Thorn In My Side

Iris

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The first thing that went missing was one of her books that was a guide to flowers. The language of flowers. She didn't think much of it until she found it again under her bed, with several pages of notes. New notes, that weren't in her hand writing. Still she didn't care, probably one of her siblings.

The next thing out of place was an iris plant, it was a small one that sat on her night stand. It had appeared when she had woken up. It was a plant, so she didn't mind. 

For Katie Gardner, plants where the only thing that could be out of place. She liked things neat and tidy. Clean and pristine. For her, everything had it's own place, everything had to be perfect. Not to perfect, but perfect enough. But when it came to her plants she didn't care, as long as they were happy, she was happy. As long as they grew, she could be calm. But aside from plants, she liked things to be organised, she liked routines. And she did not like little bumps along the road that messed up her plans.

And that was exactly why Katie Gardner didn't like the Stoll brothers.

They were two thorns in her side.

* * *

She smiled at her sibling as they made their way to breakfast.

"Hey, Gardner!"

She looked over in time to get a full face of water. She spluttered and wiped her eyes. "You weren't  supposed to turn your head." Her friend scolded.

"Bella, I hate you."

"Good morning to you too." Her friend said a few words under her breath and then Katie was dry. The daughter of Hecate linked arms with her and smiled.

"Thanks."

"Hey, what are friends for?"

"Pouring water on you?"

Bella rolled her eyes as they entered the dining pavilion, she walked with the rest of the Demeter cabin to their table and sat down next to Katie. She leaned forward, "What's happened so far for you?"

"I found an Iris plant, it was on my bedside table in a small pile of dirt."

"An Iris? Wow, how interesting." Someone behind her scoffed, as he passed by.

Knowing who it was, Katie ignored the son of Hermes, "I'm going to plant it after breakfast."

Bella smiled, "I'll help you plant it later. But for now... Food." Katie nodded as Bella stood up, looking around for Chiron. She waved good bye to Katie and ran to her table as Chiron entered. He must have seen something because he paused, glanced at Katie, then at Bella, raised his eyebrows, then continued.

Katie caught her friend's eye from across the room and the two of them burst into laughter.

She led Bella down one row, they were next to the small green house, the one Charles Beckendorf had built for the Demeter cabin. Most of the plants in here where hers, the majority of her siblings spent their time outside, she did too, of course, but Beckendorf had always had a special place in her heart, and it made her feel closer to him to walk in a space he had created. Or next to it, as she was today, in her part of the growing space. It was full of a random assortment of plants and flowers. There were even more in the greenhouse.

She smiled as she cupped the small flower in her hands, kneeling down she began to make a small hole. "Why are you digging a hole?" Bella asked, "You have one right there." She pointed to a small hole in the earth, close to another Aloe plant. Katie frowned as she set the plant in the dirt, "This is from my garden..."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"Katie, why in the world would anyone take plants from your garden?"

She shrugged as she gently packed the dirt around the plant.

"Maybe they did it as a prank..." Kat mused.

Katie shot to her feet, "The Stoll's."

"What?"

"One of the Stoll brothers. They know I find them annoying, this is probably one of their little jokes."

"I might be." Bella smiled, "You should play along, see if it's actually them."

"Why not go wring their necks now?"

"If it's not them, you'll just be giving them a new prank idea."

"True." Katie sighed, "I'll wait then, but I bet you five drachmas that it's the Stoll brothers."

"You've got yourself a deal, my friend."

The two girls shook on it.

yo, yo, yo. this is my new story, it's a tratie fanfic if you can't tell and i'm soooooo excited about it! leave a vote and a comment to let me know you enjoyed it. for this one i'm only going to update it if i know people are going to read it, because i have other books i try to update on a regular basis.

so i figured i would try doing a vote/comment system. how this works is at the bottom of each chapter i will put something along the lines of...77382639 votes and 743787487 comments until i update this again!  (these are hypothetical numbers of course... the numbers will be a lot lower...)

also if anyone wants to make a child of Demeter OC, a child of Hephaestus OC, that would be great! I might use them in stories, you can DM me the character and i'll give you more info! i might not chose your character but will eventually use them in something.
hope you like the story!

today's actual goal is 4 votes and 3 comments until i update again!

Love ya,

Rose

ps. a great big thanks to @PURPLEleopardKAT for the new character and for being my new internet friend! you're the best!