Anakin and Ahsoka are playing in the garden at the back of the palace. They have approximately one month left of their holiday or on Ahsoka's case one month until she has her first day at kindergarten. A week before she starts she has a two-day orientation at the kindergarten where she will meet her future classmates and the school itself. She keeps telling Anakin how excited she is to start school and how she can't wait for her first day to start. Personally, Anakin hopes that she won't say it anymore as it has started to irritate him immensely regardless how much he loves his sister. He himself has filled the documents for next year's classes on the last day of school before the summer break started. It was really stressing for him as he needed to have his father's signature and his father was really busy during that time. Because of his busy schedule, they rarely saw each other during those weeks which made getting the signature really difficult and was the reason why he filled it so late. Yet Anakin was able to get it by going through his father's diary to see when would be the best time to ask his father to sign the papers. It turned out that an early Friday morning was the best time to do so. It was also the last day for him to file them or receive a fine for late filing and that is something which he wanted to avoid at all cost. It all has him thinking about the morning when his father signed the papers for him.
Anakin is walking towards the dining room in his pajamas as he saw in his father's diary that he has to leave in one hour's time so he will most likely be eating his breakfast right now. Thus Anakin took the papers his father needs to sign from his desk and took them with him before making his way to the dining room. Once Anakin arrives there he knocks once and waits for permission to enter. Then he opens the door and steps inside. He can see his father sitting at the dining table with his breakfast before him looking at the door. Anakin isn't surprised as his father wouldn't know that he would be seeking him out this morning.
"Anakin! What are you doing here? Is something wrong?" Qui-gon asks worriedly. He knows that Anakin has school in three hours' time so he should still be sleeping for another hour. What he is now doing here in the dining room with papers in his hands Qui-gon doesn't know. He wonders if there is something wrong and Anakin is in need of his help. Except that wouldn't explain why Anakin is holding papers in his hands. Just as he wants to stand up and walk towards his son, Anakin reaches him.
"Father, would you sign these papers for me. They are for me to enroll in classes for next year and I need to file them today" Anakin asks nervously. He really needs his father so sign them and is worried that he will tell him to wait.
"Of course, Anakin. But tell me, why did you wait so long to ask me to sign them. You could have just left them on my desk with a note. You know that, don't you" Qui-gon says confused. He believes he told Anakin in the past that if there is anything he needs to sign to just leave it on his desk, right?
"Really, father. I didn't know that as you never told me that I could leave papers on your desk to sign. At least I can't remember you ever telling me that" Anakin answers thoughtfully and he happily gives the papers over to his father to have them signed.
"Did you talk to Tahl about the classes you want to take as you didn't talk to me about it?" Qui-gon asks for clarification. He doesn't believe that Anakin would ask him to sign these papers if he didn't talk to Tahl about the classes and also he can see her signature on the papers. They made it clear to him a few years ago that he would need to talk to one of them if he wanted something for school which needs parental approval before asking the other to sign the papers. Tahl had received shared custody of Anakin from the courts a few years ago and that made the situation so that she also would have to sign papers concerning Anakin from that day on. The custody was received with Anakin's permission as he was old enough at that time by Naboo law to have a say in such matters. Before they actually filled the papers they already had plenty of conversations about it.
"Here you go, Anakin" Qui-gon says with a smile while giving the papers back to Anakin after he has signed them "Next time don't wait so long before asking me to sign such papers. Just leave them on my desk with a note and I will bring them to your room after signing them. Alright, Anakin?"
"Yes, father" Anakin answers and starts to walk to the door to return to his room when he hears his father calling his name.
"Anakin, after you put the papers in your backpack come and join me for breakfast. That is if you don't want to go back to bed for the short time you have until you have to get up" Qui-gon says. He can instantly see the joy on Anakin's face. They haven't seen each other a lot during the last few weeks as he has been quite busy with his official duties.
"Of course father" Anakin answers. He is glad that he can spend some time with his father today. He knows that they will have no time together as a family for a few weeks when he father doesn't have so many duties to attend to anymore. The current situation was a bit surprising as his father normally doesn't have so many duties so close together in the last weeks of school. Normally he would have them spread out over many weeks. What the reason is for them all falling together now Anakin doesn't know. Quickly walking back to his room Anakin puts the papers in his backpack and hurries back to the dining room. He wants to spend as much time with his father this morning as is possible. When he arrives back at the dining room he can see that a servant is preparing a place for him at the table to eat.
"Thank you" Anakin says to the servant who prepared his place and gets a smile from her in return. His father and Tahl had always insisted that he thank the servants for the work they do as it is courteous to do so. By thanking them Anakin knows that he is showing gratitude for the work they do for his family and himself which makes their lives easier. Qui-gon and Anakin spend time together until it is time for Qui-gon to leave. They talk about everything that has happened in the last few weeks and make some plans for what they will be doing together during their holiday. That is for the father-son activities they always make sure to do.
