Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 35

Percy and Cressida were assigned to clean the entire upper deck along with the rigging that was still a tangled mess from the sea monster attack. It was actually a lot of fun. Being together made everything fun as they danced around on the deck, even chasing each other around with their wet mops and rags before Cressida scaled the mast to begin untangling the rigging. And when she came down, she slid down one of the rope riggings before deliberately falling the last few metres where Percy was waiting to catch her and kiss her.

She liked that they could take something as mundane as scrubbing the deck and untangling ropes and make it fun.

However, the next morning after they had quite a bit of fun with their rain check, they woke to a different ship's horn.

The first time it sounded, they jumped awake, thinking it was just Leo making a joke or something, but then it sounded again, and Percy confirmed that it was several yards away and coming from another ship as they rushed to get dressed.

They were one of the first ones on deck before the others came, all hastily dressed except for the Coach who pulled the night watch.

Frank's Vancouver Winter Olympics shirt was inside out. Hazel's hair was all blown to one side, as though she'd walked through a cyclone; and Leo had accidentally set himself on fire. His T-shirt was in charred tatters. His arms were smoking. Percy wore pyjama pants and a bronze breastplate, which was an interesting fashion statement. But that was only because Cressida had stolen his T-shirt, which just so happened to be the one with her face on the back. She'd also yanked on a pair of bike pants and one shoe, her other foot still bare as her hair was hastily dumped into a ponytail. 

About a hundred yards to port, a massive cruise ship glided past. Tourists waved at them from fifteen or sixteen rows of balconies. Some smiled and took pictures. None of them looked surprised to see an Ancient Greek trireme. Maybe the Mist made it look like a fishing boat, or perhaps the cruisers thought the Argo II was a tourist attraction. The cruise ship blew its horn again, and the Argo II had a shaking fit.

Coach Hedge plugged his ears. "Do they have to be so loud?"

"They're just saying hi," Frank speculated.

"WHAT?" Hedge yelled back.

The ship edged past them, heading out to sea. The tourists kept waving. If they found it strange that the Argo II was populated by half-asleep kids in armour and pyjamas and a man with goat legs, they didn't let on.

"Bye!" Leo called, raising his smoking hand.

"Can I man the ballistae?" Hedge asked.

"Absolutely not! What was the rule?" Cressida asked, with her hands on her hips, and even with how dishevelled she was, she still looked pretty scary.

Gleeson huffed. "That I can't man the ballistae until you say so because I almost killed Jason, Frank and Leo last time. Even though it was a warning shot."

Cressida just narrowed her eyes in a glare before Leo saw what was printed on her top and laughed. "Nice shirt, Hollywood," he remarked, and she grinned.

"Thank you, Houston. Annabeth and Thalia gave it to Percy for his sixteenth birthday," she said as she swept her ponytail over her shoulder to give everyone a view of her face printed on the back below the words I heart.

"It was a joke, but now it's true and I proudly wear that shirt," Percy said as he wrapped an arm around her and kissed her temple.

"You proudly wore it on our first date," she countered, and his grin just grew.

Hazel rubbed her eyes and looked across the glittering green water. "Where are—oh...Wow."

Piper followed her gaze and gasped. Without the cruise ship blocking their view, she saw a mountain jutting from the sea less than half a mile to the north. Piper had seen impressive cliffs before.