"Have you ever soda-burped with a pickle in your mouth?" Boba asked.

Tiv stared at him. "What are you talking about?" she demanded. The two were at Dexter's Diner with Colac, Ani and Luke three days after Tiv's acceptance as a Padawan. And, as you can tell, Boba was being odd. Again.

"Well, you know how when you burp after drinking soda, it feels different than normal?"

"Yes."

"Okay, have you ever done that with a pickle in your mouth?"

"Uhmm, no, I can't say I have."

Boba, Ani, and Luke exchanged an odd glance. "Ohhh!" the Skywalkers chorused. "This is going to be go-od!"

"What?" asked Tiv, looking between the two. "What's going on?"

Boba placed a plate and a cup in front of her. "Pickle," he said pointing at the plate. "Eat." He pointed at the cup. "Soda. Drink."

"Thank you for being so descriptive," Tiv said sarcastically. "I'm not sure if I can even get your meaning with all the adjectives you used, but just hearing you speak was an enjoyable experience!"

Boba glared at her. "Fine. Green pickle. Eat. Not green soda. Drink."

Colac giggled. "Green's not an adjective!"

"Yes it is, Kid," Boba told him absently.

"Well it's not a good one!"

"Colac's right," Tiv pointed out. "If you're trying to describe a pickle, 'green' is actually rather dry and unimaginable. You might want to refer to the taste, or the texture. Or perhaps…"

The Skywalker not-brothers looked at each other for a moment, and then Luke grabbed the pickle and shoved it in her mouth.

"Mmph!" Tiv exclaimed, and pulled it out. "Soda first," she told them, and drank it, then replaced the pickle.

"Three, two, one," the boys chanted. Nothing happened. They waited a long moment, and then finally, Tiv burped.

"Wah!" she exclaimed. "That felt weird."

As the five of them laughed, Tiv thought that these new friends were definitely the high point of her life as a Jedi, the low point being that she still didn't trust any of them. Maybe she should, she mused. After all, the Jedi and their friends had never been anything but kind to her, and Qui-Gon was more of a father to her than her father was. Considering that she had never known her father, that wasn't saying much, but still, he was kind.

She cared about these people, sure, and she liked them very much, but that didn't mean that she had to trust them, did it? After all, even if they had never done anything to make her not trust them, they had never exactly done anything to make her trust them. Had they?

But the more she thought about it, the more Tiv realized that they had, indeed, been deserving of her trust from the very first. Nothing had obliged them to help her on that first day, but they had. When they had seen that she was Force-sensitive, they hadn't had to bring her before the Council, knowing that they probably wouldn't accept her.

She had heard Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon discussing it, and understood that it had been probable that the Council would be against her. And she also understood that Qui-Gon had tried to get the Council to take Padawans who were over-aged before, but hadn't succeeded before Anakin. The Council wouldn't appreciate him trying again.

Tiv was less inclined to wonder why the Council had accepted her than to wonder why Qui-Gon had. Councils and governments, she knew, were contradictory as a rule. They might have a reason to want as many Jedi as possible, or they might have any other reason. Either way, she would have thought the Council more likely to take her in than Qui-Gon. He was the one who would have to look after her, put up with her at all times. He was the one who seemed to be getting the bad deal out of this, getting nothing in return for training her. And yet, somehow, he had been the one immediately inclined to accept her. Perhaps, she thought, it meant that she should try to accept him.

Or perhaps, it meant that she should be even more mistrustful of him. If he had no motive obvious to her, than it was plain that he had a hidden one, and if he was hiding it, it couldn't be good for Tiv. No, she decided, as much as she may like him, she'd have to look out for Qui-Gon Jinn.

This one is allowed to be short, since the last one was ten pages long! And yes, soda-burping with a pickle in your mouth does feel weird. I've done it. Where'd you think I got the idea? So, anyway, reviewers, thank you, non-reviewers, please, non-readers, there's no point in even talking to you, is there? If you review my story, I'll review yours! And I might criticize gently, but I won't flame, either. By the way, I've read through all the reviews of my last story (where'd all you guys go?) and I realized that several people seemed to be suggesting that I form a romantic relationship between Qui-Gon and Taun We. Any takers, or are they just weird? Please review and tell me!