stollen things || c. stoll

1.5~ Pro Tip: Don't Acquire Any Head Injuries At Summer Camp

I slid into my orange camp t-shirt and took up the rear of our group as we rushed to breakfast.
Today, I'd worn my black shorts. Considering my injury from volleyball a few days ago, I was planning on putting all my energy into it to show that I could actually do something.
Hence the sport shorts. I'd brought them from home, stolen from the volleyball team.
They were very short, but they'd passed Katie's luggage inspection at the beginning of the summer, so I wasn't worried.
I managed to maintain a good posture, and keep the energetic mindset that I'd need for a game.
This weeks schedule included canoeing with the Naiads, Volleyball, Sword and Shield, Monster Assault Techniques, and Climbing Wall.
To put it simply, I hated canoeing. It's uncomfortable, wet, and hard to steer the boats. Not to mention the hopeless girls wearing much less than needed. There were days where I wished I could do the same, but I wasn't confident enough and I certainly wasn't about to embarrass myself. So I kept to my one piece bathing suit with my t-shirt over it.

Of course, we had canoeing first thing in the morning. Most people saw it as a nice little break out of the day. For me, however, it was torture. Not to mention having to be on constant watch to make sure the twins didn't flip my boat.

I started to feel the boat rock, and my partner swore it wasn't him. I glanced to my left, but the twins weren't there anymore. Whipping my head around, I soon found them giggling from behind me. They'd pushed our canoe, and were planning on doing it again by the looks of it.

I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind. I reached to the bottom of the lake, and found seaweed. I'd never tried to manipulate seaweed, but there's a first time for everything. It's a plant, is it not?

At the same moment I opened my eyes, three long strips of seaweed wrapped around Connor and Travis' boat and pulled it under.

Just as they resurfaced, I turned back around in an effort to seem innocent.

However, I caught the quickest glimpse of their faces. Travis, glaring. Connor, grinning.

•••

"Alright, you know the rules, don't kill each other. Play!"

I stepped up, took a breath, and swung my arm. As it collided with the white ball, I felt every fraction of anger and stress release from my body. Every thought of Percy Jackson - twelve years old on a quest - every thought of the boy, every thought of the impending war between the Gods.

Oh, yeah! Did I mention that?

Anyway, volleyball was my escape. Well, winning was my escape. Perhaps I should've been an Ares kid. My competitive nature wasn't common for a Demeter daughter.

I watched the ball soar. An Apollo boy dove for it, but despite his quick nature, he missed. We'd gotten the point. It went on like this, back and forth, until it was my turn again. Perhaps I'd gotten too much into the game, or perhaps I'd just gotten distracted by the curly brown hair and-
No, that wasn't it. Absolutely not. I was just distracted by something else, I guess. Yeah.

Either way, the ball didn't quite make where it was supposed to go. In fact, it decided to clock Travis Stoll directly in the nose. He fell onto his back in the sand, but stood up immediately, brushing off any help. He was clearly in pain, though. I muttered a quick apology and ran back to where I was. Madge was smirking at me. I punched her in the arm, then glanced around before realizing no one had seen me assault my cabin mate.

The instructor split us into pairs, and — you guessed it — I was soon facing the Hermes boy I'd been trying to avoid.

"So," I looked directly into his eyes.

"So." He echoed, maintaining the contact. Still looking at me, he caught a volleyball that was flying towards his head. His smirk sent my mind placed I didn't want it to go. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and got ready to receive the ball. He wasn't a fantastic server, but he got the job done.
We did a few back and forth rounds of serving and bumping. The instructor gave us a two minute wanting and Connor set up for his final serve.

Just as his arm swung towards the white ball, he called something out to me. This said something was very distracting and not good for playing volleyball.

"Nice shorts, Callaghan!" He called as the ball flew through the air towards me. It was a perfect set, if I could make it. I never faltered when it came to setting or spiking, so I shouldn't have been worried. But my mind was certainly elsewhere. It took me a few seconds to register what he'd said, and by then the ball was too close. I got hit in the head. Again.

Perhaps I wasn't as good as I thought I was. Two hits in one summer. And it wasn't even July.

The ball had collided with my temple, and my vision went blurry. I heard a whistle blow, probably reprimanding Connor, then stumbled to my knees. I didn't remember blacking out, but then I didn't remember much of it anyway.

After a few hours of rest, a bit of help from Michael Yew, and some ambrosia, my headache was gone.

"Thanks, man." I smiled at him, and he nodded back. I felt guilty, and like I'd overreacted.
I got up and started to head back to my cabin. Seeing as volleyball was towards the end of the day, the sun was already setting. I assumed that dinner was over, so I would have to go to sleep with an empty stomach.

I hadn't made it past the showers when a hand grabbed my arm and dragged me into a stall.

I yelped, but didn't even consider screaming for help. Camp is the safest place for us, no one here could hurt me. The owner of the hand spun me around to face them. It was dark, so I could barely make out who it was. Finally my eyes adjusted, and things started to come in slowly.

Raised eyebrows. A crooked grin. Blue eyes mostly covered by curly brown hair. Oh Gods.

"Pleasure meeting you here," I tried to keep from returning his captivating gaze. It was difficult, considering that we were in a shower meant for a single person and I was practically pressed against him. "What do you want, Connor?"

The twin just shuffled his feet. "I just wanted to apologize for what happened with volleyball. It was entirely my fault. I wanted to go see you before dinner but Michael shooed me away. So, yeah. Sorry."

I laughed, and shook my head. "Connor," I placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's fine. I shouldn't have let myself get distracted."

"Distracted by my beauty?" He winked, back to his usual insufferable self.

"Yeah, sure. We'll go with that." Now that our touching conversation was over, we were both suddenly aware of the lack of space between us. We stepped away from each other, but not as gracefully as I'd hoped. He stepped back into the shower head, and I stepped back into the curtain. Or, I fell back through the curtain. He launched forward and caught me.

"Can't have you getting another head injury."

Hand on my waist. Hand on the back of my neck. My breath hitched, and I got lost in his eyes. Again. Gods, this was going to be a long summer.

•••

GUYS IM SO SORRY it's been m on t h s since i updated this and i have no excuse but but but i'm really gonna try to keep doing this