Young Justice Oneshots

Baby Bats: Learning is Fun!

Part 3/4

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Cass was having a bad day. She didn't sleep well, she was in a bad mood, and nobody would stop talking. To make matters worse, she was having to do schoolwork, which she hated.

'No!' She signed for what felt like the millionth time. 'I can't do that!'

"I'm just asking you to sign the alphabet! It's not like I'm asking you to finger spell a paragraph!" Dick was exasperated. It was day four of babysitting, Thursday, and he had finally gotten off baby duty to be reminded that his sister wasn't much easier.

'I don't know what that word means!'

"It doesn't matter, Cassie! Just sign the ABCs!"

She focused hard. She curled her hand into a proper fist, her thumb resting up against her pointer finger. 'A.' She opened her hand, pressing her thumb to her palm. 'B.' She curved her hand. 'C.' She made a circle with her hand, raising her pointer finger. 'D.' She made a fist again, this time placing her thumb across her other fingers.

"That's 'S', Cass, not 'E'."

She pouted, crossing her arms and throwing herself backwards into the couch.

"Now, try again!"

'No!'

"Cassie-"

'NO! Don't want!'

"How about if we practice colors with your rainbow slime instead?"

'No!'

"You have to do something, or you can't go to dance class this afternoon."

Cass' jaw dropped. 'Not fair!'

"Hey, how about you use your talkie?" Jason chimed in. "I can go get it from your bag!"

Cass hesitated before nodding. Jason went off to retrieve her AAC device, which she rarely used because she preferred to sign. But there were days like this one, where she flipped her preferences on their heads. Usually the reason was school related.

"Here you go!" Jason cheerily returned from Dick's room, speech tablet in hand. "You better use it, because I stubbed the f*ck out of my toe getting it for you!"

"Jason!" M'gann exclaimed. "Language!"

"I can't believe you haven't given that up by now," Connor told her. Jason's mouth was as bad as Artemis'.

"What does Gotham put in their water?" Raquel laughed.

"Lead, probably. Or the chemicals that are constantly being leaked everywhere. There's got to be some explanation for the crazy. Though legend has it that it was built on a cursed Natibe American gravesite." Artemis chimed into the conversation. "Personally, I vote that it's basically fumes from the remains of the old Lazarus pit."

"The what?" Raquel asked.

"Oh... it's a long explanation. Cursed magic pool that can bring you back to life with certain caveats. Like going crazy."

"Oh."

"Sounds neat to me!" Jason rejoined the conversation he had unintentionally started. "You'd be like a cooler zombie!"

"I don't know," Cass said with her tablet. "I don't think I would want it. I would only use it if someone made me." She had finally started using it to start her schoolwork with Artemis. She liked her teaching better. And Artemis wasn't one to turn up a teaching opportunity. They switched to counting after it was quickly realized that for all her literary talents, Artemis couldn't recite the alphabet in order if her life depended on it.