Wandering about ((Open to Travis. PM to join otherwise))

Headphones in, mp3 on, notebook open, and a pencil flying across the bare page beneath the shade of a tall tree. This was what Laura Arai was doing on such a fine day. The sun was shining and it was warm compared to most days. Spring was approaching fast. Then again this was Camp Half-Blood. They always seemed to get warm weather the fastest even if they were in the north. Nearly no snow was left on the ground and little bits of grass were here and there on the ground. The trees seemed to be coming out of their Winter stage the fastest though. The one she was sitting beneath was prospering, it had vibrant green leaves that seemed full of life unlike camp had been only weeks earlier. There had been snow on the ground, grass wasn't visible at all and the trees all seemed dead. The amazing wonders that the Gods could do.

There Laura sat, writing away, beneath that tree. She had in her silver owl earrings which were a gift from long ago. She didn't understand why whoever had given them to her had given her owl earrings instead of ferret earings seeing as the ferret was her favorite animal. This thought blew off Laura's mind just as her remotely frizzy brown hair did in the wind. Luckily she had her light blue baseball cap on her head so her hair wasn't running amuck. Her gorgeous hazel eyes were following her pencil as it created words that formed a story on her notebook. Her gray polo shirt lay neatly over her loose jeans. One was laying nicely inside her jeans pocket for 'what if' situations.

Deep within the plot of her own story, Laura was completely oblivious to the world around her. She was in her own recreated world and it was beautiful. It was indescribable. Having been there for at least half an hour she didn't notice life going on about her, much less if anyone had approached her or if someone was peering over her shoulder from the tree above. Was it possible that someone was waiting for the right time to jump out of the tree and spook her? Not that it mattered to Laura, although it certainly would work.

Travis headed out of the back door of the camp store. Only, he wasn't shutting it down like he would usually be doing when leaving it. This time he was making off with a few of the goods that he would normally be selling. Since he ran the store he figured that he was entitled to a few of the stores wares for all his hard work. It's not like he got payed or anything. Mr. D was too stingy to even think about paying Travis for doing all his work. He was even doing double the work since his brother wasn't around this summer. Gods forbid he get a little payment or something for all his troubles. Travis rolled his eyes and locked the door of the store and heading back to the safe confines of his cabin where he would stash his stuff in his secret spot.

This wasn't the first time that Travis had stolen from the store, or from the camp in general. It was something he did basically everyday or every week. Being a son of Hermes it was something that he was quite proficient in. He had yet to be caught, even though he knew Mr. D had his suspicions as to what was happening to all the food in his fridge and why he was losing money from the store yet selling the same amount of items. He had yet to call Travis out on this, though.

Travis knew that if Mr. D did find out he would be turned into a grape, or jackelope, bunny, chicken, wine glass, whatever the God was fancying at the time. Maybe he would be able to somehow weasel his way out of it, or maybe get his dad to help him out of it, but he would rather just not get caught. He stepped into his cabin and went to where he hid his stuff, throwing it under and grabbing a few sodas and candy bars and throwing them into his gym bag before heading back out into the open cabin area.

It was truly a nice day out. Not normal for this time of year in the Big Apple. But hey, when was the weather ever truly normal in Camp Half-Blood? Travis walked through the cabin center, sipping on a Dr. Pepper when he noticed a bit or brown hair sitting a little ways away bent over a notebook. Travis knew this hair anywhere, though he would never admit it. It was the hair of Laura Arai. Someone Travis was more than a fan of in his mind, yet barely knew.

Travis decided he would go talk to her, not that he had anything to lose. He noticed that she had headphones in and that this could be a good chance to scare her a bit. He silently crept up behind her and gave her a poke in her right side while scooting around by her left side to get in front of her and surprise her once she turned back around. It was a fooproof plan that Travis had mastered long before and still loved the reaction of his victims faces.

Laura had done nothing wrong. She was just sitting away in her own wonderful world. This was the way she liked it too. Sometimes reality was just too much to handle and a story was an excellant escape from the real world. Stories never went the wrong way like life did most of the time. Apparentally someone decided that she was just too deep into her story and that she was a little too isolated from everyone. Someone had jabbed her in her right side. She shrieked as her pencil went flying to her right and her notebook flew high above her head, snagged on the tree, then fell with a thud. She turned to her right to see who had jabbed her, but the only thing occupying the space was her pencil. She reached out and grabbed it before turning to her left and shrieking again. Standing there was none other than Travis Stoll, Hermes Cabin leader and the best trickster at camp. If you could get past the intense trickster part then he was a pretty nice guy.

