Impossible? I Think Not: A Tratie story

Chapter 4

Katie woke up to a loud scream coming from the Athena cabin. Seconds later, more screams followed.

Jumping out of bed, she shuffled into a pair of flats and ran out the door after Miranda. When they got to the cabin, they saw Percy sprinting through the door, probably thinking it was Annabeth.

But instead, he can back out carrying a tiny six year old who had just showed up the other night. She was shaking, clutching onto his collar. Nobody was yelling inside, but the Athena campers filed out, some looking sheepish and others just looking traumatised.

The crowd started to disperse once they realized there was no danger, but Katie walked forward, seeing Percy, Annabeth and the little girl, Emerald, huddled together.

"Hey, Sweetheart, you okay?" she asked tentatively, stepping closer to to young daughter of Athena.

She nodded weakly, mumbling, "Sp-spider."

Lou Ellen came up next to Katie, in a pair of short pajama shorts and a tank top, having run out the door like Katie had. Now that she thought about it, she was wearing the same thing, although Lou's shirt said Pierce the Veil across it.

"Did Percy the Hero kill the spider?" she asked, an amused tone highlighting her voice.

Annabeth grinned while Percy rolled his eyes.

Out of the corner of her eye, Annabeth spotted Travis and Connor sneaking up behind the girls. She went to say something, but their arms wrapped around their waists, Travis to Katie and Connor to Lou.

Katie squealed, obviously surprised. Lou rolled her eyes, smacking Connor's hands away. Although Annabeth didn't miss the light blush that dusted over her cheeks. But one thing stood out the most.

Katie didn't move out from Travis' arms.

She had plastered on a fake smile as soon as Travis whispered, "Let's use this time as practice."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow as the second ticked by with them whispering to each other.

"Are you two.... dating?"

"Yup," the two answered in unison.

"Told ya!"

The group of seven all turned towards the voice. There stood Thalia Grace, frayed jean shorts, a leather jacket, studded converse, and no circlet.

Her hair had grown to her shoulders over the years, fairly choppy, but it looked fine, like Piper's. And right now, it was perfectly framing the spot on her forehead that should have held her silver-status-holder.

"What? I bet Annabeth you two would be together before July. You owe me ten drachmas, Annie. Or a burger downtown. I haven't had one in forev-.... What?"

She stopped once she noticed everyone starting at her in shock.

Annabeth suddenly snapped out of her daze and launched herself forward. "Thals!"

The two hugged for a moment before Annabeth suddenly pulled back. "Wait! The Hunters...?"

"Eh," Thalia shrugged. "I quit. But about that burger-"

"Thalia, you can't just shrug this off like nothing happened " Percy interrupted.

Connor tried to sneak his hands back around Lou Ellen, but she elbowed hid ribs.

Thalia opened her mouth to retort when Nico walked around the corner.

"Hey, Percy. Chiron needs you at the Big H- Thalia?"

He froze, eyes falling on her forehead. Thalia had frozen as well, eyes wide. They seemed to have a silent conversation. Thalia gave a tight, almost invisible, shake of her head.

Lou cleared her throat and the two snapped to attention.

"Uh... I'm gonna go settle in..." Thalia trailed off awkwardly.

"And I gotta go...um....feed my fish," Nico said, connecting eyes with the daughters of Zeus one more before he walked off.

Thalia coughed into the silence before heading towards her cabin.

"Nico... Nico doesn't have a fish," Annabeth said after a minute.

"Right, by the way, we're leaving in twenty minutes."

"What?" Katie and Lou Ellen echoed I'm disbelief.

"Yeah, well, now nineteen," Travis corrected.

"Uh! I still have to pick up my sword from Shane," Lou groaned.

"I thought you use twin daggers," Connor questioned.

"Yeah, but Shane lost a bet and he owes me a sword."

"Ooh! I'm sure he would have made you a sword anyways," Katie spoke.

Travis tightened his arms around her to hide his laughter. Katie was going to prove his brother liked the demigoddess.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lou Ellen laughed.

"Oh, come on! He obviously likes you."

Connor's jaw clenched, but relaxed a bit when Lou laughed. "Yeah right."

"What do you mean 'Yeah right.' ?"

"Oh, please. The only child of Hephaestus who ever had a crush on me was Harley, and he's eight," Lou Ellen laughed out.

Katie rolled her eyes. She lightly pried Travis' arms off her. "I better go get ready."

She hugged him, for the act (yeah right), and nearly jumped when he whispered 'kiss me' in her ear.

Pulling back, she lightly pressed her lips to his cheek.

A jolt went through both of them and Katie was a bright red when they pulled away.

"Do I get a kiss?" Connor asked Lou in an innocent voice.

"Nice try," she said, patting his cheek and walking away with Katie.

The Stoll's left a second later, leaving Percy, Annabeth, and Emerald (who was no longer shaking) to just sit there.

"What just-" Percy faltered.

"I really don't know."