Work Text:
In love and war everything is allowed.
The Athena cabin had officially declared a state of emergency. The Ares cabin had then completely barricaded itself. The Aphrodite cabin had taken out the golden barbed wire and the Apollo children had gone so far as to lock windows and doors with pianos and cupboards. In the Hephaistos cabin, a new, improved alarm system was feverishly tinkered with. So in general, every single cabin in the camp was more than just on guard.
Everyone, even the Hermes cabin, which was more than unusual. And why? Well, because the threat probably didn't come from their own cabin. Or maybe? Nobody really understood that; it was the purest mystery. It all started when Travis and Connor played such a well-thought-out prank to the Demeter cabin that they couldn't be held accountable for. Even though everyone, of course, knew they were. Chiron had his rules, and you couldn't break them. For the protection of the innocent or something. As if Travis and Connor had ever been innocent. Accordingly, there was still no penalty for the two.
Which meant Katie was angry. Extremely angry. But she couldn't deal alone with the two sons of Hermes, so Miranda had stepped in to get Connor while Katie chased Travis through the camp. Near the lake, she had finally caught up with him. And that, just that, was the moment that would lead the camp into its downfall.
With a shrill battle cry, she tackled him and nailed him to the ground.
"I want a confession, immediately!" she yelled at him.
"Never, Katie-kat. You should have figured that already though.”
"What the fuck went wrong in your brain that you enjoy such a stupid thing!?"
"Oh, you're just jealous because you could never do anything like that."
"I bet with you, I could do this a hundred times better. Unlike you, I actually have a spark of intelligence."
Travis grinned at her from below and Katie realized instantly that she had made a big mistake.
"The bet is on."
„What? “
"You bet you could do it a hundred times better. I mean, playing pranks. I bet against it, you could never do it even a little bit better. Now all we have to do is discuss the betting period and the stake."
Katie stared angrily at him, but then crawled down from him so he could get up. She thought for a moment. But how goes that stupid saying? Fight fire with fire.
"Anyone who has played more pranks over the course of a month that could not be connected to one has won. Betting partners are just you and me, so no help from Connor or anything like that."
"Deal! And when I win, you will kneel before me and worship me as your new God, and then be my slave for a week. The worship, of course, takes place in front of the assembled camp."
She sternly looked at him, then held her hand and said, "And if I win, you worship me instead, and you are my slave for a week. Deal?"
"Deal!" he shook her hand.
Katie didn't even have the time to process what she was getting into when Travis said, "Come on, we need to clarify how and where we're holding our score. Do you think we need a neutral judge or should should we do it ourselves? "
"A neutral judge does not exist in this camp. You are a Hermes child, you can certainly find a chalkboard or something like that? Behind the three rocks in the forest is an entrance to the labyrinth. We can put up the board and record our points."
"Good idea, Gardner. I swear to be honest in my score. I can win this fairly." "Well, I also swear to honesty. But only with the score."
"Right. In war, love and pranks, everything is allowed." Katie nodded at him and then walked back into her cabin. She passed the Apollo cabin where Connor was already sitting. He looked at her and asked,"Is my brother still alive? " "Still. But you can tell him that sooner or later he will worship me as his goddess. The loser has no chance."
Connor and a few others looked at her completely confused, then a voice shouted from a tree: "No way, Gardner! If one of us becomes the others god, it will be me. You will go down and the whole camp with you! You should never have bet with a Hermes son!" "We'll see, Stoll," Katie said, running through the door of her cabin. At least now the whole camp was completely confused. However, this was not a novelty with Travis and Katie, so it was forgotten relatively quickly.
It wasn't until Katie arrived at her hut that she realizes how stupid this bet was. She had just embarked on a prank war with the prank king of the camp. Frustrated, she sighed and thought about how she could start the whole thing now. Just as she knew the Stoll idiot, he would start slowly assuming he would win anyway. So she would have to build up a head start. In addition, it would be harder for him to play pranks that no one could attribute to him, as everyone saw him as a suspect from the beginning.
