I dare you! (Complete)

[Kale]

"Come on!" Kale entreated. "We've been stuck in those training rooms for over a week now! I gotta get some air!"

It was an unseasonably warm day for the Temple District in autumn--sunny, clear skies, a mild breeze out of the South--and Padawan Kale was determined to get out and enjoy it, no matter what his older co-learner, Rhea Kaylen, said.

Kale had no idea how much Rhea agreed with him. The Temple was beginning to grow a little stifling after training so long indoors, especially for Rhea, who still found human climates to be suffocating, at times. Usually, this time of year was when temperatures just started to become comfortable for her, but the sunny weather outside and the failure of Temple maintenance to keep the thermostats set low enough made even the shadowed synth-marble halls and misty gardens of the Jedi enclave unbearable for very long.

Rhea looked up from her book, which Kale was not allowing her to concentrate on, anyway, and pushed some hateful strands of hair out of her face, trying unsuccessfully to tuck them back into her knotted bun.

"Look, Kale, I know how you feel, really, I do, but there's no way we can get word to Master Tondry as to where we're going. I'm not about to bother him while he's in a meeting, and when he told us to spend another two hours practicing, I doubt he meant going off on a jaunt through the city to do it."

The boy didn't look all that pleased with her response--in fact, he looked about ready to throttle her.

"Look, I just don't want to get in trouble, okay?" she added placatingly.

Kale threw his head back and vented a prodigious sigh.

"We're not gonna get in any trouble," he said. "Master Tondry isn't gonna care if we break up the routine a little. In fact, I'll bet he thinks it was a great idea. Y'know--takin' what we're learnin' into the real world, an' all that."

Rhea didn't budge from her seat. Kale stepped up and plucked the book out of her hands.

"C'mon, don't be such a prude!" he said. "No one's gonna care!"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea stared helplessly after her book, then sighed a little. "I really don't thi--wait a minute, did you just call me a prude? Don't you roll your eyes at me!"

Kale crossed his arms, dangling the book to one side, and smiled impertinently. "You're not my master, remember? B'sides, I've been a Padawan longer than you have. I've got seniority. And I'm exercising my senior prerogative to say that we should train outside."

Rhea frowned fiercely. "Seniority my foot. But, okay, fine, you're so stuck on getting out of the Temple, we'll go. It is hot in here...but..." Here she shook her finger, not realizing just how much she looked like a scolding mother. "If Master gets angry, you are taking the fall all by yourself, got it?"

"Pffft. You worry too much," Kale replied, laughing. "Will you get goin' already? We have trainin' to do!"

Rhea bit her lower lip and glanced up and down the hallway guiltily, as if waiting for someone to catch them at mischief. But there was no one, and when another piece of hair fell stubbornly into her eyes, Rhea's mind was made up.

"Alright, alright, already," she said, standing and stretching. "Lead the way. Though what you're planning on doing once we get to wherever we're going, I have no idea."

[Kale]

Eager to get out of the stifling temple air, Kale set a brisk pace down the corridor, leaving Rhea to catch up.

"We'll figure somethin' out," he called back. "Just use your imagination. Frell, we could practice telekinesis, mentalics... sense..."

Kale didn't have much idea himself, but that mattered less to him than untethering himself from the Temple proper. In moments they were out the side door of the Academy and heading down Kenobi avenue on the east side of the Jedi campus to the main thoroughfare that ran through the heart of the Temple district. To an off-worlder, the road would have looked busy--to a Coruscant native, busy was a way of life. Kale and Rhea merged seemlessly into the foot traffic on the side of the street.

"I was thinkin' Sukalov Park just down the block," Kale piped back to Rhea above the street noise. "Oughta be plenty of room to... train. Down there."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea tried to keep her balance as a burly spacer of questionable species brushed by, nearly bowling her over. She'd not taken a walk through the Coruscant streets for some time, and her sense of timing the flow of the crowd was rusty. Ah, Imran was so much quieter. Oh, well.

Rhea fell into step a bit behind Kale, to ride his more self-assured wake. She looked to where the boy cocked his head, noticing the line of trees planted along the streetside to shield the park and dull the city sound somewhat (the rest of the noise absorbed by small panels set in the bars of the surrounding iron gate). Beyond the gate was an expanse of greenspace several blocks long and wide, and Rhea could see footpaths crisscrossing the lawn.

"That looks fine," she finally replied.

[Kale]

The park was a fair sight nicer than anything to be found in the Santiago district where Kale and Rhea once lived. Some of them had been installed when Coruscant was still the capital of the Empire, and none of them saw much maintenance. More often than not, they served only as rendezvous points for shady transactions.

So, for a teenager who had never lived on a green planet, even a modest city park like this one was a source of fascination. There were paved basketball courts in the corner, a football field on the far side, and five or six acres of lush lawn and shade trees in the middle. The park itself was fairly busy on a fair day like today. There wasn't the solitude that you'd find in the Temple gardens, but Kale was sick of Jedi solitude anyway. This was just the breath of fresh air he'd needed.

"Ah, there's an open ball court over there. You any good at shootin' hoops?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea, following Kale through the gate and into the park, craned her neck to see the court to which the boy was referring. The enclosed square of asphalt silently radiated the sun's heat at near-original intensity, making the chain-link fence and the abandoned red-and-black ball lying to one side seem to shimmer.

The Imrani woman glanced at her fellow Padawan askance. "I've played a little; we have a similar sort of game on Imran, only it's harder to play." Rhea decided not to mention that she'd never been at all good at playing it. "My only question is, what does shooting hoops have to do with following Master Tondry's Force-training regimen?"

[Kale]

Kale strode across the court to the foul line, grinning. "Oh, that's simple. See, with a little practice, anybody can shoot a lay-up."

He raised his hand palm-out in front of him, and the red-and-black ball rolled across the pavement, then leapt up to hover between Kale and the net.

"We're gonna do it without touchin' the ball."

With concentration, Kale mimicked the motion of a lay-up shot, and the ball hopped from its hovering point into the net.

"Think you can handle that?" Kale challenged.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea blinked. The boy had landed the shot effortlessly. He'd obviously been practicing, and quite a bit.

Maybe even more than she had. It'd been several months since she'd returned from the Veil, and in that time Master Tondry had been focusing on areas of her training other than telekinesis. She could do it, but she hated to think that she might have a harder time of it than a sixteen-year-old boy would.

Rhea smoothed the frown out of her brow and tipped her head back boyishly--the only way she'd ever been able to make any Imrani boy to take her seriously had been to act as much like him as she could.

"Hmph. Is that it?"

Without using her hand, Rhea jerked the ball off the ground--a little less smoothly than Kale had--and, dribbling it once, just for good measure, plunked it in and through the hoop, chain-net rattling. Rhea grinned.

