GENERATIONS
Chapter 2 - Exhibition Day Begins
Jaina grunted, pushing a lock of hair off her face and looking down for the thousandth time. Her legs were aching, begging to be placed on land and she was starting to get really, extremely dizzy. Jaina could feel all the blood reaching her head and her hands were already numb.
She and some other initiates had been hanging upside down on a steel bar for about ten minutes now and everyone was exhausted.
When they first began, they were about ten and now only three remained since the other seven had already fallen into the gigantic lake of the Room of a Thousand Fountains.
Arryn had been extremely against going up there so Jaina was now the one dangling twenty feet in the air.
She had no idea why she refused to be the one but didn't question her new friend's decision.
The rules stated that once there were only two left on the bar, those two initiates would duel with distracting seeker droids shooting at them and the terrifying drop to the lake below.
There were several other dangling bars to which they could jump to, but it was a huge risk since it was easy to slip off.
Jaina exhaled sharply as a drop of sweat hit the water and her leg threatened to give way again. She tightened the grip of her thigh and foreleg even more and glanced at the others.
Can somebody just fall off already?! Once we're done with the duel, we can move on! Right after the ended and the other opponent fell, the partners of the last two people left would begin their one-on-one swimming race. FALL! Fall already!
It was usually said that the higher points a team had, the greater chances were that the initiates in that team would get picked. She and Arryn had willingly and excitedly become partners. So Sari and Faithe were a separate pair and so were Elantra and Anaria.
By the end of the week, the masters would make their announcements.
Arryn watched Jaina up on the bar above the lake and sent her waves of encouragement through the Force. Come on, you can do it, she mentally told Jaina.
At that precise moment, Elantra neatly dove into the lake. Nice! She shook her head as she regarded her partner and their competition.
Malina Greer, another Padawan, stood next to her, shielding her eyes from the beams of artificial light in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. "Hey, doesn't Elantra Villa-Neuava have a Master already?"
Arryn turned to her year mate and smiled. "Yeah, it's Siri Tachi."
"Then what is he doing here?" She wrinkled her nose and gestured to the competition. "Don't tell me it's for fun," she said in good humor.
Arryn laughed. "Actually…yes. He and Anaria Zahn entered because they had so much fun last year."
Malina laughed and shook her head. "I don't think I'll ever understand those two."
"I know! They don't have to worry about the pressure of getting picked or anything. Ugh, unfair!" said Arryn, as she watched Jaina readjust her position on the bar to maintain balance.
Come on Jaina! Hold on…you're almost there!
Okay, only a few more seconds and I'm gonna fall. Fall, somebody! FALL! Jaina thought, despite the encouragement.
Finally, the last male initiate, Malina's twin brother Peighton, had let go so Jaina was left to face her opponent, the one person in the universe who she didn't want to be stuck with: Brissian Bartolemei. Her sworn enemy. Well, rival, she corrected herself with a smile.
Not wasting a second, Jaina bent her body backwards, grabbing the bar and swung herself until she reached a sitting position. Then she stood up with extremely precise balance, her lightsaber flying to her open palm.
"Bring it on, Brissian," she said in a barely audible voice, so only Brissian could hear.
"You're gonna die, Jaina" she taunted with her twisted smile.
"When will you grow up?!" Jaina snarled, swiftly taking the offensive and driving Brissian back.
Jaina somersaulted forward and on to the next bar, not noticing the incoming seeker droids. An energy blast erupted near her feet causing her to temporarily lose her balance.
Brissian blocked all the shots easily and took the advantage of that momentary distraction. Jaina parried another vicious swing and jumped over a low kick.
The bar shook violently when she landed and both girls grabbed on to the ropes for balance. She could feel the eyes of the crowd on them and could practically hear the quiet whispers.
"Whoa! It looks like the fight's getting personal!" A teenage Padawan remarked loudly enough for them to hear.
Jaina took the offensive one last time and decided that it was time to use the unorthodox. The second rule of lightsaber training was do what you must, but in an unexpected way.
Smiling inwardly, Jaina let Brissian strike at her and pretended to be hit. Jaina fell about two feet and grabbed the bar, swung up and Force-pushed three seeker droids towards Brissian.
Brissian, caught by surprise, was unable to react in time. The three shots ruined her balance and she fell to the water below.
"GO, ARRYN!" Jaina shouted and smiled as Arryn and Lucien, Brissian's equally obnoxious twin brother, prepared for the race. Jaina clipped her lightsaber to her belt and dove into the cool, fresh water.
Arryn grinned as she watched Brissian forced off her bar by Jaina's lightsaber technique. She pulled off her outer tunic and prepared to begin the swimming competition. Next to her stood Lucien, tying back his solid white hair. He smirked at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Of course, up against teeny tiny Mindalen. Boy, the Masters certainly have a sense of humor. Don't worry, I'm a world-class swimmer. Beating you will be a piece of cake. See you later, sucker."
Arryn rolled her eyes. "Why don't you save your energy for the race, Lucien? Or better yet, just don't talk at all."
The Master overseeing the swimming aspect of Exhibition Day came over. "Breathers in? Ready? Set….go!"