Making a decision, Katie sat down on her bed with pen and paper and wrote down all the pranks that came to her. Ironically, she took Travis as a template. Beat him with his own means.
Travis, meanwhile, got a chalkboard. He didn't even have to make a big effort to do that. He simply took the one that was stored in the far left corner of the cabin under the floor boards. He didn't know who had stolen it; that had been in Luke's time. Without attracting much attention, he pushed the board into the forest to the labyrinth entrance that Katie had mentioned. In fact, there was only one large room behind it. He pushed the board into the middle and took chalk from his pocket. With large craggy letters he wrote: "STOLL – GARDNER PRANK WAR SCORE"
Underneath, he drew a line to divide the board in the middle and wrote his name on the left and Katie's on the right. Satisfied with his work, he left the chalk there and went back to his cabin. He knew full well that his side of the board would be much fuller than hers at the end of the month. He laughed. The camp would go down with this. Then he decided to give Katie an early start. He already had some pranks in mind, but he wouldn't start with them until Katie had her first point. He would also have to discuss the matter with the Demeter daughter again. After all, they had not explained how the points were distributed. Were there bonus points for many people at the same time or even an entire cabin? Point deduction should you be caught? Yes, he would probably have to break into her room again tonight.
And so it happened that evening that Travis found his enemy in her bed, surrounded by notes and a pen in her hand. When Katie realized who had entered through her window, she hissed, "What do you want here, Stoll?" and pushed all the notes away from the Hermes son's field of vision.
"What do you have?" he asked curiously. "Nothing that would concern you. You want to win it fair, don't you?"
"Wait... were they collections of ideas? For pranks?"
"Possibly." "Okay, I don't want to panic you now, but I think I'm slightly aroused." "Oh fuck you. What do you want here?"
"Oh, yes! I have thought about a few more things we need to clarify!"
"And that would be?" "Point one: If you play a prank on multiple people at the same time, is that considered as one point or do you get as many points as affected people were involved? Point two: Should you be able to have a prank traced back to you, you will get a point deduction and if so, how high?"
Katie seemed to think: "No point deduction. I think we'd just fight about that. If you are recognized as the evildoer, you simply do not get a point for this prank."
"All right, sounds acceptable."
"As far as the multi-person pranks are concerned, I think you get one point per capita. Makes sense, doesn't it? Big pranks also require more preparation and everything after all."
"Katie, if you keep talking so much about the art of playing pranks it’s going to make me kind of horny."
Katie made strangley noises and then said: "Don't talk that much shit and put your energy into planning. Or do you want to be my slave voluntarily? Then we can skip the whole bet."
"Oh no, you're not getting out of this so easily, no chance, Katie."
"Good. Would you get lost now and take care of the problem in your pants on your own or do I have to throw you out."
Travis laughed and said, "I'm going, I’m going! But be sure that I'll think of you tonight."
He winked at her and jumped out of the window. Katie just rolled her eyes. Well, this whole thing could still be funny with this idiot. She thought about bringing Miranda into the loop for a moment, but she quickly dismissed the idea. That would only be counterproductive. Because on one hand Miranda, by gods, could not keep a secret to safe herself and would thus be a hindrance to her in the pranks herself and on the other hand Katie had no desire to listen to the moral sermon. Because Miranda was good at that. Katie quickly shook off the thought and took out her notes again. Until now, it had mainly one-person pranks. In the long run, that could come back to bite her.
So, she sorted all the pranks for one person on a stack to the left of her and started in the middle a stack for several people and small groups and on the right a stack for whole cabins. She doubted that she would get a lot of sleep tonight. In addition, she decided to start with one of the cabin-pranks in order to build up a decent lead immediately.