A ball hitting Anakin in the stomach drives the air out of his lungs and serves to bring his attention back to the present. He instantly knows who is responsible for it and starts to glare at his sister.
"Skyguy, no daydreaming. Mommy and daddy always tell us to keep our attention on the here and now" Ahsoka berated him gently but also firmly. She is totally unimpressed by her brother's glare as she feels that she has the right to berate him when he does something their parents don't want them to do.
Anakin's glare fades from his face because he has to smile at his sister for her antics. She already shows to be bossy but also caring for the people around her. He has to wonder how this character trait will develop as she starts school in a few weeks. To show he is paying attention to what she said, Anakin throws the ball back to his sister. They spend the remainder of the afternoon playing in the garden. This is in the opinion of both of them the best time they have had in months with the exception of their holiday. They are both glad to have time to spend with one parent and time to spend with the entire family during the holiday. Anakin knows that what his father and Tahl do is a way to ensure bonding for his sister and himself with each of them. Also, he knows that it ensures that they have time to talk to one of them about things they might not be willing to talk about in the presence of the others.
Two weeks later in the afternoon, Anakin is walking back to his room after having spent some time in the garden reading for school. He is almost finished with the last book he has to read for school and then only has to make a summary of it. Making a summary is not expected by his teachers but he still does this. It is a way for him to ensure that he knows what the book was about when he is asked about it during his lessons. If he doesn't then Anakin knows that he finds it difficult to remember what the book was about. Just as he is about to enter his room he hears Ahsoka calling out to him. Looking around he sees her running towards him with a backpack on her back.
"Hello, Ahsoka. How was your day?" Anakin asks curiously. Ahsoka had her orientation today and he wants to know how it went for her. He always enjoyed orientations as it allowed him to meet his classmates and learn how to get around in school building and on the outside of it. This morning they made sure to have Ahsoka ready to leave for orientation. It was a bit of a hassle as she was so excited that she was not helping anyone in getting her ready to leave.
In the end, Tahl had to become stern with her a bit and tell her to get herself ready or she wouldn't get any dessert this evening. Anakin knows that it was a bit mean but it also ensured that they would not be late. Tahl and Ahsoka eventually left just in time for Ahsoka to arrive at her new kindergarten in time. It was really nice to see how excited she was then as it showed to him that she was more than ready to start school. It also made him wonder if he was ever so excited about going to school as he can't remember if he was so excited or not.
"It was great! I made already four friends and we got to see where our classroom will be. Also, we got to meet our teacher. She was really nice to us and we played some games with each other. Our teacher, Miss Fenics, said they were made so that you can get to know each other. Did you ever play such games, Anakin?" Ahsoka asks excitedly.
"Maybe" Anakin answers distractedly while opening the door to his room. There he puts the book on his desk and moves to go back to the corridor only for his way to be blocked by Ahsoka.
"Anakin, come on. Tell me. Did you ever play such games? Please, tell me" Ahsoka begs. She really wants to know if he ever played such games and what he thought of them. She thought that some were funny but others were just plain boring.
"I did play such games whenever I went to see a new school and other children were also there to see their new school" Anakin answers honestly. It is always a strange side for him to see his sister begging for something. That always showed that she desperately wanted to know something. But as to the games, he did play them when he was younger. The only time he didn't have such games when he came to live with his father and thus had to go to a new school here.
"What did you think of them? I thought that some were fun but others were really boring" Ahsoka says in an attempt to get Anakin to tell her how he thinks about it. She really wants to know what he thinks about it so that she can compare their opinions about it.
"Well, I find most of them boring. If you spend time together playing on the playground you get to know each other much better than you do if you have to play those introduction games. For that reason, I find them superfluous" Anakin answers his sister's question. What he told her is what he learned after he transferred to the primary school here in Theed. If you spend time with each other than you can learn a lot more of them, Anakin learned. Also, getting to know someone through interacting with them don't have such a forced feeling to it as when you are playing the introduction games. That makes it a lot easier to get to know each other far better.
"Really, Anakin. Then I'm not the only one who finds them boring. But what does Superfluous mean?" Ahsoka asks curiously. That was a word which she doesn't understand and she wonders what he meant with it. Asking what a strange word means has ensured that she knew what someone was saying, Ahsoka learned from experience.
"Well, superfluous means the same as unnecessary means, Ahsoka" Anakin explains to her. Just then he is finally able to leave his room. In the hallway, he can see Tahl coming up to them.
"Anakin, Ahsoka, come. Supper is ready" Tahl tells them once she reaches them and tries to steer them to the dining room.
"That is early, mommy. Daddy isn't home yet so why is supper ready then" Ahsoka wonders. She knows that her father will not be home for another two hours at least. That makes it strange that supper is ready.
"Yes, I know that I told you we would be eating supper at a later time than is usual but your dad got home early, Ahsoka. That is the reason why we will eat supper at the usual time" Tahl explains. Together they move to the dining room where they all enjoy supper and in the evening they play a few games together until it is bedtime for Ahsoka.