[Kale]

Kale's eyes darted back and forth between the ball's arc and Rhea herself, noting she handled it without using gestures to focus her attention. He still had trouble grappling with the abstractness of the Force without some tactile aid.

He reached out and stopped the ball's bouncing progress, then called it into his hands. "Not bad," he said obligingly. "But, yeah... you're right. Not much to a trick like that, is there?"

The teenaged Padawan took a few steps away from the hoop, turning the ball over in his hands, feeling the beaded rubber surface, the mass, the elasticity. The act of touching built a sort of connection between him and the ball; the more he knew it, the more he felt he could control it.

"I think we oughta try somethin' more complicated. Rhea, you ever play 'Bantha'?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea narrowly watched the boy as he carefully considered the old ball and gently, almost tenderly, shifted it back and forth between his hands. He was concentrating, focusing, Rhea thought. Screwing himself up to something.

When it came, Rhea was puzzled.

"No..." she frowned. "What is it?"

[Kale]

"Pretty simple game," Kale replied. "The kids in the Southern Underground used to play it with a ball and an old paint bucket. See, I take a shot, an' if I make it, you have to make the same shot. Then it's your turn to try to fake me out. Every time you miss a shot, you get a letter--you start with 'B,' then 'A,' then 'N,' an' so on. First one to spell the word 'bantha' is the loser."

He turned and gave the ball a few solid bounces. "So, you game?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea cocked her head. "Sounds interesting. Sure, that'll be--"

The woman paused a minute and looked at Kale in dawning realization. Hmm. Yes, this could be a very interesting game, indeed.

"Wait a second. I mean, that sounds fun, and all, but...well, playing for bragging rights is all well and good, but how about we up the ante a little?"

Rhea raised her eyebrow and hoped the younger Padawan would take the bait.

[Kale]

There was something going on in her head--Kale wasn't sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, but he was too curious not to bite.

"Ante?" he echoed. "This is a ballgame, not poker. What d'you got?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea wrinkled her nose, making a mental note never to try and sound cool, again.

"Sometimes, on Imran, kids play a game called mehraevi ov goni, or Words and Actions. It's a way to get to know your opponent, by testing them--you have to either perform some hard challenge, or answer any question your opponent dreams up. We've got the 'challenge' part," she nodded at the ball in Kale's hands, "so, every time we miss a shot, that's admitting that we failed the test, and have to answer a question the other asks."

Rhea looked at the boy steadily, hoping she'd explained lucidly enough--she had something of a problem with that. "So...what about it?"

[Kale]

Kale furrowed his brow. "What, like Truth or Dare? That's a kids' game. What does that have to do with Jedi training?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea blinked. She...hadn't really thought of that.

"Well...nothing, really. I just thought, you know, might be kind of interesting to hear what you'd say...but, hey, if you're uncomfortable, or...scared, or anything like that, we'll just forget it."

Rhea stretched and tried not to look at Kale. That had to have been the oldest ploy in the book, and if he hadn't seen right through it, he was dead blind. Still, maybe...

[Kale]

That had to have been the oldest ploy in the book. And darned if it didn't chafe Kale's ego anyway.

"I didn't say I was scared," Kale replied. "I just don't really see the point. But... what the hey. If it gives you the competetive edge you need to keep up with me, we'll do it."

He set the ball spinning on the tip of his finger and tried to hold it there--oops, that was a bit too fine for his teek to handle. He grabbed the ball out of the air and glanced back up at the hoop.

"So, my shot, right?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

"If you think that'll help you win, sure," Rhea smirked.

Competitive edge, my frelling eye...

[Kale]

"Class is in session, sister," Kale shot back with a grin. "Now, let's see..."

The Padawan seized the ball in his Force grip and stepped back behind the foul line, the ball floating obediently in front of him.

"Boomerang shot," he said. "Through the hoop, then back into my hands. Can't touch the floor."

With that, he gave the ball a metaphysical push, arced it above the rim, and dropped it through the net. It took a quick readjustment to compensate for the intervening matter and regain control of the ball before it struck the pavement. It slowed to a stop two feet above the ground, then flew briskly into Kale's waiting hands.

Victorious, Kale put the ball down to mark where he'd stood. "Your turn."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea stepped up to the test line--humans called it the foul line; why, she didn't really know--and plucked up the ball. Closing her eyes, she took her hands away from the rubber surface of the ball, suspending the spheroid before her with just her mind.

Visualizing the net, the ball, and the court around her with Force-enhanced clarity, Rhea judged the distance and, carefully, slung the ball up, in, and around smoothly, with no stops and never coming within a meter of the ground.

"Too easy, ad'gan-da."

[Kale]

Kale shrugged. "I'm just warmin' up. Let's see what you got."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea blinked, then realized it was her turn to think up a shot to stump her partner. Tapping her mouth, she thought about it a few seconds, then grinned.

"Okay, how about one bounce, through the net without hitting the backboard, then one bounce coming back?"

[Kale]

Well--that would be tricky. But Kale didn't bat an eye.

"I can do it if you can."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Oh, right, her turn first.

Rhea took the ball and squinted at the orange square taped onto the battered and cracked backboard. She took a moment to figure the exact space between the front of the rusting rim to the surface of the backboard, then mentally bumped the ball forward, thumping it against the pavement once, hefted it up and plunked it through the net. Rhea called it back to her, pleased at having not hit the backboard. Excited, she dribbled the ball again, once, before snatching it out of the air and smiling over at Kale.

[Kale]

Kale pushed his tongue to the side of his cheek as he stepped up to take the ball. Wasn't much room for error here.

The ball scudded out toward the net as if it were being pulled up a wire, stopped, and unceremoniously smacked the pavement. Then it looped up above the rim, stopped again, and dropped steadily through the hoop, hit the ground again, and flew home. Kale halted the ball with his palm and set it slowly rotating like a two-tone planet.

"Okay, now it's time to get serious."

Kale walked out to midcourt, facing the opposite hoop. "Down through that hoop and up through the other. No stopping."

Stretching far enough to make a midcourt shot would be a challenge enough. Kale closed his eyes, focused on the two basketball goals, and send the ball speeding on its way.

Up and over the rim--the ball lightly smacked the backboard, and he had to nudge it to keep it from rolling harmlessly off to the side. It dropped through and came speeding low across the court like a drunken dragonfly, and Kale spun around to keep it in his sights. As soon as it was over the paint, he pulled it upward with a violent jerk of his hand. It glanced off the far rim but made it through.

Kale released the ball and leaned over--headrush. He'd put a bit too much juice on the thing, and he'd nearly lost control of it completely.