The next morning, Travis wasn't too surprised to be woken up by angry roars at his cabins’ door. This was nothing special in itself, it was cabin eleven after all. However, this time he was unaware of whose prank it was which he was usually made aware of. For alibi reasons. Wait. No. Never. Not his prank hating betting pardner. Already? Suddenly awake, he got up, put a shirt on and dared to leave the cabin to face death. Even despite Connor staring out of the window with panic in his face. Outside stood the entire Ares cabin with pink weapons. Oh, holy mother of all gods. She couldn’t be serious, could she?
"Stoll!" Clarisse yelled at him.
"Clarisse, you don't need to shout my name like that, I'm already standing right in front of you. What's up?"
"What's up? What is up, the good man asks? What do you think is up you idiot? I'm going to smash her head in like a peach!"
"But why me? I didn't do anything!" "Oh yes, of course! Do you really think I would believe this? Do I look that stupid?" "No, seriously, Clarisse. The prank is not mine and as far as I know, it is not Connors either. Could it be that you upset some other Hermes child? I mean, they're not going to come out here anyway, but then at least you're chasing the right one."
"Stoll, don't believe your hypocritical fuss will work with me." "Then bring me one, just one little proof, that it was me, Clarisse. If you can, you can do whatever you want with me. But it wasn't me, so I doubt you'll find anything.' Clarisse growled at him angrily. She clearly hadn't brushed her teeth yet. Then she turned around and yelled to her siblings, "You heard him. One proof and we can do whatever we want with him. So, I suggest we're now collecting at least ten!" "Yes, ma’am, yes!" the rest of the Ares cabin shouted back and swarmed out.
Meanwhile, Travis counted all the affected Ares children together. He couldn’t believe it. One night and the good Miss Gardner already had 17 points. And he was even willing to make 20 out of it, as a danger bonus. Wow. He had probably underestimated the little plant lady a bit. Now he just hoped the children of Ares couldn’t find anything they might be able to vaguely connect to him. Perplexed Travis looked towards Demeter’s cabin. This little beast hid a grin behind her hand, he was one hundred percent sure! The arousal was almost coming back. But only almost. Oh yes, the game is on, Miss Gardner.
He saw her running towards the forest and was sure she would now enter her 17 points. He could add the three additional points for her later. Shaking his head, he turned around and went back to the cabin. He had his honor, so he pretended that he had no clue about whose prank this was.
"Okay, that was definitely enough. Who was that?" he shouted to his siblings in the cabin. His answer was silence. Until Connor said, "So... you really didn’t do it?" "Nope. And I would like an answer soon. Come on, who was it? You know very well that we can't cover anything we don't know about." Still general silence. No wonder, the real culprit was not here after all. But Travis Stoll wouldn't be Travis Stoll if he wasn't a master of acting. Unnerved, he sighed and grabbed his forehead. "Okay, then not. Your problem. But I swear to you, if they find anything that makes it look like the prank was by me, I will find out and will personally kill you. If I'm not able to do that because of what the Ares kids will do to me, Connor will avenge me. Right?" Connor nodded eagerly and looked darkly into the round, as if to illustrate the threat.
The frustration was clearly written in the faces of the Areschildren when they could not find a single piece of evidence all day long. Travis, on the other hand, was only impressed against his will once again. Katie had made a truly unique debut. When darkness fell over the camp that day, he stood again in front of Katie's window. This time, he even knocked. However, he waited for no answer and simply got back. Before Katie could kick him, he said: "Okay respect, that was a stylish start to our bet. Twenty points on the first day. And yes, twenty. I think a danger bonus is needed for Ares children. One point for one person, two for a group and three for the whole cabin. Agreed?" "Agreed." "Then congratulations. It was a feat. Oh and something else. In the Hermes cabin I covered you. Something else has occurred to me. Namely-." "That we shouldn't blame each other?" "Uhh, that's exactly what I wanted to say." "Well, I'm just not as slow as you, Stoll. So, I swear that I don't spread fake evidence that make you look like the culprit in my pranks." "That’s good. I swear I won't either. I'm also going to pretend I don't have the slightest idea who else it could be besides my siblings." "Thank you. And do you have anything else to say now?" "Um, no?" "Well, then get fucking lost and never just get into my room like that again!" "I will never promise you that, my dearest Katie-kat."
