REVIEW RESPONSES: To SWaddicts1986: thank you. I giggled a bit at that myself while writing it. Yeah, in some ways it has. To Chimpo: "Jaina and Leia don't seem to be in the best of relations"… was that meant to be an understatement, joke, or both? Her temper is amusing… or did you mean that in another way? I can never be too careful about that ever since Valley Lord decided to give me a small taste of the male mind while this was on the Boards… To Wayne Wright: Well, I'm glad you decided to give it a chance, and that you like it. Are you also reading Yavin Academy or just this story?
Chapter 5: Surprise
Anakin led Jaina down the stairs, down the hall, and out the back patio door towards the pool house.
"Anakin, where are we going?" she asked for the seventh time since he led her from her room.
"You'll see," he replied, obviously getting bored by her insistent questioning.
"But I want to know."
"Well, you're about to find out." He put his hands over her eyes.
"Hey!" she protested, "How do I know you're not about to walk me right into the water?"
"Would I do that?" Her silence was the only answer she felt he needed. "Well, under normal circumstances, I would take advantage of the situation, but this isn't a normal circumstance."
"Oh, it's not, is it?" she asked as a door opened.
Anakin lifted his hand from her eyes simultaneously with a loud shout of "surprise!"
"Welcome home, Jaina," the people that filled the pool house shouted.
"Oh my God," she said at the huge number of classmates that filled the palace's tri level pool house. Tahiri was the first to embrace her, then Tesar, Malinza, Raynar, Alema, the list went on.
Jaina knew that no one but the core actually knew what had happened. Everyone was told that she was in an accident and went to a resort to recuperate.
The music was loud and proved good for dancing as everyone swayed to the beat whether they were on the makeshift dance floor in the basement or not.
"Can you drink?" Jacen's voice was in her ear from where he had snuck up behind her.
"Yeah, as long as it's not too much." Immediately a beer was thrust into her hand. She gulped it down appreciatively.
"So, Jay, meet any famous celebrities?"
"What are you talking about, Alema? I am a famous celebrity," a typical Jaina Solo sarcastic remark. Everyone around them that heard it smirked and laughed at Alema's folly.
"So, how was it?" Alema pressed on with her questioning.
"It was Mon Cal; we've been there a thousand times." Jaina didn't like where this questioning was going. Alema was up to something, and when Alema was up to something, it usually meant that she knew something that she wasn't supposed to know.
Luckily, Tahiri – Bless the girl – unwittingly saved Jaina, "Yes, but we've only ever been to the clubs and boardwalks."
"Not the beaches," Tee Kay supplied.
"I'm sure Alema was wondering whether or not you had gotten a… close up on some of the… sights," Malinza added.
"Oh, well, I may have gotten up close and personal a couple times, and what a sight they were!" The girls giggled. But both Anakin and Jacen cringed.
"Aw, come on, not in front of me," Jacen complained.
"Go… make out with your girlfriend if you've got a problem with it."
"Well, you heard her, Tenel Ka," Jacen grabbed her arm.
"No, I think Jaina meant your other girlfriend, you know, the one who would actually make out with you in public."
"We're not in public; we're at my house, besides the Goddess demands it."
"No, Jacen, there are people everywhere."
"Not in my room."
"Come on, Sticks, help me out here!"
"Sorry, Tee Kay, you're on your own with that one."
"What happened to being closer than sisters?"
"Went out of style last year," she called as Jacen finally managed to pull her away from their friends. Everyone in the main floor of the pool house had stopped to watch the scene and after laughing at the couples antics began going back to their previous activities.
The crowd was fairly large. If Jaina had to guess, it was at least the entire senior class and probably most of the junior class at Yavin Academy. It was certainly not the best turn out in the history of the usual group's parties, but it was decent. A lot of people were probably on vacation, and many lived on different islands and boarded in the Academy's dorms during the year. There were two people who were noticeably missing. The first, well, Jaina had come to terms with the fact that they would probably never speak again. The other, well…
"Hey, Tesar!" The buzz-haired, pointed faced teenager in question turned at the sound of his name. "Do you know where Zekk is tonight?" He shrugged and shook his head.