"Top that," he challenged, catching his breath.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea watched the boy struggle to execute the shot, and noticed how drained he was when he'd finished. It had been an impressive piece of work.

Too bad Rhea'd have to show him up.

Rhea took the hovering ball in her own Force-grip and sent it through the near hoop. She then shot it off down the court, nudging it upward to drop it through the hoop, and realizing a half-second too late that she had misjudged the distance.

A loud thwack-ang-ang-ang-ang resounded from the shuddering rim as the ball smacked the backboard with far too much force to nail the shot. The ball sprang back, grazing the rim and tipping over the front side to plummet back to the pavement on the wrong side of the net.

[Kale]

"Ohhhh! So close!"

Kale lightly called the ball back to him. "But close don't count in this game. That's a whiff, and you've got a 'B.' Also means you have to answer some sort of juicy question. Well, let's see..."

He turned to give it some thought, and to give Rhea some time to squirm. Honestly, though, he wasn't sure where to begin. He didn't know where to start digging for secrets.

So it hit him. Well, he didn't know if it was a big secret, but it was worth a shot.

"What've you got in that chest of yours?" he asked. "Y'know, the one you had in your apartment where you kept your mother's saber."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea didn't know why she was worried about the question. Honestly, what did she have to fear from some teenage boy, anyway? What could he ask, her bra-size?

Still, years of conditioning playing with ruthless pre-teen and teenage girls made Rhea's stomach knot even now in anxious anticipation. Girls went straight for the juggular playing Words and Actions--Truth or Dare, as Kale had called it.

But his question wasn't the least bit painful, and Rhea was beginning to think she'd got the better side of the deal, playing this game with an inexperienced boy. She smiled.

"Oh, lots of things. Besides my mother's lightsaber, I keep her old cloak in there, sometimes, and also some old journals. Most of them are my old journals, but several belonged to my grandmother. There are some other papers, too, couple of family geneologies and parts of histories my grandmother recorded. She was kind of crazy about the stuff, before she died. There used to be some really old journals in there that belonged to my great-great grandmother and father, but I...I gave those to somebody else.

"That it?"

[Kale]

The wind went out of Kale's sails. That was all?

"Oh. Well, uh... I guess so."

Boy, that was pointless--nothing in there Rhea wouldn't have told him if he'd just asked in any other situation. But how did you ferret out secrets if you didn't know where to look?

Oh, wait... Why hadn't he thought of that one before? It was obvious!

But there was nothing to do but to wait for Rhea to miss another shot.

He shrugged and flipped the ball in her direction. "Your turn again. Think you can do any better?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea nodded. "Absolutely. And I won't miss again."

I hope. Because he may have wised up; it doesn't take long to get the hang of secret-snooping.

"Okay, umm...over-the-shoulder. Blind."

This, Rhea knew she could do. She'd done it--physically, of course, not using the Force--several times before, trying to become good enough to impress the boys back on Imran (one, in particular, actually--but he'd never noticed, and good thing, too, since he grew up to be incredibly ugly). Using the Force only made it easier. Standing on the foul line, Rhea turned her back and, seeing the net quite clearly in her mind's eye, mentally hoisted the black-and-red ball over her head and--swish!--through the hoop.

She summoned the ball back and it floated over her upturned palm, suspended between herself and Kale.

[Kale]

Blind? Aw, crud.

Kale had developed his teek considerably under Pierce's tutelage, but he'd never quite gotten the hang of controlling something that wasn't on a line of sight. Seeing with the Force was still hazy for him--he could make out impressions, attitudes, colors--but precision was another matter.

"Um... okay." He took the ball, lined up where Rhea had stood, and bounced the ball in front of him to build some confidence.

Surreptitiously, he turned his head to try to get his bearings on that elusive net out of the corner of his eye.

[Rhea Kaylen]

"Ah-ah-ah! No peeking," Rhea admonished, grinning. Reaching out, she gently turned Kale's head back to face-front with the back of her hand, winking at the annoyed look in his grey eyes.

She patted his cheek fondly. "Sorry, kid. That's the way it goes."

[Kale]

Kale sighed and stared straight ahead. He knew he could do this--he just needed to concentrate.

The teenaged Padawan closed his eyes and reached out his feelings. With everything going on the park, his senses threatened to overload, but he fought focus them on the basketball goal directly behind him.

Okay... showtime.

The fuzzy red-and-blackness floated up in a graceful arc toward the tall, thin metal-and-fiberglassness. Wait, was it drifting? It was, but which way?

Kale made a guess and nudged. But he nudged it too hard. The ball rebounded from the rim, struck the backboard, and fell to the floor.

"Aw, dang it." Kale turned and gave the ball a dirty look.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea clucked her tongue to be purposefully annoying.

"Ah, so sorry, but I think that's a B chalked up to you. And now, a question."

Hmm. Rhea knew little enough about the boy, despite having been acquainted with him for several years, so there were any number of things she could ask. Only thing was, she knew so little, she had no idea where even to begin.

"Well, let's just start at the beginning. Where did you come from, and for what reason? I remember you suddenly showing up in the Santiago one day, but I never did hear where you had been before or you why you came."

[Kale]

Kale hadn't known what to expect. What he got was rather open-ended.

"Well, there's a good bit to tell," he admitted. "How far back you wanna go?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea considered this.

"Well, everything, I suppose. From the place where you were born until the time you arrived on Coruscant."

[Kale]

Kale shrugged.

"All right. Don't say I didn't warn you."

He grabbed the ball and sat down on it, resting his hands on his knees. "Couldn't take you back to when I was born, though. Don't remember that much. I remember my mother--I'm pretty sure she was my mother--but she died when I was four. We lived on a frozen asteroid called Kuwaruk Re in the Acamar system. The two of us belonged to a man named Klaus Malborn, who owned the inn and tavern in the Chimera mining colony."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea plopped down onto the pavement to sit crosslegged as Kale began his reply, which promised to be long. But Rhea didn't mind--after all, she'd asked the question, and genuinely wanted to hear the answer.

He'd been a slave. Rhea had thought as much, the first time she'd met the boy, but had never been able to verify it.

While she assimilated this, Rhea nodded for Kale to continue, making a note to look up Kuwaruk Re, which she had never before heard of, at a later date.

[Kale]

Kale felt rather odd relating all this--he wasn't really proud of his past. But Rhea seemed interested, so he went on.

"Anyway, after my mom died, Malborn kept me around--not like I could go anywhere. I spent eight years in that tavern doin' chores and servin' drinks. Every now and then Malborn would send me into the mines. Not to haul ore or anything--usually to spy on his customers. See, he had an extortion ring runnin'. Practically owned the town. He's the one who taught me how to sneak around, an' how to steal.

