Very gently she slipped the bubbles out of her pocket, being careful not to break its delicate membrane, balancing them on the railing in front of her. By now her best friend Anakin Skywalker was begging her to let him throw one, she shook her head. They had decided that as today was lita day, that they could hardly let it go by unannounced, so they were going to drop them on the first Jedi initiate to come out of the dining hall. Anakin pointed downward.
"Here comes our victim." He hissed, she slowly pushed them off the railing, and the they plummeted down, and splattered all over the small green figure of Jedi master Yoda, Ki'ara leaned over to take a look and started to snigger joined by Anakin, Yoda slowly turned and looked right up at her.
"Oh no." She breathed.
"He hasn't seen you Anakin; go before he gets up here." Anakin spared a glance at her before she gave him a shove. Yoda came up the stairs, his gimmer stick tapping, and grabbed her by her braid dragging her down the corridor.
"Your master, hear about this he will." He warned. She groaned loudly. After what she'd done the last time Obi-Wan was going to ground her for a very long time.
Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn glanced up as Anakin ran in, looking a little panicky.
"Anakin what is wrong?" Qui-Gon asked in concern.
"Nothing, master. I have a lot of homework to do and I thought I should start as soon as possible." And he dashed to his room, followed by his master. Just then there was a knock at the door. Obi-Wan opened it, Ki'ara stood there looking far worse than Anakin had.
"How many times do I have to tell you that you don't need to knock every time?" He complained. Then his padawan moved aside as Yoda stepped past her, pulling her after him as he walked into the room. Obi-Wan tried not to stare at Yoda who was covered in pink and yellow paint.
"Playing tricks, your padawan is. Funny she thinks she is." He said.
"Do this alone she did not."
"Is this true?" He asked her.
"Yes, master. I mean I did do it, but I did it myself, I dropped the paint bubbles on master Yoda myself." She replied. Obi-Wan turned to the diminutive Jedi master.
"I apologise for my apprentice's actions, master. You can be assured that she will be punished accordingly."
"No need to apologise, you have. Your apprentice should." Yoda said. Obi-Wan turned to his padawan and gave her a look that spoke louder than any words could have.
"I am sorry, master." She said, ducking her head. Her master knew that there was something she wasn't saying, he crossed his arms over his chest, and stared down at her.
"I didn't mean to hit master Yoda, I thought he was an initiate."
"That does not make it right. You shouldn't have done it period, why should hitting master Yoda with paint be any different from hitting anyone else? Are you truly repentant, or are you just apologising because I told you to?"
"I am sorry master." And the clearly feeling the need to clarify.
"I didn't mean to get caught." She looked right him, she refused to lie outright to her master. Obi-Wan closed his eyes and groaned why me? He thought. The there was a sound he didn't recognise, the small green Jedi master was chuckling. Obi-Wan and Ki'ara stared at him the each other, confusion written all over their faces, whatever they had expected It certainly wasn't for Yoda to start laughing, he pointed his stick at her.
"Learned your apprentice has a very valuable lesson this day." He said.
"Starting to trust you she is. Lie to you she will not." And then he walked out, Ki'ara turned to her master.
"What'd he mean by that?" She asked, Obi-Wan smiled.
"I think he just forgave you. I've never seen him laugh before." He said. Ki'ara grinned and walked toward her room.
"Hold it." Obi-Wan called after her, she turned at the sound of her voice.
"Master Yoda may have forgiven you. However what you did is still wrong. You are grounded for a month, that means no holovids or holobooks unless they are for your studies. Any free time you have left will be spent keeping our quarters clean, helping myself, Qui-Gon or master Yoda. If I'm sent on a mission you will not accompany me. After every class and for lunch you will return here unless you are asked to do something by me, Qui-Gon or Master Yoda. You are not allowed to go on any temple outing whether they are for classes or not. If you ever do this again your punishment will be a lot worse that this, do you understand?" He said sternly. She felt like asking him 'how could it be worse'? But obviously decided against it
"Yes, master." She sighed.
"And I know Anakin was with you and I am proud that you did not implicate him, it shows that you are a true friend."
"You're proud of me?" She asked dumbly.
"Yes, I am." He replied. She turned away and headed back to her room, passing Qui-Gon on the way as he came out of Anakins room.
"Please tell me I wasn't ever as bad as that?" He said to his former master.
"You're right you were much worse." Qui-Gon said. The two shared a laugh.