| viii. spark of old pride |

4.8K 132 98
                                    

edited: 2 . 18 . 22

original word count: 1136

new word count: 1317

. . .

I actually woke up on time the next morning, and I was able to get my cabin out to breakfast like a counselor was supposed to do. I also joined them in walking to the pavilion, instead of hanging behind as I usually did. I was more confident that morning, and I had no idea why. (Okay, maybe I did, but I was pushing it as far back in my head as possible.)

The air was crisp as fall quickly approached, but it was a comfortable chill. I was happy for the shift in weather, because that meant I could wear my oversized sweaters to take advantage of the season. Making sure the little kids of the cabin were ready for the day, I was the last one out and shut the door behind me. I trailed behind my siblings, watching them play around with each other on the way to breakfast.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a band of Hermes kids fly by, hollering and whooping and causing a scene like normal. I scanned the group for Travis, but he wasn't there.

I hadn't so much as wondered where he was before his arms slid around my waist from behind me and his head settled on my shoulder. I stopped walking and allowed myself to revel in him, even though habit had me wanting to spin around and dropkick him.

His voice rumbled lazily, reverberating in my skull. "Morning, Katie-kat."

I hated how his lips tauntingly feathered across my neck as he spoke. I hated it. I hated it.

Still, I didn't pull away. "Get off, Stoll."

I really wished he wouldn't.

"You look cute." He nuzzled his face into my shoulder one more time before backing up.

Ignoring the thousands of butterflies that released into my stomach, I turned to look up at him. "Hey, about last night-"

He was gone.

Darn him and his Hermes ability to slink away.

I made it to the breakfast line and Natalie slipped up next to me. "So... how was your first date with your man?"

I scoffed, praising the gods I'd filled her in on the whole scheme to fake date so she didn't think it was actually real. "Mediocre. I didn't have to punch him, so that's a plus, I guess."

She chuckled. "I'd count that as a positive. Don't hurt me, okay, but you looked good together."

"I know, we're pretty good at acting, huh?" I sent her a stern look, telling her she'd better agree.

To that, Nat only raised her hands defensively. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say."

The food tasted different today. Better. More filling. I blamed it on the fact that we'd just restocked the kitchen with fresh fruits, not that Travis was beaming at me from across the tables separating us. If I could have blocked out his face, I would've in a millisecond. But I was stuck glancing over at him every few minutes, catching his eye and smiling back at him.

My siblings made the observation that I'd changed in the past few weeks. I was less snappy, I smiled more, I seemed to be in a better mood in general. I told them I was happy - I was so lucky to be with Travis.

It made me want to puke, but I said it anyways.

And they believed it.

During archery practice, I stood next to Travis' mark like I always did. This time, though, it was to bicker flirtatiously instead of threaten to shoot him in the foot. As strange as it was, it almost felt right. We hardly different from anything we did regularly, but instead of ending things with "I hate you", it would be "You're to adorable". Nobody around us looked as if things were out of place, and I was glad for that. If they acted like today was an out of the ordinary day, it would've been extra hard pretending.

"I can't focus on the target!" He lowered his bow and frowned.

I shook my head. "Maybe it's because you're not even aiming, dork."

"No, it must be because I've got my eyes on you."

Connor cackled from the other side of Travis. "That sucks, bro."

"Agreed." Fighting every urge in my body to smile at my fake boyfriend, I plucked an arrow from my quiver and notched it.

The sun tiptoed from behind the clouds, sending a gentle glow on the field. Campers either struggled or slept through the hour; children of Apollo were carelessly stringing their bows and hardly glancing at their targets before firing for a perfect shot, while pretty much everyone else was failing miserably or barely surviving. With the class coming to a close, nearly all the targets were freckled with arrows - all but two.

"Looks like you two were too busy flirting to do anything productive," Connor noted, inspecting our near-empty targets.

"The only reason I don't have a million bullseyes on that target is because someone was distracting me." Travis threw a look at me.

I narrowed my eyes. "Oh, really? And who was it that was trying to balance an arrow on his nose five minutes ago?"

"Hey, that was for scientific purposes!"

He's so infuriating.

But he's so cute.

Wait, what was that?

To distract myself from my unacceptable thoughts, I motioned to my bow. "Well, we're not allowed to leave until all our arrows are shot."

"You could have a contest," Connor piped up, eyes gleaming.

Travis raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "What kind of contest?"

"First person to get a bullseye wins." His brother grinned. "I'll ref!"

I shook my head. "I don't think I like where this is going."

"Aww, c'mon Katie-kat! Have some fun once in a while," Travis whined. "What are the stakes?"

Connor only needed a second to think before he stated, "Winner pranks loser, no holds barred."

Absolutely not.

Absolutely not was I about to go toe-to-toe with Travis in a bet that I had any sort of chance of losing, especially when I'd just gotten used to the idea of waking up prank-free. The best part of faking to date Travis was skipping past the annoying practical jokes he used to play on me; I wasn't about to give that up.

But Travis' face lit up like he was a kid on Christmas. He loved a good contest, and I hated to admit it, but the competitive part of me was eager to say yes. Was that something I was willing to risk? I'd endured the worst of the worst in the pranking department, surely I could survive one more. Still, one had to tread carefully when making deals with the Stolls. They were slippery when it came to that sort of thing - there was no guarantee that if I did win, they wouldn't prank me right back. Not to mention that I hadn't any idea what I would've even done if I won the stupid thing. Pranks weren't exactly my forte.

"It's okay if you're too scared Kates... I get it, really," Travis taunted.

And, in that moment, I felt a spark of indignation and a tidal wave of pride. "Ya know what? You're on, Stoll."

What was I thinking?

Ultimately, I decided it would be amazing to prank the unprankable Travis Stoll. I was sure that Connor would gladly assist in coming up with a prank so evil, so unimaginable that even Travis would be shocked. I'd get him so good that he'd be running for the hills. (That would solve more problems than one.)

However, if I lost, I figured the correct response would be to simply never show my face again, for safety reasons.

The grin that spread across his face terrified me.

"Just... no pranks endangering my cabin's wellbeing, yeah?"

He stuck his hand out, awaiting mine. "You've got yourself a deal, Kates."

I clasped his hand and shook it firmly, regretting intensely what I was getting myself into. "Prepare to be pranked, Stoll."

fake | tratie | EDITING |Where stories live. Discover now