"Well, things started turnin' against Malborn, so one day, when I was twelve, he told me we were packin' up and leavin'. He sold the bar and we flew to Coruscant, and we ended up in the Southern Underground. Malborn bought a small-time bar and casino and got back up to his old tricks. But he was in over his head. Some big-time gamblers came in and completely cleaned him out. He was sellin' everything he had, and I knew it was only a matter of time before he sold me, too. So I stole what I could from him and ran off.

"Then I scratched what I could together on the streets and eventually made my way up to the Plaza Cueva de Luce. The only reason I could afford to stay there was because Sharkey paid more than half the rent, and I gave him a cut of what I stole off the street. And you know the rest."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea very much wished she knew what was going through Kale's mind as he told her all that. Anger? Pride? Dismissiveness?

The woman had to remind herself very adamantly that it was none of her business; and besides, it wasn't like she could hold the boy at all responsible for what he'd been forced to do as a child.

"Yes," she replied lamely. "I suppose I do." After another short pause, Rhea scrabbled to her feet. "I believe it's your turn to challenge."

[Kale]

Well, there it was. It was probably just as well that Rhea knew, if they were training together, and she'd already told him her story--most of it anyway--when she was trying to persuade him to return to the Jedi Temple. So they were even.

But not for long.

"All right, then," Kale said, brightening again. He rose to his feet and took the basketball in his hand again. "Seems to me we need some more physical action. How about a solo alley-oop?"

Kale tossed the ball to the left side of the half-court line and walked to the right side. "Ball starts there, you start here," he explained. "You run to the paint and jump--the ball should be there, as if your teammate just passed it to you. Then you gotta make the jumpshot in the air. I'll show you."

The Padawan reached out and steadied the ball, then turned to face the hoop. This would be risky--he'd have to split his focus between running to the goal and guiding the ball to meet him there. But he knew he'd have to be creative to catch Rhea off-kilter.

"Hold on to your hat..."

Kale leaned forward and sprinted downcourt, and he glanced to the side--the ball started rocketing to a point over the foul line. He leapt to meet it--very nearly overshot himself--and snagged it out of the air just long enough to redirect it for the hoop.

It clambered off the backboard and bounced precariously on the rim once, twice. Kale stumbled to the pavement and gained his bearings just in time to give it the telekinetic nudge it needed to find the net.

"Got it!"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea's mouth dropped open. Astrel ov Force, what a shot. She had to hand it to the boy, not only was that an amazing spurt of creativity right on the tail of a down moment, but he'd actually had the gall and the physical ability to back up his Force-kinesis.

Now Rhea thought about it, that was what made great Jedi--physical prowess matched by mental clarity and power. And, while what the boy did have was not yet "prowess," it was a far bigger step in the right direction than what Rhea could ever have boasted, or could boast now.

Which meant only one thing--she was missing this shot. Foul line shots were problem shots for her, anyway--there was a reason that line was called the "test line" in the Imrani version of the game--and the fact that she would have to line up the ball for an exact grab, besides running three-quarters the length of the court and stopping on a dime (without falling all over herself), was going to make this impossible.

"Ah, frell..." she muttered. She tried not to look at Kale; she didn't want to see a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

Rhea Force-pushed the ball to the far side of the court, then took up a position at the other end. She puffed a few deep sighs, to gather her courage and her scant dignity in preparation for a miserable failure. Quickly she pulled up her toes to fold her heels into her hips, then bounced lightly to test her ankles and limber them up. She hadn't flat out run for a long, long time--not since her time in the Veil, anyway.

Well, might as well get the humiliation over with. Narrowing her eyes on the black splotch at the other end of the shimmering-hot court, Rhea rapidly undid her topknot to let her hair, which was, to her pleasure, beginning to threaten past-the-shoulder-length, fall free. Before it could all plaster to her neck, she yanked it unceremoniously up again, catching all the errant strands out of her face and balling it all tightly into a black-and-white clump. Then, bouncing once, she pushed off into an uneven dash.

Rhea grabbed the ball solidly with her mind, arcing it off the ground and toward the foul line. To her surprise, it looked like the timing and distancing was working out perfectly. Just as she reached the line and kicked off, the ball arrived smoothly, and, relieved, Rhea concentrated on the rim above and before her.

What she was not concentrating on was her hand positioning. She caught the ball, all right--caught the full opposing velocity of the thing against the ring and little fingertips of her left hand.

Yelping, Rhea barely even nudged the ball up toward the hoop, and was too preoccupied to think to grab it with her mind and land the shot anyway. She landed hard--thankfully, her ankles held and she did not fall--and clutched her left hand tightly with her right. She cried out, swearing nastily in Huttese, then in Rodian, for extra emphasis, blinking back the shock-tears that had responded only to the radiating pain in her fingers.

Ai, but those would be blue in the morning. Already the pain was subsiding, and Rhea forced the stoved digits to bend so they wouldn't stiffen up, but five feet to her right the ball was bouncing merrily away in time to the throbbing in her hand.

Rhea swore mightily again, then realized she was in the presence of a minor. Oh, well, if he hadn't heard that before now he would eventually. She figured he could handle it.

"Frell it, and after all that, I didn't even make the shot. There's got to be a rule to get me out of that one..."

[Kale]

Kale was trying to stifle a laugh--that looked like it had hurt.

Aw, heck. It was funny. Especially hearing Rhea spout off a blue streak that would have made an irridium miner blush.

"Sorry, Rhea, I'd love to help you out, but those are the rules," he said between giggles. "Y'okay there? Need anything unjammed?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea glared daggers at the teen.

"No, thank you very much. Your concern is touching. Really."

The woman shook her hand wildly, gritting her teeth. "You just better hope I didn't injure myself too much to give you the sound beating you deserve, because if I can't whip you here on the court, I'll have to take it out of your hide, rather than just out of your pride."

She bent the fingers against the heel of her hand and held them there. "So, whaddyou want to know, you little leech? What's the next letter, A? Dang."

[Kale]

Kale turned and began pacing, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Oohhh, what to ask... I mean, I know you've got so much dirt just begging to be dug up."

He actually knew what he wanted to ask, but he gave it another few seconds.

"Got it." Kale turned back toward Rhea with a knowing grin. "That, uh... that spacer friend of yours... what was his name? Corias somethin'-or-other. I never heard of the guy before, next thing I know you're off to Imran with him, an' I have it on reliable sources you're still in touch. What's up with him, anyway?" Kale shoved his hands innocently into his pockets and added, "You two an item or something?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea's thick eyebrows shot up her forehead a solid two inches. Nervously she crossed her arms, pain from her fingers effectively pushed to the bottom of her list of concerns.

