Perfect Timing: a tratie story

August // Chapter 3

1430 words
Katie Gardener

"Can we please please please not go, Katie" my little sister, Claire, looks up at me and pulls on my arm

"You know I can't help the schedule, kiddo," I reply shaking my head

"but they painted my favorite patch of flowers black. And they always show off at sword practice," she frowns and stomps dramatically. It's pretty obvious that we both got our mother's temper

I bend down to sympathize "I know that, sweetheart, but hey, at least it's not archery with the Apollo cabin again" I smile and begin walking her along to catch up with the rest of the group. Claire does have a point though, as unbearable as the Hermes cabin is at normal activities, they're absolutely insufferable at sword training. Everyone knows that children of Hermes are fast, unfortunately, this means their reflexes in battle are incredible, and they like to throw that in their opponent's face constantly

Thinking about this, I sigh and pick up the pace to the arena. At least this is one of the last times I'll have to deal with them until next summer.

•••

After I've finished splitting people into pairs for sword practice I mentally prepare myself for what I'm about to have to do. You see, my biggest issue here is that counselors are always paired together for training exercises for the sake of fairness. That means I have to deal with a certain Stoll for about an hour.

"hey Katie-Kat, ready to lose a sparring match?" Travis asks teasingly as I approach

"you wish, Stoll" I glare

"now what's with the attitude, sunshine? Did I do something?" he smirks down at me getting his sword ready

I roll my eyes but feel my face heat up, mostly with anger, "don't ever call me sunshine"

with that, he starts the match, immediately taking the upper hand "whatever you say," he stops my attack with his sword and winks "sunshine"

we go on with the fight for a few more minutes. Occasionally he adds in sarcastic comments to throw me off, but mostly we're focused on staying one step ahead.

"Travis, I need a bandaid" a younger voice cries from somewhere to my left

at his name, Travis immediately drops his sword and smiles, his hands up in mock surrender "duty calls"

I watch as he runs over to a small unclaimed girl that's staying in cabin 11, she looks to be about ten and has scraped her knee. I smile as Travis distracts her from the pain by making her guess which of his hands the bandaid is in then making a big show of pulling it from behind her ear. After dealing with the mini crisis he walks back over to where I'm standing, seemingly unaware of how adorable what I just witnessed was.

"Sorry about that, where were we?" he smirks at me "oh right, I was letting you win"

I stare at him for a few seconds trying to force myself to make a sarcastic comment, but my mind is suddenly blank. I snap out of it and realize i've been looking into Travis's eyes for way too long, and I think I see him turn a little red "I didn't know you could be nice," I tease, trying to recover my composure

"I have my moments," Travis smiles sheepishly and moves one of his hands to the back of his neck just as Connor walks up, interrupting our conversation