-I'm back! I'm back! Is anyone still here? Yes, I have finally returned, bringing with me Chapter 13. Hope you like it, please read and review. Anyway, my last exam was today and I'm going to have two wonderful weeks of school hols! Yeah! So you can expect plenty of updates, okay, not so many but more often than usual.-

That was supposed to be the original message. Unfortunately, on that very day, (Thursday, 24 May) the computer modem decided to go on a strike. That meant no internet. And no internet meant no updates. So, finally, here's Chap 13 and I'm very, very sorry because of the late update.

Disclaimer: STAR WARS belongs to George Lucas.

CHAPTER 13
Lunch

"What's wrong, Jeran? You look like a nerf left out in the rain."

He did not answer but continued to walk on, staring fixedly at the ground. Arianne sighed. "Come," she said, reaching out and grabbing his wrist. Jeran did not resist, allowing himself to be pulled along to wherever she intended to go.

A little while later, they were weaving through the tables in the refectory to a tan Zabrak who was sitting alone eating today's special.

Salis looked up as they neared him. "Hello," he greeted them cheerfully.

"Hello to you too," Arianne greeted. Jeran nodded curtly.

"What's wrong Jeran?" the Zabrak quizzed. "Got up on the wrong side of bed?"

Not exactly the wrong side of bed, he thought. Floor would be more like it. Coincidently, do floors have sides? He laughed shortly. "No, not of the bed."

Salis raised an eyebrow then turned his attention back to his food.

Arianne had already sat down and, tapping her chin with a long, slender finger, was studying everybody in the vicinity or more accurately, their food. Jeran took the seat next to her and slumped onto the table, burying his face in his arms.

"So, what's for lunch?" she asked brightly once she had finished her observations.

"Well," Salis started, "The vegetarians section's having acid-beet soup today." He grinned at the look on her face. "I know, sounds poisonous, doesn't it? Anyway, there's also this," he inclined his head at his own plate, in which there was some kind of stew.

"The raw section was announcing that they were serving something special, a new recipe. Called sushi or something like that."

Arianne made a face. "I think I'll take the usual stuff." She slid out of her chair and headed over to the food line.

"So," Salis said, turning to look at his other friend. "What's up?"

Jeran sighed and lifted his head up from his arms. "Lousy weather," he commented and they both looked out of the great transparisteel window that stretched out on one side of the refectory wall. Rain poured down in torrents and a flash of lightning briefly illuminated the towering spacescrapers.

"Tired," Jeran added, and as though to prove his point, yawned loudly.

"Yeah," Salis agreed. The cool weather made on wish for bed.

"Jeran."

"What?"

"You're vandalising the table."

"I'm not doing anything."

He just pointed at the table. Jeran looked down. The surface of the table was pockmarked with small indentations at the places where he had been drumming his fingers.

Jeran cursed silently and put his hand on his lap. "If anyone asks," he hissed at his friend, "these were already there."

Salis just laughed.

At that moment Arianne returned with two plates. "Here," she said pushing one plate towards Jeran. It was full of some thick, orange soup. "I thought you wouldn't want to eat much seeing that you're in such a lousy mood," Arianne explained apologetically as he eyed his food with a frown.

"I'm not hungry," he said pushing the plate away.

"Oh, then why did I actually bother getting it for you?"

"You're too kind."

"Then you be kind too for once and eat it," she snapped.

"I said I'm not hungry."

"Jeran," began Arriane waving her spoon agitatedly. "There are trillions of beings who are starving on this planet alone and you get food on the table and all you can do is whine."

"I am whining? You're the one who brought me this in the first place. I am perfectly capable of helping myself, thank you very much. Besides, it's not as though I'm going to shrivel up and drop dead if I don't eat right now. I can eat later."

Arianne sighed with exasperation and dropped the subject.

Five minutes later she looked up again and frowned. "Jeran," she snapped at her friend who was morosely stirring his soup with his finger. "Stop that. It's so unhygienic."

He ignored her, and continued to swirl the thick, creamy liquid, his head over his plate. He cut a rather depressed looking figure, but she could see the occasional ice blue glance her shot up at through his fringe. He was grinning. She knew that he was deliberately doing this, just to annoy her, and although she knew better than to do so, she rose to his bait.

Salis watched them with interest. His two friends enjoyed quarrelling with each other, always annoying, teasing, or provoking. Any ignorant passer-by might have thought them an old married couple or something like that.

Arianne meanwhile rolled her eyes and a moment later, Jeran found his hand slowly, inexorably being pulled away from the plate and onto the table.

He tried to flex his hand but it would not obey his commands. Servos whined in protest as he countered her Force manipulations on his hand, but to no avail. Force, was he out of practice when it came to Force skills.

Suddenly Arianne released his hand and it jerked back suddenly, almost smacking him in the face.

Arianne was smirking. Salis laughed and shook his head.

Jeran sighed deeply and the gloomy expression returned to his face. He absently began stirring the soup with his finger again.