He grinned at her and jumped out of the window. There he had left a few things he didn't want to take into Katie's room and sprinted into the darkness with them. Time to improve his score.
The next morning, the camp watched distraught as the entire Aphrodite cabin ran around with one-meter-long false nails as they attempted to cut each other's fingernails. The emphasis was on attempted. In addition, Pollux from the Dionysus cabin now had a short, blue punk hairstyle. But that was almost a side issue. There were currently 14 people living in the Aphrodite cabin, so the score was 21 to 14 for Katie that evening. And from then on, the points just started to fly. The camp was given almost no break. Floating mariachi bands chasing the Apollo children. Cake filled with mustard for dinner. Pink, blue, green, colorful glittering cabin walls. Hair colors in all possible variations. Hairstyles that made some Aphrodite children wanting to cry. Replaced weapons, chairs, cupboards, other items. Some incidents with various super glues. Felixe (a subspecies of the running table – patent of the Hekate cabin) everywhere. Talking rabbits that philosophized in front of the campers. A purple glittering beach, yes, the entire beach. Floating and flying breakfast ingredients. Attacking forks.
And so on and so on. And with that the state of emergency was declared. Because it wasn't Travis and Connor. No, they were far too confused by some of the pranks, sometimes even taking notes in public. There was also this one incident. The one incident in which the entire Hermes cabin received a face update overnight. It had never, ever in the entire history of Camp Halfblood happened, that people were awakened in the morning by a scream coming from cabin eleven.
And then when a rather angry Connor stepped out of the hut with a perfect "sad clown" make-up on his face, some people really started to fear this ominous culprit. His brother, the matching happy clown, had only been silent and then asked Chiron to use some paint to paint over the message inside the cabin. What message? Oh, the huge, pink "You're about to find your master, you losers!".
Travis was speechless. And also a little proud. Okay, delete that. He was damn proud. Katie really had it in her. That evening he waited for her at the scoreboard. It had already been two weeks, halftime, and the score was now 287 to 279 for Travis. He would have never believed in his whole life that it would be so tight. Nor that these numbers would be so high so quickly. He looked at the points again and knew that she would shoot ahead of him again with today's action. 26 points for each child of Hermes, including him, and 2 respect-special-points.
When Katie slipped through the entrance, he immediately asked, "How? How did you manage this without waking any of us up?" "Yesterday we had cake, Stoll." "And?" "No child of Hermes can resist this. So maybe, purely by chance, maybe, I've dropped a little bit of a sleeping potion into the dough. You know, completely by mistake."
"Shit. Shit! You're a genius! Katie Gardner, I'm just so in love with you right now, that's not funny anymore. Respect. That’s your first time doing this regularly and you’re killing it. My cabin is almost scared of you, Katie-kat! I'm so proud of you, you won't believe it.'
Katie grinned a little proudly. She would never admit it in front of the idiot, but she actually had fun. She could somehow understand why he was doing it all the time. Then she walked up to the board and added her points. Travis added the two respect points after that. Katie didn't even question it; their list of special arrangements had grown steadily over the past two weeks and was now almost illegible written on a piece of paper on the right side of the board. She simply assumed that Travis had already added another point.
Out of pure curiosity, she then asked, "How did you get the face painting off so quickly?" "Sweetheart, we are Hermes children. We have our tricks." "Okay, that's fair.”