The boy's eyes were piercing overtop his very conspiratorial smirk, and Rhea could feel her face growing warm. Her dark eyes dropped.

"W-where did you hear that? I--how did you know about him, anyway?"

Flustered as she was, Rhea could barely keep her voice steady, and she didn't realize just how painfully obvious her answers made her.

[Kale]

Kale grinned mercilessly.

"Hey, you want to ask, you wait until I miss a shot. Until then, let's just say I've been keepin' my eyes and ears open."

He coughed.

"Andmymailboxisrightnexttoyoursatthepostoffice," he muttered.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea's mouth dropped for the second time that day, and she barely, just barely, restrained herself from strangling the boy. After the moment passed and her fingers no longer twitched for sweet revenge, she gritted her teeth, drowning in embarrassment.

"Well...look, I'm sure it's not what your corrupted mind thinks. Imrani do not have three-week flings with strange people, like humans do. I hired him to take me to Imran because I needed to get home and he was the only one who could get me there. Period."

Rhea rubbed the back of her neck, fidgety. "But...we'd met before that. At Yog's, I was...kind of drunk at the time--No! I don't mean--he didn't--oh, frell, I don't know what I mean..."

She sighed. She had not expected such a ruthless (and, after all, apt) question from Kale. She hadn't expected him to have a clue. Force, he had been paying better attention to details all this time than she had!

His extra mailbox "sleuthing" notwithstanding, what did that say about her?

"I'd lost my job and was depressed, and kind of decided to drown my sorrows. Only it was my first attempt, and I drowned myself pretty thoroughly. By the time Corias came in, I had a headache that would have killed a rancor, and he took pity on me and ordered me some tea, to sober me up. Really, there wasn't anything more to it than that. Except he did something I never expected him to. He asked for my comm number. And then he shocked me again. He actually called.

"After that, I saw him a few times--little things, dinner (which did not go off all that fabulously, may I add), cinema, things like that. Then I hired him; I was desperate to get home...he was my last chance.

"Then, you know, we got captured. Not my fault. But Corias, he...looked out for me. I never, ever imagined anyone would do that. It startled me, and still confuses me, why he made sure we both made it out okay, when he could have just taken a chance and run on his own. I mean, it was my fault we got stranded, I deserved to be--"

She was rambling. Taking a deep breath, Rhea got back on track. "So, he got me out, even though he didn't have to. And he got me home. We got to be--friends, during the trip. So, of course we keep in touch. I don't know why he continues to have anything to do with me, but he writes every now and then. I haven't seen him since I got back, though."

Rhea tried, and failed, to keep the note of sad disappointment out of her voice at that admission. The subject now forcibly reopened, after she'd tried so hard to shut it away permanently, Rhea was remembering with acute emotion certain moments that confused her to no end. A reassuring squeeze of her hand, gentle touch on her cheek, quiet words in a strange tongue, every smile he'd ever thrown her, every funny glance he'd ever darted her direction...infuriating! All to what purpose? She was fooling herself, she knew. No man would have her, ever, especially one as naturally flighty and dashing and adventurous as Corias Bonaventure.

Never.

All this was across Rhea's mind in an instant. She looked back up at Kale, lips pressed into a line.

"As for what he is to me, beyond an acquaintance or an employee...I cannot say. What I think of him, what I wish or hope I see in him is of no importance. And, what he considers me to be? Who can tell? Who can tell but he, and I will never ask."

Rhea's eyes grew hard. "It is better to have him for a friend forever, and endure pain, than never to have known him at all."

[Kale]

Kale was surprised at the tone Rhea had taken. He'd had his suspicions that something was up with this mysterious figure--known to him only as a mailing address. But apparently something was up with Rhea, too.

"You'll never ask?" he repeated. "Then how the frell are you gonna find out?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea blinked. She hadn't expected that sort of response from Kale--in part because she'd never been asked that question before. In an obscure way, she somehow took mild offense at his words, as if she felt he should already have known the answer to that vehement question.

After all, he was a man, wasn't he? Well, okay, not strictly speaking a man, yet, but male, and old and mature enough to have developed the expectations and desires of his gender. Why did he even have to ask?

"Kale, what kind of a question is that? My knowledge of his thoughts and feelings is not necessary, and could be harmful. He could come to loathe me even for asking. It would be extremely impudent to ask, and not my place. It's not a woman's right to have any expectations, and what I think and what I want are irrelevant. Only what he wants matters. If I were even to suggest such a thing as that I saw him as more than a friend and brother, he could take great offense. I would be placing my own fancies above his realities. I would never do such a thing to him. I would prove myself utterly foolish and selfish in doing so."

[Kale]

Kale folded his arms and rolled his eyes with a huff. "Aw, come on, what a load of dren! If this guy's worth the time of day, he ain't gonna tell you what you want or feel ain't important. An' if he does, you're better off without him. If it ain't your place to tell him, than who the frell's place is it, anyway?"

"That is," he added cannily, "if you really do feel somethin'."

[Rhea Kaylen]

The pain that was threatening to overtake Rhea at Kale's refusal to understand snapped sharply into surprise at the boy's last statement: an accusation more than anything else. Rhea realized just how much mastery she had been about to let her emotions have over her, and, as if slapped, drew herself up and shuttered her face from expression. This was only a game, she reminded herself. She couldn't afford to let Kale's probing get to her like this again.

Only a game.

"Well, Kale," Rhea replied lightly, steadying her voice and forcing nonchalance. The last flicker of anger and pain smoldered and died in her eyes. "If I remember correctly, that was not part of your original question, so I don't think I have to answer. Next time I miss, you are more than welcome to ask me, but, in the meantime, why don't you make this shot?"

Rhea called the ball forcefully toward herself, and it smacked soundly into her outstretched palms. She tried not to wince at the twinge of pain that shot up her left arm at the impact.

"Pay attention," she said wryly.

Sinking far, far into herself, Rhea sought the latent power she'd only just tasted while living in the Veil. Here, in the park, there was nothing that enhanced her senses, nothing that heightened her powers as they had been heightened on Redclaw Station. But she knew they were still there, hiding, waiting...

Rhea found a tiny spark inside her stomach, nestled in her diaphragm, expanding and brightening with every breath she took. Gasping deeply, Rhea watched the spark flare to life.

The black-and-red ball rocketed from her hands, up through one goal, down the court with great speed, then into the opposite hoop. One, two, three, four dribbles back down the court, then a layup from the right, layup from the left, and three foul shots, all in rapid succession.

Then the ball dropped and, without a bounce, lay completely still. From the beginning of the shot to the finish, however, the ball had touched neither the ground nor Rhea's hands.

