The burning in her ears has spread to the rest of her face. Gods dammit.

"It's not awful. I don't mind it." She's never known anything else, so having an inherent love of reading seems just as foreign to her as hating it does to Ness. "And no. I don't need anybody to read to me."

Her tone is short, but it's hard to pinpoint whether it's anger or just embarrassment. Maybe if she hadn't recently gotten this promotion, she would be flying off the handle in a more obvious way, but right now Clarisse is working very, very hard to seem capable of keeping this position. Emotionally.

"I should get back to work."