Travis looked at her with his head tilted, then suddenly he said: "It's weird to meet you outside at night, Katie. Have you ever come across someone else?" "Yes, once. Connor. It was amazingly easy to get out of that situation." "Oh, tell me." "Well, this is not a big story. I have claimed, unlike him, I have a permission to be outside to pour the night anemones. Small spoiler: There are no night anemones. I claimed that they can only be watered at night because sunlight and water together would kill them. I threw thousands of botanical terms into my sentences and made half a sermon out of it. He didn't even question me and fled as quickly as he could.' Travis laughed. "Katie, I’m falling for you more and more! Night anemones, fuck, I’ll remember that. I'm going to take the piss out of him for that a little bit. Any other stupid stories?" "I'd have one or two more. But I’ll only tell you if you give me some of your own stories in return.”
The next morning, for once, the camp did not wake up because of a prank, which made people almost even more suspicious. But there was really nothing going on, after all Travis and Katie had spent their half-time break telling stories in the labyrinth. By the time they had both sneaked into their beds, the sun had almost risen again and the smile was constantly carved into their tired faces.
And Travis had to admit that ever so slowly his joke became reality. He was genuinely drawn to the Demeter daughter. Maybe it was the phenomenal pranks she played, but he got the feeling that he was just the time he spent with her so much time at the moment. And that's a time when they weren't screaming at each other, they were just friends.
Meanwhile, Katie had a similar problem. But for her it was clear that these were just some kind of crazy ideas caused by stupid teenager hormones. The idiot was by no means charming or even attractive. She spent only too much time in his territory. That was all.
After three weeks, Katie was still undetected, while Travis didn't get any points for two small pranks. The score was now 412 to 417 for Katie, but that was almost not a relief for the daughter of Demeter. The whole thing was far too close and slowly but surely she ran out of ideas. And at the same time, she had to deal with this stupid Hermes son, who constantly distracted her. Why did he have to be so annoying, stupid, idiotic, funny, handsome, distracting, cocky, interesting and... she did it again. She had listed good things about him in an angry voice and by now she was sure she was still losing her mind. Meanwhile, Travis had a very different problem. He had too many ideas. In itself, this would not be a problem if he had only had an influence on the goal of the ideas. Because yes, some of the ideas were for new pranks. But just over 80% were only increasingly stupid ideas that could bring him Gardner's attention. Possibly. Maybe. Gods, he really was screwed.
On the last evening of their bet, the two met twenty minutes before midnight at their scoreboard. They had decided that everything would be over at midnight and the winner would be crowned. It was already terribly close. Both looked at each other and then took a piece of chalk to mark the remaining points of the last day. They definitely took their time, but when all the points were added up, they looked at each other in surprise.
"I can't believe this," Katie said.
"A tie. 532 to 532," Travis said apathetically.
"What do we do in the event of a tie?" asked Katie with her head tilted. "Well. Nothing, right? Nobody won."
"Oh no, Stoll. I do not agree with that. I didn't torment my brain for a month with various pranks for such a sobering result!" "Well, do you have a better idea?" She seemed to think feverishly. Then her gaze brightened and she said: "The actual bet was one week of slave labour, so we stick with it a little bit. At point twelve, we may give each other a command that the other must execute. Deal?" Travis thought, then he nodded and confirmed, "Deal."
So they sat down on the cold ground and thought about their command. Travis knew for a long time what he would make her do. "Who can say his command first?" he asked. "Stone, paper, scissors?" He nodded and held his fist to her. A moment later, Katie groaned annoyed. Paper against stone, Travis was allowed first. And when the clock finally showed midnight, he said, "My command is: Kiss me."
Katie looked at him in shock, then her gaze wandered down in shame. She took a deep breath, then she bent over to him and Travis could swear he was going to melt into a puddle of pure bliss. His prank goddess kissed him, which was pretty much the best moment of his life.
When they broke off again, he asked, "Was that... okay?" "Yes. I think I even liked it." She looked down again embarrassed, but Travis already had the biggest grin on his face. Shortly after, he kissed her again and somehow she suddenly sat on his lap. She had put her hands on his cheeks and looked him deep in the eye after her kiss. "Travis?" she asked. "Hmm?" came the mindless response. "My command is: Run through the camp tomorrow in a pink summer dress and tell everyone how in love you are with me."
"Oh, come on!"
