houseofcards_rp | { o t a } now i know my a, b, c's...

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{ o t a } now i know my a, b, c's...

She really should have been expecting this. There was no reason for her to be exempt from this task. Week by week, the duty had been passed to others, and she’d escaped from Karin with little more than dusting, cleaning dishes, watering flowers.

This week, though, she wasn’t as lucky. She lugged the cart of books down an arbitrarily chosen hallway in the Clubs Library. After taking a little breath, she pulled out the first book, staring at the cover. Alphabetize them, Karin had said flippantly, nudging Lexa over to the cart of books. They all should go in the fiction aisle.

Alphabetize. That... meant. In order. She frowned a little, tracing the letters on the cover with her finger. The first one... looked sort of like a line, then a curve, then another diagonal. She knew she’d seen it before...

At the music shop. It was the first letter in ‘records’, she was sure of it. That was... R. Her eyes flicked up to the books on the shelf in front of her. All the letters on the spines of the books blurred for a moment, then cleared as she leaned closer. The first letter in these books... Well, some started with a ladder type letter thing, maybe a ladder with one rung, while one of them started with a line next to another line.

She bit her lip, then looked back down to the book in her hands. This was going to take a while.

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Zoe shrugs, and she slips the book she was borrowing into her brown leather purse before reaching up to put Devereaux and Daniels in the right places and tucking Burnett under her arm. "Not really," she says. "I'm only a Four, we don't have that much responsibility." Which is true as a general rule.

Just not in Zoe's particular case. She'll just work a little later tonight, that's all. "This one goes in the aisle before this one, I think," she adds. "With all of these," indicating all the As and all the Bs, "so maybe we should pull the cart that way?"

Her cheeks burn as Zoe corrects the placement of the books, looking at her feet. At her words, she quickly moves the cart down the aisle - at least she can do that properly. Quietly, "... What's your name?"

She smiles as she sorts the As into the right order and starts slotting them onto shelves. "It's Zoe," she says. "I'm from the Spades. What's yours?" She's working slowly, almost lazily, giving Lexa time to look at the books. Although she might be dyslexic too, Zoe supposes.

"Lexa Castillo. Two'f Clubs." She fidgets a little again as Zoe starts doing her work for her. It will take her a while to see that each book starts with a pointed, arrow-like letter with a line in the middle. Once she does realize, she'll store it away in her mind, making sure that she remembers. That letter is A. A is first in the alphabet. Right. "Nice t'meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too." Zoe shelves for a few minutes, efficient and neat - she used to do this in Heart Library before it went under Jordan's control. And she watches Lexa out of the corner of her eye as she does it. "Can I ask you something?"

Her question gets a wary glance, but Lexa rolls a shoulder before nodding. "Sure."

She could ask whatever she wanted. That didn't mean Lexa was guaranteed to answer.

"Do you...have trouble recognizing letters?" she asks. Sort of hesitantly, really, because it's not the sort of question people want to answer.

And she can understand why, really, but still.

There's a long pause. Long enough for Zoe to probably think that Lexa isn't going to answer. She stares sullenly at a shelf for a few minutes, then speaks abruptly. "Can't... read, rightly. I know, like... some words. But... don't really know the letters."

Those lines written in that way? It was that word. But she couldn't put together sentences unless they were filled with words that she already recognized.

"Oh." And then she goes back to shelving, for a few moments, her expression thoughtful. That was...well, nothing she'd ever had to worry about. She had tutors teaching her to read with two alphabets at the age of five. "But you'd like to learn?"

"I don't need t'learn. What's the point? I'll just... figure out this. That's all that I need."

It's not that she doesn't want to learn. She'd love to learn, be able to actually read things. It's just... humiliating to admit that she needs help. That she's so insufficient in this way.

It was on the tip of her tongue to say that Lexa would need to know, but...that wouldn't get them anywhere. Probably. "You don't have to," she says instead. "But it could be a useful skill."

"-Whatever." Let no one say that Alexandra Castillo isn't stubborn as hell. "Who'd teach me, anyway?"

"I could," Zoe says. She was always doing this - volunteering. "If you wanted to. Or Christopher, in your Suit. He's a teacher."

She pauses for a moment. Then- "You bein' serious? Like... I ain't really the best type'f... person t'be a student." Which was a lie. For all her prickliness, she was stubbornly determined to do things the right way.

"Yes." It is kind of a weird thing to volunteer, she admits. But she has a habit of doing these things impulsively. "There's nothing wrong with trying, is there?"

Zoe gets all of the wary looks. Finally- "... Sure, I guess. Can't... hurt."

"Whenever you want to." Probably not now, though, with as much work as they have to do.

"I'll let y'know, then. ... Just warnin' you. M'a bit of a lost case. Somethin' like that." That's what people had told her back at home, at least.

That was what her mother had finally told her when she was about Lexa's age, about music. That Zoe would have to be the best at everything else, because she'd never rise in the Hearts the way Charlotte had. It makes her smile flicker a little. "I don't think you are," she says. "We'll try."

"... M'sure. We'll see." She nudges the cart a little to one side. "Thanks... for helpin'. T'day. 'nd all that." Another moment, then- "Karin woulda had my head f'I took too long, I guess."

"It's not a problem." Either the teaching or the shelving, though she's referring to the latter. "I like organizing things."

"... still. Thanks. You know." She shrugs, looking down at her feet. "What d'you do at your castle, then?" Can she do something to repay the favor?

"I'm the accountant." Numbers, budgets, telling people that no, widescreen televisions are not an essential expense.

"Ah. So, like... money 'nd stuff?" Lexa toes the ground, thinking. "Huh. ... I'll-- y'know. I'll... think've somethin' t'do. Like, in exchange for... this."

Zoe nods, and then looks over at Lexa. "I don't really need anything in return," she says. "Really, you don't have to."

"Ain't fair." She rolls one shoulder. "Prefer not t'owe people anything, t'be honest."

Zoe looks at her and then nods, thoughtfully. She's the same way, really. "Okay," she finally says. "Whatever you come up with."

Lexa nods, then continues to head down the aisles with Zoe, watching carefully as they sort the books together.

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{ o t a } now i know my a, b, c's...

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