As Laura raised an eyebrow she looked up at him. "Is there a certain reason why you disrupted my writing?" she asked before peering around his legs and reaching out for her notebook. She flipped through the pages and saw that one had been torn out. Looking up, she saw the missing page high up in the tree. Her gaze changed to Travis and the gaze turned into a glare. As she was glaring she spotted the soda in his hand. "Ya know. . . I'll forgive you if you give me a free soda." Laura was fully aware that Travis sold canned soda to anyone who would buy them for a not so reasonable price. "Well I will forgive you if you retrieve my paper and give me a free canned soda," she said with a small smirk.

Travis just smirked at Laura. He had succeeded in what he was trying to do with her. Her reaction was even better than he had planned. The flying notebook and pencil proved it. He hadn't expected her to throw her things around, but it just made the effect much better to him and he chuckled inside. He would never laugh at loud at Laura's surprise. That would be mean and that was something that Travis was not to most girls. Guys, more than likely, but girls he tried to be better with because they were girls. . .

"Oh, no reason, i just thought you were in the perfect position for a prank you were so out of it with your music and writing. I just couldn't resist," Travis answered her with a wink. Hoping she would get the idea that it wasn't smart to be so oblivious with him stalking around the place. No one was safe from him. Nobody. Not even Chiron and Mr. D if he was in the mood. No one was safe from the almighty Travis Stoll. There he went getting cocky again in his head. . . He needed help with that.

Travis smirked at her again as she issued the terms for her forgiveness, "paper is a deal, I guess. Soda, I'll have to think about. You should know how I am about my soda. It's not so easy to get, you know? I's bit harder than I'd like to admit," He responded to her before going after the paper.

Travis looked up in the tree and sighed. The paper was a lot higher up in the tree than he expected. He didn't want to have to do this, but he figured he owed Laura for the scaring he gave her. He grunted and started up the tree. Since he was a Son if Hermes there wasn't much trouble of climbing the tree for him. He easily traversed the sharp, bark-y side of the tree and stood up on the bottom branch of it.

Travis reached up and pulled himself up to the next branch and reached up to grab the paper that was on the next branch up. As he grabbed it his foot lost grip from the branch and he slipped backwards off of the branch and falling to the ground below, landing square on his back next to where Laura was waiting.

Travis groaned as he looked back up at Laura. "Got your paper," he said uneasily, in a pretty bad bit of pain.

Laura shook her head as Travis scampered up the tree. He was a son of Hermes. He could move quickly and she would bet her was pretty light on his feet. Agility was probably his strong suite like herself. She then wondered whether he used a dagger or sword or maybe something else. As her mind wandered off she saw that he had grabbed the paper from the tree. She smiled, but it quickly turned into a skeptical look as he fell from the tree with a thud. This spooked her slightly as she jumped to her feet. "Er thanks. Although it'll still cost a free soda to get me to forgive you," she said as she stood over him and stuck out her tongue. Of course this was all just a little joke to Laura. She would forgive him eventually, soda or not, but Travis didn't have to know that.

As Laura plucked the paper from his hand she looked it over, front and back. "Hrm. . . . what do ya know! It's blank! Could've sworn that this was a page of my story. . . . Oh well!" she said in a cheery voice. "No pain no gain right? We gained a blank piece of paper. . . not exactly the best gain. . . but still. . . it's something. . . "

Laura reached out an arm and pulled Travis to his feet. "You're alright. . . right? You didn't break anything did you?" she asked with a bit of a chuckle. That would've been bad if he had fallen for nothing and broken something. She brushed the dirt off his back. "Anyway, thanks. So get me that soda and I'll forgive you," she stuck out her tongue playfully again.

Travis was a little ticked off that she didn't even seem to care that he had fallen just trying to help her out and apologize for scaring her. She just seemed to be care more about the soda than anything. But, it was a luxury at camp only he knew how supply for everyone and not everyone got to him in time before he ran out again, so he couldn't entirely blame her for it. She still ticked him off about not seeming to care, and sticking her tongue out at him didn't help.

And what do you know? To make matters even worse for him and his smarting back, the dang paper was blank! Nothing on it! He had risked broken bones and serious injuries for a freaking blank piece of paper. What if he had gotten hurt more than he was? Would she even actually care at this point? She had gotten what she wanted out of him. . . was this really the girl he had a crush on? He hoped that it wasn't and that she was just getting him back for the scaring he had given her. If that was it, he could deal, but otherwise he would need to rethink things a tad.

