We had lunch then, but were told to come back to the palace in an hour, ready to sweat a little. I went out to my landspeeder, ready to meet Dek for lunch. He had called me last night and said he needed to talk to me about something. I was very relieved I had brought my exercise things with me, I wouldn't have had time to go back to my house and get them and meet Dek for lunch. I got to the small restaurant I was to meet Dek at. Not surprisingly, he wasn't there yet. Dek always did have a tendency to be late.
I waited for about ten minutes, then decided to order in five, even if he wasn't here by then. He wasn't, so I ordered a light meal, knowing it would not be good to stuff myself with food right before exercising. Dek came running up, half hour late, apologizing profoundly, even getting on one knee to beg my forgiveness. He imitated Sullustians (Forgiv-a-ness please!), Gungans (Foo-give mesa peas!) and many other species (which wasn't very nice, but made me laugh) to get me to forgive him. He quickly ordered lunch and asked me how the Handmaiden thing was going. I gave him a non-specific answer, Lt. Panaka told us not to discuss our tests with anyone, and asked him what he wanted to talk about.
"Well, Riv was kind of angry that you decided to do this Handmaiden thing." He said.
"Riv gets angry about a lot of things."
"Very true. I dunno. I felt it was my duty to tell you before you two saw each other and started a fight that wouldn't end." I tried to interrupt, but Dek ploughed right on through me. "He feels betrayed that one of his best friends would work for the girl who took over his uncle's job."
"That's silly." I said. "This has nothing to do with me trying to-" I paused, started over, "-this has nothing to do with Riv, period. Or me preferring somebody over his uncle. I can't even vote. What's he so angry about?"
"I'm not sure, but this is what I think he's thinking." I looked at my chrono.
"Well, hurry, cause I've got to be back at the palace in about twenty minutes."
"Right. I think he's thinking that you don't care about how he feels now that this fourteen year old girl has taken over his uncle's job. And it's hurting him that you would go work for her." He paused as I thought what he said over. "I think you should go see him tonight so you two can talk this over."
I nodded. "That seems wise. Thank-you Dek." I gave a little laugh. "You know, when he called last night and hung up on me, I thought he was being selfish, but perhaps it's me."
"No. Neither of you is selfish, just distraught and confused. You wanted his support, and he wanted your support." He paused, thought about it. "Well, maybe both of you are selfish, in your own special ways."
"Shut up!" I said, laughing, trying to take a swing at him. He leaned backwards, out of range.
"Whoa there, tiger!" He said, laughing. "What's got you so beasty?"
"If I could tell you, I would." I looked at my chrono again. "Oh Sith! I've gotta run!" I stood up and reached into my pocket for my money.
"I've got it." Dek said. "You get going, and good luck!"
"Thanks!" I said as I rushed away to my speeder. I hurried through the streets of Theed, hoping to the high Force that my parking spot was still there. It was. I grabbed my exercise-bag and ran the couple of blocks to the Palace. I walked up the stairs, calmly and saw that I was not the last to get there, two others were missing. I breathed a sigh of relief as I checked my chrono. One hour to the minute. I went over to Sabé. We started talking about the tests and I was glad I wasn't the only nervous one. We waited for the other two girls, but Lt. Panaka got irritated after ten minutes.
"All right." He said. "Lets go." He lead us down to the basement where the Palace Gym was located. Usually there is a weight training area, an open area for aerobics, a place with punching bags for martial arts, and a running area, but today, all of that had been cleared away, and an obstacle course had been set up in the large, airy room. Panaka took us to the locker room and told us to change. They provided us with sleeveless shirts and shorts. I tightly braided my hair down my back. Then I braided Sabé's for her. No shoes, boots or socks. We went out to the Gym. Some girls moved uncomfortably in the exposing clothes, but I didn't mind, and Panaka took no notice of them.
"Now, this the physical fitness test." He told us, as if we didn't figure it out already. "You will go through the course one at a time. You will be scored on how well you do, how fast you do it, and how many things you knock over." He started to slowly pace, looking at each of us. "You will each take a number from the hat and that will be the time you go. No trading. No switching. No pretending you have a different number. The person who is going will go, and the remaining girls will wait in the locker room." He stopped pacing and looked at us. "Understood?" We nodded. "Good. Come pick a number."
I picked number four. Sabé had two. A girl by the name of Delanté had one. She looked very nervous. The remaining five of us went back to the locker room while she started her test. Five minutes later, a very tired and sweaty Delanté came into the locker room and called out Sabé's name.
"Good luck." I whispered to her as she walked out the door. Delanté went into the showers. Five minutes later, Sabé came back and called out the third person's name. She was sweaty and worn out.
"How was it?" I asked.
"Hard." And she hit the showers. I started to stretch. Five minutes after that (why did each trial take five minutes?) the third person came back and called out my name.
"Good luck!" Sabé called from the showers as I walked out the door. Lt. Panaka was waiting for me at the start. I looked at the equipment. I knew I could do this.
"You start here." Panaka said to me, pointing to a spot next to him. "When I blow the whistle, you will start the maze."
"All right." I said, walking over to him and placing my foot on the starting line, ready to run. My heart pounded nervously. The whistle blew. I ran into the maze. The ground was soft with padding and had uneven lumps in it. I kept my balance. I dove through a rounded hole in the wall at the end of the run.
I crawled on my stomach under slightly harmful lasers, I pulled myself over a wall and landed, miraculously, on my feet, I ran through sand and mud, I dodged soft balls being thrown, I knocked over two things, I kicked down a stuffed dummy, representing a human, my breath came ragged and uneven. I felt sorry for the out of shape girls. I jumped over a series of low fences in the maze and finally, I came to a long straightway.
I saw Lt. Panaka at the end. It gave me hope, I found new energy. I ran down the straightway, then, suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a giant round ball coming from the right. I dove forward, somersaulting on the ground; the ball flew over my head. I somersaulted and jumped to my feet, and ran the rest of the way. Panaka stopped the timer. Looked at me.
"Good work Rabé. The best so far." I smiled and lifted my arms over my head and walked around in a circle so my muscles wouldn't cramp up.
"In two minutes, you can go back into the locker room. We allow five minutes between each tester to confuse the remaining girls." I nodded, and focused on breathing, not talking. "The next girl is Canlanté; call her name when you go in." I nodded again. A couple minutes later, when I had stretched again and regained my breath, I went in and called Canlanté's name. She went out and I hit the showers. The water felt very good against my sweaty skin. I got dressed and brushed my hair. Canlanté was in the showers and the sixth girl was just getting back.
"You girls have fifteen minutes to finish." Panaka said through the door. I spent most of that fifteen minutes talking to Sabé about the latest test. She thought she did okay, but she knocked over four things and the giant ball had hit her in the head. We both kind of laughed at that.
The next test was the real intelligence test. We got our datapads back and continued with the test we had been taking that morning when the crazy guys had burst in on us. When we finished with that test, we were given another. It was the last test, thank the Force, but it was the Royal Protocol test. Great. I would fail the last test. Panaka handed it out to us on datapads. I looked at the first question. What is the customary dance at the Mai Alai Celebration? I shuddered. This was not going to be a good test.
I got done with that test fifth. Sabé was already gone, as was Canlanté and Delanté and another girl I didn't know. I left the last girl with her test. I handed my datapad to Panaka and he said I was free to leave the building. He also told me self-defense class was postponed until further notice because he was preoccupied with Handmaiden testing. I left, walked to my speeder and drove home.
~~~