When Pigs Fly | Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Chapter 1

"Leave me alone Travis!" Katie Gardner shouted at the brown haired, blue eyed boy. A smirk was plastered on his face as he followed the really pissed off daughter of Demeter. The Stoll brothers and sons of Hermes had just (yet again) pranked the Demeter cabin, and Katie was in no mood for forgiveness.

"Aww, come on Katie-Kat," Travis whined, but his endless pleas were all in vain.

"Travis Stoll, that was the last straw," she growled through gritted teeth. Travis and his idiot of a brother Conner had thought that it was an oh-so-good-idea to put chocolate Easter-bunnies on the roof of the Demeter, and they seemed unfazed by the fact that they would soon face the wrath of the not so meek daughter of Demeter.

"If you ever do anything, and I mean anything, like that again I will personally set Annabeth on you," Katie's threats definitely weren't empty ones, and Travis' face paled considerably. If there was something that Travis did not want to see was the other end of Annabeth's blade.

Katie smirked as Travis pondered his options. His eyebrows creased together and he absentmindedly made a clicking sound with his tongue. Finally, he sighed and looked at the girl in front of him and gave her his famous puppy-dog eyes.

"Okay, what do I have to do?" Travis asked, praying to the gods that she would let him off easily. He would never admit to it, but Travis thought that Katie is scary. Katie, however, doesn't give in that easily. 

She smirked; it was obvious that she had won. Again. "I want you and Connor to clean the roof of the cabin and water my vines for a month. Add a week of desserts and I won't kill you," Travis let out a long breath that he didn't realize he had been holding in, obviously relieved, but Katie hadn't finished, "yet. I won't kill you yet. Now get to work on the roof."

The pair had reached the door of the Demeter cabin, and Travis was about to say something when Katie cut him off. "No. No rain-checks, no excuses and no exceptions."

And on that happy note, she slammed the door in his face, leaving the dumbstruck Travis alone on her doorstep.

***

Travis walked along the outskirts of the arena, looking for someone to spar with. He stopped when he saw Katie. She didn't know it, but Travis had a huge crush on her and the only way that he knew how to get her attention was by pranking her cabin. Well, it worked: Katie definitely noticed him a lot more now, but Travis had a sneaky feeling that it wasn't a good thing.

"Hey, Katie-Kat, wanna spar?" Travis asked her. Katie rolled her eyes at the nickname and nodded; she hasn’t anything else to do.

“One condition,” she said, “we can win by any means possible.”

Now, Travis was confused. Any means possible? What does that mean?

“It means that any means of distraction can be used to get the opponent to drop their weapon,” At times, it seemed like Katie could read minds. The truth was, she was very good at reading expressions. “So?”

“Cool,” Travis shrugged.  This meant that he had the advantage. Travis was the King of distractions. But unknown to him, Katie had a few tricks up her sleeve too, and this was the perfect opportunity to try them out.

They circled each other until Travis grew impatient. He lunged at his partner and aimed his sword at her side. She parried and struck at his arm and missed by a hair's width.

"You know," Katie mused, "you're never going to win."

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that Katie-Kat,” Travis replied. Katie’s face darkened at the use of her nickname. No matter how many times she told him Travis still continued to call her *urgh* Katie-Kat.

Katie swung an extra-hard blow at Travis’ chest, which he narrowly blocked with his shield. As soon as her sword struck his shield, a loud sound filled the air.

Katie stared at him in disbelief. “A Whoopee-Cushion? Seriously?”

“You said any kind of distraction,” Travis retorted as he struck a blow at her thigh, which she narrowly dodged.

“So I did,” she replied, as she parried a blow with her shield.

“You’ve gotten better since our last sparring match,” she noted.

Travis looked at Katie with surprise. She actually complimented him. No, this must be part of her master plan to throw him off his mark. “Well, Katie-Kat, with the prophecy and Percy’s sixteenth coming up, we had better up our game.”

“Wow, that’s actually a decent idea,” Katie replied, striking with extra force as payback for the use of her nick-name, “but you’re never going to beat me. You do know that.”

But, that wasn’t entirely true. Katie wasn’t kidding when she said that Travis’ combat skills had improved. He was faster, and Katie was beginning to struggle. This situation required drastic measures. She had come up with this new strategy the night before. It wouldn’t work very well on the battle field, but in friendly combat with the Stolls, it would work just fine.

Katie was hoping that she wouldn’t have to use her new strategy, and was too busy debating the pro’s and con’s in her head that she didn’t notice it when Travis locked her sword in his. She was snapped out of her gaze a second too late; Travis had sent her sword flying across the arena.

“Looks like I won, Katie-Kat,” Travis said smugly, sword to her throat.

But Katie shook her head, “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Stoll.”

“Wha-” Travis was cut off when Katie did the most unexpected thing in the world. She had grabbed the front of his T-shirt, looked him in the eyes…and kissed him. Yes, Kathryn Gardner, Daughter of Demeter and publicly labeled Stoll Twins #1 Worst Nightmare, was kissing Travis Stoll. Any onlooker would have been so confused, that his brain would end up pouring out his ear into a puddle on the floor.

Travis was so surprised, that he dropped his sword and shield, but quickly melted into the kiss; his brain crumbling and turning to mush. He kissed her back, unaware of anything that was going on around him. All he saw was him and Katie. (As mentioned before, his brain is now a puddle of seawater on the floor of the arena)

Katie was shocked. He kissed her back? Katie thought that the Stoll twins pranked her and her cabin because they didn’t like her. She had never even considered that it was because Travis had feelings for her and wanted to be noticed.

Katie was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she forgot what she was doing. She was kissing TRAVIS STOLL. She quickly pulled away, grabbed her sword and shield and turned around to face a completely befuddled Travis Stoll. While he was still in his dazed state, she held her sword to his throat said, “I believe that I won that match. Oh and just so you know,” she glared at him, “I still hate you.”

And without another word, Katie stormed out of the arena praying that no-one else saw the incident that had just occurred.