Epilogue: The pink summer dress
"I hate you so much, Katie." "No, you don't." "No, I don't." Travis sighed. With one last look at his slave driver, he entered the Aphrodite cabin. It was almost one o'clock at night, there was no one awake here. Unnoticed, he sneaked around the beds and then went to Michelle-Antoinette's wardrobe. She was the biggest girl in the whole cabin and therefore the same size as him. And if he had to wear a pink summer dress, he would at least like it to be in his size.
In the dark, of course, it was difficult to see the color of the dresses, so he quickly took a lighter out of his pocket to check. Yellow, yellow, light blue, purple, blue, red, white, aha! Pink. Putting the lighter back into his pocket, he grabbed the dress and disappeared out of the hut as quickly as he went in. Outside, Katie was sitting on a tree. He almost wouldn't have noticed her if she hadn't moved a little bit. The pride came up in him again.
He quickly went to the tree and said, "Katie, your hiding places are really amazing and all that, but we should go to bed." "Your bed or mine?" she asked cheekily. "Yours?" he replied without thinking about it. When he realized what he had just said, he could only see Katie staring at him in shock. "That was a joke, Stoll," she quipped. "It's a pity. Well, then everyone goes into their own bed and I have to take care of my problem as always. You torment me, Katie-kat." Katie just groaned in agony.
After a farewell kiss, they both marched into their respective cabins and Travis had no desire for tomorrow to come. On the other hand, this would probably be a new entry in the book of abstruse days and that was an achievement in itself. Tired, he climbed into his bed, stowing the dress under his pillow.
The next morning, he stood in front of the mirror in boxer shorts and stared at himself. He looked briefly at Connor and said, "We already clarified that pink isn't my color, right?" "Uhm, how did that topic come to your mind now?” Connor answered half-dead from his bed.
“I just want you to know for sure that I don't do this voluntarily. It was a bet." Now Connor was sitting vertically in bed. Curiously, he looked at him and asked, "A bet? You lost a bet? You?" "Well... not really lost. It ended in a tie, so everyone got only a piece of their bet, in short." "And what do you have to do now?"
Travis then looked at his brother in agony and pulled out the pink dress under his pillow. Connor began to laugh suddenly. With this wonderful background noise, Travis dressed up and then stared back into the mirror. When his brother slowly calmed down again, he said, "If only the dress had been everything."
"Oh gods! What else?" "I'm head over heels in love with Katie Gardner." "Excuse me, what?!" "I have to tell that everyone. Damn, I never thought betting with Katie would be so hard.'
"Excuse me, what?!" Connor repeated.
Travis shrugged, took a deep breath and headed to the door. He stepped out of his room and shouted, "Hermes cabin! Up! Soon there's breakfast and there I see my beautiful, beloved Katie again and if anyone takes that from me, I’ll make you regret that! " The facial expressions were ridiculously funny, and Travis couldn't help but grin. Perhaps the day would actually be more than amusing. Again, he turned to Connor and asked, "So, how do I look? Should I put on make-up?" "Why not?" Connor said, and Travis just laughed. Maybe another time.
When the entire Hermes cabin had gathered standing behind their head counselor, he led them outside with determination. With a self-confidence that only a Stoll could have, he strolled for breakfast. He was fully aware of all the strange looks he got, and he literally bathed in the attention. When he saw Katie with her cabin, his face lit up.
He cheerfully shouted load enough half the place could hear him: "Oh Katie, my beloved, beautiful, perfect girlfriend! I'm so glad to see you, I can't live without you anymore!" You could clearly see how Katie had to stop herself from laughing. She just shook her head and walked on towards the dining pavilion.
Travis took a theatrical pose and called, "No! Don't leave me, oh you my goddess! My dearest Katie!" Then he couldn't stop laughing and ran after her into the pavilion. When he arrived next to her, he pushed into her side and said, "Good morning, beautiful. And did you imagine my outfit to be like that?" "Travis? You look beautiful."
