Bet You Didn't Know

14. Lesson #4: Reading

All credit to BlackLynx17 on fanfiction.net

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Today's useless fact people will be at the bottom of the chapter.

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Bet You Didn't Know

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Lesson Number 4: Reading

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"Okay Natsu, I'll let you pick the lesson for today. English or math?" Lucy asked holding up two books.

One was a mathematical book while the other was a reading book, both for children 4+. Natsu frowned as he placed his chin on the stump, his eyes flickering back and forth between books. Igneel had gone somewhere today leaving Natsu trainer-less. Lucy thought this was the perfect opportunity to do her job as his teacher and jumped at the chance.

"Do we have to?" Natsu mumbled watching a ladybug crawl in front of him.

"Yes." Lucy smiled proudly.

Natsu sighed and banged his head on the stump, "which is the simplest?"

"Well in math I'll be teaching you addition and subtraction and with the other book all you have to do is read through it two times." Lucy explained looking at the her books.

"I'll take option number two, but I won't like it."

Lucy giggled and placed the math book back into her bag; they'd be working on it another day it seems. She hugged the reading book in her arms and walked over to where Natsu was, kicking his butt so he would scoot over. Natsu groaned and moved so Lucy could sit down next to him.

"Alright Natsu, this will be easy. This book is for babies, I could read it with my eyes closed!" She said trying to boost up his confidence.

Natsu fell back in a fit of laughter, "no you can't! How?!"

"Well, if I memorized the story I could." Lucy explained.

Natsu stopped mid-laugh... she had a point there. If she knew the story by heart, she could read the story without even looking at the pages... and if she could do that then Natsu could definitely read the story by looking at the pages. He leaned back up and noticed Lucy had opened the book to the first page. There were letters on the page, but they weren't separated like how Lucy had taught him. These letters were all squished together leaving no spaces between them... expect for at a certain part and then the letters would get all squished up again.

"Go ahead Natsu, read." Lucy said giving him her full attention.

Natsu started down at the book and gulped, how the hell was he suppose to read this gibberish? Maybe by read she meant say the letters out loud.

"T, H, I-"

"No Natsu, that's not how you read. You have to-"

"I got it, I got it." Natsu interrupted and started again.

"Tuh, huh, ii, sss."

Lucy slapped her forehead then slapped her hand over Natsu's mouth.

"You're not understanding Natsu, what I want you to do is read the words. I know you know the alphabet, but now I was to hear you read. You see this? All these letters together like this make up a single word." She said.

Natsu's eyes widened, so the letters were pushed together closely on purpose? Wow, and here he thought the person who wrote this was an idiot for not leaving spaces.

"Now let me help you, if you didn't know how to read in the first place you could have ask." Lucy said.

But she had to remember that Natsu was a stubborn student, she'd have to offer her help more often rather than wait for him to ask for it. She looked over at her student and saw a scowl on his face. This is crazy, Lucy thought. Reading was very easy if you know the alphabet and here Natsu was, who knew the alphabet and was probably thinking that it was difficult or something. Lucy giggled then reached over to pat Natsu's head.