The Tie-Dye
It was a typical day in the Jedi Temple. Anakin was practicing lightsaber techniques with Ananda; something they only did successfully for a few days each month, since the rest of the time Ananda was completely hopeless with a lightsaber. Unfortunately, the one time of the month that Ananda was any good also happened to be a time when she was very, flamboyant, with everything she did. As a result, several padawans in the practice room waiting their turn were shaking their somber heads over Ananda's expressive, oral, approach:
"Take that, and that, . . . and this!" Ananda screamed out at intervals as she slashed at Anakin somewhat recklessly.
Anakin, as usual, reacted to her characteristic joie de vivre with a carefully practiced expression of boredom. It was the only way he thought he could avoid laughter at her ridiculous antics. As was her wont, she had dressed herself in jeans and a t-shirt, which was proudly emblazoned with the words "Moms rule, Jedi drool." The shirt had been a gift from Lexi.
In spite of Ananda's unusual fighting style (i.e. all her screaming of threats) she always seemed to develop a sudden deadly talent for saber sparring during these times. Anakin never quite understood it; she was completely hopeless and refused to even touch a lightsaber for the rest of the month, but as these times she became unnaturally talented and efficient with her saber. Personally, Anakin preferred to focus on the benefits of having another person to practice with during these times and did not put to much thought into this particular oddity of life. He loved lightsaber practice and enjoyed the times when she agreed to spar with him, especially since she put up a challenging fight. In fact, this time, she had just won, much to Anakin's surprise, disarming him with some sort of new trick movement with the lightsaber. She probably adopted it from her knowledge of fencing, which was quite thorough. Grinning, she rejoiced over her victory.
"I won, I won! I can't believe it! I won!" She cried, jumping up and down. Then, quickly changing her demeanor, she pointed her lightsaber in Anakin's direction and intoned in a falsely low voice, "And now Skywalker, you must pay! For shrinking my dry-clean only suit, you will pay the price," she paused for dramatic effect, "of the tie-dye."
Anakin looked up at her incredulously, trying to suppress a burst of laughter, "What?"
"I'm going to tie-dye all your Jedi robes."
The next morning, Obi-wan sat eating his breakfast gruel (he never was very creative, so they always's had gruel for breakfast, . . . or porridge). Anakin walked in.
Something, Obi-wan thought, was different. He looked up. He starred for a while. Gathering courage he formed words in an attempt to address the oddity.
"Anakin?"
"Yes?" The Jedi padawan exuded the aura of innocence only producible by the patently guilty.
"What are you wearing?" The question was a fair one. A brilliant combination of bright, vibrant colors assaulted the innocent Jedi Master's senses. Anakin's garb appeared entirely foreign to him, not to mention, vaguely dangerous.
"My Jedi robes, what else would I wear?"
Despite the fact that Obi-wan was not what you would call a morning person, he rallied on in his quest for clarification. Something was undeniably heinous and 'not right' about what Anakin was wearing. Closer examination revealed that in form they were, indeed, Jedi robes, but Obi-wan had never seen Jedi robes this monstrous before. He attempted inquiry again: "What happened to them?"
"I guess you could say there was a laundry mix up."
Silence filled the room as Obi-wan digested this piece of information; definitely not a blissful silence, or even a resigned silence. It was more of a menacing silence. Anakin broke it (the silence).
"Actually," Anakin continued, in a vain attempt to lighten what he perceived as an overly heavy and oppressive atmosphere, "I kind of like it."
Obi-wan starred at him dumbfounded.
"It says 'life is great' to me."
More silence.
Obi-wan decided he really ought to do something before Anakin went out in that. "I think that you should go change into another robe."
"Actually," Anakin paused, hesitant to become the bearer of the news, "they're all like this."
Silence.
There was only one thing left to say (actually there could have been more to say, but Obi-wan didn't drink coffee any more, he drank pulla juice; it just wasn't the same).
"Oh . . . , " Obi-wan said weakly, taking a sip of the juice and wondering if any other Jedi Masters ever had mornings like this. Bleakly, he starred at his gruel, moving it around with his spoon with no real intention of eating it. No, he figured, the other Master's probably didn't, spoiled things. They probably even had full nights of sleep uninterrupted by the sounds of infants crying and/or teenage girls having nightmares. Probably, he thought, giving the bright yellow beverage glass before him a dirty look, they even liked pulla juice.
The door latch clicked as Anakin walked out to go to the temple library. If they had lived anywhere else, Obi-wan might have hoped that no one would see his padawan dressed in tie-die, but, at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, must people were up and about at this hour.