Tiny house

Very well, Annabeth. You have my permission.”

The next days were a feverish blur of measuring, sawing, and hammering. By
week’s end, I’d completed a full-scale model of my design, premounted on a
wheeled platform for easy moving. I bribed my pegasus friends Blackjack and
Porkpie with some donuts, and they agreed to haul my creation out of the
woods and into the commons.

A few campers wandered over to see what I’d built. “It’s supercute!”
gushed Lacy from the Aphrodite cabin. “But what is it?”

“A portable storage shed,” Clarisse La Rue guessed, eyeing the wheels.
“Or a covered chariot. No, wait. It’s a rapid-deployment outhouse.”

“None of the above,” I replied, slightly offended. “I call it a tiny house.
Check it out!”

I threw open the door and invited them in, a few at a time. The main
sitting room was compact but perfectly livable. Two built-in cushioned
benches along the walls doubled as beds. I lifted the cushions. “And see?
There’s storage underneath the beds for your clothes, armor, weapons. It’s
even long enough for that electric spear of yours, Clarisse.”

“Uh-huh.”

Clarisse sounded unimpressed, but that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm. I
pointed to the narrow staircase against the back wall. “Upstairs is a loft with
two more twin beds. Or it could be used as a game room, meeting area,
whatever. I made the ceiling extra high so headroom isn’t an issue. Under the
stairs is more built-in storage. But the best part is over here.”

I squeezed past them and rolled open a narrow pocket door in the corner.
“Ta-da!”

“So it is an outhouse,” Clarisse said.

“It’s a private bathroom,” I corrected. “Whoever lives here never has to
use the common facilities again.” I smirked at her, remembering the
drenching Percy had once given her by blowing up the camp toilets. “You of
all people should appreciate that.”

Clarisse reddened. “I’m coming down with claustrophobia.” She shoved
past me and out the door.

I turned to Lacy. “You see the potential here, right? Microhouses are the
future. This is cutting-edge architecture!”