i thought I could wrap this up in two parts, but it's gonna need another one haha. so, sorry about that.
words: 1593
. . .
"It'll be a piece of cake," Travis ended the presentation of his plan, face already gleaming from the prospect of his prank. "After Annabeth receives the last love letter from her secret admirer, she'll have no choice but to confront Percy about it."
Katie rolled her eyes. "This is stupid."
The two had been plotting together for an hour, discussing how they could get Percy and Annabeth to admit how much they liked each other. Usually, neither of them cared enough to get involved with other people's love lives, but when working together, they found a common interest of Percy and Annabeth.
Katie had to admit that the plan was a smart one: sending both Percy and Annabeth anonymous love letters, presumably from each other, and seeing who broke first and confronted the other.
She'd placed her bets on Annabeth. Poor Percy didn't have a clue what was going on half the time in the romance department.
"I thought it was a pretty good idea," Travis defended, pouting dramatically.
"Shut up, Stoll. So, if your job is delivering the letters, why'd you ask me to help?"
Travis' face fell for a split second, but he recovered with his reasoning. "Uh, well... you can write the letters, duh!"
She shrugged, not sure he'd thought of that part yet. "...Fine. When should I write the first one?"
"Tonight, at the campfire singalong. I'll slip it into Percy's back pocket when we're all going back to our cabins."
Katie didn't miss the sparkle in his eye; the boy really did love his pranks. She would've been amused by his joy, but she remembered that she wasn't supposed to feel any positive emotion towards him, even if they got along for the most part.
"Alright, get out of my cabin. I've got work to do."
"See ya around, Katie-kat!"
Writing a cheesy love letter to Percy Jackson was the last thing Katie thought she'd have been filling her time with. She tried her hardest to get into Annabeth's brain and use the kind of big, frivolous words she would've. She made sure to include that they were friends, and that it "wasn't logical to wait another day to share" her true feelings for him, especially when they were at the brink of the biggest war at camp.
Finally, with the flourish of her pen, she signed at the bottom, "An anonymous crush".
Satisfied with her work, she headed over to the Hermes cabin to give Travis the letter. As with their ritual of eating lunch together, it wasn't abnormal for the two to be found in each others' cabins. Whether it was to yell at or talk to Travis, neither they or the Hermes kids took any notice to it.
"Here it is," she proclaimed, sticking out the letter to him.
"Aww, you already closed the envelope?" He groaned. "You're no fun."
"Why, wanted to read my romantic writing, Stoll?"
He smirked. "I know you'd be the best."
Connor wolf-whistled from across the room, and Katie and Travis simultaneously shouted, "Shut up, Connor!"
Just like always.
That night, Katie and Travis steered clear of each other. They didn't want to appear suspicious, so they distanced themselves and sat on opposite sides of the campfire. Strangely, that attracted more attention than if they'd have kept together, apparently. Multiple people approached Katie and asked if everything was alright. She noticed Travis experiencing the same issue.
They didn't hang out that much...?
Deciding not to dwell on it, Katie focused on the Apollo kids leading campfire songs. Just because she was involved in a Stoll prank didn't mean she couldn't enjoy her night without guilt.
"Can you have the next letter ready to go for Annabeth tomorrow morning?"
Katie jumped, warranting a chuckle from Travis. He stood behind her, all too close to Katie's ear for comfort. She could've mistaken the shivers down her spine for her skin crawling, so that was what she went with.
"Yeah. I'll get it to you before breakfast."
"Great!" He showed no emotion as he vanished into the crowd, and Katie went on about her business.
She kept a stealthy eye on Travis as he masterfully slid close to the targets as they all headed back to the cabins. Percy was in a passionate conversation with Annabeth and didn't notice a thing, and it seemed that Annabeth didn't, either. Travis was way too good at that.
Before she knew it, he'd slipped away from the pair, neither of them the wiser. She hadn't even noticed him put the letter in his pocket. Katie had to admire his ability to sneak, even though most of the time he used it to her own disadvantages.