"Thank you very much! I was thinking about putting on a bit of make-up, but all we had in the Hermes cabin was this specific make-up remover that you need to remove clown paint. But you know enough about that, don't you?"
He just grinned at her, didn't even wait for an answer, and then declared aloud, "Well, I'll get a bowl of cereal in order pay homage to my new goddess." In front of Katie, he made a not very graceful curtsey and ran off to get some food. By now the whole camp had started to murmur amongst themselves about him, but that only amused him magnificently.
With his bowl of cereal, he then sat down at his table next to Connor, who asked him directly, "Okay, can you please explain to me what this bet was all about?"
"If you like. Do you remember this message in our cabin when we were all facepainted?" "Um, yes. It's hard to forget.' "That was Katie." "WHAT?!?," Connor shouted, suddenly catching the attention of the entire camp. He was not interested in it much, he just screamed in dismay: "You are trying to tell me that Katie Gardner, THE Katie Gardner, boring, stick-up-her-ass Katie Gardner broke into our cabin, painted all our faces, didn't wake anyone up and then smeared on our back wall? Are you kidding me?"
And even before Travis could answer, Katie shouted at him, "I said you found your master! Your fatal mistake, by the way, was the cake." Travis saw this as the perfect moment to throw in: "I love her!" And Connor looked like he didn't know if he should start laughing or crying. Meanwhile, the whole camp was staring at Katie. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well, I can't lose a bet against that guy. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do." At this moment, Travis interjected: "Against that guy? That guy has a name! Either that or a title." "What kind of title? Greatest idiot of all time?" "Nope. Katie's boyfriend," he replied with a grin. "Okay, all I would say now would be an insult to myself," Katie said, devoting herself to her cereal without another word. "Awww. She loves me. She's just not so good at showing that," Travis said, then confined herself to staring at her lovingly. Connor, meanwhile, seemed to be at the brink of a breakdown.
After breakfast, Travis sprinted to Katie's side as quickly as she could and gave her a big kiss on the cheek. "And how is my goddess doing today?" he asked with a grin. Katie just raised an eyebrow and asked, "What are you going to do, Stoll?" "What do you mean?" "I see this expression in your face. That's the 'I'm about to do something extremely stupid’- expression. Just please, don’t involve me in whatever it is." "But Katie, you're already a vital part of it!" he exclaimed cheerfully. The brief expression of panic that slid over Katie's face only made him grin more broadly. "Stoll," she growled, and Travis said, "If my love wants me to tell everyone how much I love her while wearing a pink dress, of course I'd love to do that. If I can make my love be ashamed of herself afterwards, that is of course something I like to do." "Oh no..." Katie muttered, and Travis took her defenseless body in her arms. While he was holding her in his arms, he began to sing. How beautiful her green eyes were, how cute she was while she slept. He sang crooked and of tone about her permanent rose scent, the way she slept all tangled up in her sheets and at the latest after a whole stanza dedicated to Katie's right middle finger; the entire camp lay tears around her laughing.
Katie had obviously given up. She leaned her head against his chest and in between his singing whined what a bad betting partner Travis was after all. But he didn't care much. He kept singing about Katie's prank notes, the night anemones and pink weapons, the mariachi band and the clown faces, the message on the wall of the Hermes Hut and how horny she made him by besting him in his own game.
Under the roar and laughter of the campers, he sang about himself as he fell from trees overwhelmed by Katie's beauty. His final verse was about how sexy he found it when she hid on the roof of the Apollo cabin for half a day and that his libido couldn't stand so many greatly executed pranks.
And when he finally ran out of ideas and he had finished his song (if you can call it that at all), Katie slapped him in the face. Just to give him a little kiss on the cheek that she had just slapped.
"Okay you won, never again I will be betting with a child of Hermes” she said. Then she quietly added, "And by the way, I think you're really great." He just grinned at her and shouted out loud: "Perfect! I love you too, Katie-kat."