Sign of the Times

Money, money, money. Ain't it funny?

I don't know when I fell asleep, but I woke up to the feeling of water shooting into my ear. I jump a million miles in the air while Clarisse laughed like a crazy person. 

"We're in Miami, I think," Annabeth said. "But the hippocampi aren't going any further." She frowned at the creatures staying in the same place.

"There are too many humans and too much pollution," Percy said. "We have to swim from here." 

"Of course we have to swim. Just my luck that I have spent the last fucking week in the place where my mom died and now I get to have a little joy swim all the way back. I am just so excited. This is so fun," I grumbled as everyone got off of the hippocampi and Tyson cried saying goodbye to Rainbow. 

With a little help from the waves, not Poseidon I decided, because any good from the sea is the sea and not the sea god, we got back to the beach in no time (I almost kissed the sand before cringing about the thought of sand in my mouth) (A/N yk who you could kiss...?). Now that we were finally on land, I was never going in the water again. 

"June 18! How have we been away from camp from camp for 10 days!" Annabeth said, holding a newspaper in her hand.

"That's impossible!" Clarisse comments\ed.

I cleared my throat. "Like you guys said, time moves weirdly in the sea of monsters." 

"What do you mean?" Clarisse asks.

"Never mind, no time for that right now, we have to get back to camp!" Percy interrupted. 

"But how!" Grover cried. "We are hundreds of miles away with no food, no clothes, no money, and no way back!"

"Gods Jackson! This is all your fault! If you hadn't crashed the ship and-" Clarisse started. 

Annabeth groaned in frustration. "How can you say that! You would've been married to Polyphemus, Grover would be dead, and Thalia's tree would have no chance!"

"But-"

"Will you to just shut up!" I finally said. "Yes, it was a dick move by Jackson and Annabeth to crash the quest. But guess what! We have the fleece to save the tree and are only a couple hundred miles away, not stranded in the middle of the sea! So shut up and let's find a fucking solution instead of you two arguing like little kids!" 

I shocked everyone, even myself. I have been starting little fights this whole time. Maybe it is the fact that reality just hit that I have no place here and their fighting about how to get home struck a chord. But we will never know because, somehow, Percy cracked the fucking code. 

"Clarisse, what did the oracle say exactly," he demanded, staring at her intently. 

"You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone, 

You shall find what you seek and make it your own, 

But despair for your life entombed within stone, 

And fail without friends, to fly home alone," she answered, voice sounding defeated. 

"Ouch," Grover laughed, but not one of happiness. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Annabeth smack Grover in the arm.

"No," Percy said, digging through all of his pockets. "Does anyone have cash?"

I shook my head, remembering all the cash we paid to get on that ship. I had no idea where she got that money in the first place . . . we were broke as shit. 

"Cash, like the green paper?" Tyson asks. 

"Yeah."

"Like in the duffle bags?"