Rhea turned back to Kale, her gaze intense. "Memory challenge," she said, crossing her arms and moving backward to one edge of the court. "You recreate it without any more instruction from me."

[Kale]

Kale was surprised by how sore Rhea was over this thing. Maybe it was better to leave it alone for now.

And pay close attention for later.

It didn't take her long to come back with a shot, though. And what a shot it was. Kale's mouth dropped open at the rapid, fluid movements.

"Woah... hey, wait a minute, memory? That ain't in the rules! You're supposed to call the shot before you take it!"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea's eyebrows arched. She had not been expecting a protest of this sort, but...tapping more deeply into her own Force power had seemed to clear her head. Rhea now recalled with clarity all the events and conversation between her and Kale that morning.

And quickly she realized that, "You never said anything of the kind! And you never mentioned any rule against a shot learned by memory." She shrugged lightly. "Besides. I told you to pay attention."

[Kale]

Kale tried to recall his precise wording--no, better to save his recognitive powers for that beast of a shot Rhea just pulled.

"Aw, okay," he reluctantly relented, "I got the lead anyhow. But from now on, you gotta call the shot first, okay? Otherwise, I can't know whether you made it or not."

He stepped to the midcourt line, closed his eyes, and settled back into his concentration. Keeping the ball so tightly controlled for so long would take some effort--assuming he could remember the friggin' shot.

Kale opened his eyes again and wrapped his telekinetic grip around the ball, and it hovered up from the court, then began scudding toward the first goal at a more reserved pace. Up through the goal, back across the court, and down through the other one. He dropped the ball for an awful moment as it passed through the net--okay, that was his first bounce. He carefully measured out three more down midcourt for the layups. Erp--was it left or right?

The ball stuttered for a moment, then drifted to the left of the goal and hopped down through the hoop. It repeated the motion from the right.

Then it pulled back to the foul line and made three steady passes through the hoop. Kale sighed in relief as he drew back into himself, and the ball dropped to the court.

The teenaged Padawan wiped a slick of sweat from his forehead and grinned. "Not bad, huh? Guess it's my turn now."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea grinned wickedly. She couldn't help herself.

She called the ball to herself and tucked it under her arm, cocking her head smugly to one side.

"Right. Your turn--to take a letter and cough up a secret."

The black ball hovered out from under her arm and, slowly, floated toward the hoop and repeated the layups in the correct order. Right. Left.

Rhea was beside herself.

[Kale]

Kale's mouth fell open in disbelief.

"But I did that!" he exclaimed, waving his arms behind him. "Once from the ri... I mean... aw, dang it!"

He sighed and cast his eyes heavenward. "All right, all right. What d'you wanna know?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea's grin faltered as her satisfaction rapidly deflated. She'd just realized...

She had no question to ask.

Frell, when did she get so bad at this game? Maybe it wasn't so much that her expertise was slipping as that it would be really quite absurd asking Kale any of the questions normally asked during this game--scintillating probes along the lines of, "So, do you think Gan Akerdet is cute?"; "What's the biggest lie you've ever told your parents"; and the really piercing "What were you and Maro doing out in the woods together the other day, kissing?"

Oh, yes, she could just see herself inquiring after a sixteen-year-old boy's love life...

Wait a moment. Why not? Sure, not phrased with the same sort of blundering tactlessness with which pre-teen girls shaped their deep and searching questions. But the subject was relevant. Or, at least, Kale had made it relevant, by grilling her about a name he plucked out of her mailbox.

Well, if he was going to carelessly open this box of serpents, he'd better duck. Because he was now fair game.

Rhea smirked and folded her hands together behind her back. "Since you're so interested in my doings--or lack thereof--with Corias, then you won't mind my asking what girls you've found to spend time with. Anyone caught your eye, yet? And, be honest..." Rhea tapped her forehead. "I'm very empathetic, you'll recall..."

[Kale]

The question caught Kale completely off-guard. And when Rhea asked, Anyone caught your eye, yet? the image of Rainah Caedmon flashed across his mind's eye unbidden.

And as soon as it popped up, he flushed it out. That one didn't really count.

Kale cleared his throat. "Huh. In this neighborhood? No such luck. Besides, between Master Tondry's training schedule and my night classes, I ain't got the time."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea's eyes narrowed, and she nodded fractionally. "Uh-huh, yeah, sure. Whatever." The dripping sarcasm in her voice thinly veiled the obscure and faint disappointment she felt at having spent another of her questions and having gained nothing by asking.

She'd just have to try harder, next time. Especially since she was sure that something, small and fleeting, had spasmed over Kale's face just before he'd replied. That spasm had a name; Rhea would bet anything on it.

She forcefully chest-passed the ball to Kale. "Okay, your turn now. Try and catch me."

[Kale]

Kale barely got his hands up in time to receive the ball, and he took a step back at the impact. He could swear there was some extra Force impetus behind that pass.

Rhea hadn't seemed satisfied by his answer. Of course, what Kale had said was the truth--a selective truth, but truth all the same. Still, he had a feeling she wasn't going to leave it there.

Good luck breaking into my mailbox, Kale thought smugly.

"Okay, give me a sec," he said, glancing back and forth between the two goals. He was having a hard time thinking of something that could top his alley-oop.

And meanwhile, he noticed, they were drawing attention. A group of six adolescents were watching, slack-jawed, from just outside the chain-link fence surrounding the court.

"Oh... uh... maybe we'd better wrap this up so they can play," Kale suggested. "What say we make this a tiebreaker round?"

The padawan stepped to the foul line and turned toward the far goal. "Let's go one-on-one, first shot wins it. I'll even let you take the ball first. Only rule is, no Force-pushing your opponent."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea followed Kale's troubled eyes to the teens clinging to the fence, ogling. She smiled at them, then turned back to her partner and nodded.

"Sure, I can do that." Her mouth twisted ruefully. "You realize, of course, that you're effectively writing up your own win, though."

The question was rhetorical and not in the least bitter. Rhea felt maybe they had accomplished something with this unorthodox training, and, in light of that, didn't really mind knowing playing one-on-one with the boy would certainly mean her own defeat.

Well, she didn't mind too much, at least.

Rhea took the ball from Kale's outstretched hands and dribbled it a few times, eyes focused on the ground. She was trying to plan a way to surprise her fellow Padawan, maybe catch him off-guard or confuse him. Because, physically, she was outmatched. Kale was a little taller than she and probably thirty or thirty-five pounds heavier; he was also in better shape and naturally more surefooted. And fast.

Rhea sighed, knowing all the scheming in the world was hopeless. Oh, well. May as well get the beating over with.

