» 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖: it's finally me! i got v inspired to finish this shot that's been in my drafts forever. reminder that i've never read toa, so i'm just making all this up as i go. i imagine this is how rick would've written a chapter if travis had come back to camp from college.
» 𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕖: 1 / 7 / 22
» 𝕤𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕒𝕣𝕪: what would've happened if rick wrote tratie in at the end of toa
» 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕤: 2287 (sorry it's long lol)
. . .
Katie Gardner hadn't had much of a good day.
To start things off, Connor Stoll had given her an unpleasant surprise to wake up to: a handful of shaving cream to the face. The younger Stoll hadn't so much as looked her way in years, and all of a sudden he gave her a nostalgic wakeup. That made her feel annoyed from the beginning.
Then, three of her younger siblings had seemingly disappeared from breakfast and the rest of the cabin spent hours trying to find them, only to find them making gardening tools with Leo in the bunker. (He apologized profusely.) After that, Miranda and Katie were the only ones Chiron had scheduled to pick berries in the afternoon, so they were left to clearing out the rows by themselves.
Obviously, Katie found herself in a lackluster mood.
"Who's that?" She asked Miranda as they walked from the strawberry fields. The Gray Sisters' taxi almost never appeared at the steps of the Big House.
Miranda pushed a weary hand toward the hill. "You didn't know? Travis is visiting. He just graduated this weekend."
"Travis?"
The name left a familiar sensation ringing in her ears. The same Travis who'd picked on her endlessly for their entire childhood, the Travis who left them to their own devices while so much had happened? The Travis who put chocolate bunnies on her freshly-cut cabin roof?
"The one and only," Miranda said.
The same Travis who'd grown closer to her in their high school years only to leave her in the dredges of camp while he went off to college. The same Travis she'd gotten so fond of in their last couple of years knowing each other. The same Travis she missed every day, until she eventually forced herself to move on and shake herself free of her feelings.
Katie was not in the mood to see Travis.
So, she spun on her heels and trounced from Miranda, her bucket of strawberries swinging by her side. She would not want to see Travis. Definitely not.
Now, what Katie did not want to admit was that she did want to see him. Very badly, in fact. The past two years had been horrifically boring without the Stoll around to make her life interesting, and Connor had tamed drastically since his older brother was out of the picture. (Outside of the shaving cream that morning, Katie couldn't recall a single prank that was played on the Demeter cabin since Travis left, and even after they'd stayed in the Hermes cabin after theirs was being rebuilt, not a soul played a practical joke on them.)
When Travis left, he'd asked if Katie would ever consider college. She'd told him that she'd love to, but there was too much for her and Miranda to do around camp that she'd feel awful leaving her behind. They'd talked for hours, listing the pros and cons of college, Katie listing more cons than pros, before he admitted that he'd miss her.
It was suspicious, but also heart-wrenching.
Katie later found herself wandering out of her cabin regardless of her earlier claims, seeing that the taxi had left the Big House. He was at camp now. Somewhere, the older Stoll who'd captured her heart all those years ago was roaming the grounds. Somewhere, the Stoll who'd broken that same heart was walking around and reminiscing.
