smile plastered on my face I drop it. This little crush I've allowed myself to have isn't acceptable. I shake my head as Travis falls into stride with the rest of the Hermes cabin.

Falling into the crowd of my own cabin and siblings, I begin to lead them to the forest where we'll practice our Chlorokinesis. "Hi, Katie!" Rosie smiles, slipping her hand into mine.

"Hi, little one," I smile back at her. Miranda is holding Rosie's other hand and we swing our little sister between us, earning a bunch of giggles.

"How are you and Connor," I ask Miranda. "i haven't asked about you two lately."

She smiles, "He makes me so happy, Katie, gods."

I wiggle my eyebrows at her, "You're in love!"

"I am not!" She protests.

"Are to!"

"Am not!"

"You seem like you are!" I laugh.

"The real person in love is you," Miranda dodges.

"I—!"

"Look who's on the defensive now!" She snickers. "I was talking to Railynn and she told me that the both of you are in love."

"Oh gods," I shake my head.

"She added a for real at the end of it, whatever that means."

I can feel my cheeks burning and I change the subject. "This is good," I call out and we all gather up in circle, the trees surrounding us. "Everyone get into your pairings."

The older, more advanced campers pair up with the newer, younger ones—so they can pass on techniques. Miranda makes a ridiculous face at me before she walks over to her pairing and I turn to Rosie. "Okay, little one," I kneel down to her height. "Show me what you can do."

She brings her arms out and I watch as a single stem sprouts from the ground. We're both silent for a moment as she concentrates, but no leafs grow. "This sucks." She makes a face.

"What? No, Rosie—" I object.

"I dont like it." She says. "I cant do it."

"Do say that, I've seen you do it before."

"Maybe when I was scared in capture the flag, I cant do it when I'm not scared."

I sigh and frown. "Oh, Rosie, come here and sit down with me." I sit down and pat the spot next to me. She obliges. "Close your eyes."

I close mine too. For a couple seconds we just sit with our eyes closed. "Agriculture has been important to the world forever," I tell her, peeking open one eye and watching her nod. "We, as the children of the Agricultural Goddess, have the ability to control the plants. The more you practice, the more you'll notice the plants around us are almost like us."

"How?"

"Seed, sprout, stem and leaves, flowers. Baby, child, teen and young adult, adult." I tell her. "Just give the plants time to grow, it may be difficult in some stages, but keep pushing through."

I watch as Rosie nods, opens her eyes, and tries again. Starting over, she concentrates as a small sprout emerges from the ground, it thickens into a sturdy stem, creating its leaves. It grows from a small gathering on twists and turns into a rose bush.

"There you go, Rosie!" I clap, "You did it!"

My little sister beams as she wipes a line of sweat off her forehead. With time she won't get so exhausted from creating and controlling the plants as she practices more, but nonetheless I ruffle her hair proudly.

"Good. Now go again," I smile.

•••

"Katie, you're so oblivious." Railynn shakes her head at me.

"What are you talking about."

"You guys are going out for real by now, a much as you won't admit it—he likes you! And as much as you hate it, you like him back!"

I sigh and shake my head. Even though my heart soars at the hopeful thought of Travis liking me back, I know that he obviously doesn't.

We're back at the pier at the lake, swinging our legs in the water. "No, Rai, we're just friends. We have a deal, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she waves a dismissive hand. "Minimal pranks for a fake relationship to get his ex back. You realize that's just a ploy, right?"

"No, it's not."

"After watching and studying your guys'd relationship over the past couple of weeks, my hypothesis is—"

"Oh, gods! Don't hypothesize."

Railynn blinks. "Why not?"

"Because they usually are correct—if it's headed where I think it's headed..." I shake my head. I don't need the false hop. I need to get over my stupid crush.

"Look, all I'm saying is that Myra is single, she's jealous of you, she asked Travis if he wanted to hang out with you, and he said he was actually going to hang out with you instead."

She lists on her fingers as she speaks, and I listen in disbelieve.

"Don't you think that, if he really did like her, he wouldn't have turned her down?"

I look away. "He was probably just...I don't know—nervous around her or something."

"You hesitated!"

I turn red and look away, "No I didn't! He probably was!"

She points at me eagerly "Oh, Katie, why don't you just let yourself hope?"

"Because it would be false hope!"

"So you admit you are hoping he likes you!"

Gods damnit. She smirks as she knows I messed up and I glare back at her.

"They're a nothing wrong with having a crush, Kates." She nods.

"There is when he obviously won't like me back." I tell her, "He gave her his sweater, he can't wait for her to be his again, he keeps wanting to go to her parties."

"Katie—"

"No, seriously, Rai. You're right, I do like him for real. But you've never seen how bright his eyes light up when she walks into the room, or how excited he gets when she talks to him. He doesn't like me, and I'm working on getting over this crush as quickly as possible before it hurts too much."

Railynn's face drops.

"Please, let me get over this," I turn away from her.

It's silent for a few moments. I start to feel guilty, maybe I was too mean. Then I feel her hand touch mine. She nods, and hugs me. We don't need words to come to a silent agreement, my best friend understands me without any explanation. I hug her back.