Faking right, Rhea plunged to the left, pouring on as much speed as she could muster, desperately trying to revive her rusty playing skills and hoping the ball would not slip out of her hand as she dribbled. She could feel the boy right on her, nearly saw his snaking hands trying to snatch the ball, and she kept low and bent over her prize, guarding it until she reached the opposite end of the court.

Where she effectively whiffed a shot made less than clean by Kale's interference--the ball soared through air and nothing but, right past the hoop. Rhea wrinkled her nose and started after it.

[Kale]

--Only to see the ball curve in mid-air, angle just beyond her fingertips, and bank off the ground on its way into Kale's waiting hands.

"I said no Force-pushing each other," he said wryly, dribbling the ball as he backed up to midcourt. "Let's go."

Kale felt sort of bad about this--Rhea was obviously at a disadvantage. But she'd shown her telekinetic concentration was sharper than his. Force powers just might even the mix a little.

The teenaged padawan broke right, spinning outside to square Rhea off the ball--mainly to keep her from gaining a focus on it. A quick feint to the left, then a turn to the right and, and he lined up a jumper, trying to lock it in with a gentle telekinetic adjustment.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea, panicked, saw Kale tensing for a jump-shot and, too short to block and at too wrong an angle to steal, desperately flung out a hand to focus a wave of Force-energy straight at the ball.

It jarred violently in the boy's hands and Rhea jumped clumsily to knock it away. Then she scuttled after it, grabbing it with her mind and swinging it out and away, looping it around midcourt to bring it in toward the basket well away from the reach of Kale's quick hands.

Though, there was nothing she could do to limit the reach of his mind.

[Kale]

Looked like Rhea was catching on. It took Kale a moment to locate the ball, and, in that moment it had already crossed the foul line and was arcing up toward the basket. He didn't have the time to seize control of the ball out of Rhea's telekinetic grip--he didn't even know if he could--so he added his own Force impetus behind it. It overshot the hoop and rebounded hard off the backboard, and he leapt to grab it out of the air at midcourt.

Kale knew if he let her, Rhea could just stand in place and ruin every shot he could attempt, and he didn't think he could beat her in the arena of telekinetic control. It was time to go for the jugular.

It looked like he was just standing at halfcourt, idly dribbling while he caught his breath. But he was seeking a deeper Force connection--hopefully enough to pull off what he was planning.

Screwing up his resolve, Kale leaned down and drove straight for the basket. Rhea came in to challenge him with a slap toward the ball--her hand missed, but the wave of the Force that followed it didn't.

That nearly shot his plan straight to frell, but he held his concentration--time slowed down, and he found he was quick enough to spin around and clamp the ball securely in both hands. He ground to a halt just outside the left paint, completing the circle to face the net, and he bent his knees to jump. He could feel it--the Force was flowing through him now. Kale paused a critical moment to gather it around him and leapt.

The Force swept underneath him like a current, and he soared seven up and ten feet forward toward the net, feet churning, gripping the ball fiercely between his hands. The rim was at his chest level when he drove the ball downward through the hoop.

Then time sped back to normal, and Kale came crashing down to the ground, crumpling and rolling into the grass behind the asphalt court.

"Ow..."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea could only watch, shocked beyond response or any attempt at foiling Kale's hail-Mary leap for the basket. In fact, as he hurtled headlong toward his goal, the look on his face and in his eyes one of purest determination, concentration, and effort, Rhea found a whoop of surprise and thrill bubbling up out of her chest. She was cheering him on.

There was a tremendous CRASH!! as the ball and probably the majority of Kale's hands and lower arms, from the looks of it, slammed down into the rim. The whole assembly quaked noisily, the chain-net blossomed so forcefully it slung itself up and around the rim, sticking there, and a sudden cry of amazement and disbelief from the gaggle of onlookers rose like an incredulous wave behind her. Rhea felt a huge grin split her face...

...until she saw her partner plummet to earth like a hurled stone. He hit the ground hard. Her smile instantly wiped away, Rhea dashed for her companion, hearing his groan with immense relief. She dropped to her knees at his side and very quickly gave him a once-over for blood or oddly-pinned appendages.

"Kale! Are you alright?"

[Kale]

Kale grimaced mightily as he lifted himself off the ground. The heels of his hands were scraped up and stinging, but not bad, and he could feel several bumps that were going to be bruises before the day was out. Other than that, he seemed just...

"Ow!"

As soon as he tried to stand, his knees buckled again, and his right ankle sent profound complaints shooting through his nervous system. The joint felt like it was burning, but his other ankle felt fine. Gingerly, he shifted onto his left leg and stretched out his injured leg in front of him, rolling down his sock.

"Doesn't look too bad, but I twisted it pretty good. Dang."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea winced, knowing from experience how much that hurt. Kale's ankle would be the size of that basketball in less than an hour.

She momentarily toyed with the idea of trying out a little Force-empathy on the boy--maybe attempt to numb his mental pain receptors a little by calming his brain enough to accept the nerve signals his ankle was sending. Rhea knew Kale should already be able to do that on his own, but she didn't know if Master Tondry would have gotten there yet with the boy's training. It wouldn't be too hard; she could probably do it. Just wash a little Force-wave over him to chill his brain out and compel it to get over the pain. That ankle would hurt less, if she did.

But even as soon as she realized she could, Rhea decided she probably shouldn't. Not only would Kale probably see it as babying him (which, admittedly, it would be), it was a little intrusive.

The best thing to do was get him back to the Temple as quickly as possible and ice his ankle, before it swelled and decided to get stuck in his sneaker.

Rhea started to reach out to grab his arm and sling it over her shoulders to help him out--he was obviously in no condition to walk the city block back to the Temple without some kind of help--but his face stopped her. His grey eyes were squinted with frustration and muted pain as he glared down at his offending ankle, and his shoulders and chest, which were beginning to broaden and thicken from the months of Master Tondry's training he'd already endured, rose and fell rhythmically with breathing heavy from exertion. I'm not a child, his sharp-cut nose and cheekbones reminded her sternly. His barely-parted lips spoke without moving: Grown, Rhea. I'm grown, and not your charge anymore. Do not presume to take my own strength or volition into your female hands, for they are not a boy's, anymore; they are a man's, and you cannot control them. I am too old to be treated without respect. Remember.

And she did remember--she remembered telling herself ages ago that she could no longer call Kale by the affectionate "little-brother" Imrani term ky-da, because he was now nearly a man grown. Likewise, to just assume his dependence upon another individual's help (particularly a woman's help), despite how his condition may have looked to her, would be presumptuous.

Chiding herself and quickly switching gears, Rhea only held out her hand in an offer, leaving the decision up to him.

"Can I help you out?"

[Kale]

Kale, of course, wasn't the least bit conscious of whatever it was going through Rhea's head at the moment. Sensitivity never was his forte.

