stollen things || c. stoll

4.4 ~ War Council

I turned to face Connor, then glanced back behind me. Madge nodded and shut the door behind me. I heard her voice faintly telling our campers to do a tick check and get changed quickly before lights out.

Connor led me around the back of my cabin and we climbed up the back to sit on the grassy roof.

"So."

"So," He repeated, sitting cross-legged next to me. "Dinner."

"Ah, that." I adjusted my seating to face him. "Where did all that come from?"

He turned his head towards me, leaning back on his hands. "You did tell me to. Back in December. So I bid my time, waiting until the right moment when I could make it the most of a production as possible. You know how I like to do that."

"Believe me, I know that. It felt... mocking. Was it just to embarrass me?" I looked away from him as I said this. It was the truth, something so dramatic could only be for attention.

"Oh, gods, no. Maddy, I need you to know how genuine that performance was. Sure, it was dramatic. But I need flair. I don't think I would've been able to say any of that without the humor."

I took his hands in mine and he moved to face me fully. I didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. All I could do was see how good he looked with the moonlight reflecting off his blue eyes.

"I need you to please say something. Because I know you're into Lee and everything, but I just needed you to—"

"No."

"No? No, you won't say something?"

"No, I'm not into Lee," I placed my hands on the sides of his face. "Gods, Stoll, I've had a crush on you since we were fourteen. You are so dense."

It was his turn to fall silent. All he did was furrow his eyebrows and look down in confusion. I pulled him into a hug. "I need to go to bed, but we'll talk more later, 'kay?"

He just nodded, and slid down from the roof. He helped me down by lifting me by the waist and setting me down carefully.

He hugged me once more, then took my hand and kissed it before opening the door for me. I smiled at him and went inside. I had been planning on getting back in and getting in bed as silent as possible, but the lights clicked on and I was met with all of my siblings standing in front of me. They all shrieked at the same time and tackled me.

"Shh!! He'll hear you!" I said through laughter. They all dragged me to the ground and sat in front of me, begging me to tell them all about our conversation. I assured them that there was nothing to tell. They all had to go to bed anyway, because it was an hour and a half past curfew and lights out.

I got into bed and fell asleep with a smile on my face.

•

When I awoke, it was 6:30. Too early. I snuck quietly out of the cabin to go take a shower before the water got cold from everyone else using it. At 7:15, when most of my cabin was waking up, Charlie Beckendorf knocked on our door. I opened it, still towel drying my hair.

His expression was grim. "War council this morning. About last night."

I raised an eyebrow. Last night? It took me a little too long to remember that it was about Annabeth and Percy, not me and Connor. "Right. Yes. After breakfast?"

He nodded, and left without another word. We all went to breakfast and ate mostly in silence. The whole camp was on edge about the war game from the previous night, but there was also a bit of buzz about Connor's performance. Things at camp don't fizzle out as quickly as things do at schools and other normal people places. After a solemn hour, everyone moved onto their activities, except the senior counselors. We all went to the sword arena to meet Chiron and Quintus.