Well, Laura finally pulled Travis to his feet. He felt a little lightheaded and off balance as he got to his feet, but at least she seemed to care enough to help him up. "Thanks, and yeah I'm fine. Thank you for asking." Travis told her a tiny hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Sodas are in my bag if you MUST have one," he said with a sigh. He hated giving soda out for free and always had.

Laura heard that little bit of sarcasm in his voice and felt bad. She had meant to only tease him a bit, that was all. She hadn't meant to make him mad. "Erm. . . hey I'm sorry. . . " she was just trying to poke a little fun, but he had taken it seriously. "I didn't really mean it I was just kidding. You can keep your soda. I was just messing around. You really sure you're okay?" she asked seriously. Okay, so now her motherly instinct kicked in a little late, but better late then never. And did she really think of Travis as nothing more then just someone she's looking out for? That mustn't be it. There definetally was something more there.

After Laura flipped over the paper she wrote out in big bold letters 'TRAVIS' PIECE OF PAPER' then handed it to him. "There. Now it wasn't a complete waste AND you get a piece of paper. Oh wait!" She took the paper back and signed her name at the bottom. "There! Now it's perfect!" A large grin grew on her face. She hoped that he liked it and didn't just throw it into the closest trash can.

"It's fine, just made me a little mad there for a second, but don't worry, it's okay now. I understand why you were doing it, I think. I might would have done the same thing if I were you, but who knows," Travis told her, trying to make it seem like he wasn't as mad as he was, which he wasn't. At least she had tried to help him feel better. That was as much as he could have really asked for. He didn't expect this girl to jump all over him saying she was sorry or anything, Laura didn't seem like that kind of person and he really didn't want her to. She seemed to be better than that, or different at least. "Yeah, really, I'm fine. And you can have a soda if you want. I don't care, if you want one, take one. On me. I'm offering this time," he said to her with a smile.

Travis couldn't help but laugh as he watched what Laura was doing to the paper, though he had to admit it made him feel a bit funny in his stomach as he watched Laura write his name and then sign hers at the bottom. A good funny, though. "Thanks, this is going in my special hiding place, I can tell you that," he said as he took the paper and tucked it into his bag. He wouldn't get rid of that paper, he knew that. It was special, very special. To him, anyway.

"So, uhh, well, I'm sorry for scaring you, but it's what I do. You know? I just couldn't help it." Travis said to her. Apologizing for what had led up to all this, though he really knew he didn't need to and that Laura had probably already forgiven him for it. He just felt he needed to, even though he wouldn't have done it if it was anyone else, but Laura was different to him.

Laura could feel that he was still just a little mad, but she wouldn't let him know that. She didn't want him to be mad at her, but she wouldn't push anything that would make him mad yet again. That would be bad, and she had to admit that she kinda liked Travis. Sure he could be well. . . . . sneaky at times, but other then that. . . . there was just something.

When he offered her a soda she decided that she would take one before she changed his mind. It felt weird reaching into his bag to get one, but she reached in and grabbed one at random. She didn't really care what it was, she just hoped that Travis wasn't all for Pepsi products because Coke was obviously the best. (()) "Uhm thanks," she said with a small smile as she pulled her hand from his bag. She saw that she had taken out a Sprite, not something she would have chosen if she had seen what was in his bag, but she wasn't going to say anything as she popped the tab. She took a sip and smiled.

When Travis took the paper and said that it was going somewhere special she blushed badly. She hadn't realy expected him to keep it. She had expected it to end up under his bed or something. Not somewhere special. Then again he could always just be messing with her head. It probably wouldn't be the first time a Son of Hermes had toyed with a girl's feelings. She would have to be extra cautious with her feelings and she would make sure that her heart wasn't on her sleeve.

"Oh it's fine, it's fine! Don't worry about it!" Laura said as she took another sip. Wow soda was so much better from the can!

Travis could tell what Laura was feeling. He could tell that she was still sure that he was a little mad. He didn't know how he could tell it, he just could for some reason. "I'm not still mad, I'm over it," Travis said trying to reassure her. "Though my back is still kinda upset with you," he said chuckling. "I'm really find though. Don't worry, my dad's the God of medicine, I heal fast and most pain has more trouble bothering me than most other people."

Travis watched her take a soda, luckily when she pulled her hand it there was a Sprite, and not one of his rare Root Beers. He was fine if it was Sprite, but if she took a Root Beer(at this moment in time) he would have to intervene and stop her. No one but his closest people touched, let alone drank, his sacred Root Beers. They were too hard to come by for him.