After carefully rubbing the throbbing joint and testing it with a little pressure, he'd decided it would bear his weight--not comfortably, and not long, but long enough to make it back to the temple without the ignominy of a hover-gurney. He glanced over his shoulder to see Rhea's proffered hand, and he clasped it and let her help him to his feet.

"Thanks," he grunted. "Like I said, not too bad. Considerin'. Maybe we oughta finish up the day inside, huh?"

Kale limped profoundly toward the exit from the court, pausing to call the basketball from the far corner of the fence and send it into the arms of the first of the kids waiting at the gate. "All yours, bro."

The sting in his ankle subsided fractionally as they moved off the asphalt court onto the grass. "Now, that means I've earned one last question, right?" he said, smirking.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea eyed Kale carefully for a few moments more to be sure his ankle would really hold, but he appeared to be doing just fine, so she let him go on his own. She walked alongside him. The sounds of a new, rowdier game starting up on the court behind them floated after her and Kale.

Rhea smiled broadly. "Yeah, I guess you have. What last secret would you have out of me, eh? Better make it good; you may never have another chance..."

[Kale]

"Hey, give me some time, all right?" Kale laughed. "I'll have it in a second."

Much as he hated to disappoint her, he doubted he could come up with something with the impact of his last question--even though the answer had been less revealing than he'd hoped. That had been the biggest dirt he had on her.

All the reason to get a little more. It was a long shot, but...

"All right. And, remember, you gotta be honest, here. What's the biggest trouble you ever got yourself into? I mean with somebody in authority. Your parents, the cops... If you were a kid in the Plaza, you can't tell me you never got yourself in trouble."

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea looked over at Kale incredulously. The expression was meant to hide the mental debate she was having with herself--should she tell him, or try to lie? Lying was not in her nature, and Kale would probably know if she tried. Besides, this wasn't just some everyday conversation--this was mehraevi ov goni. This was serious. Lying would be not just wrong; it would be heresy.

"Well, I wasn't exactly a kid in the Plaza," she started out, trying to work herself up to it. "I was an infant in the Plaza--I was sent home to Imran when I was very little. But...

"There was this one time...so, I'm trying to impress this boy, right? And...well, I was sixteen, and of course I thought I was as old as I was ever going to get, and way smarter than the adults, too. I figured there was no way they could just tell me I couldn't do this and couldn't do that--I should be able to make those decisions for myself.

"Anyway, one of those 'decisions' was whether or not I was old enough to drink." Kale gave Rhea a sort of funny look, and Rhea quickly backtracked. She could feel her face growing warmer by the moment. "Oh, well, I guess I should tell you: there's no minimum drinking age where I grew up--not in my village or in Aranio City. And I'd been arguing with my grandparents for ages, because sometimes some of the other kids in my village would get to go to the City, now that they were older teenagers, and have fun, and they usually drank. But, not only wasn't I allowed to drink, I wasn't even allowed to go.

"So, naturally, I sneaked out one night, on a dare. Raz Grovdek had told me earlier, when I complained about not being able to go with them, that I'd never sneak out against my grandparents' wishes. As embarrassing as that was, it was worse because he was teasing me in front of Dav Meldet, who of course I thought I'd never be able to live without. And everyone had laughed, so that night I climbed out my window and went with them to the City.

"What I didn't know is that none of them had ever expected me to actually do it, because none of them wanted me along. They hated me, but I was too desperate for friends to see that, or to see how false their saccharine welcomes were. When we got into the City, they promptly took me to a pub, where Raz challenged me to a drink-off." Rhea drifted off a moment, frowning. "Honestly, under normal circumstances, if it'd just been me and Raz, I'd have probably told him to go take a walk out an airlock, but because I was in front of everyone, and most especially in front of Dav, I agreed.

"The pub master had no compunction about serving stronger stuff to young people, as many bartenders in Aranio City do. What we got wasn't very stringent, but for a naive country girl who'd never had so much as laran before, it was plenty strong enough. After I'd sucked down two and couldn't see straight, I think we left the pub. It's kind of hard to remember a lot after that, because I was so drunk, but I know we sneaked into a theater and grafittied a stage and broke out a bunch of the spotlights. After that, I go blank, because I passed out.

"Next morning I woke up, all alone, to the irate theater-owners, who wanted very much to turn me over to the Aranio City Elders. Little did I know, I and my 'friends' had committed the biggest act of deliberate vandalism in Aranio City in recent memory.

"Eventually they just decided to send me home. My uncle was furious, and my grandparents so disappointed, it nearly killed me. I spent the next month working off my gon berin--uhm, let's see, that's a...well, it translates to 'act-debt', anyway--at that theater. And I wasn't allowed to leave my house, otherwise, for that time and another three months besides."

Rhea's face twisted in a lopsided grin. "That spectacular enough, for you?"

[Kale]

It was better than Kale had expected--pretty small-time for a streeter of his pedigree, but succulently juicy coming from somebody like Rhea. Jedi or not, there was still nothing like sharing a tale of a little personal miscreancy. Even if you ended up getting caught at the end of it.

The teenaged Padawan smiled broadly. "Yeah, I guess I'll let you off the hook for that. You gotta watch those bad kids, or they'll start to rub off on you."

He took a step toward the exit and winced. "Sixteen, eh?" he said. "Was that stuff any good?"

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea sucked a small breath as she saw the spasm of pain cross Kale's face, but restrained her would-be-supportive hand and instead opened the park's iron gate for the boy.

"As I recall, it tasted like someone else's vomit, with apple vinegar mixed in to thin it out."

[Kale]

Kale nodded, a little disappointed. "Huh. Sounds like the ale Malborn used to sell, except without the apple vinegar."

He stepped carefully through the gate, and the two Padawans started on their way back toward the Temple grounds.

"Oughta do this again sometime. If you think you're up to it." He smirked as he limped across the sidewalk.

[Rhea Kaylen]

Rhea resisted the urge to turn that macho statement back on the boy's ankle, and decided to just let it go.

"I'm up for anything, anytime," she replied, grinning. She squinted up at the impossibly tall spires of the Jedi Temple as they drew near--the gleaming daggers shone pale red in the early evening light. Their height made her dizzy, and she quickly lowered her eyes again.

"It was fun, Kale," she added quietly. "I'm...I'm glad you suggested it." They had nearly reached the side entrance they'd used to escape the Temple earlier, and Rhea threw a glance back at her friend and fellow student to see how he was faring.

"Now, come on. Let's get that ankle iced, while you can still walk. I don't much fancy the idea of carrying you all the way to the hospital ward by myself..."

The fiery sun was beginning to set, igniting the windows high up on the Temple spires, as the two ducked back inside.