Stoll Her Heart: Tratie's Story

7. White Snow White Rose

Here's the other short chapter you've been waiting for... Hopefully.

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Chapter 7
I see Connor the second I walk into our cabin. The cabin is empty beside him, but messy as usual. Sleeping bags are still strewn all over the floor. He is poring over some scrawled ideas for pranks at the desk next to our bunks. When he sees me come in, his eyes are bright as if he's excited. Then he seems to remember our argument and shuts his mouth.
For a minute I did nothing. Then I remember what Clovis said. The deed was done. Even if Connor might regret it, which I'm not sure if he does, it's done. I should support him and bring him back to normal life. There might be a way for him to respect our friends memories after all.
I walk over to Connor, who doesn't seem to notice me approaching. I look over his shoulder at the plan for a great prank- the one with the snow.
I cough lightly and he turns around, probably expecting me to yell at him again. Instead, I say, "maybe we can help you get back the good side of our memory. So we can remember them together."
Connor sighs, but agrees. "Sure. Now that you put it that way... and I don't remember why but it just seems like I should know some of it, just not, you know."
I nod toward the prank idea paper in front of him. He looks at it, then back at me. We look at each other, right into the other's matching deep blue eyes. We both smile at the same, the smile that the other campers would identify as sneaky and mischievous.
"Let's go?" Connor asked, though he knew what I would respond.
"Let's go do this!"
And we were off, fine again, to do what we knew best.
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"STOLLS!" Katie screeches from the edge of the woods. A great sound to hear once again. Connor and I emerge from the woods where we had launched our prank. Snow now covers the whole area behind the first set of cabins and into the woods. Not exactly a targeted prank, but Connor and I thought Camp needed a little something to make things interesting for everyone. Apparently Katie didn't think it was funny, but all the other campers seemed to be enjoying the change.
It did look pretty good. Bright white snow covers the grassy area and trees to make a mini winter wonderland. Campers from all cabins are coming to have some fun with it. Since we have the weather protection force field around the camps borders, we don't see rain or snow at all. Connor and I had worked especially to make something new that would get our fellow campers excited. How we got the snow there, that's a little secret we like to keep to ourselves. Pranking isn't just something we do for kicks; it's an art. Ha not.
Everyone is starting snowball fights and constructing snowmen. Percy and Annabeth seem to be building a wicked fancy igloo of Annabeth's own design. Percy doesn't seem to know exactly how she's doing it, but he puts the snow where she says anyway.
Connor and I high-five. "Memory Lesson 1: Pranking is one of the things we got from our journey here. Without everything you wiped, we never would have felt the need to pick up something new and fun." I explain. I hope Connor will really try to get back into our memories and learn to respect that.
Everything is going perfectly well. That is, until an insanely panicked Katie Gardener grabs me by the shoulders and maniacally her eyes meet mine.
At this point I'm confused. What's the big deal?
"GET IT AWAY GET IT AWAY NOW!" she yells at me. She's practically crying, her green eyes becoming watery and crazed.
"It's just snow, Katie, it's not gonna kill everything in existence"
"No no no no no" she mutters to herself and quickly turns around, dragging me behind her. She stops at a lump of snow. Kneeling down, she digs into the snow and then we can see the top branches of a... White rose bush? She keeps digging and I know at this point she's definitely crying. Sobbing, in fact. We are a little bit away from everyone else, it seems quiet over here.
She's desperately digging in the snow as I stand behind her not quite comprehending what her panic is. "Um, what exactly are you doing? I know you care about your flowers but you have plenty more...And honestly, me and Connor didn't even know this was here. We thought we weren't hitting any of your things"
"Well you did, ok? And this is the absolute last one I would want you touching! Every single thing, you just have to ruin! Every single thing..." Katie's voice cracks again and sobs more. I kneel down next to her trying to see if I was missing something. No, looks like just a regular rose bush to me. When I say this to her, she doesn't seem pleased.
"Why?", I ask, "Don't you have plenty of roses?"
At this, she stops digging and sits back on her heels, boots crunching into the snow behind us. "You-you don't get it."
Still confused.
Yet she continues, "You have to get it away, it"ll die! It cannot die, it can't". She gets back to digging the snow around it but it's still cold. The bush will probably not bloom after this, but why was it so bad that she's so devastated?
"Why do you care so much, just tell me why this bush 'can't die'," I scrunch my eyebrows and look around to see if Connor is watching this, but no one is around. I stand up. Maybe she's just freaking because we've never done snow before. She's probably never had to deal with it and maybe she thinks all her bushes will die just because of this section of snow. I can't think of any other reason why she would care so much. She's still sobbing and trying so save the bush but she's starting to succumb to her doubts, which just makes her cry harder. Part of me wants to comfort her and tell her everything's fine. I'd bring her to her cabin and tell her to just calm down and get some rest. I honestly wouldn't mind that, which I find is weird for me to be thinking. Yet when I open my mouth to say something, she abruptly stands up and puts up her hand. "Just don't, Travis. Don't. You've already done enough," and she storms off, struggling to get through the deep snow.
All I'm thinking is what's up with her?

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Author note
Remember the story behind that bush?
See chapter 4 if you need to find out what it issss