Learn To Read
I don't own Under The Never Sky or any of the characters. All of those belong to Veronica Rossi. I am just borrowing them for this fanfic. This is also my first fanfic so go easy on me and don't expect much… Also there will be mentions of characters from Throught The Ever Night, such as Reef and the six.
Summary: Everyone who has read Under The Never Sky knows that Perry can't read, so what happens when Aria tries to teach him how to?
Aria's POV
"Oh Perry," I said in a sing-song voice skipping intothe cookhouse. He looked up at me and raised an eyebrow as I came to a stop in front of him. "Hey Aria, you're awfully happy this morning," Perry said and I bent down and got in his face. "Guess what?" I smirked at him. "What?" He asked playing along. "I'm gonna teach you how to read!" I exclaimed excitedly jumping up and down. Roar spewed his water in Reef's face and burst out laughing. Perry scowled at him then turned back to me. "Thanks for the offer Ria, but I'm gonna have to pass," He answered. My smile turned to a frown and I retorted, "Oh. Did you think you have a choice?" That earned a laugh from everyone at the table. "Come on Perry, you're gonna learn how to read whether you like it or not!" I said grabbing his wrist and yanking him to his feet. He rolled his eyes but didn't attempt to pull away so I smirked at him and dragged him out the door, knowing I had won. On my way out, I heard Brooke murmur to someone with my Aud hearing, "Ugh. Look at that mole tramp. She thinks she has Perry right in the palm of her hand. That bitch. She probably thinks that men are supposed to just grovel at her feet." I flinched as she used the name that Wylan had made for me. If Perry noticed me flinch, then he pretended not to. I guided him to his house and sat him down at the kitchen table, pulling out a pen and a piece of paper. I say beside him and began to write on the paper. "Ok, so the first thing you need to know when learning how to read, is the Alphabet," I said writing it on the paper. Z. "I know the Alphabet Aria," He scowled. "Then read it," I said pushing the paper in front of him. "I can't. It just looks like chicken scratches to me," He said scrunching up his face. "I thought you said you knew the Alphabet," I said. "I do, by heart. Not how to read it," He answered. "Well, I wrote it in order. I'll point to the letters and you recite the Alphabet," I answered putting my finger under the A. "A, B, C ,D…(I didn't want to write it all out again)" Perry recited the Alphabet easily. "You did it! You just read the Alphabet!" I exclaimed smiling at him. "No, I just recited what I know by heart, while looking at what you wrote on the paper," He smirked. "Whatever. You read what was on the paper in my book so there," I said sticking my tongue out at him. He just chuckled. "Ok now let's try making actual words," I said leaning over the paper. "There read this," I said pushing the paper back to him. "I can't," He replied after a glance at the paper. "Yes you can," I encouraged him. "No, I don't know what this says," He said. "Just look at the Alphabet. What letter does the word start with?" I asked him. "I don't know," He said. "What does the first letter look like?" I asked him. "Umm, this one," He said pointing at the C. I smiled. "Good. Now, what letter is the third one in the Alphabet?" "Um C?" He asked. "Yep! And what does the C sound like?" I asked. "I don't know ssss?" He said. "Well, in some cases, but in this case, it's kuh." I replied. "Ok, so what's the sec-" I broke off as Perry crushed his lips to mine. "Mfmffmwr" I said against his lips. "What?" He asked drawing away. "I said, you can't distract me, it won't work," "Ugh!" He groaned rolling his eyes and leaning back in his chair. "Ok how 'bout this? For every letter you get, I'll give you a kiss. The kisses will get longer and longer the more letters and words you get until you read a sentence," I giggled as he perked up and said, "Well what're you waiting for? Let's get to reading!" "Ok. So as I was saying, what is the second letter?" "Umm, A?" He asked hesitantly. I smile and leaned forward, brushing my lips against his. He smiled victoriously and then said, " And the third letter is T?" "Correct again," I said leaning forward and giving him a slightly longer kiss. "So what do the A and the T sound like?" I asked. "Umm, Aah and Tuh?" "Yep! So putting all of those sounds together, what word is this?" I asked beaming at him. "Kuh-Aah-Tuh. Kuhaahtuh. Cat?" He asked. "You got it!" I exclaimed giving him a kiss and lingering on his lips for just a second longer. He smiled and eagerly pushed the paper towards me. "Another," He demanded and I chuckled. "Ok. Lets try two words now," I said leaning over the paper. "First letter," I said pointing to it. "Ummmm," "Look at the alphabet," I hinted. "Oh. Um T? He asked. "Yep!" I said giving him a kiss. "Next," "Um. H?" He said. I gave him another kiss and he confidently said, "E," for the last letter. "Yes!" I said giving him a long kiss. "So what does the T sound like?" I asked. "Tuh," He answered puckering his lips. I giggled and answered, "Right, but in this case since it's a T beside an H, it makes a Thuh sound." "Well that's not confusing at all," He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. I chuckled and said, "So this word is the. Can you put these two words together?" "Um sure. The Cat?" he asked cocking and eyebrow. "You got it!" I exclaimed throwing my arms around his neck and giving him a deep and passionate kiss. (I didn't feel like writing out the whole process of reading word for word until Perry read a full sentence, so I just skipped ahead. You get the idea though.) "Now read this sentence," I said handing him the paper. "The cat wore a hat," He said slowly. "You did it! You read a sentence!" I exclaimed jumping into his lap and giving him a long kiss. He smiled against my lips victoriously. I loved finally having privacy, but I found out later that we weren't actually alone. Little did we know, Roar, Reef, and the rest of the six were watching us from the window and laughing so hard that they had tears streaming down there faces. I thought that it was funny that they caught us, but not Perry. Nope. He has yet to get revenge on them for laughing at him. But in the end, it was worth it because Perry learned how to read!
One Month Later:
Perry's POV
I stood in front of the Tides and gulped. Aria was making me read a book in front of everyone. And not just any book, a children's book. I'll have to put her on my revenge list along with Roar, Reef, and the six. I took a deep breath and opened 'One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish' by Dr. Seuss.
"One fish
two fish
Red fish
Blue fish.
Black fish
Blue fish
Old fish
New fish
This one has
a little star.
This one has a little car.
Say! What a lot
of fish there are.
Yes. Some are red. And some are blue.
Some are old. And some are new.
Some are sad.
And some are glad.
And some are very, very bad.
I heard Roar and Reef snicker, but I just smirked at them. I was a little embarrassed to be honest, but I felt proud of myself for learning to read, even if it was a baby book. I felt even more proud when I saw Aria's proud face. She beamed at me and I smiled back. I changed my mind. I mentally scratched her off of my revenge list as I made my way over to her and opened my arms in time to catch her as she jumped into them.
I hoped you liked it! I couldn't find any of my copies of Dr. Seuss books, so I looked up the One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish poem online and found it on this website:
. :D
It's not the whole thing from the website cuz the whole poem was like 20 pages long… :D