"We didn't think you'd want him here," Lowie's gruff voice answered her. He came over to her. "After what happened between you."
"No, I want him here. For future reference, Zekk is welcome. We talked before I left. We're good." A frown formed on Lowie's face, but without being able to see his eyes, Jaina couldn't tell what he was thinking.
"OK, I guess."
Jaina slipped away from the crowd and headed upstairs. She knew no one would be up there. It was a hang out spot only for members of the usual group to be. When it was too cold to swim but too warm to go in the Jacuzzi or if they just needed privacy, they would head up there. Posters of bands and sports figures lined the walls; a wide screen plasma television set hung from the ceiling; there were guitars and a keyboard and plush couches in the hang out spot.
And on one of those plush couches was a couple that had also obviously wanted some alone time.
There were few things that Jaina would actually admit disturbed her. Anything that involved Raynar Thul not wearing all of his clothes used to be at the top of that list; then, of course there was seeing her parents go any farther than a peck on the lips – which had thankfully only happened once in her memory –, watching her brothers and Lowie dance around in nothing but their boxers or briefs while listening to and singing along with Celine Dion – which sadly happened far more than once, as it used to be a bimonthly ritual –, and horror movies that had insects as the villains – Jaina began having nightmares where insects took over her mind an forced her to do atrocious things several years before, no one understood why.
But seeing her best friend lying on top of her twin brother in a heavy make out session which had escaladed to the point where Jacen's hands disappeared up Tenel Ka's shirt topped them all. 'Oh well, best take advantage of the situation and mock them mercilessly before I puke.' She cleared her throat. She cleared her throat again, loudly this time. Two pairs of eyes snapped over to her while the lips on the same persons were in mid kiss. Blush crept onto their faces.
"Hi, sorry, just wanted to make sure you were aware that I am much too young to be an aunt." She ducked the pillow that came flying at her head by stepping out onto the balcony. She shut the door giving them, and her, more privacy.
She flipped open her phone and dialed a very familiar number. It was to the Academy dorms where Zekk lived. The automated answer asked to which dorm room she wanted to be transferred, and she typed in the three digits of the room he had lived in for three years.
"Hello," he answered in a sleepy haze.
She gasped, "What's this? Zekk asleep on a perfectly good party night?"
"Jaina?"
"Hey, sleepy head."
"What did you break out or something?" Zekk was probably the only one of her friends outside the core that knew the truth of where she had been, and he knew exactly why she was there, unlike the vague idea the others had.
"Nope, they released me. I'm officially sane and no longer a danger to myself or others."
"How much did you have to pay them to say that?"
"Hey!"
"I'm just messing with you, Jaina. So, any particular reason you're calling me at two thirty in the morning?"
"Well, I'm at a party and I was very disappointed to see that you aren't here."
"No one told me that a party was going down."
"Have you already forgotten my rule?"
"Right, sorry, 'spontaneity is the key to successful parties'. But don't tell me that everyone but me just happened to show up on the night you got home from prison."
"Well, no, but you still should have come!"
"I didn't know you'd be home, and I'm hardly your brothers' favorite person. How 'bout I make it up to you?"
"Yeah, how do you plan on doing that?"
"Tomorrow night, come with me to Killik."
"Zekk," she warned.
"What? C'mon, you love that place."
"I can't."
"Sure you can."
"Zekk, don't push it."
"Fine, I'll think of something else and call you later," he sounded like he was hurt at her refusal to spend time with him at the place they had always gone to last year. He hung up without waiting for a response or giving her a goodbye. He was mad at her; Jaina hated it when he was angry with her. But how could she go back after all that she'd managed to do over the summer?
Jaina shook her head and headed back inside barely managing to ignore the intense kissing and groping happening on one of the couches. She hurried back down the stairs to continue partying with her friends.