l33t_winged_bat | (Test) Cass Cain

(Test) Cass Cain

A drop reaches her lip and Barbara Gordon-Grayson tastes the brine of her own sweat. She sucks in a harsh breath between her teeth. The bars she hoists herself up on feel slick under her hands, despite the powder she put on them - what? An hour ago? Two?

There's an annoying strand of red tangling in front of her eye. It's glued to forehead. She wills it aware and leans forward. One more step. One more

Step.

One -

More -

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"Don't -" she starts it as a demand. There you go again, she thinks. This situation doesn't need to have you prove yourself. She corrects her tone to a request. "Don't get my wheelchair. Just help me over there.

"Better than before," she says to the younger woman as much as herself after settling into an armchair. "Right?"

She nods and helps Barbara up, no questions asked about no wheelchair, it makes sense to her. Pushing yourself was the way to improvement after all.

"Yes," Cass nods seriously. She was always going to be of few words, and certainly not the flattery or niceties type. Body language was always obvious to her, direct, her speech was the same, so when she agrees, she really does mean there had been improvement. Cass then smiles and makes an attempt to say a bit more, for Babs, and because she's always encouraged to speak more. "Is better." She then almost shyly gestures with the closed book in her hand. "Is not better, hard. Not easy like bodies."

Barbara closed her eyes. Reading had always been easy for her. She could recall pages in her mind of beloved stories. Narnia and Cuculcan had shifted to Gibson and Asimov until she finally gave up fiction altogether except in the pursuit of justice or her library studies. There wasn't time for fiction, or, at least, that's what she told herself.

Motherhood changed her. To a point, it allowed her a thin excuse to look into childish things and allowed her to rediscover childhood as a happier place.

"You're starting with English. That means you're jumping into the deep end of the pool language-wise." She looks over the thin book. "Aesop's Fables?"

She holds out the book to Barbara, for her to see for herself but nods, it was indeed Aesop's Fables. "Tim says stories short. Make easier." Though the uncomfortable look on her face says this clearly wasn't the case so far. Reading was a slow and laborious effort for her. "Other languages easy?"

"Easier." She eyeing the bars again. Logic says she should rest, but the lure of them is strong. "English is a composite language. It's rules shift around. I remember a friend of mine from college who was Japanese learned Spanish first and then English."

There are three main parts to reading fluency - syntax, vocabulary and comprehension. She decided to test how her pupil was doing. "Try reading one of the fables."

Cass nodded and noted the glance to the bars behind her but did not turn to look at them too. She couldn't say she knew the meaning to those three main parts Barbara had listed, but she'd try reading for her. Barbara was her sensei for this after all. "Read while you do bars?"

She looks at the bars, hating to admit defeat, but -

"Just read. I think I just should focus on you right now and not try to tear myself up in my eagerness to get back on my feet."

It also gives her time to consider her kitchen. Baking was as close to patience as she managed some days even with a toddler around the house. A pang of guilt hit her. As important as her work was, Sandra had to come first. Balancing that wasn't easy, even as a stay-at-home hero with independent wealth. She should make something nice tonight, like shepherd's pie.

She just gives a brief nod of understanding, Barbara was the sensei, she wasn't going to question her sensei's decisions too much. Cass opens the book, even if looking just a tad reluctant, not enough not to, but it's always clear enough that this sort of thing isn't her forte and she's well aware. But reading was important, everyone said that often too, and it would improve her speech at the same time. If there was one thing she was, it was a determined student at least.

One preparatory deep calming breath, the same she started all her training sessions with, and Cass began at the title of the tale she'd picked for the title name really. "The Bat. The Birds. And The beasts."

Normally 'a', 'the' and other smaller words that she often saw as less than essential, were dropped in her speech. But in reading it was clear she was making the effort to hit them all, sometimes with a bit too much emphasis, evidenced by her including all the words in the title. Though a few were still missed in the short story and her pauses often made commas seem more like periods. But her vocabulary was better than it had once been, and her understanding of punctuation was certainly progressing at a steady clip.

"...peace was made. No battle took place. So The Bat came to The Birds and wish to join in the....re...rejoo...re-joo-ih...what word?"

"You almost had it. Break the work and look at the pieces. 'Re' you know. What are the next three letters?"

"J. O. I. Not sure how go together," she admitted. "Know the I-N-G at end but not the ones before."

"Jay." She says sounding it out. "'oi' manks a long sound. Coin, oink, oil...Try to puzzle out the last letter and then combined them all."

"Re-" She takes a deep breath and recites to herself under her breath. "Coin. K-oy-n. Oink. Oy-nk. Oil. Oy-l. Oi...Oi...Oi." Another studied look at the word in the book. "Re-joy...king?" She frowns at herself and shakes her head just slightly before correcting. "Re-joy-sing. Rejoicing?" Cass glances up from the page to her teacher, to see if she'd gotten it right or there was more correction needed.

Barbara nods once. While Cassandra never seeks verbal approval, the more words a beginning reader is exposed to, the more likely reading will become easier.

"Rejoicing," she repeats. "Now, read the sentence again now that you know the word."

She nodded, focused as ever, as if mastering this sentence was learning a particular martial arts move. "So the Bat came to the Birds and wish-ed to join in the...re-joy-sing." She paused and played that back in her head to be sure she'd gotten it right before finishing the sentence. "But they all turned again-" Another pause, she knew that she knew this word, that stumble wasn't acceptable. "Again-st him and he had to fly away."

Cassandra just looked up from the book, back to Barbara, to see if her sensei had any feedback.

A smile and a small nod might as well be a gold star.

"So, can you tell me what happened to the Bat in your own words?" She thinks on it. "You don't have to use words to explain. Not right now."

Mechanics are nothing without understanding.

She's about to take the non-word option, before shaking her head slightly, more to herself than Barbara. This was word learning time, she must work on using words, that was the point of training, of getting better. Though having to put the story into her own words with little notice made her go back to her slightly more simplistic language as a default.

"Bat not in battle. So Bat not let in victory."

"Close," she remarks with pride in her voice for Cassandra's extra effort. "The Bat deceived both sides to stay out the fight, yet wanted to share in the victory when it was over. Was that wise?"

The pride isn't lost on her and there's a small smile in response before it disappears in favour of that determined look. She shakes her head.

"No. Must put in work to get reward."

A hand is placed on her shoulder. "And, know what it is you work for."

Because you can get very lost if you don't.

She eyes the bars. "I could a spotter." Because it's time to stop trying to heal all on my own.

No words are needed in true Cass style, just a small smile and affirming nod.

She doesn't glance back to the bars, but her smile gets a little wider with the next nod. This area she understood more. But because she found that people could confuse it if you nodded only, they weren't sure what part you were agreeing to, she verbalized her agreement this time. Small steps, but progress never came overnight. "Can help."

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(Test) Cass Cain

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