"Everybody seems determined to keep me here. You, the Council, my ship." He groaned. "Why are you doing this to me?"

Arianne rested her chin on steepled fingers. "What's wrong with the RedWraith?"

Jeran covered his face with his hands, leaving an orange streak on his cheek. "Her blasted hyperdrive is leaking again."

"It wouldn't leak if you stopped fiddling with it."

Jeran glared at the Zabrak. "I didn't do anything."

Salis rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right."

"Ey, look here, she got hit, okay?"

His horned friend shrugged. "Whatever."

Jeran bit back a retort and instead turned to observe the entrance to the refectory. At that moment, a Lethan Twi'lek entered, closely followed a familiar red haired figure.

"Your Padawan's here, Ari."

The woman looked up. "Oh, good."

Sabie'nhra, who a moment ago had been looking around the refectory, suddenly turned and looked right at them. She nodded curtly and then said something to Maia who simply shrugged then went to join a crowd of other Initiates.

Halfway towards them, the Twi'lek girl stopped and looked at Arianne. Her Master nodded. The girl shrugged, then turned to the Initiates' table and said something. At her yell, Maia looked up and then, grinning, stuffed the datapad she had just taken out back into her pack, shouldered it and trotted over to her friend.

Inwardly, Jeran sighed resignedly. He was pleased to see Maia, but he did not want Arianne jabbering about Padawans in front of her.

Too late. Arianne was already making introductions. "Hello, Padawan. I'd like you to meet two friends; Salis Noscar." The Zabrak politely inclined his head as she bowed. "And this is Jeran Vàner."

"Hello," she said, now turning to Maia. "I believe we've met before, albeit briefly."

Maia nodded. "I'm Maralaia Vestarii." She bowed politely. "But call me Maia please."

"Okay, Maia. I'm Arianne Shamwari. That's Salis Noscar and something tells me you already know Jeran. Oh, and by the way, would you like to join us for lunch?"

The girl grinned at Jeran then looked back at Arianne. "Uh, if you don't mind, I do."

"Of course we don't."

"Thank you." She took the seat across Jeran. He gave her brief smile, which she returned. Then looking down at his now cold soup, he picked up his spoon and began to eat.

Maia stared at Salis, then suddenly cocked her head and said, "I like your hair."

For a moment, the Zabrak looked taken aback by this strange greeting, then he grinned and his hand automatically went up to his dark dreadlocks.

"Thanks."

"You are so vain, Sal."

"Hey, it's not everyday that someone appreciates my good looks."

Jeran snorted. Grinning evilly, Salis turned to the two girls. "Don't mind Jeran. He's just jealous."

"Excuse me! I am supposed to be jealous?"

Arianne listened to their disagreement with half an ear. Jeran and Salis always found something to argue about, whether it was about the maintenance of starships, or the latest make of speeder that had just come out or which team just won the latest chin-bret match. She supposed that this irritating bickering was how males of every species showed affection.

Meanwhile, Sabie had gone off to get some food. Maia had pulled out a datapad from her pack and was chewing the end of her stylus as she pondered a homework question.

"Need any help with that?" she asked. Maia looked up, relieved. "Yes please, I really don't understand what all this is about." As she animatedly explained why the question was so difficult and that Master Ceres really ought to get her head checked, Arianne tried out the problem. It was difficult, she concluded. But then again, the last time she had solved a complicated astromaths question had been, what, almost five years ago?

"Ask Jeran or Salis. They're better at this than I am."

At this point, Sabie'nrha return with a platter of …stuff.

"What's that?" she asked, eyeing her Padawan's plate.

"Tatsushi."

"Sounds Kaminoan."

"It is Kaminoan."

"It's raw, do you know that?"

The Twi'lek nodded and popped a piece in her mouth. "Taste's good."

"May I try?" Maia asked as Arianne raised her eyebrow's sceptically.

"Mmm-hmm," the girl agreed, having popped a piece into her of mouth. "Not bad at all."

"I still think I'll pass."

Sabie'nhra shrugged. "Your loss."

"Her loss?" Salis abandoned his argument with Jeran and turned to face her. "It's that good? Let me have a taste."

Before Sabie'nhra could answer he had already taken a piece and bitten into it. "It tastes a little strange but they're right, it's good." He held out his half bitten piece to Arianne. "Wanna try?"

"No thanks, I have my own food. Besides, you salivated all over it."

"Oh, the horrors." He gave a mock shudder as he finished the piece.

"Jeran, can you help me with this question?" Maia asked. She handed him her datapad and stylus. "And you've got something on your cheek," she added, before slipping of her chair and heading to the food queue.

Not lifting his eyes from the datapad, Jeran absently wiped at the streak on his cheek with his sleeve.

There, that's it for now. As always, read and review.
Chin-bret is a sport played in stadiums on Coruscant. It was briefly mentioned in the Clone Wars novel, The Cestus Deception.

May the Force be with you.