Arryn lithely sprung off the bank of the lake and made a perfectly arched dive into the crystal water. She could hear the waterfall at the other end and blocked out all the extraneous sound, including Lucien's loud splashing.
Bobbing with the stroke, she focused all her energy on her movement and pushed herself harder than she ever had before. Faster, faster, come on, you can go faster! Arryn told herself. Her feet and arms sprung into action with a sudden burst of adrenaline and she felt herself propel forward, leaving Lucien a good distance behind her.
Jaina's muscles tensed as Arryn and Lucien neared the edge of the lake. Once Arryn got up, she'd have to grab the end of Jaina's harness while she'd climb the artificial "mountain."
After Jaina reached the top, she'd grab the second harness and help Arryn up in turn. It was all about teamwork. After this exercise, it would be the lunch break and then the quiz bee test.
Come on, focus on this! Jaina scolded herself. I have studied enough! I have to worry about this! "Come on, Arryn! YOU CAN DO IT! ALMOST THERE!"
Arryn heard one voice above the roar of the crowd and the waterfall- that of her partner Jaina. There was no way she was going to let her friend down, not even to a Padawan twice her size with an ego to boot.
She shot forward in the water and reached the edge of the lake, a good five seconds before Lucien. She ran up the grassy bank, still sopping wet, threw down her breather, and grabbed Jaina's harness. The two teammates shared a quick smile before Jaina took off up the faux mountain.
"Come on, you can do it!" called Arryn.
Next to her, Lucien pushed his sister into the harness.
"Go, get up there!" he hissed at Brissian.
"I am going, nerf-brain!" she retorted back, and scurried to try to reach Jaina
Jaina smirked at Brissian before leaping on to the next ledge. "Bye-bye, farm girl. I'm sure you'll enjoy the AgriCorps."
Brissian cursed and struggled to reach the next handhold. "I'll get you for this, Knightrunner!"
"You can try!" She exclaimed back, jumping from the ledge, hanging from one hand in a tiny crack. "Have fun at the AgriCorps, farm girl!" She cried reaching the top and grabbing Arryn's harness, "Arryn you're up!"
This is why I didn't want to take Jaina's place over the lake, thought Arryn to herself as she slipped on the harness and began to climb. Arryn was deathly afraid of heights.
Her embarrassment was too great to tell anyone, so when asked if she wanted to partake in sequence high above the lake, she'd insisted that swimming was her greater strength. As she climbed higher and higher, she kept forcing herself to look up and not look at the dizzying distance to the ground.
She saw Jaina's eyes intent on winning and grabbed another handhold, pulling herself that much closer to winning.
Lucien was up on the wall, too, and found a handhold beside Arryn's foot. Both still a bit slippery from the lake water, he pretended to not grasp the hold and instead knock Arryn's foot out from under her.
Dangling with only her hands and harness to support her, Arryn searched desperately for a new place to put her bare foot, knowing that the mishap was entirely on purpose.
"Arryn!" Jaina called, struggling with the harness. "Are you all right?"
Arryn didn't reply. She reached with the force and felt herself rise up to the next highest place and saw Jaina's hand within reach.
"I can almost reach you!" Jaina exclaimed.
She grabbed Arryn's arm eagerly and the two girls ran to the other edge of the mountain.
"Okay, I'll go first," Jaina remarked beginning to rappel down. "Once I'm down, start immediately!"
Jaina didn't bother to look down. She just concentrated on the feel of each rock she passed. If she looked up and saw Brissian, she'd get worried. If she looked down and saw that she was close to the ground, she'd get cocky. As much as possible, she had to avoid both. Finally, she felt the heel of her foot reach the ground.
"Arryn, your turn!"
Obi-Wan turned his head from Jaina to Arryn. "I must admit, Initiates Knightrunner and Mindalen are very impressive."
"They're showing great teamwork," Anakin said. "That's going to be great for missions especially with the Clone Wars."
"Mm-hmm…" Obi-Wan agreed. "Have you looked up their files?"
"Both academically steady and Jaina's battling Anaria Zahn for the title of top in their clan in terms of scores, both have no bad mark in terms of discipline and behavior, extracurricular activities…oh, the only problem is that Jaina's thirteenth birthday is in two weeks," Anakin said. "So, this was pretty much her last chance."
"Oh."
"Hey, Master, what would happen if one of us took Arryn and the other took Jaina?" Anakin asked turning to his former master. "I mean, they seem to be friends so there wouldn't be any problems if we have joint missions."
"Yes, I'm thinking about it, Anakin," Obi-Wan said, rubbing his chin. "It would be a good idea. But being a master is not something that should be rashly decided, Anakin. It's going to take years of sevice. I think we should think about it for a while longer."
Arryn looked down and thought she was going to vomit. She heard Jaina call to her and turned to rappel down, facing toward the rocks in hopes that her head would stop spinning.
She saw Lucien gaining on her and sped faster and faster down the rocks until she felt grass between her bare toes. Solid ground.
She unclipped her harness and both she and Jaina gave each other high fives, shouting "Solah!"
The first part was over. They'd won.
A/N: Sorry it took forever for us to update but the time difference and our busy schedules made it pretty difficult but anyway here's that chapter!