Travis caught her eye and sent her a corny thumbs-up before he dodged into his cabin.
Now, all they had to do was wait.
In her cabin, Katie jotted down a scrawled letter from "Percy". She supposed she should've felt creepy writing from someone else's point of view, but she convinced herself that it was okay since it was technically an anonymous letter. Plus, Aphrodite herself must've been dying for Percy and Annabeth to be together - how oblivious could a couple be?
Her wording in this letter was much different than the previous one. She used the words "umm" and "like". She kept her phrases short and slightly scrambled, and she made sure to sign a hasty "Your secret admirer" at the bottom.
A job well done, if she did say so herself.
Miranda pestered her, asking her why she was writing so many letters all of a sudden. She deflected her accusations of hanging out with Travis too much and said she was going to bed.
In the morning, before dawn, Katie ducked into the Hermes cabin and made her way to the back room where Travis and Connor slept. After knocking and hearing a muffled, "Hmmmmm come in", she stepped inside.
"Why so early, Katie-kat?" Travis whined. He swung up to the top bunk and shoved Connor off his bed.
"Hey!" Connor got up and pushed Travis into the wall grumpily, and Travis laughed.
"Stop it," Katie shushed, sticking out her hand. "Here's the letter, I'm going back to my cabin."
"See ya at breakfast, Kates," Travis called after her, but she rolled her eyes and kept walking.
After waking her cabin, she ensured that everyone was present and they walked to breakfast. However, before they reached the pavilion, something caught Katie's eye. Percy was walking by himself, a confused look on his face. He scratched the back of his head and bit his lip, trying desperately to hide a smile as Annabeth jumped to hug him. The two greeted each other and walked together, Annabeth gripping his hand as she talked his ears off about a new project she'd been working on. Katie was sure that Percy didn't understand a word of it, but he had an interested expression nonetheless.
Gods, they were just too cute for their own good.
Katie went to get in line for breakfast, and by the time she passed by the Athena table, the letter sat in front of Annabeth's seat, awaiting her. She hadn't even noticed the Hermes kids were there until then, and she shook her head. They're too good at that.
She sat and ate her food, watching the Athena table diligently. Annabeth returned from the line, got to her seat, and paused. Katie rustled as Annabeth set her food down to open the letter.
"Told you this was a good idea." Travis nudged one of Katie's siblings down so he could slide onto the bench next to her.
She scoffed. "Whatever. I'm just so annoyed that they can't realize on their own."
"Yeah, it's stupid, huh?"
They ate in silence, and Katie noticed that Travis was sitting much closer to her than normal. His leg rested against hers, foot fidgeting every once in a while. His forearm grazed hers every time he lifted it to his mouth. Katie became keenly aware that occasionally, he would glance down at her just to look back at his food.
She didn't know why.
At their shared afternoon activity, Travis ran up to her, beaming. "Katie-kat!"
"What do you want, Stoll?" she said, crossing her arms.
He tugged at her arm to take her away from the surrounding demigods. Once they were safely out of earshot, he chuckled. "It seems like we've started a trend."
She raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"I overheard Annabeth telling some people about the letter. Others have started contributing to our little game. Beckendorf told me a mysterious love note was left at his cabin's door before lunch." He smirked. "It was signed anonymously, but I have my suspicions."
Katie huffed, incredulous. "Obviously, Silena. She can't keep her eyes off of him."
"I know!"
They both snorted at the same time.
"Do you think you can crank out another letter for Percy by tonight?" he inquired, stepped closer to her as he spoke.
Katie shrugged. "I guess. How many more of these do I have to do?"
"I guess as long as they need to admit how much they like each other."
She sighed. "That'll take forever."
"Then get used to writing, Katie-kat!"
There was a list of things Katie came to expect when she entered her cabin after dinnertime: the younger kids running out the last of the day's energy, Miranda and her nagging everyone to water their assigned succulents and then ending up doing it themselves; but what Katie found was not anywhere near that list.
A letter sat on her bed.
One she hadn't written.