Laura's blush could not escape Travis' sharp eyes. Eyes that were made to see well in the dark and any light. He caught the dark red glow of her cheeks after he commented on her giving him the piece of paper. "Uhh, Laura, you appear to be blushing, but you know, I'm a Son of Hermes, not "supposedly the smartest" so I guess I can't really be to sure.," he told her laughing. He loved making fun of the stereotypes put upon him and his siblings. It always made him laugh.

"Well, good, I'm glad you're okay with it. I wasn't sure you would be so forgiving," Travis told her digging the toe of his shoe into the ground a bit while looking straight ahead. Just something he did when he wasn't sure what was going through his head, like right now, with his feelings for the girl standing next to him.

"Alright," Laura said as she rapped her fingers on the can of her soda. She didn't want him to be mad at her. She really didn't. They may not've been the best of friends when she was in the Hermes Cabin, but they kinda got along. Well they got along better then other people did with him. She had seen what could happen if you mess with Travis Stoll. You'd end up hanging outside of the cabin upside-down. Then once you got down you would find that most of your items would be missing. It had only happened once or twice while she was there, but it was kinda funny to watch. Even though she really SHOULDN'T find it funny at all, she did anyway. It was hard not to laugh when someone's head was over their shirt as they dangled upside-down for everyone to see.

After Travis' comment about her blushing and himself not being the smartest, Laura's blush became even darker and more visible. "Uhm . . . . I uhm . ." she stuttered. She really didn't have a reply to him, but she felt like she should say something. Of course this backfired on her and made her look like an utter idiot, which she sometimes was. "You can be pretty smart at times," she said as she looked down at her feet. Again, she felt as if she should say something if anything. Although the way it came out it sounded more like an insult then a compliment like she had meant for it to be. Mean what you say and say what you mean.

Laura chuckled. "You really thought I wouldn't forgive you? If anything I'm the most forgiving person around these parts! Maybe not in the whole world, but at least at camp. . . . . maybe." This again was one of those times when she began to ramble on and on about something meaningless. She didn't mean to. This was just something that seemed to happen. . . ALL THE TIME . . . .to her and it was pretty dang annoying. "So uhm. . . how've you been?" This was more like idle chit-chat if anything.

"Nah, intelligence is not something my dad is known for, sadly. I may be smarter than most of my brothers, but there are many other people smarter than me," Travis said and then smiled at her. "Like you for instance. You are much smarter than me. And better looking too," he added with a wink at her. Hoping that maybe that would give her a little sign that he wasn't going to say out loud yet. But he was definitely feeling something. It was a little sudden, but a nice something.

"I'm used to not being forgiven. My mom is an example, she kicked me out for yelling at her about my dad and she still has forgiven me. Being forgiven is nice, and I thank you for it. I really do, it's just something I'm not used to, especially when it's trying to get it from someone who you hung upside-down by their underwear. They usually don't forgive you, so it's rare for me to be forgiven by anyone. Though, I'm really glad you did over anything," Travis told her with another smile. Truly sort of glad that she had forgiven him.

"Hmm, how am I?" Travis asked to himself, "well, in a tad bit of pain, but I'm better than I have been in awhile just talking to you to tell you to truth." he told Laura with a wink. "Not much has been going on so it has been kind of boring lately, but you've given me something fun to do," he said to her. "Now, what about you?" He asked in return.

"I'm sure you're plenty smart!" Laura said with a smile. "So what if there are people smarter then you? There's someone smarter then me too," her words seemed to fly out of her mouth with a bit of confidence. As she brought up her head, her eyes met with his the very moment he told her how she was better looking then he was and when he winked. This caused her blush that began to fade to return. If her thoughts were correct, he was flirting with her. If this was true then she really was unsure of what to say next. Luckily he saved her when he started to say how he was greatful for being forgiven. Mentally she did a forehead wipe. Of course she didn't do this in real life, that would just make her look completely insane, which she was, but she didn't want him to know that.

"Well just a tad bit of pain is good for you. Without pain there would be no gain." Now just what is that gain? Laura asked herself. Could it be a newfound friendship, or could the butterflies in her stomach mean something more? If they did she just might like those butterflies. Then again they may not have been butterflies at all, but more of a beetle giving her a bad vibe about Travis. She went with the butterflies.

As expected her face turned even redder when Travis said 'I'm better than I have been in awhile just talking to you to tell you the truth.' "R-really?" Laura asked, only sounding a little too desperate. "Y-yeah nothing all too interesting has been going on recently. Me given you something fun to do?" she couldn't help but give a little chuckle. "Falling from a tree is fun?" she asked with what she thought was a flirtatious smile on her face. "Me? I've been pretty good. It's been a bit weird moving into the Athena cabin. I miss your mischeif honestly."