Dakota

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Noah's P.O.V

In hindsight. Maybe I shouldn't have given Dakota the soup. Apparently, she was vegetarian. Her sole reason was because the taste of a dead corpse didn't register well with her digestive system; so whenever she ate meat she would immediately puke it up.

I gave her chicken soup. 

My bad.

This just shows that I'm not cut out to be a doctor. (Nor a chef in that matter.) That's cool though because I didn't really want to be either of them. 

I had visited the library earlier on in the day, seeing as I finally had vacant time as Dakota was still ill. Most of my days were spent either going to school or spending time with Dakota funnily enough. I'm not really sure how it started - this friendship shit with Dakota - but it just did. I'm glad it did though. 

I arrived to see Ella, the librarian, giving me a disappointed look. Her scent wafted in the air as she paced slow steps towards me. "Noah where have you been the past couple days?" She asked with a slight hint of annoyance but mostly with curiosity. Ella wasn't one to get angry, but I guess she must'av been concerned. 

"Oh you know ... just here. There. Every where." I waved it off casually as I made my way to the staff room to get my name tag. I realized Ella had followed me as the reeking rose perfume was still intoxicating my nostrils. 

"Noah. You do realize I'm going to have to extend the days of your community service because of this." 

Damn.

No Ella, I did not realize. 

I think she must have noticed my sudden sullen look because her annoyed expression soon changed to a crinkled sympathetic one. She patted me on the shoulder slightly with her wrinkly frail hand in a comforting manner. 

"Tell you what Noah ... I won't add anymore hours. Just as long as you carry on attending the rest of the community hours as you have done before. It will be our little secret." 

"Praise the lord. Ella you are the best. I am forever in your debt!" 

She waved her hand in the air dismissively in a nonchalant way but she didn't prove any efforts to hide the smile creeping up into her aging cheeks. "Okay okay. Now get back to work Noah." 

"Yes Ma'am." Saluting her, I turned to the exiting doors to start my work. The sooner I worked, the sooner I would pay off the hours and the sooner I'd be able to get out of here and spend the rest of my time doing far more better things.

*

Two weeks later and I'm still working off my hours in the library (one week of four hour work days to go). And Dakota is still reading the same damn book upside down. 

When it was time for my lunch break I had walked up to where Dakota was seated and watched her intently as she read. 

"Dakota?" I asked her, watching as the soft tendrils of her hair fell out of her bun, she nodded her head at me in acknowledgement. She would always do this when she was reading. She would never speak. Only communicate through the ways of body language and movements or writings. 

I think it's because she has this weird concept where she doesn't like to talk whilst she reads because it loses the emotion and the feeling that she feels when she reads. Either that or it's the fact that she loses the line of which she was reading. I think it's most likely the latter, but considering it's Dakota, I'll never know.

"How do you read upside down? Surely you wouldn't be able to see the words clearly." I had pondered this thought for a while. And only now was the moment I had asked her; curiosity was eating me.

I kind of assumed she was going to ignore me for being rude. Or reply using a pen and paper. Nevertheless, I had gotten quite accustomed to her non-speaking replies so it, most definitely, came a shock to me to hear Dakota actually reply using her serene voice. 

Although, this time when she spoke it wasn't anything like it's usual joyful tone.

"What's the point of reading the right way up when it doesn't make a difference anyway." She spat in an awful distasteful tone. She slammed the book in her hands to a close and looked me right in the eye; fury etched into her glistening orbs.

"What do you mean?" I asked in my confused state. 

"Noah ... I'm dyslexic."